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By Aman Basha
Thoughts on the troubles of Indo-Islamic Reform and the life of Hamid Dalwai
If there is one word to describe Muslim Politics in India, it’s this: “myopic”. The political leaders of the Muslim community, who often are also the religious gatekeepers or are in collaboration with the likes of such seem to exclusively see Muslims suffering from only one problem in India: that of Hindu majoritarian discrimination. Everything and anything else is either dismissed as blasphemous, irrelevant or a new front of the eternal Hindu-Muslim war. They feel unfairly blamed for Partition or Islamic terrorism and think of both as failures, failed attempts that, to them, still have some justification, just badly thought out and implemented.
At least the religious leadership has, unlike the nepotism riddled Muslim political leadership, some sort of healthy competition, that is in, deriving the most outrageous and outdated interpretations of faith and doctrine, seeking only to bind more and more into ever tightening religious strictures.
It is thus understandable why anyone who identifies as Muslim but recognizes that he belongs to the 21st century could barely muster an eyeroll as he looked at the paperback title, “Muslim Politics In Secular India” by a name I had never heard before, Hamid Dalwai. Yet I chose to read on.
Regardless of whether or not you agree with the book’s arguments, anyone could agree that Hamid Dalwai chose the wrong title, he was not so much writing about Muslim Politics in India as much as a Corrective against or an Alternative for Muslim Politics in Secular India. It is testament to how stagnant the Muslim communtiy has been that the many arguments carried in this book seem relevant to issues today.
Hamid Dalwai himself is testament to how stagnant Muslim leadership has been in India as there seems to be no other Muslim reformer after him with a mass following. The most other notable Muslim name which aspires claims of reform is that of Arif Mohammed Khan, an armchair intellectual with no relevance today except as Governor of Kerala.
In 1966, a journalist from a humble background, Hamid Dalwai organized a morcha of women to the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha against Triple Talaq and demanded an Uniform Civil Code. Despite the fact that his morcha attracted only seven muslim women and that he barely found a following, he kept trying to reach the Muslim masses through lectures and articles. As soon as he could muster up enough support, he established the Muslim Satyashodak Mandal, tirelessly advocating for what he saw as a truly secular and dynamic Indian society. Sadly his struggle lasted a mere 11 years, as he succumbed to a kidney infection and passed away at the age of 45.
Apart from his early demise, it is not too hard to understand why Hamid Dalwai never made the impact on Muslim society he intended to, unlike his idols Rammohun Roy, Gandhi, Ambedkar or even Phule. These influential social reformers combined elite support with mass following and were themselves well educated and in well paid jobs. Dalwai, coming from a humble background and lacking the qualifications of an Ambedkar or Phule, could not muster the mass following or elite support for his crusade or didn’t live long enough to.
Despite my contention that he was the only possibility of a great Muslim reformer that post Indian independence offered, Hamid Dalwai’s ideas seem ensconced in a dilemma that changing times have brought onto it. His contentions and ideas are rooted in a time where the radical and conservative elements of the Muslim community were mollycoddled by the establishment.
Yet today’s establishment is widely perceived as being hostile to Muslims, so how can Hamid Dalwai’s contention that Muslims ought to identify less with the Arab world and more with their homeland come to bear when the powers ruling the same establishment seem to apologize to the Arab world over a complaint that, when raised by Indian Muslims was blithely dismissed? Looking at this sad state of affairs, where Indian Muslims are simultaneously vilified for extremists chopping off people’s heads and yet completely ignored in their rightful protest, is it really possible to inculcate the nationalist sentiment that Hamid Dalwai strived to bring?
Is it really possible to offer genuine, nuanced criticism of the excesses in the practices of the Muslim community when its icons from movie stars to former VPs are routinely trolled, subjected to calls of “Deshdrohi” and senseless, communally motivated boycotts joined by even MPs, giving all this madness a veneer of official sanction.
