Dr Syed Ali Mujtaba
MUSLIMS in India find themselves in an intellectual trap; they are branded as communal or secular in a tug-of-war of ideological pulls. The moderates and the communists among Muslims have long vanished from the face of India. Even the secular lot is becoming extinct and those more visible are on the other side of the divide. Thanks to the persecution of the Muslim community under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Raj, this is a picture-perfect scenario for the country’s Muslims.
Muslims have always had their feet in the secular camp. They are at home adjusting to an inclusive society maintaining their exclusive identity. This was the Nehruvian idea of secularism. Under its umbrella, Muslims flourished in the first three decades of the Indian political scene.
The Congress started the politics to keep Muslims insecure. This was done with the deliberate purpose of pocketing the Muslim votes en bloc. This understanding made Muslims gravitate to the communal camp.
It was a forced choice for the Muslims because secular political parties wanted their votes on communal lines although they preached the secularism ideology. Thus, secular political parties contributed greatly to pushing the Muslims onto the communal path.
The rise of the BJP on the anti-Muslim vitriol further pushed Muslims into the communal whirlpool. The BJP’s propaganda that secularism is nothing but Muslim appeasement made them tread the communal path. The BJP’s posturing made the Muslims guilty of its secular conviction and willy-nilly they took refuge in the communal camp.
The BJP painted Muslims as one unified community of villains who are against the Hindus of India and thus the majority community ought to unite against them. In this narrative, the BJP presented Muslims as a homogenous group that’s threatening the very identity of Hindus in the country.
However, when we look deep into the BJP’s strategy towards Muslims, we find that it is no more than a mirror image of the communal Hindu agenda. And the saffron brigade presents it in a sweetened wrap in its public discourse.
To circumvent this duality, the BJP called the communal grouping of Hindus as religious nationalism and dubbed the Muslim communal grouping as anti-national. On this political template, the BJP designed the 80% vs 20% formula to remain in power.
The BJP formula of defining Hindu and Muslim communalism differently paid rich dividends and helped the party a great deal.
As the BJP moves ahead with its project of reducing every Hindu voter to his or her religious identity it’s collaborating in reducing every Muslim to its communal slough. The BJP wants both Hindus and Muslims to be straight-jacketed as a unified political bloc. It wants both to be in perpetual conflict mode so that the saffron party can remain in power for eternity. This means the BJP wants to project itself as the saviour of the Hindu community while labelling the Congress, a saviour of the Muslims.
To keep the Hindus united under the communal path, the BJP is trying to influence the community on two points; first, it is raising the spectre of Muslim fear that they will soon take over India. Secondly, it’s selling the dream of a Hindu nation where the elimination of Muslims will remove all the obstacles coming in the way of Hindus. And in the new republic, Hindus would flourish without any hindrance.
In this ecosystem, Muslims are left with three options — i) resentful submission to the BJP’s logic of their marginality, ii) buy peace and make a shameful submission to the BJP. iii) Present an angry manifestation of their sense of alienation and victimhood.
All these options are a poor understanding of Indian politics. None of these could be a dignified response from the Muslim community.
Then, what should be the Muslim response? The heterogeneity of the Muslims goes against the project of a unified nationwide Muslim political community. The idea of one unified Muslim political bloc is unachievable, undesirable, and can be counterproductive.
The more AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi tries to unite Muslims on communal lines the more he is trying to push the community into the communal vortex. The idea of a homogenised Muslim minority bloc can, in turn, contribute to the project of a homogenous Hindu political bloc that the BJP dreams of being in power for eternity.
This is a futile and counterproductive exercise that some Muslim fundamentalist leaders and a section of clerics are currently working on. A healthy political choice for Muslims should be the politics of “More than Muslim.” This is about uniting local Muslim communities with non-Muslims with whom they share social and economic bonds. This connects Muslim politics with Dalit, Adivasi, and Bahujan politics, showing solidarity with other oppressed classes of India.
The principle energy of “More than Muslim” politics has to be on forging unity with all oppressed categories. Muslims and non-Muslims must restart secular politics — one leg planted inside the community and the other firmly placed outside. The motto should be peaceful coexistence, unity in diversity, etc.
This leaves many to ponder whether the quest for “More than Muslim” politics combat the hegemonic control of the BJP which wields considerable power all over the country. Is there any space left for such kind of politics to be flagged by the liberals and progressive people? Do such endangered species still exist in India?
Undoubtedly, forging a coherent and effective politics of “More than Muslim” is a foremost necessity in India today. At the same time, it is the most difficult political project of our time. The main problem in this is the unwillingness of the mainstream political parties to take up the secular agenda of the Muslims. If not them, then who?
In contemporary India, Muslims are condemned to vote for survival, to escape from lynching, bulldozer raj, and communal riots. Muslims cannot vote for the party that treats them with antipathy. They cannot vote for the party that treats them as a vote bank.
These are some imponderables that Muslims face in their existential journey, searching its politico-ideological moorings in its churning-out phase.
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Dr Syed Ali Mujtaba is based in Chennai. The views expressed here are the author’s personal and Clarion India does not necessarily share or subscribe to them. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com
