If Rediff's vast web reach is any indication, there's hope still, Inshallah, for communal amity to prevail in the land where, not very long ago, hundreds of thousands Hindus and Muslims exclaimed "Vande Mataram!" with unabashed ardour. That is the essence of the thumping, warm response to Dr Rafiq Zakaria's plea to Muslims briefly enumerated in this column last week.
Barring just a couple, the readers accepted Zakaria's views, albeit for varying reasons. And there were some who felt that Hindus too needed to reform in several directions -- a point well taken, probably. Particularly heartening was that several readers with Muslim names in their emails supported the Muslim scholar's need for an introspection. Here below are excerpts from some of them:
In fact, one Mujtaba Syed, while endorsing everything that Zakaria has advocated, adds the following additional to-dos for Muslims:
A common streak of the very fulsome feedback was that it was the Indian media which was the villain in driving the wedge between the two major communities. Thus the expressed hope that the newspapers and television will give the widest possible exposure to Zakaria's views.
A change, however faint and fleeting, is discernible in that direction. The Indian Express, in its Mumbai edition of December 19, 2002, carried an article by J K Bandukwala who teaches nuclear physics at a Vadodara university. In that article, the professor makes the following points:
Having thus essentially reiterated what Zakaria believes is necessary for communal harmony and national advancement, Bandukwala spoils it all by stating that "Muslims will always treat the BJP as poison." This, alas, is the old imp raising its ugly head that must be severed once and for all.
The professor was obviously unaware of the comparative Muslim Women's Survey of 9,541 women (20 per cent Hindus) administered in 2000-2001 by ORG. According to a report published in same The Indian Express issue that carried Bandukwala's views, the survey revealed that "Muslims, 50 years after independence, on the whole have an average standard of living less than even the OBCs and well below upper caste Hindus. On the whole they are, they are just slightly better off than the scheduled caste population." The BJP surely can't be blamed for that shocker, Professor Bandukwala. Nor can Hindutva be blamed for the fact that, according to the survey, 60 per cent Muslim women reported themselves being illiterate, 17 per cent Muslim women completed eight years of schooling, 10 per cent Muslim women completed higher secondary schooling and just 3.56 per cent Muslim women are in higher education.
The villain may well be the mullahs and the moulvis whose views are sent down to ordinary Muslims from prayer pulpits and through the Urdu newspapers that have a very very large readership.
This brings one to fatwas and back to Zakaria. In his book, he writes, 'It must be admitted that in recent times some of the clerics have been misusing the grant of fatwas more for earning some money than performing a religious duty. In the process they have exploited the poor and illiterate Muslims.'
Who, then, is to uplift the poor, illiterate Muslims? Who is to ensure the massive uplift of Muslim women invisible behind the veil? Who is to enhance the economic status of Muslims? Only the well-placed Muslims -- the MPs, the MLAs, the artistes, the few entrepreneurs, and the professionals -- can do the job with the help of the activists in the community as facilitators and catalysts. And, of course, the Hindus will help ungrudgingly and bountifully as indicated by several Rediff readers who responded to Zakaria's prescription by recalling their happy emotional relations with Muslim friends and families, old and new. But, as Rediff's readership has shown, there will be a caveat to that help and many Muslims are as conscious of that as Dr Zakaria.
Yes, there is hope still for communal amity if only the 'secularists' will desist spreading their patented poison of 50 years and instead provide the antidote. All of us must realise that the superpower potential of our nation will be realised only with great teamwork from one hundred-odd billion players. If only the current President of India's belief that the nation is above the individual can become this team's slogan, then, Inshallah, India will surely become a superpower, sooner rather than later.