Muslims must move ahead and change with the times

When Maulana Ghulam Mohammed Vastanvi, the recently elected vice chancellor of the renowned Islamic seminary, Darul Uloom Deoband, stated that all the minorities are flourishing under Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, he had spoken the truth. Nevertheless, the entire Muslim media is up against his statement, calling it far from reality. This only shows that the Muslim community is still struggling to come out of its ghetto mindset.

In this atmosphere, to talk about reform is to be chastened by one’s own family, especially when everyone around is communal. Modi is not to be given a clean chit for the communal carnage; but he must be given his due for progress in the state of Gujarat for all sections, including the Muslims.

In his book, Indian Muslims: Where Have They Gone Wrong?, Rafique Zakaria says that Muslims must become an integral part of the mainstream. It is high time Muslims break the barriers of alienation, and generate a harmonious environment. If Muslims did some soul-searching and asked whether they have contributed to strengthening Hindu-Muslim relations since Partition, the answer will be no.

Zakaria wrote that Indian Muslims must realise that an increasing number of Hindus have begun to hate them due to their obscurantist approach. They have to do their best to bring about a change in this hostile attitude of the communal Hindus. This is as much in their interest as that of the nation.

Unfortunately, Muslims continue to live in a make-believe world of their own. Muslim leaders waste their energies whipping up emotions and bringing more trouble to ordinary Muslims. These self-serving leaders remain oblivious to the miserable decline of the Muslim community. The leaders’ rigid attitude on every occasion has only weakened Hindu-Muslim relations further. Instead of coming out openly against Pakistan and taking a strong stand against the jihadis, these so-called guardians of the Indian Muslims spend most of their time in running their own political shops to buttress their communal leadership.

None of these leaders visit the villages, so they are unaware of the fallout of their actions on the poor and hapless who live in the remote parts of the country.

Indian Muslims must move forward. They must discard their worn-out prejudices and outmoded habits and adjust themselves to the requirements of the changing times. They must give up asking for doles that will only cripple them. They must learn to stand on their own feet, for the fact is that they have no true friends; many who show them sympathy or consideration are not sincere. They do so only to obtain some electoral gain.

They rely on India’s commitment to secularism, which has been of some help. To succeed, Indian Muslims must boldly come forward to undergo an all-round transformation in their style of functioning. If they fail to do so, they will be ruined beyond redemption.

Muslims today will succeed if parents shed their old habits, give up their outdated notions, and encourage and help their children get the best education. Merit alone will give them reward, as rightly reiterated by Maulana Ghulam Mohammed Vastanvi.

Indian Muslims must disown the bigotry that has made Muslims pariahs everywhere. They must give to the non-Muslims the assurance that their religion stands for “live and let live”. The orthodox clerics who shut themselves from the world must not be allowed to hold the community to ransom.

They must, without compromising the Quranic injunctions, agree to the introduction of certain much-needed, essential changes in their personal law, particularly the enactment of monogamy. There is, in fact, enough scope under the Shariah to amend the laws relating to marriage, divorce, dower and even maintenance. Ijtihad, (independent thinking), which was freely used by the classical jurists in the past, needs to be exercised by the present generation much more today.

There must be a real awareness among Indian Muslims that they have to prepare for reconciliation with Hindus on the basis that each respects the religious and cultural conventions, traditions and sentiments of the other. As to reform in personal laws as a prelude to a uniform civil code, Muslims should not oppose something without knowing what it will be.

Sardar Patel once told Saifuddin Kitchlew, in a personal meeting on May 19, 1950: “The goodwill of the majority was the best safeguard for a minority”. Muslims must take a leaf from the Parsi minority, which is probably the most liked community in India. Without raising a whimper about their unique religion and their rights, the Parsis have produced national luminaries in the field of law, industry, business, medicine, journalism, and banking.