DEBATE ON JAMATE ISLAM
The stormy debate raging in the columns of Dalit Voice (DV. Dec. 16 ’91 p.15 and subsequent issues) forced one to ponder on whether or not the Jamate-Islami is in fact serving the goals that it proclaims to champion. You have been fair as both ardent advocates and vociferous opponents of the Jamat have been given an opportunity to air their respective views. One can only hope that after all this, both sides to the debate will seriously reconsider their own positions and not shrink from self-criticism, introspection and soul-searching.
In particular, one hopes that the Jamat will take serious cognizance of the well-intentioned suggestion of the Editor of Dalit Voice and the numerous well-meaning critics of the Jamat so that it can aim at being more effective in pursuing the goals it has set for itself.
Nasty suspicion: If the debate on the Jamat actually served any positive purpose, the least that the Jamat can and should do is to undertake and publish studies on Muslim society and its multifarious problems. One gets the nasty suspicion that the almost total lack of any serious literature on Muslim social problems reflects the fear of the Muslim elite (and their non- Muslim counterparts) to conceal from the public view their utter failure in solving the myriad problems of the Muslim masses.
Nearly all Muslim bookshops in every town and city of this country are well stocked with books on Islam, but few, if any, have any literature on Indian Muslim society and its problems. Is this to be explained by the desire of the elite (both Muslim and non-Muslim) to keep the world unaware and in the dark about the miseries of the Muslim masses?
I understand how the Jamat’s ambitious plans to awaken the Indian Muslim society can make any headway without a comprehensive understanding of the social problems of their target group – the Muslim masses – including the social factors that impede their progress.
Masses called lazy: For instance, many Islamic groups stress that one of the central pillars of Islam is that all Muslims should be educated.
These groups make shrill appeals and sporadic, unsustained efforts at ‘educating” the masses but when they find the masses unresponsive, they throw up their hands in despair and condemn the masses for being “lazy”, “backward” and worst of all, “un-Islamic”.
Now, anybody familiar with the problems of the Muslim masses would know that the major reason for their educational backwardness is their miserable poverty which forces them to send their children to work rather than to school. Their educational backwardness can only be overcome once they overcome their poverty and not merely through appeals made in the name of religion.
IOS Example: The Jamat does not understand it since it is not sensitized to the plight and problems of the Muslim masses.
Thus, undertaking scientific, objective, social research on these issues (like the Institute of Objective Studies) will certainly help these organisations in making their efforts more effective.
It is perhaps more productive to view or define religion according to the way in which it is actually practised rather than by looking at its purely theoretical, theological principles. In addition, any religion can be employed either for a liberative or an oppressive purpose as far as the masses are concerned.
Islam sides oppressed: Thus, Islam as viewed by the Prophet and the Caliphs is generally held to be a revolutionary, emancipatory force that took the side of the oppressed. On the other hand, the version of Islam being presented by many “Islamic” organisations in India today is certainly oppressive as far as the Muslim masses are concerned. This is because these organisations stress merely the external aspects of Islam (fasting, prayer, etc) and not the social liberation that true Islam promises.
Leadership fault: This, of course, is not to say that these organisations are indulging in conscious deception of the Muslim masses. Their interpretation of Islam is largely shaped by their own social position. Most of these organisations are led and manned by members of the Muslim lower middle class, who have in the past few years experienced some amount of social mobility.
Very unconsciously, this class seeks to distance itself from the Muslim working, labouring class immediately below it, especially since the lower middle class is perpetually haunted by the very real possibility of being pauperized and forced to join the ranks of the absolutely poor.
Misleading symbols: Thus, this lower middle employs certain “Islamic” symbols and develops an elitist interpretation of Islam so as to symbolise its distance from the Muslim masses. This, as has been already explained, is not a conscious conspiracy but an unconscious response of the Muslim lower middle class.
The interpretation of Islam that this class offers naturally does not take into account many of the acute problems of the Muslim masses, since, unconsciously, this conservative interpretation of Islam held by the lower middle class serves to symbolise its intense desire to be recognised as superior to more “Islamic” than, distinct from, the Muslim masses.
Hence, any emancipatory, liberative interpretation of Islam can only be expected from the ranks of the Muslim masses and from others, including organic intellectuals, who are deeply concerned with their cause.
Islam as ladder: Islam as a means for social emancipation cannot emanate from those sections who use it as a ladder for social mobility and as a means of symbolizing their distance from the Muslim masses. This, one supposes, is precisely what Dalit Voice has all along been asserting.
Fighting brahminism: Many Muslim organisations, including the Jamat, plead their inability to join the non-Muslim oppressed ethnic groups in their battle against brahminism. They assert that since the message of Islam is for all persons, irrespective of caste, it would be “un-Islamic” to oppose Brahmins. But the Dalits are not asking the Muslims to oppose Brahmins but to fight against brahminism which is an anti-human and anti-Islamic ideology.
The Dalit movement has always asserted that their struggle is against brahminism and not against individual Brahmins. In this sense, for Muslims to sympathize with the Dalit (Mustadafeen) cause does not imply that this is synonymous with an anti-Brahmin posture. It is quite possible that the various arguments put forward by some Islamic organisations pleading their neutrality in the crusade against brahminism merely reflects a desire to side with the forces of the status quo.
Dalit Voice deserves to be heartily congratulated for having made the bold attempt of making Indian Muslims seriously reflect on their future and on those who claim to be their leaders.
