The tragedy of Indian Muslims is their leadership

After the Allahabad high court judgment, I was shocked to see the same old faces, the so-called Muslim leaders (or rabble rousers) on various TV channels claiming to represent Indian Muslims. These so-called representatives have, over the years, ruined their followers emotionally, sentimentally, educationally and economically.

These are the same lumpen clerics and intelligentsia who were responsible for taking the Babri issue to the streets, adding to communal tensions, letting the historic mosque be razed to the ground and then leaving the hapless community to fend for itself.

In the aftermath of the Babri verdict, not a single incident of violence was reported from any Muslim area — which suggests that they’ve accepted the court verdict.

The current crop of Muslim leaders dictates terms and espouses views on issues that extend from the public domain to the privacy of bedrooms. Battered by populist rhetoric and the provocative militancy of its myopic and ill-educated clerics and shallow youth, the country’s second majority (not minority!) stands at the crossroads.

The fact is Muslims also revere Ram and they have no objection to a Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. Iqbal, the poet of the east, has written a wonderful and moving poem on the authenticity of the existence of Ram: He Ram ke wajood pe Hindostan ko naaz/Ahl-e-nazar samajhtey hein usko Imam-e-Hind.

The greatest tragedy of Indian Muslims is their leadership. The other day, Syed Shahabuddin was trying to open old wounds instead of looking for a newer India. Certainly, he didn’t represent the views of common Muslims. His remarks will close whatever creaking doors the Hindu brethren have opened to Muslims.

Afflicted by educational backwardness, social stigmatisation, administrative apathy, religious orthodoxy and political expediency, the Muslim community is caught in a pincer. A large chunk of the blame must go to their so-called representatives. The clerics who have been seduced by the state to jump into the political fray are poorly versed in the community’s problems. They are too suspicious to appreciate any effort by anyone to uplift the madrassas.

The Muslim intelligentsia also suffer from a complex which makes them think about minority rights that have been denied to the community. During every election, it has been proved that all of them indulge in pernicious vote bank politics.

At the same time, Hindus must not think that the Allahabad high court verdict is a stamp of approval on the destruction of the Babri Masjid. No act of violence is acceptable. But in a ghettoised situation, churlish political middlemen have emerged as interlocutors for the two communities, picking on sensational issues to tighten their stranglehold on the people they pretend to represent.

They end up diverting the attention of the people from real bread and butter issues to Shah Bano, Babri, Vande Mataram, Jamia Millia and the Aligarh Muslim University’s minority character, Taslima Nasrin, etc.

For an ordinary Indian Muslim, the basic issues are education, employment, implementation of the Sachar report and safety and security. It’s certainly not the Babri Masjid. Muslim leaders should offer this patch of land to the Hindu brethren to build the Ram temple.

The current Muslim leadership has completely failed to understand the aspirations of the youth aiming for excellence in an enlightened future. There is a desire to compete rather than grovel and grope for quotas and special favours and Muslim youth are disillusioned by the Ghulam Nabis, Najmas, Shahabuddins, Ahmad Patels, and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvis.

Muslims should realise that they have to change their whole outlook. They are now disliked by a large section of the majority community. This is reflected in the attitudes of not only Hindu communal politicians but also the media, which ends up presenting Islam in less than favourable light. India is a country of great diversity. No single community can claim credit for the richness of its culture, heritage and traditions. What’s praiseworthy is that despite this diversity, India has remained united.

Muslims in India today must make all possible efforts to remove the cobwebs of religious prejudice and historical distortion. They must try and cultivate the Hindus in the same manner and spirit as their great leaders, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Syed Ahmad Khan, did.

In a democracy which is becoming increasingly religion- and caste-based, Indian Muslims must befriend Hindus and desist from agitating on non-issues. There is little doubt that the Hindu response to the ills of Indian Muslims, if articulated properly, will be positive. It will not only help remove the many prejudices against them, but will also create a proper environment for a meaningful and lasting understanding with the Hindu community. Muslims have lost this opportunity by failing to offer the temple site to them in the first place.