Communalism is a double-edged sword. If allowed to go unchecked, it threatens to create two nations within the country, resulting in what is tantamount to a second partition
Are Hindus and Muslims two nations as Islamist separatists from Syed Ahmed Khan to Mohammad Ali Jinnah advocated? Or two Indian communities who constitute one nation as Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Mahatma Gandhi, and Deendayal Upadhyaya, among others, believed? As opposed to this strand of largely Hindu thinking, the strong resurgence of radical Islamist separatism, harked back to the older Muslim colonial conquest of India before the British. One of the huge lacunae of post-colonial studies is to disregard Islamist coloniality.
J Sai Deepak, in his just released India, Bharat, and Pakistan: The Constitutional Journey of a Sandwiched Civilisation, traces the rise of the two-nation theory to the incursion of Wahabism in India with Syed Ahmad Shahid ‘Barelvi’ (1786-1831). The book also makes the important point that Islamism was also an earlier colonialist ideology, which the British allowed to resurface as part of their divide and rule policy (see Utpal Kumar’s inaugural review).
Actually, the underlying deduction is even more sinister and threatening to the peace and stability of India. Unless comprehensively defeated, Islamist jihadism can be retooled to almost any contemporary context to undermine, destabilise, even overthrow regimes. Sai Deepak traces the genesis of Wahabism in India to Barelvi, then shows its nurturing and growth by the Ahl-i-Hadith, Deobandi, Barelvi, Nadwah programmes, and finally its sprouting as into the two-nation theory with Syed Ahmed Khan and the Aligarh Movement.
The book, the second part of a trilogy, ends in the 1920s, after the incalculable harm done to the national struggle by Gandhi’s misguided support of the Khilafat Movement and the horrible massacres of the Moplah Rebellion. It is hoped that in the final part, Sai Deepak will also bring in Hyderabad, with which we have been concerned in the series. Both MIM and the Razakar atrocities may be directly linked to the North Indian modern Islamist movements outlined in the book.
Screenshot from Amazon.in
Sai Deepak would also do well to include in his analysis one of the most important figures of Islamist revivalism and the principal ideologue of Pakistan, Abul A’la Maududi (1903-1979). Hailed as “Imam, Amir, Allamah Shaykh al-Islam” Maududi was founder and Emir of Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Muslim organisation in Asia during its heyday. Maududi was born in Aurangabad, Hyderabad State, then ruled by the Nizam. Maududi politicised Islam, leading to the declaration of Pakistan as an Islamic state. It is believed that he was also the inspiration behind the military dictator General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’s turning Pakistan into “Shariaistan”. Thousands of his followers were given key jobs and positions in the Pakistan establishment, leading to the consolidation of the Islamist hold on the state.
To return to Hyderabad, India, I have tried to show that “Sar Tan Se Juda” is not a mere slogan, but that it represents the persistence of the two-nation theory in post-Independence India. What is more, it paints Indian Muslims who support it in a very poor light. The obvious truth is that communalism is a double-edged sword. It may serve to coalesce Muslims in pockets like Hyderabad in a retrogressive identity politics or, for that matter, consolidate Hindu votes for the BJP trying to make political headway in Telangana. But, in the long run, it will only reinforce the two-nation theory, which once partitioned our country.
What is worse, if allowed to go unchecked, such polarising threatens to create two nations within the country, resulting in what is tantamount to a second partition. Tragically, instead of “Akhand Bharat,” we may end up with two Partitions — one outside and one right inside our country. How to prevent such a disaster? To start with, let us acknowledge, whether we are Hindus or Muslims, that “Sar Tan Se Juda” is a homicidal, lynching slogan. It is no doubt a very serious threat to the Hindus against whom it has been directed in the last few months. Going by religious murders it has caused, we cannot underestimate how dangerous it is to our society and nation. But it is, on sober reckoning, even more dangerous for ordinary Indian Muslims themselves.
Why? Because it only serves to further alienate them from the national mainstream and drive them into the bear-hug of extremist elements, who care very little for their welfare and progress. It is therefore for Muslims themselves to disassociate themselves, even outrightly condemn, those who shout such slogans. If they do not do so, their silence may be construed as connivance or cowardice. Now let us turn our attention to those who actually shouted or encouraged such slogans in Hyderabad.
ln this context, let us not forget that Indian MPs must swear an oath “in the name of God” to “bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India” as also to “uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India”. The oath must be taken both when they file their nominations and, again, when they are actually elected. Asaduddin Owaisi, four-time All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) MP from Hyderabad, said, “I condemn the comments made by the BJP MLA Raja Singh. BJP doesn’t want to see peace in Hyderabad. BJP hates Prophet Muhammad and Muslims. They want to destroy the social fabric of India.”
We have already reviewed the history of MIM, how it was aligned to Muslim separatism and extremism, including the infamous Razakar movement. The latter wished to resist the accession of the princely state of Hyderabad into the Indian union. The founder of this movement, Syed Qasim Razvi, after eleven years of imprisonment, was deported to Pakistan in 1957. What we must not forget is that Razvi came not from a madrassa or traditional Muslim seminar, but from Aligarh Muslim University, which was also the hotbed and fountainhead of the Pakistan ideology.
[To be continued]
This is Part IV of the ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ series. Click here for Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
The author is a professor of English at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Views expressed are personal.
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