Death of Modern India Birth of New India

Death of Modern India Birth of New India

By Syed Ali Mujtaba

Modern India was born when it got independence in 1947; then there was euphoria and a dream to build the modern India with democracy secularism, and social justice as its shining ideology. However, the zest of modern India started feeling tired sometime since 1990, when a new ideological force based on Hindu religious nationalism stared surging ahead. It started challenging the ideological parameters of the modern India and gained momentum of its own to the level that at present it holds the center stage in the country.

Even though many may not like to read the  obituary note on modern India, the fact remains that modern remains in books and the new India is a living reality. This is a seminal development because new India is celebrating nearing three decades of its existence.Apologists like me may still be basking in the old glory, hoping that it’s a passing phase of Indian history and the ideology of modern India, will bounce back to do the course correction in the ideological journey of India.  

Wishful thinking indeed because modern India is now consigned to our constitution only. Notwithstanding the facts of modern India and new India , the present India is witnessing a distinct change in the ideological parameters of the country.

India has already traveled from the center to its right and there are definite symptoms of its gravitating towards its extreme right. It may not be incorrect to say that the Modern India exists no more and the birth of New India is a reality.

In the wake of very weak and feeble opposition to the current narrative of   New Indian ideology is having a fields day. This can be substantiated by the fact that now imprint of the Hindu nationalist party, the BJP is could be seen in more than 20 states of India. The way it has spread its reach shows its growing popularity in the country and a death knell to Nehruvian Secularism that symbolized modern India.

Modern India took birth in 1947; and words like democratic, secular and socialist became the biggest rallying point for majority of the Indians. There was a distinct ideological veneer that was overlaid to accommodate several strands of ideological flavor that were clamoring for domination at that point of time. 

The Nehruvian Secularism clearly defined the parameters of secularism and communalism. It dubbed the majorities communalism as the worst enemy of the country. In modern India, all believed in the centrality of Nehruvian secularism as the dominant ideology as it alone had the power to integrate the entire diversity in the country.

However, as India traversed its journey since independence, the religious nationalist ideology started clamoring for ideological space in the country. This actually started happening sometime around the 1990 when the peddlers of Hindu religious nationalism openly started questioning the  Nehruvian vision of secular democracy.

The Hindu nationalist forces called Nehruvian secularism as minority appeasement and wanted to replace it with their own ideology that equated Hindu religious identity to nationalism. This has given birth to New India.

As of now, there exits two ideology, that caters to two distinct India that is; the modern India and the new India.  In modern India the Nehruvian Secularism remains the mot ivational pull for the common man while in the new India, the rallying point is Hindu religious nationalism.While the ideology in modern India catered to the entire diversity of the country, the Hindu nationalist religious ideology catered to the handful Hindu majority community.

It’s apparent that the new India has thrown the secular mask that modern India wore for long and is now marching towards the fundamentalist democracy.There are series of events those points to this fact. First the Ayodhya movement was built, then the Babari mosque was destroyed caring two hoots about the law of th e land. Second was the Gujarat riots, where thousands of Muslims were butchered in the Hindu communal uprising that followed the Godhra train tragedy. Third the holy cow protection campaign and the lynching of the Muslims. Fourth, saffron clad people emerged in the power structure and this tribe has started growing thick and fast. All these development proclaims loudly that modern India is dead and New India has acquired its place. 

It appears that the gravitational pull of fundamentalist democracy currently holds sway over the country and has put up a show of Hindu unity. However it has yet to evolve a dynamic formula to unite the entire diversity of the Satana Dharmis   under its fold.  


The other salient feature of New India is the growth of crony capitalism. The New India’s economic system is characterized by close, mutually advantageous relationships between business leaders and government officials. The classical example is the growth of Patanjili group and its promoter Baba Ramdev. The euphoria of economic growth has appealed to some groups that are turning towards the Hindutva politics. The dynamics of the New India suggests that its vote bank is the upper caste and the capitalist class.

We like it or not the fact remains that a large chunk of people are keen to join the new Indian apple cart, is enough indicator of 'death of modern India and birth of new India.' The Hindu nationalist ideology the symbol of new India has emerged the dominant force in the country. According to one report Prime Minister Modi and his party enjoys about 70 per cent of the popular support and holds a distinctive advantage over other political forces in the country. This is despite facing the charges of mismanagement, corruption and running a fascist democracy.

This is a very significant development and it’s high time to understand these phenomena while scripting the story of New India.  Is 70 per cent of the people in the country adhering to Hindutva ideology or they belong to the RSS cadre. Why the BJP is scripting emphatic victories in state after state. Why the opposition is totally side lined. Is this not an obituary note on modern India and the birth of New India?

The new development comes with some caveats. How the New India is going to handle its birth pangs? How minorities and other group are going to adjust in the New India? How the protagonists of modern India are going to accept its obituary note or will they turn the tables around in their favor are stories that remains to unfold.

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is an internationally awarded journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com

Shanker Shambhu Qawwal, the Epitome of Indian Plurality

Shanker Shambhu Qawwal, the Epitome of Indian Plurality
Syed Ali Mujtaba 

Two snapshots of visual communication haunt me all the time. One is of the lynch mobs calling themselves as neo patriots and other the You Tube Videos of two Brahmin saints who were sunk deep into Islamic music and epitomized the syncretic cultural tradition of India. The first need no explanation as they are staple diet in the Indian media discourse, but the second needs a detailed description as this story is much louder than the words.

