January  2003 
Year 9    No.83
Book Review

Bye, bye secularism

Ask saffron sanghis or sainiks and they’ll tell you ‘nationalist Muslims’ are hard to find even though they are on the lookout for this species all the time. Yes, there was Sikandar Bakht and there are Shahnawaz Hussain, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Bismillah Khan (playing the shehnai at Kashi mandir), AR Rahman (‘Maa, tujhe salaam’) also qualify. APJ Abdul Kalam is alright as President because, as the RSS is quick to educate its cadre, he recites the Gita, not the Koran. It follows that he is a Hindu, even if he doesn’t sound like one.

Dilip Kumar (Yusuf Khan) seemed the right type, too, so long as he sipped warm beer in Thackeray’s company. The trusting Sena supremo even mistook Mohammed Azharuddin for a nationalist Muslim for a while. But sooner rather than later, he publicly wondered why the former Indian captain failed to perform (allegedly) every time India faced Pakistan. As for Dilip Kumar, Balasaheb even had to send chaddi-clad sainiks to protest outside the thespian’s bungalow in Bandra.

So, you see, with Muslims you can never be sure. Recently, however, they’ve discovered Dr. Rafiq Zakaria — Islamic scholar and a Congressman for decades — whose latest offering, ‘Communal Rage in Secular India’ they are clutching to their bosom. In ecstatic reviews of the book, pen-pushers for the parivar are stumbling over each other showering fulsome praise on the author.

"I am sure if Zakaria spends time with the RSS chief he will have a pleasant surprise — for both are likely to be in complete agreement with the analysis of, and the solution to, the problems," gushed BJP MP, Balbir K Punj in The Asian Age. Ditto, says Arvind Lavakare in his column in rediff.com: "Dr. Zakaria’s comprehensive diagnosis-cum-prescription is breath–taking and path–breaking. It is as though it were written out by the RSS chief himself."

So, Dr. Zakaria is a ‘nationalist Muslim’ for he has written nothing that the RSS sarsanghchalak KS Sudarshan would not heartily approve of. And what exactly is Dr. Zakaria’s "courageous, almost historic, message" to Muslims, which the saffron sangh is drooling over?

In the first part of his book, Dr. Zakaria indulges in what he himself calls a cut and paste job, quoting extensively from news reports, analysis and commentary published in the secular press to recapitulate the bludgeoning of Gujarat’s Muslims in ‘reaction’ to Godhra. In a chapter that follows, ‘Fascist trends’, he cites a multitude of writers, from historian Eric Hobsbawm to writer Arundhati Roy to economist Arjun Sengupta, all of them ringing the alarm bells, warning of India’s march towards fascism under Hindutva’s banner.

In case you are wondering how any of this could be music for saffron souls, listen to what follows:

"Many Hindus are deeply upset at the gruesome happenings in Gujarat and are determined to save India from such communal scourge; they seem however to be in a minority; the communal Hindus are on the rise."

"Muslims continue to be badgered by recurring communal violence, but neither the authorities, nor the police offer any protection to Muslims. Reports of inquiry commissions on these carnages are of no use for no government ever acts on them... Muslims rely on India’s commitment to secularism but it has not proved to be of much help. Nor have Muslims of other countries ever come to their rescue."

What, then, is to be done? Dr. Zakaria’s answer is contained in his question: "Should not the Muslims now take a realistic view and think how best they can help build bridges with the Hindus and forget to rely on either the government, or the commissions and courts who have failed to provide them protection or succour?"

There is no scope for ambiguity in Dr. Zakaria’s prescription: After the revolt of 1857, "when the British had targeted Muslims with a vengeance", Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan showed the sagacity to "befriend the British". Similarly, "I feel the time has come now when Muslims will have to once again adopt the same course of action". So, the author wants today’s Muslims to "befriend the Hindus".

Read his book and you will no longer have any doubts that when he talks of befriending Hindus, Dr. Zakaria is referring not to ‘pseudo-secularists’ whose "heart bleeds for Muslims" but to the high priests and the high command of Hindutva: the RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal, BJP, Shiv Sena and who have you.

Perhaps it is in the interests of the new relationship he seeks that not once in his book does Dr. Zakaria even obliquely refer to the crying need for justice for the victims, punishment of the guilty, rule of law, equality before law, equal protection of law, fundamental freedoms, right to life…

Clearly, for Dr. Zakaria, Indian secularism is a sham. Forget the constitution, forget secularism, forget democracy, forget all notions of equal citizenship. Religious identity, community relations, Hindu-Muslim, is all that matters. So, to save their skins, Muslims had better befriend the bully.

The Sangh Parivar and the Shiv Sena, too, do not like the Indian constitution and all that flows from it. And haven’t Sudarshanji, Ashok Singhalji and Togadiaji reiteratet ad nauseam in recent years that the ‘goodwill’ of the majority (of which they are the sole leaders) can be the only guarantee for peace for the minority. Any surprise then that ‘Communal Rage in Secular India’ has the saffron camp whooping with delight?

Be that as it may, Dr. Zakaria has been prepared to walk the talk. Within days of the Shiv Sena-BJP coalition assuming power in Maharashtra, Dr. Zakaria led a delegation of Muslims to Matoshree to befriend ‘Balasaheb’. I wonder what the learned doctor would have advised Germany’s Jews as Hitler’s Nazis were on the go.

Dr. Zakaria’s book should be mandatory reading for secularists, not for any "courageous, almost historic, message" but for the comprehension of Muslim despair. 

Communal rage in secular India, 
Rafiq Zakaria,Popular Prakashan Pvt. Ltd, 
Mumbai Pgs. 250 Rs.350