Cover Story |
Building barriers
The Tablighi Jamaat’s activities in the Konkan are aimed at eroding the
composite culture of the region Raising disputes over places of worship — Ayodhya, Mathura,
Kashi, or shrines of saints long revered equally by Muslims and Hindus — is one
strategy the Sangh Parivar frequently resorts to in order to generate tension
and to accentuate the ‘Us’ vs. ‘Them’ feeling among Hindus. Though the
strategies adopted by them are different, certain Muslim organisations have been
equally active in creating an isolationist sentiment among Muslims. The Tablighi
Jamaat is one such organisation. Though the Tablighi Jamaat has its origins in the early
thirties, until recent years, it had little impact on the psyche of the average
Muslim. But feeding on the heightened insecurity of Muslims since the early
’90s, the Jamaat has become very active and been successful in attracting a
large number of Muslims from different economic classes. A concerted attempt is
now being made at the mass level to spread a very puritanical and insular
version of Islam through tabligh (religious propagation). The Tablighi
Jamaats are particularly active in parts of rural India. In Maharashtra, a
systematic attempt is being made to establish the movement in small and
semi-urban towns. The serious long–term damage that the Tablighis can cause to
inter–community relations is evident from the nature of their intervention among
Konkani Muslims, a community which until now had retained strong socio–cultural
links with its pre–Islamic past, even as it acquired a distinct religious
identity. An overview of the origins and evolution of the Konkani Muslims would
bring into sharper focus the nature and implications of the tablighi
intervention. It cannot be denied that there are instances in Indian history
of forcible conversions of people from Hinduism to Islam. But that is not the
whole truth. We find many more situations and circumstances in which conversion
was voluntary. The case of Konkani Muslims from the western coast of Maharashtra
is one among many such examples. The Konkani Muslim community derives its name from the region to
which it belongs. Its origin can be traced as far back as the seventh century
when Arab sailors and traders, not invaders, first settled in Konkan. The trade
of the West Asian countries was carried out through the ports of Dabhol in
Ratnagiri district and Cheul in Raigad. From a reference in Tarachand’s book, Influence of Islam on
Indian Culture, it appears that the Arabs came to India immediately after
Islam had established itself in Arabistan. (However, according to another
theory, the Arab connection with Konkan is believed to be older than the birth
of Islam). For centuries, India has had trade connections with the West Asian
countries. History tells us that the maritime Arabs came to India in great
numbers as sailors and traders between the 7th and 10th century A.D. Early in
the 8th century, a large group of Iraqi Muslims from the Euphrates Valley,
persecuted by Hajjaj bin Yusuf, the monstrous governor of Iraq, also came to
Konkan in search of shelter. The Arab traders did not have any political ambition but were
merely interested in the success of their commercial ventures, which necessarily
implied cooperation and interaction with the local community. Those who settled
down married locally. Though the progeny of such mixed marriages acquired a
different religious identity, they retained most of their socio–cultural
practices. Interestingly, as different from many other parts of the
country, the bulk of Hindus who converted to Islam in the Konkan region were
Brahmins or from other upper castes. This is evident even today from the names
of Konkani Muslims. While their first name is of Arab or Persian origin, their
surnames — Tambe, Karambelkar, Dalvi, Divekar, Patankar — betray their caste
origin. On a different historical plane, during the reigns of the
liberal Bahmani and Adilshahi Muslim rulers in the Deccan between the 14th and
17th centuries A.D., some conversion of the local population took place under
the influence of Sufism. The Sufi tradition, quite different from that of the
puritan and orthodox mullas and maulvis, encouraged the mutual
intermingling of Sufi thought and the Hindu way of life. This, too, accelerated
interaction between the two religions and contributed towards socio–cultural
integration. The historical contexts, circumstances and the nature of the
conversions of Konkan’s Hindus account for the spontaneous evolution of liberal
attitudes among Konkan Muslims and a composite culture in the region. Until recently, it was difficult to distinguish Konkani Muslims
from their Hindu counterpart in terms of many cultural indicators: Ø A mangal sutra around the neck and green bangles on the
hand are the traditional obligatory adornments for a Muslim woman after marriage
as they are for her Hindu sister. Ø But for the bindi a Hindu woman puts on her forehead,
it would be difficult to distinguish a Muslim from a Hindu woman in terms of
their everyday dress. In villages and in small towns until not so long ago, both
Hindu and Muslim men wore the same style of dhoti, kurta and topi. Ø The circumcision of young Muslim boys, a sort of initiation into Islam, has traditionally
been performed by the village barber who in many parts of Konkan is a Hindu. The
practice still continues. Ø Though there are many Hindus who engage in the meat selling
trade, the slaughtering of an animal — unlike in north India where the Sikhs
kill animals for food with a swift stunning blow (jhatka), in the Konkan
the prevalent Islamic practice (halaal), is that of slitting the animals’
throat — has traditionally been, and continues to be, an exclusive Muslim
responsibility. Ø The Konkan countryside is dotted with dargahs of sufi
saints where the annual urs was jointly celebrated by Muslims and Hindus.