In these times of highly charged communal atmosphere such stories need greater attention because that’s the only way to save our country from sure destruction. Well I am talking about “Shanker Shambhu Qawwal," the two real brothers and the only Hindu "Qawwal” in the entire subcontinent. These two Hindu singers with their Sufi songs have mesmerized an entire generation were seen as the torch bearers of peace and brotherhood in the country.

I wonder how the Hindu vultures preying on Mohammed Ikhlaq, in  Dadri in 2015 or Junaid in Haryana,  may have reacted after seeing the You tube videos of these Hindu Sufi singers. The custodians of the hate factories from where these hate mongers are being produced too need to be shown such videos in order to slap them to sanity.  

The pictures on TV screen from Kasganj, UP where the recent Hindu –Muslim riot broke out on January 26, too were disturbing. The hoodlums were seen stopping the Muslims to unfurl the national flag and intimidating them for no real reasons.

I think there could be some Shanker and Shambhu among that crowd but none resembled the Sufi singers that I am talking about, whose birth place was very near to the Kasganj where those thugs were having a field’s day.

Shankar-Shambhu Qawal sprung up when the country was emerging from the pangs of Partition of India. The duo epitomized the Indian syncretic culture and gave hope to the Indian Muslims that the people like them will protect the community from any Hindu assault, the ones witnessed at Kasganj in UP.   

Shanker and Shanbu’s command over Urdu language, its diction was a matter of awe and admiration to the Urdu speaking audience. They had memorized thousands of Urdu couplets with heavy Islamic content. This amused Muslims as how these two Hindus can narrate them Islamic history with such ease through their musical composition.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLL-Y7NeMQQ)

As a matter of fact it is recorded that when Shanker and Shanbu went to give live performance at the Urs of Kawaja Moinuddin Chisti at Ajmer, they could not get a chance to perform in the Mehfil Khana of the main shrine. This is not because they were Hindus but because there were many waiting for a chance to sing there and Shanker- Shanbu were just newcomers.

This made the elder brother Shankar to sit on fast in front of Dargah of Kawja Graib Nawaz.  He literally fasted for 3 days at the steps of the highly respected Muslim saint’s shrine that too even without water. He declared that he may prefer to die rather than leave the premises without singing. 
Sensing the gravity of the situation the management of the Dargah gave the duo the permission to perform on the 4th day at the Mehfil Khana, which happened to be the last day of the Urs Sharif.

When the brothers sang the ‘Salaam’; "Mehboobe Kibriya se Mera Salaam Kehna" everyone in the audience was mesmerized with the rendering of the Islamic composition. Many were seen weeping at the soulful melody of the two Hindu Qawwals that had pierced their hearts. Since that day they got the title of "Qawwal" and they become famous as "Shanker Shambhu Qawwal".

One among those seen crying at the Mehfil Khana of Ajmer Dargah was the legendary film director Mehboob Khan, the maker of Mother India.  Mehboob Khan invited these highly talented brothers to Mumbai and asked them to sing at the inaugural ceremony of his Mehboob studio.

The who’s who of Bollywood was present in that function and they all welcomed Shanker Sahambu with open arms. Soon these two singers from Uttar Pradesh established themselves as Sufi Qawwal and playback singer in Hindi film industry.

Shanker Sahambu did playback singing in movies like "Alaam Aara", "Teesri Kasam", "Barsaat Ki Raat", "Professor and Jadugar", "Shaan-e-Khuda", "Mere Daata Gharib Nawaz", "Teesra Patthar", "Begunah Qaidi", "Laila Majnu", "Badal", "Tumhara Kalloo", " Mandir Masjid" etc.
Shanker Sahambu were dominating the music scene in the good old days of radio that carried the golden voice  into the living rooms, courtyards and roof tops of the Indian homes and soon these Sufi singers became a house hold name in the country. 

These two brothers were really a sensation to the Urdu speaking Muslim audience. Many wondered how they had mastered the art of Qawali that usually remains the forte of Muslim singers. It was their effort to live with plural cultural tradition of India that won them all round admiration and adulation.

They were appreciated by some great Indian personalities like Dr Zakir Hussaibn and Atal Bihari Vajpayee and were felicitated with titles like "Khwaja Pasand", "Fanafil Moin", "Qaumi Ekta Ke Pratik" "Shenshahe- e-Qawal" and many more.

Shanker died in 1984 in a road accident and his younger brother Shambu died due heart attack in 1989. Now Shanker’s son Ram Shanker and Shambu’s son Rakesh Shambhu are carrying forward their father’s legacies. 

The progenies too are well versed in Urdu language and have rendered many soulful compositions of Sufi Qawwali music.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdTP5LvfTBk)

However, people like Ram Shanker and Rakesh Shambhu are the fading hope of Indian unity in diversity. They are the chips of the old block and are nowhere near the popularity index that their father enjoyed once.  

It’s unfortunate that the soulful songs of Shanker-Shambhu that gave the message of plural tradition I India are now a forgotten lore.  The high politics of India is systematically destroying these composite cultural traditions of this country.

The religious polarization done to garner votes is an assault on Indian diversity and the consequences of such diabolic politics on the diverse mosaic of cultural traditions are unimaginable.

If India has to be saved from the saffron vultures, then remembering Shanker Shambhu contribution to communal amity is essential for universal peace and brotherhood in the country.  More examples of Shanker Shambhu and Ram Shanker and Rakesh Shambhu needs to cited to uphold the plural values and these examples has to be lauded in forceful words.
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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com