Substantial number of non-Muslims in India tend to treat Muslims as Pakistanis or believe that Muslims in India owe their primary loyalty to Pakistan,
“Oh, you are a Muslim,” is a remark many Muslims in India come across when they introduce themselves. And thus you are branded as being different (many tend to categorize all Muslims as Pakistan’s),
“You are from Pakistan.”
“No, I am not.”
Then “have you visited Pakistan?” “No, I haven’t.” “Then you must be having relatives over there.”
Their persistence can be endless. In case the reply to the last query is also in the negative they look absolutely dejected as if they have been taken for a ride. But, if you give a positive answer (according to them), their eyes seems to say “you’re caught at last knew it.
Muslims are often than not considered to be anti-national or anti-Indian; this accusation is based on the widely held view that they have extra territorial loyalties. Problems also arise when a Muslim family wanting to reproduce itself culturally wants its children to learn Urdu. Another stereotype of Indian Muslims is of a person who speaks Urdu, wears a Sherwani or gharara knows ghazals and enjoys mushairas and has a decided preference for tandoori chicken or Biryani as opposed to other cuisine and obviously is proPakistan.
(Azra Razzak, Research scholar of Dept. of Education, Delhi University, Delhi).
(Mainstream, June 2).
Article extracted from this publication >> July 27, 1990
