DV becomes voice of revolutionary Islam
I congratulate DV on taking the unity of Dalits and Muslims a step forward by becoming the voice, as your correspondent says in DV Nov.1, 2002, of “revolutionary Islam”.
Writing on the “liberation theology of Islam”, DV has once again identified the profound. In underlining an important aspect of the polity of Islam-that has been aptly termed as liberation theology of Islam, DV wrote:
The Quran directs the Muslims to fight and die to liberate the Mustadafeen (oppressed), which in the case of India were none other than the Untouchables (Dalits). The Muslims did not do it and that is why the Muslims have become Dalits. Or worse than Dalits… Muslims (15% of India’s population) are almost 90% poverty-stricken and unemployed. On top of that, they are killed daily and their little property destroyed. If the Dalits are fighting for self-respect and reservations, the Muslims are fighting to save their very life which is threatened daily.”
DV has been reminding its readers ad infinitum that the Brahminical rulers have no quarrel with upper class Muslims (and some clerics) who are forever urging the poor Muslims to become part of the mainstream by admiration, however insincere, of the role of upper castes in maintaining the unity of India —the mantra by which the Brahmin maintains his grip over power and perpetuates exploitation and oppression. The institutions of secularism in India has been used to deny and pervert democracy. In eulogising the Indian identity, all other identities have been de-legitimised.
Unity perpetuates pain: That is how oppression is increasing while democracy is unchallenged as the polity of India. The Muslims and Dalits who join the oppressor castes (another name for ruling classes) constantly warn those who depended on them for leadership guidance, security and comfort, to conform not confront, to submit not sublime.
However, I am not pessimistic. I believe that great ideas take a long time to crystallise and even longer to find clear goals and effective leaders.
The liberation theology of Islam has come to be transformed in the peculiar environment of South Asia. It has become universal; it now provides a basis for all the peoples of South Asia to secure sovereign freedom, not just the Muslims. It has also adjusted to the use of the entire spectrum of means to resist and challenge oppression-political, social and economic —to pursue the struggle for liberation. DV, particularly its Editor, V.T. Rajshekar, have been prominent in leading that transformation. DV has asserted that Dalits are not Hindu. It has asserted that it is unimportant that there should be a countrywide political party of Dalits; it is enough to share high objectives on the basis of which various identities can forge unity that delivers results.
Muslims do not need to make compromises or apologise for Islam, they must follow it. Dalits lie at the heart of the moral majority that can really guarantee a future of peace and harmony in the subcontinent.
India is a land of many peoples; politics of unity perpetuates pain without purpose.
The liberation of the peoples of India would come about by recognising, not suppressing, political rights of separate identities of religion, caste and language. The liberation theology of Islam, as Muslims embrace Dalits, is crystallising objectives and finding leaders worthy of its lofty goals, (ukhalid786@aol.com).
