The debate initiated by the Dalit Voice in August 1991 on the Jamate-Islami role in promoting Dalit-Muslim unity has drawn a number of Muslim intellectuals into the debate which has brought out many unique points for the first time and for this the entire Muslim community must be thankful to DV. I was impressed by the arguments of Iqbal Ahmed Sheriff, Advocate of Bangalore, Mohammed Yusuf of Delhi, Murad Ali of Jaipur and Chand Peer of Bangalore. They have gone deep into the question of the imperative needs of the Dalit-Muslim unity to combat the Aryan/brahminical tyranny to divide India into Hindus and Muslims.
The salient points that have emerged so far vis-a-vis the Jamat’s position are:
Jamat’s ideology: The Jamat is essentially a fundamentalist organisation engaged in the preaching of tenets of Islamic theology. The books and journals published by it deal only with religious matters and preaches Islamic morals. They never talk of Muslim mass education, culture, economic and social liberation. In this respect they are analogous to that of Hindu nazi organisations. The education imparted through the institutions run by the nazis are Hindu religious teachings which help people turn anti-Muslim.
The teachings of the Jamat are an attempt to keep the Muslim masses within the Islamic religious bounds without giving scope for freethinking. So also the religious teachings of Hindu nazis towards the Dalits in that religion. This tends to arouse parochial ideas among both the Dalits and Muslim masses leading to religious intolerance.
Why this hatred? : Why this antagonism has developed between the Dalits, allegedly in the Hindu fold, and Muslim masses in the Muslim fold? This is because of the fact that the two fundamentalist organisations are controlled by the Aryan brahminical forces among the Hindus and elites or foreign elements among the Muslims.
The elite Muslims who control the Jamat keep good contact with the brahminical forces controlling Hindu nazi organisations.
The Brahminical social order (BSO) covers just 15% of the Indian population but they are hostile to the rest (65%) of the population (Dalits) though for their private benefits they call the Dalits Hindus.
Dalit converts: Of the Muslim population in India over 85% are Dalit converts to Islam but they are hardly represented in the Jamat leadership. When the Jamat on the one hand and the Hindu nazi parties face any contradiction between them, together they whip up religious sentiments within their respective masses and get religious and political mileage at the cost of killings of so many innocent Muslims and Dalit masses.
What Jamat lacks : The Jamat claims itself to be a cadre-based cultural organisation but has failed to take measures for the social, economic, educational and political liberation of the Muslim masses. With its disciplined cadres, the Jamat could have promoted education among the Muslim masses to make them conscious and help improve their plight by starting even night schools. But it thinks that by “education” it means only what is imparted through govt. syllabus in recognised schools. Education makes a man conscious of self and of his oppressors. Hence they might have been ready to fight the Aryan/ brahminical forces and the Muslims elite leaders with the help of the Dalits in the Hindu fold. This action could have threatened their leadership. Hence this apathy of the Jamat towards the educational and cultural liberation of the Dalits among Muslims.
Dalit-Muslim unity: Dalits and Muslim masses have emerged from the same root, same ethnic stock. It is a historical fact that Muslim masses who constitute about 85% of the Muslim population are converts from Dalits. Both have a common social, economic and cultural roots. A vast majority of oppressed Muslim masses are agricultural labourers, petty traders, cobblers, carpenters, weavers, butchers, hawkers, artisans, coolies etc. who daily mingle with men of their own professions from SC/ST/BCs.
This similarity of professions have brought the Dalits and Muslims masses nearer to each other and helped develop a brotherhood among themselves. The non-Hindu Dalits consider Muslim masses closer to their hearts than the upper caste Hindus. As their economic and social status are low, both live as neighbours in shanties and slums. Their religious faiths relegate to background. They lead an otherwise peaceful social life. It is only the nazis who disturb the peace of these masses disrupting their good neighbourly relations. As both of them live side by side they have to confront and become the victims of religious and political vested interests of both nazis and the Jamat. During the anti-Muslim riots in Hyderabad two years back, most of the victims were Dalits and Muslim masses (Dalits among Muslims).
Dalit conversion: The conversion of the Dalits to other religions will not solve their social, economic and cultural problems. The Dalits who were converted to Islam during the Muslim rule in India continue to live in the same sort of social and economic position. The change of faith did not improve their educational and cultural standards. This is due to the dogmatic approach of Jamat which is controlled by elite Muslims. The same is the case in South India where the Christian converts from Dalits have failed to improve their social status. Upper caste Christian converts hold the sway over the Dalit Christians.
The Jamat is ignoring the principle of universal brotherhood which professes to extend the hands of cooperation to any oppressed people irrespective of faiths.
Hence Muslim masses entering into dialogue with non-Muslim Dalits is not un-Islamic and also not against the Koranic teachings. Further, religion alone cannot liberate people from social, economic and cultural domination by elites of any religion. The Dalit converts of Islamic and Christian religion in India do not enjoy social dignity in the new faith.
The Jamat as a religious organisation should change its ideology and think that Islam is not merely a set of dogmas, creeds and rituals but is a programme for radical social reforms leading to social revolution, which can bring about the social, economic, cultural and political liberation of human kind irrespective of religions.
