The celebrated author praised the indomitable spirit of the women in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh who, with a copy of the Qur’an in one hand and the Constitution in the other, braved the chilly weather and the hostile mainstream media, camped in the open to exercise their democratic right to protest the injustices.
Syed Ali Mujtaba
CHENNAI – Muslims in India have to raise their voice against the systematic and continued atrocities against them across the length and breadth of the country, said Ziya Us Salam, the celebrated author of “Being Muslim in Hindu India” here at a community center in Perumbur in the north of the city.
The much-acclaimed book is a compendium of media reports emerging almost on a daily basis highlighting the atrocities committed against Muslims by religious zealots since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took over the reins of the country in 2014.
“Anyone who follows the news knows that the Muslims of India are under siege,” the author told the largely attended event where his book was launched.
The author minced no words in saying that Muslims, in the present times, are facing the gravest challenge to their identity in India.
“The definition of a secular India enshrined in the Constitution is being trampled day in and day out under the BJP rule,’ Salam said.
“To be a Muslim in India today is to live with the reality of daily stigmatisation and ever-increasing threats of violence and the very idea of existence,” he said in an attempt to highlight the woes of Muslims in the country.
“At several places, Muslims are expected to abide by the preferences of the majority community; at others, they might be killed on the mere suspicion of cow slaughter, or much worse, just because they ‘look’ like Muslim. There are attacks on their attire, language, and culture,” he said against the continuing anti-Muslim hate crimes.
The author lamented the wrongs of our polity and society in recent years. “Starting from a denial of tickets to Muslim candidates by political parties or missing names from the electoral rolls, there is a systematic attempt to wipe out their history of existence in India,” he said.
Talking about the changes brought in textbooks, the author said passages of medieval India history have been expunged “as if the period from 1206 to 1857 existed only in a vacuum.”
The author specifically mentioned the 2020 Shaheen Bagh protest in Delhi where for the first time Muslim women took centre stage against the draconian Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) provisions. Salam praised the indomitable spirit of those women who, with a copy of the Qur’an in one hand and the Constitution in the other, braved the chilly weather and the hostile mainstream media, camped in the open to exercise their democratic right to protest the injustices.
In a question and answer session that followed the main event, the author said a judicious use of social media and meaningful interaction with civil society can benefit the Muslims in India.
These two platforms, he said, are very powerful indeed and Muslims should rally around them and try to organise a favourable public opinion against the atrocities they face.
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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com.
