By: Syed Shahabuddin, MP.
In the aftermath of Ayodhya tragedy there is a deliberate move to demolish the Muslim leadership, such as it is, to discredit it, to cut it down to size and what is worse, to fabricate and impose a leadership which would follow the line of the Establishment, a leadership that will surrender the essentials for temporary advantages and persuade the community to sacrifice its legitimate rights, interests and aspirations, human and constitutional, in the name of Caution, prudence, unity and security, The anti-Islamic forces are thus trying to take advantage of the state of shock and distress in which the Muslim Indians find themselves.
For the first time, the Muslim elite have been shaken to the core because they have also become the target of violence and humiliation. Easy to soften, since they have much to lose and also much to gain from patronage of the Establishment, these elite have now been inspired to take over the leadership of the community and prepare them for assimilation and DE politicization, in the name of modernization, secularization and Indianisation or of unity and progress.
During the last 45 years, since independence, Muslim leadership has been deliberately maligned and crushed, so that the community does not throw up independent spokesman who, on the strength of their support base, speak on terms of equality with the power structure and strike a hard bargain in favor of the community, They have been dubbed as ‘communist,’ “fundamentalist or worse. Indeed they have been hounded and hunted by the ‘secular’ pack, abused into retirement or bruised into submission or castrated into impotence. The Muslim community has largely remained leaderless.
The so called secular, liberal, enlightened elite who are today being built up as the alternative leadership of the Muslim community are largely those who have been voracious beneficiaries of the system and have served it faithfully without a pang of conscience. Some are even known to have sold their soul for 30 pieces of silver, Some have deliberately kept themselves aloof from the community, cut off their roots and secular credentials to secure fame, position, appointment, nomination, placement and wealth.
They have never made any sacrifice; they have only sold the name their parents gave them. In return, they have poured scorn over their community lamented its backwardness, its orthodoxy, its ‘obscurantism,’ “fanaticism,” its “dirty ways, its senseless resistance to change’ its ‘unresponsiveness to modernization’ and offered copious counsel. But they have never pleaded its case in the court, never acted as its interlocutor with the system, and never explained its fears and apprehensions or tried to assuage them. Their assigned task is to rationalize all acts of injustice, to justify all forms of oppression, to project Muslim separatism as the ‘original sin’ and Hindu communalism as a ‘natural reaction’ thereto.
Howsoever talented, such ‘comforters’ cannot eam the trust of the community which shall look upon them as agents of the Establishment. Their Muslim names serving no more than as a cloak and as bait the community shall treat them as Sarkari Mussalmans or Naam Ke Mussalman.
The establishment and the Muslim elite are made for each other; they need each other, they cannot do without each other.
Because the Establishment, whatever its political complexion, is not prepared to treat the Muslim Indians as equal to other Indians and give them their due in all walks of life, at all levels. But the pretense of equality and justice must be kept; the game of “token secularism’ must go on. To bestow its gifts, the Establishment needs some self-seekers; to give, it must find some open palms.
No doubt, the Muslim community needs legitimate leadership not only at the national level. It needs leadership at every level, down to the Panchayat and in every field, not only political, but religious, social, economic, educational, professional.
Time has come for the Muslim community to organize itself not in the political field but in the fields of development, education, employment, welfare and information, at all levels from the Panchayats and wards upwards. The educated and the literate have to come forward selflessly to shoulder the responsibility without expecting or demanding any immediate reward. Time cannot wail. Neither angels nor revelations will come down from the Heavens, so lead or guide the Muslims.
Leadership means organization and organization needs resources. ‘The Muslim community has many Organizations, but no organization to match the RSS or its numerous fronts, either in the scope or scale of activities or in resources.
Leadership needs committed or full time workers. Except for the Tablighi Jamaat which works exclusively among the Muslims to change their lifestyle and the Jamaat e Islami Hind, no other Muslim organization has any cadres or fulltime committed workers. Indeed the Muslim community produces many leaders but few workers individuals who would freely give of their ‘time and energy for a cause. Organization presupposes unity of purpose, there can be no unity unless the people assert their will. Merely repeating the mantra of unity will not do. People at every Level have to decide who is for unity and who is not, who is sincere and who is insincere, who is a hypocrite, a fifth columnist, a broker, a commission agent to sell a ‘brand’ name in the community. The people have to differentiate between those whose politics is politics of service and whose, nothing more than commerce or business.
If the people lack the courage or the wisdom to do so, they are doomed; they shall the be bought and sold like cattle in the market place of politics, behind their back and without their knowledge and then maneuvered, How does it matter, whether the sales agent is a religious dignitary or a pillar of secularism, whether he is orthodox, fundamentalist or revivalist or enlightened, progressive, liberal, secular, modernist.
Political leadership is associated with political parties, or on the margin of the political spectrum with nonpolitical organizations or institutions which have close links with one political party or another.
It is rare, for a mass party to identify itself with the legitimate interests and aspirations of a minority group and to serve it diligently and sincerely and select such individuals who faithfully represent their community in the councils of the party.
Generally speaking Muslim workers in political parties have failed because they lack the character or capacity to make the grade. But their failure to emerge as the true spokesman of their community is also due to the limitations inherent in the situation, such as a conflict of interest between the minority group and the majority group or the larger social constituency of the party. Sometimes, they fail because they align themselves with one faction within the party against the others, sometimes, because they wish to keep on the right side of the Leader or because they seek a personal favor or benefit, sometimes, because they simply do not have the moral integrity or intellectual ability to maintain their stand in the face of criticism or opposition. So most of them end up as Muslim names on the rosters of the party. They cease 0 matters, any more than a window dressing or paper flowers.
The Muslim community must encourage and support local initiatives, develop local skills, identify local talent, build up local experience, rising from the grass roots; the leadership can grow into a mighty tree. Even the political parties will be forced to choose their contacts and earned its trust and enjoy some prestige, instead of choosing from among the hangers on and courtiers. In the long run, the entry of such experienced persons with an independent base within the community will change the terms of the equation between a party and the community.
Muslim community has lost confidence in the system which has lost its credibility. The political leadership, including the Ministers has failed to galvanize the system in their favor, even though their cause was just. In the eyes of the mass, politics itself has lost its utility.
If the Muslim elite are prepared to refashion their concerns and reorder their priorities, they may provide a new lead to the community, Indeed, the retired civil servants and judges, writers & journalists, teachers & lawyers, industrialists & traders, men of affluence and of influence, men of experience and of skills, have a lot to give to the community if they indeed identify themselves with its trials and tribulations, with its concerns and aspirations and come forward to struggle for ‘Survival in Dignity.’ For Equality with Identity, for Unity without Uniformity.
But will they changer their ways and their attitudes, despite what happened to them in Malabar Hill?
And if they do not, will the Muslim masses ever accept them as their leaders.
In the final analysis, Muslim Indians shall not accept capitulation to the forces of assimilation or sacrifice their religious identity, whatever the price they have to pay.
Courtesy: Muslim India
Article extracted from this publication >> March 26, 1993