Ø Muharram again was jointly observed, with the tazia–bearers
and the musicians in most cases being Hindus. Ø On their part, Muslims actively participated in the
celebration of Holi and Diwali. Thanks to their Hindu neighbours, Konkan’s
Muslims are familiar with the taste of special sweets made during Diwali or
Ganeshutsav. Ø Even today, whether in a Muslim or a Hindu home, or in any
communication between the two communities, the Konkani dialect remains the
common medium of communication. After the Muslim League adopted the Pakistan
resolution in 1940, it became critical for that party to identify, even create
if necessary, separate identity markers for Muslims in all spheres of life. That
is how Urdu came to be defined as the language of India’s Muslims. Until then,
while Konkani was the spoken language for both Hindus and Muslims of Konkan,
Marathi was the common medium of instruction. The above are only some of the markers of the composite culture
that Konkan society could boast of until now. However, since the last few years,
communal and fundamentalist groups from both the communities are trying to
reverse the course that the spontaneous historical evolution of Konkani society
has taken. To this end, while the Sangh Parivar is active among Hindus, the
Tablighi Jamaat is active among Muslims. The Tablighi Jamaat’s activities in recent years, aimed at
creating among Muslims a different outlook towards religious, social,
educational, cultural and economic issues, acquires a special significance in
the Konkan region on account of some unrelated developments in the region in
recent decades. A large number of Muslims from Konkan have gone to the oil–rich
Gulf countries for employment and money from them flows into India. Slowly but
steadily this has lead to a qualitative improvement in the economic and
educational life of Muslim families from the area. This has become a cause for
concern to the Hindu communalists. The Jamaat’s spread in the remote parts of
Konkan is to be understood in this background. The Tablighi Jamaat advocates that going to the dargahs
of any pir or saint, seeking a solution to their problems from the
departed souls, observing urs, are all un–Islamic and should therefore be
given up. Similarly, they also advocate an end to Muharram processions. The
first Urdu–medium schools in the Konkan region had come up after the Pakistan
resolution was passed in 1940. But in recent years, emphasising the need for
Muslims to go to Urdu–medium schools has become part of the Tablighi agenda in
the region. Besides all this, the Tablighi Jamaat encourages Muslims to lay less
emphasis to this–worldly pursuits and concentrate instead on the after life. The implications of the tablighi teachings can well be
imagined. The extent to which they succeed in getting their message across is
the extent to which they also succeed in cutting down on social intercourse and
creating a socio–cultural distance between Muslims and Hindus. And this is
exactly what has begun to happen in parts of the Konkan. Under the influence of
their teachings, a section of the Muslims have stopped visiting dargahs,
celebrating urs, or taking out Muharram processions. At one level, this has resulted in friction between Muslims who
are influenced by them and those who insist on their more relaxed and communally
more accommodative mode of life. In a number of cases, local villagers have
prevented tablighi teams from even entering their village. The visitors
who arrive in a bus, are told politely but firmly at the bus stop itself that
they are not welcome in the village and therefore it’s best that they take the
next bus out. But as mentioned above, they have managed to gain a following
among a section of Konkan Muslims and this is leading to a growing
socio–cultural insularity that does not augur well for a region which has been
largely free of communal hostilities even during the recent years of intense
communal mobilisation. In the changed climate, the Shiv Sena and the BJP may
have made major political inroads in the area. But that in itself has not come
in the way of even the local Sena or BJP leaders’ relation with Muslims in the
area. However, the Sangh Parivar’s activities among Hindus and the Tablighi
Jamaat’s among Muslims threaten to alter the harmonious social ambience of
Konkan’s countryside in the coming years. ABDUL KADER MUKADAM (The writer contributes articles regularly to several Marathi
newspapers) |