The most extreme elements of the Muslim community appear on TV shows and even seem to be perversely promoted by those expressing “concern” over the state of the Muslim in India today, while seeking to pigeonhole the entire Muslim communtiy and its ideological spectrum, however limited it was to narrow extremism. This also dilutes the impact of genuine and needed reforms like Triple Talaq which the conservative ulemas seeking command over the community can group with more objectionable and controversial policies like CAA-NRC.
Hamid Dalwai regretted that Muslim society couldn’t produce a towering beacon like Gandhi but also missed Gandhi’s smartest trick, to operate as a social and religious reformer in the garb of a holy man. Only one man could have combined the religious stature and political acceptability of Gandhi among Muslims and that was Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, not without reason called “Frontier Gandhi”. Sadly he was nullified by the Partition. Subsequent Muslim reformers lack the religious aura that could legitimize radical ideas like Gandhi did.
Instead Dalwai was an atheist, his objection and criticism of Baadshah Khan also stems from the fact that whenever moderate muslims of Baadshah Khan’s ilk have condemned Muslim violence against other ethnicities and religions, they do so using the ideals of Islam. Dalwai goes far to say that he agrees with the assertion that Islam is ‘anti-humanistic’. He seems to want to reform a religious minority by making them eschew religion, an attempt only possible with the state support that backed Ambedkar and Rammohun Roy.
Despite his mistakes and missteps, Dalwai is a voice that cannot be ignored or forgotten. He is right in saying that he is alone in this path. I, for one, cannot think of another prominent Muslim who has written so critically of his faith. He is not the Muslim Gandhi as much as he is the Muslim Ambedkar or Phule.
Dalwai’s polemic against the Islamic inability to dissociate religion and nationalism or the mistreatment meted out to non Muslim minorities in Muslim nations across the world is not only unique, but well reasoned. He asserts that democratic traditions have not developed in Pakistan as the country itself was achieved through anti democratic means, through riots and massacres meant to push the hand of the British.
There is also his knockout analysis of the strange relationship between Communism and Muslim communalism, describing the Muslim and the communist as being internationalist in outlook when in minority and pursuing extreme nationalism when in power. All this and much more can be gleaned from his book Muslim Politics In Secular India, a book freely available online.
My criticism of Dalwai stems not towards his assertions or the facts he quotes, it is more towards the approach he took which involves only a superficial understanding of the Mahatma and a disregard for his canny politics.
Even Dalwai may have been stumped a bit if he saw the Muslim world today, where women in Iran are burning their hijabs on the streets while the Indian Supreme Court is being asked to grant Muslim women the right to wear their hijab. Yet again illustrating the impossibility of Indian Islamic Reform, with no easy answers from anyone.
There are some easy steps that can be taken. One of the great regrets Dalwai had was that there was no Muslim Renaissance which produced Muslim icons of Gandhi and Nehru’s calibre, that Muslim reformers like Azad were villainized by their own as Sanghi stooges.
In an increasingly polarized country such as ours, where Jinnah is used as a symbol for all Indian Muslims, it is doubly important to recognize and celebrate the contributions of Muslims to India and recognize its stalwarts, not just Maulana Azad and APJ Abdul Kalam but greats like MC Chagla, RA Kidwai and yes, Hamid Dalwai.
Dalwai’s life may not have amounted as he wished, but his work deserves the spotlight and a revival today. Hindus, Muslims and most importantly all those who are Indians, if only for their intellectual growth, must recognize and wrestle with this radical iconoclastic voice.
Post-script: Being an atheist, Hamid Dalwai had wanted to be cremated and not buried after his death. This was naturally controversial, with Dalwai’s relatives wanting to carry the burial nonetheless. They were all stopped by a young politician, who felt he owed it to Hamid Dalwai as Dalwai died in the politician’s home. Against political advice, he arranged for Hamid Dalwai’s cremation. That politician was Sharad Pawar.
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