By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: “If the idea of communal harmony has to sustain itself in India it has to be taken out of seminar rooms and press conferences to the common man on the street. It requires engaging general public on day to day basis,” was one of the main arguments which famous social activist Faisal Khan made in a freewheeling chat with TwoCircles.net.
An active member of Magsaysay awardee Sandeep Pandey-led National Alliance of People’s Movement (NAPM), Mr. Khan spoke on a variety of issues ranging from funding-based activism to the need for activists to change their approach towards communal harmony and approach the idea of secularism in the perspective of Justice.
Faisal Khan, 3rd from Right, talking to the victims of violense aganist Dalits in Mirchpur, Hisar in Haryana
NAPM is an alliance of many organizations working in the areas of communal harmony, socio-economic empowerment of marginalized groups, gender justice and others.
Honored with ACHA Peace Star Award
Mr. Khan, who has been working on the issue of communal harmony for more than a decade, has recently been selected for ACHA Peace Star Awards 2010, given by Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA). This award doesn’t have any monetary value and has been set up to recognize some of the unsung peace and harmony heroes and heroines.
Being honored with this award, Mr. Khan, who was born and brought up in Farrukhabad (UP), has joined the ranks of reputed peace, harmony and human rights personalities from India and Pakistan, like Karamat Ali, Sayeeda Diep, Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, B. M. Kutty, Dr. Abdul Hameed Nayyar, Dr. Ram Puniyani, Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi, and Dr. Ingrid Shafer from the U.S.A., who have been honored with this award in previous years.
On why he opted for social activism this AMU alumnus said he wanted to see in this field more and more Muslims who are connected to the Muslim masses.
Criticizing the Left inclined social activists he said that at present the people who speak on behalf of Muslims and Dalits are hardly in touch with the people they claim to speak for.
Communal Harmony and the masses
Explaining his approach towards inter-faith dialogue, Mr. Khan, a leading member of Asha Parivar, said, “It is very important to take the idea of Peace to the common public because in any communal clash or riot, it is the general public, which is the worst sufferer and not the elites; communal hatred and prejudices are the byproducts of that suffering. So the common masses have to be taken into confidence, Faisal Khan explained.
Event and funding based activism dangerous
“These days activism has become funding, event and project based, which has really hurt the prospects of social activism in general and that of communal harmony in particular,” Faisal Khan argued.
Faisal Khan creating awareness about communal harmony in Ajme
Social activists wake up only when a riot takes places somewhere, although the communal forces don’t bring about riot in a day. They work day in and day out to disturb communal harmony at any place, argued Mr. Khan.
He further pointed out, “If you have to really protect the secular tradition of the country from the communal onslaughts then first of all, social activists have to change their approach towards the issue. Communal forces work 24×7 and social activists wake up when there is a riot at any place and after some time, the moment situation starts getting normal, NGOs leave the place and also leave the area vulnerable to communal assault.”
Giving an example he said, in 2002, just after the Gujarat riot there were hundreds of NGOs working in the riot affected area but when their funds and projects got over they packed their bags. The situation in Gujarat now is not a satisfactory one, he said.
Incorporate existing secular tradition
He was shocked to find a VHP office in the premise of Kabir Panth in Gujarat. He enquired only to realize that the social activists have completely ignored Kabir, one of the champions of secularism in India.
“We can’t create awareness among the masses about secular fabric of the country with the help of Western notions and traditions of secularism. We will have to find and incorporate what is part of Ganga-Jamuni Tahzeeb and Kabir Panth has been one of them,” argued Mr. Khan.
Faisal Khan talking to social activist Irom Sharmila, who has been on fast-unto-death for the past nine years demanding withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act from Manipur
Kabir Panths are the followers of Kabir and have been among few very important secular traditions of India. So he decided to take the Panth followers along in Padyatras organized to create awareness towards secular traditions of the country.
Peace in the perspective of Justice
Mr. Khan, who is a lawyer by training, sees the idea of Peace in the larger picture of Justice, “Peace and communal harmony can’t be seen in isolation, neither can they be seen in vacuum as abstract concepts. They have to be seen in the larger socio-economic context where justice should be done to the marginalized and vulnerable groups.”
Mr. Khan distributing posters in Ajmer
Explaining his approach towards communal harmony in a country like India, Mr. Khan pointed out that, the idea has to be seen along with socio-economic standards like, proper representation of marginalized groups in the resources of the nation. It has to be seen in terms of education, employment and day to day schemes by the government. For instance, he said, in Gujarat, Muslim students have been denied Pre-Matric scholarship since last many years for which NAPM along with other organizations are fighting till date.
In 2005 he had led the Shanti-Sadbhavna Padyatra for communal harmony from Kannauj to Ayodhya. Besides, he also worked for India-Pakistan peace. In fact in 2005, he had participated in the Bharat-Pakistan Shanti Padyatra that was led by (Magsaysay awardee) Sandeep Pandey from Nizamuddin Dargah in Delhi to Sufi saint Bahauddin Zakaria’s Mazaar in Multan of Pakistan. He and his team were at recent Kumbh and Ajmer Sharif to spread the message of communal harmony among the common people.