Shakeel Ahmad is the Administrator of the Cell for Legal Help and Guidance of the Jama‘at-I Islami’s Gujarat unit and is also the head of the Islamic Relief Committee (IRC), based in Ahmedabad. In this interview with Yoginder Sikand, he talks about inter-community relations in Gujarat.
YS: Three years after the anti-Muslim pogroms in Gujarat, what significant changes are taking place among Muslims in the state?
SA: One very significant change is the growing realisation of the need for modern education. Even the Tablighi Jama‘at, which, since its inception, has remained limited only to religious education, is now setting up schools in parts of Gujarat where not just Islamic but modern education, too, is imparted. So, there is this awareness now that Muslims have to focus on social reforms and educational and economic development and not remain concerned only about identity-related issues. And for this they are increasingly willing to work with secular civil society organisations. There is a slow, but perceptible shift towards taking interest not only in ‘Muslim issues’ but in general concerns as well. So, for instance, in the recent floods in Gujarat, some Muslim organisations also engaged in relief, providing help not just to Muslims alone but to others also. In the aftermath of the 2002 violence, the IRC helped rebuild the houses of some Hindus and Dalits in Ahmedabad. When we did that some Muslims opposed us, saying that Muslims are poor so they deserve all our help, but we said that we had to do this as the houses of those people had been destroyed by Muslims in the riots. The Jama‘at-I Islami’s Gujarat unit has worked with groups such as Action Aid, and the Catholic NGO Prashant on human rights’ related issues, and has also worked on common projects for providing relief to riot-effected people with Caritas, a Catholic relief agency. So, as I was saying, there is this urge to work with others for broader concerns, and not just narrowly-defined ‘Muslim’ issues.
This, however, is not easy because of widespread anti-Muslim feelings and prejudice and the enormous clout that Hindutva groups enjoy in Gujarat, including in the government, which makes it very difficult for Muslims to try to come out from the ghettoes into which they have been forced. Each time Muslims try to escape from their ghettoes there is either a riot that forces them back or else the media takes up some sensational issue, such as Imrana or Guriya or terrorism, which further demonises Muslims and forces them to become over-protective of their identity and seek safety in their ghettoes. The media, as well as certain Muslim organisations, just do not want to talk of the other many problems of the Muslims, such as poverty, illiteracy and unemployment, in order to present the picture that Muslims themselves are responsible for their plight. This, of course, suits the politics of certain Muslim ‘leaders’, but only further contributes to the marginalisation of the Muslim community as a whole.
Take, for instance, the debate on Muslim Personal Law. Many Muslims are aware of the need for reforms in Muslim Personal Law, as, for instance, on the issue of triple talaq in one sitting. The Hanafi position that this is legal is not strictly in conformity with the position of many Muslim reformists, who point out that this practice was unknown at the time of the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims may have readily acquiesced in this and accepted the reformists’ position, but the sensationalised media reporting about this issue made Muslims so defensive of their identity, which they thought as being under threat, that they refused to consider any reforms at all. So, there seems to be this link between large sections of the media and certain people who claim to be representatives of the Muslims, both of whom thrive on keeping Muslims backward.
YS: Given the fact that Hindutva forces are so deeply entrenched in Gujarat today do you see any possibility for a political challenge to Hindutva emerging?
SA: The chances of this happening are, I am afraid, not very bright. The communal divide is still very deep, and even so-called secular parties like the Congress have bought into the Hindutva logic. There are numerous RSS-minded people in the Congress as well. The ideology of the Congress may be secular but this is not so in practice. Some Congress leaders took an active role in leading attacks on Muslims in Gujarat. This is hardly surprising. After all, senior Congress leaders engineered the massacre of Sikhs in 1984. So, as far as Muslims are concerned, we need to be wary of the Congress. We should not sell ourselves to it.
Making the possibility of a political challenge to Hindutva even more daunting is the fact that the Hindutva ideology has become a part of the common-sense of many Gujarati Hindus. It is not simply a political phenomenon. Rather, it has become so deeply ingrained that it indelibly shapes the way in which many Gujarati Hindus see the world, including how they see Muslims. So, Hindutva needs to be challenged not just politically but ideologically as well, although this I really don’t see happening at all.
YS: How, in your view, should Hindutva be challenged ideologically?
SA: I think that not just Hindutva, but all forms of communalism, Hindu as well as Muslim, need to be ideologically challenged and opposed. I am a believing and practising Muslim, and I believe that although there are significant differences between the various religions, truly religious people share the belief that religion should not be used to promote hatred and conflict. And those who do this in the name of religion are actually wholly irreligious. So, Gandhi and Maulana Azad, genuinely religious people, pleaded for inter-communal harmony, whereas Jinnah and Savarkar, who spewed hatred in the name of religion, were not truly religious. Savarkar was an agnostic and Jinnah did not even know how to say prayers in the Islamic fashion. Yet, Savarkar demanded a Hindu Rashtra and Jinnah called for Pakistan, which was a totally communal and not religious demand. So, as I was saying, pseudo-religious people, the Jinnahs and Savarkars of today, need to be challenged and opposed by sincere believers, and this can only happen when Muslims and Hindus, who sincerely believe in their faiths and seek to protect them from being sullied by communalists, come together to jointly oppose communalism.
YS: What sort of activities has the Gujarat unit of the Jama‘at-i Islami been engaged in to promote communal harmony?
SA: Some time ago we organised a public meeting addressed by a well-known Hindu religious leader, Morari Bapu, who, along with Muslim religious leaders, spoke about the need for communal harmony. Last year we organised 18 Eid Milan gatherings in different parts of Gujarat, to which we invited several Hindus as well. We also arranged for a Dalit-Muslim-Tribal Sammelan. Historically, there have been close relations between Muslims and Dalits, as a large number of Muslims are of Dalit origin. Besides, we have also been trying to explain to Muslims, including the ulema, that as believing Muslims we should express our faith commitment in relation to other people through love and harmony, rather than seeking to compete with them for worldly benefits. Yet, despite all this, I must admit that the task ahead is very daunting and we ought to give much greater priority to promoting inter-communal harmony than we have so far.