Will Modi Step in to Stop the Otherisation Of Muslims By His Party?

The otherisation of Muslim citizens has been routinised in the past one decade.

The origin, escalation and resolution of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement leading eventually to the apex court verdict in favour of a Ram temple and the order to the government to give an alternate five acre land to Sunni Waqf Board to build a mosque, is also the beginning of otherisation of Muslims in India in a way that has never happened in the post-independence history of the country.

The processes and politics of resolving this controversy led to the passing of The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which stipulated prohibiting conversion of any place of worship. It provided for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947.

The Act declined to entertain any further dispute on Vishwanath temple in Kashi and Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura and indeed, anywhere else in the country. However, not only Kashi and Mathura simmer on the back burner, Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh has emerged as the new flashpoint with Chief Minister “Yogi” Adityanath taking the lead in asserting the Vedic roots of a 5,000 year temple beneath the Sambhal mosque.

These disputes are fanning a subterranean anti-Muslim sentiment across north India that finds expression in a variety of ways. With such statements from the country’s political circles and administrative actions, otherisation of Muslim citizens has been routinised in the past one decade.

Even as gruesome lynching in the name of cow protection and putting the victims behind the bars have been witnessed in the past, no question has ever been asked from anyone in the authority regarding violations of the rule of law and Article 21 and 22 of the Indian constitution. As such incidents continue to happen in sporadic manner, it continues to hang in India’s social ecosystem.

Communalisation of the police and administration

As if to stress the “otherness” of the Indian Muslims, Adityanath, the main organiser of the so called “once-in-144-years” Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj at the Sangam – the confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Sarswati – said that those who did not believe in the ‘Sanatan’ traditions should not come to the event, again implying Muslims.

Obviously, the police and security personnel as well as the officers of civilian administration must have been selected keeping in mind their religion. Communalisation of the police and administration has been quietly taking place for the past decade. Unfortunately, we do not have any study to know the feelings of the personnel belonging to the minority religions, particularly the Muslims, but they must have been impacted due to segregation and othering despite their performance.

Urdu has become the latest marker of being a Muslim. That it is an Indian language, which originated in Braj, Awadh and Bhojpur regions of the current states of UP and Bihar with the interaction of these local dialects with a variety of languages – Arabic, Persian and Turkish – brought by soldiers of Muslim rulers, the Mughals in particular, is not being taken into account.

The emerging Hindavi or Khadi Boli eventually became source of Urdu and Hindi. Urdu is an immensely rich language with a glorious literary tradition behind it. The ignorance and intolerance of Adityanath made him flare up in the state Assembly at the suggestion of Urdu translation of the proceedings.

Crushing civility and ways of parliamentary discourse under his feet, he yelled at the legislator making the suggestion and said that he was encouraging ‘Kathmullapan’ – a derogatory description for the Muslims. It is not incidental that this cussword was also used recently by a serving judge of the Allahabad High Court, who declined to withdraw his statement despite uproar and opprobrium of the Supreme Court. In Bihar, this Urdu-Muslim hatred was pushed further when in teachers in Gaya were transferred for conducting prayers in Urdu in a school.

Even as the Sambhal mosque dispute was invented, the recently celebrated Holi festival became a new instrument of othering the community. The fact that Holi was on a Friday was taken as a pretext to tell the Muslims to stay indoors if they wanted to avoid colours being thrown at them. No advice was issued to Hindus to apply colours only to those who are willing.

In fact, a Deputy Superintendent rank officer in UP openly asked the Muslims to stay indoors and offer their namaz at home. When there was an outrage at this statement, Adityanath stepped in to defend the police officer saying that a former wrestler and an Arjuna awardee, he may have spoken as a ‘pehalwan’. As if to add insult to injury, mosques in several places were covered. It was left to communities to sort this matter out and they did it very well.

Anti-Muslim rhetoric a regular phenomenon

On March 11, Dinesh Falahari, self-styled president of Shri Krishna Janmabhumi Sangharsh Nyas demanded that in Vrindavan’s famous Banke Bihari temple the apparels of the deity should not be made by Muslim artisans. The temple’s priest Gyanendra Kishore Goswami rejected the plea. He asserted that the deity’s intricate crowns and dresses in Vrindavan were mostly made by Muslim artisans.

He pointed out that sacred to Lord Shiva Rudraksha garlands are crafted by Muslim families in Kashi. Also, musicians from the Muslim community play the nafiri, a traditional wind instrument, during special occasions; many prominent Bhajan singers also hail from the Muslim community and offer their Sewa to Lord Krishna. He declined to alter this syncretic tradition.

If these were not enough Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, someone who routinely spews hate against Muslims, remarked in the Assembly that he would throw out Muslim MLAs from the house. He was rightly reprimanded by chief minister Mamata Banerjee for playing Hindu card. She said that “Ramzan month is being deliberately chosen to hurt Muslims… minority communities should rest assured. The unity of all religions will prevail.”

Despite the Supreme Court verdict and frequent warning against the so-called “bulldozer” justice, the practice has not ended. It uses bulldozers in the name of demolishing illegal construction, which the authorities see only in case of real or imaginary wrongdoing by a Muslim.

In cases of riots or minor social conflict, state governments and police are in a hurry to paste pictures of suspects in public spaces.

Manufacturing conflict

Last, but not the least, digging Muslim rulers, particularly the Mughals from their graves to manufacture conflict and otherness is also becoming prevalent. Aurangzeb, the last effective Mughal ruler, is the latest to have been brought to life.

Aurangzeb as a ruler was what most such rulers have been across the world. Reading about him is neither supporting him, nor making a hero out of him; the accusation that the saffron supporters throw at anyone talking about him. A pious Sunni Muslim, aside from his monarchical “atrocities” on subjects, both Hindus and Muslims, he earned his living by stitching caps and copying the holy Quran; he did not live on the royal treasury. It is important that studies of our past must be detached from the politics of the present.

Will Narendra Modi, who from the day one has been trying to announce to the world that he is better than Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, will make efforts to discover his greatness in putting an end to the otherisation of the country’s largest minority?

Written by Ajay K. Mehra for The Wire