By Karoly,
The options that have been placed for “what should be the future political approach of Muslims” have been (1) vote for UPA, (2) vote for NDA, (3) vote for the third front and (4) form their own secular democratic party.
I will discuss this issue with a primary reference to Asghar Ali Engineer’s article “Muslim party – should or should not be“. The comment by aqmamin in response to this article too is taken into consideration.
In his article Engineer has stressed why Muslims should never even think about forming a separate political party, and advises them to wait for a Muslim version of Barack Obama to become the Indian Prime Minister. However he has not made clear how having a Muslim Prime Minister will solve the problems of the Indian Muslims, whose foremost concern is how to counter their backwardness, rather than not having a Muslim Prime Minister.
Aqmamin, on the other hand favours the “should be” option and put forward an impressive case study of 1976 Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu showing how the Muslims unified under a common political platform, despite forming less than 6% of the population could make a big difference between the two major contenders in the race. With this he hopes that we can achieve wonders, and that many political parties will come and beg our favours.
I advocate following a path in between. I do not favour sitting idle fearing communal backlash and polarization just for Muslim having own party. Nor do I hope to have a party just to bring other parties to our feet, or for playing power games, selling affiliations, redrawing political landscapes, rewriting power equations or the dirty black-mailing which the Left used to do with the UPA. However there is much, much more that a unified political party can do for the benefit of Muslims in India.
Firstly, a common political party can provide the much needed leadership and unity the community badly needs. If you compare Muslim community with other major communities it is not hard to realize the painful reality that there is neither unity nor a credible leadership for Muslims. We will look into the basic factors behind this first.
Photo by K Nicoll
Firstly, historically vast majority of Muslims are derived from the Dalits in India. This speaks for their inherent backwardness. At the same time there has been a great deal of racial inter-mixing among them, as there has been virtually no caste system preserved in Islam. This is certainly good in principle, but as a consequence there is hence no caste-based camaraderie between Muslims, nor is a leadership a caste would have naturally provided. This aspect is however very significant not only for the general Indian society, but even for Arab Muslims, among whom tribalism is very dominant.
In Christianity, where there is priesthood, there are dedicated individuals in the form of monks and nuns wholly devoted to the service of the community. Paling a history of spiritual abuse and obscurantism into oblivion, the church today fare well to lead its community in all walks of life, running educational institutions, hospitals, orphanages, financial institutions, while also creating strong political lobbies and power centers.
However unlike in Christianity there is no prelacy either in Islam. Again, even though this is a sublime concept, the fact remains that there are no clergy either to provide leadership for the community. The extent to which our ulema have bridged this gap needs no much exposition. The sad fact is that our mullahs don’t have much modern education or a system to provide viable modern leadership for the community.
But it is not prudent to blame mullahs alone in this matter, as there is no sanction for priesthood in Islam, and it was the duty of every member, and particularly the intelligentsia, to work for the progress of the community. In fact the ulema establishment is never a match for the church, which is a huge establishment with tremendous material and intellectual input from Europe. Also it is impractical to conceive of a unity based on spiritual affairs either.
So it can be seen that the absence of genetic homogeneity and lack of priesthood work against the aspects of unity and leadership in some respects. Of course these are not any disadvantages of Islam as such, for Islam aims to create a classless society free from spiritual exploitation, which is expected to be united under a leadership on an ideological basis under the guidelines it has set out. In fact such a classless society provides scope for unity and leadership even more than caste based or clergy-based systems, which have racial or spiritual constraints.
Hence the onus lies on the intelligentsia and the educated class to chip in their contributions, instead of just relying on the religious leaders for everything. In this aspect a political party can do great services for the community by providing it unity and leadership regardless of the spiritual differences among its members.
Muslim’s own political party is essential to voice for the community in controversial and contentious issues, where other secular parties have limitations to put stakes. For examples, in recent bomb blasts in the country Muslims have been wrongly implicated in many cases, however there should have been a Muslim body to daringly put pressure on the government to conduct fair investigations into them.
Thus a political party can act as a protective layer for the community and breed a sense of security among Muslims while making the government more accountable to them. This will also be the best way to mitigate extremist tendencies among the Muslim community.
It is a well-acknowledged fact that Muslim politicians in secular parties find it neigh impossible to do anything much directly for the community, while in general Muslims find it extremely hard even to get into good positions in party hierarchies. Having own party will facilitate creating better opportunities for producing community leaders who can do something substantial for the community.
A political party can amass huge material resources and channel intellectual resources to carry out many developmental, educational and welfare projects for the community. It can run media and others for the benefit of the community and take beneficial measures in implementing literacy programs and like.
Political ideologies have commendable ability to motivate and invigorate its members to a great extent, and this will ensure participation of the masses in the affairs of the community and the country, thus making them better citizens.
The fear of communal polarization such a party can induce is not well-founded, especially in the Indian context. India is world’s largest democracy, and has constitutionally ensured equity, fairness and democratic rights for its minorities. Also the mainstream parties have not been averse to tie up with Muslim parties, as is evident from many cases post-independence. The long-standing Muslim League-Congress relationship in Kerala is a good example.
To mitigate the risks of communal polarization the Muslim party should concentrate on internal developmental activities within the community rather than just appealing for government help and assistance relentlessly. For example I do not favour even pushing for job reservations if it is likely to create a terrible hue and cry. The community should rather try to uplift itself educationally through its own efforts using the party as a platform.
Another step, which I consider essential, is to make permanent tie up with a secular party as a mark of our solidarity with the mainstream Indian society. Congress would be a good choice, as it has kept its secular ethos intact to a great extent throughout its history and traditionally enjoys the widest Muslim favour and support, and is not an ontological adversary like BJP or an ideological adversary like the Left.
Of course while speaking of a new party we are not talking of reinventing the wheel. There are many regional Muslim parties which are quite prominent, and also there are many eminent Muslim politicians, parliamentarians, orators, political thinkers and organizers who have made their mark. However we should ponder why they have not been able to get integrated to be influential on a national level.
My suggestion is to look for a party of parties rather than add a new party to the existing ones. This coalition should see ways to integrate the existing parties and spread their wings throughout the length and breadth of the country. So the need of the hour is to devise an ideological basis by which such integration can be materialized. My suggestion is to represent the educated class rather than a coalition of religious groups, as the former have the potential to win the common favour of the community, and also they are the most empowered to take charge of mundane affairs.
I am sure that such a common political platform, far from creating polarization and communal backlash, will only promote communal harmony and contribute to the progress of the nation not only by uplifting its largest minority, but also by its spillover effect which will definitely benefit other communities too. There are many things Muslims can contribute to the Indian political, social, economic, cultural, scientific, technological and educational scenes, for which a political party will be an excellent platform.
As we know the general Indian psyche, while being basically tolerant and secular, is also highly volatile in a positive sense. I believe better inter-community relations can be achieved by reaching to other communities better through selfless service. So more Muslim politicians, scientists, doctors, engineers, journalists, writers, police men, soldiers and commandos – and less extremists and terrorists – will definitely go a long way in winning hearts, which will more than offset any communal polarization such a political party may be feared to bring about.