New Book
"Jinnah,Shahabuddin
& Owsaii"
Tackling
Muslim’s Problems in India
By SYED ALI MUJTABA
When the winds of democracy started blowing in 20th-century
India, it became certain that power is going to be shifted to the people of the
country. Since then a flurry of activity has been witnessed among numerous
groups how to grab political power and become the new masters and rulers of
India.
With the game of numbers and the ballot box being the
arbitrator of political power, many groups and specificities kindled hope that
in the changed equations they can lord over India and guide the destiny of the
teeming millions but at the same time some groups got ruffled by the change and
the new game of electoral politics may drown their identity and they will be
reduced to non-entity in such power play.
Muslims were the first to fathom the depth of such development. Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman (1889–1973) the leader
of the Muslim League from UP who went to London in 1930 to coax Jinnah to
return to India and take up the cause of the Indian Muslims was candid when he
told Jinnah ‘You care two hoots of the brass button of your black coat….. Are
you going to throw the Muslims of India to the wolves’…? How prophetic were Kaliquzaman’s words just look around and
see aren’t Muslims thrown to the wolves in contemporary India? Here the effort is to underline the problems
of Muslim identity in independent India. These problems of Muslims were raised
in the run-up to the independence from 1920 to 1947.
To stay on course, Jinnah saw the fate of Muslims in
independent India as early as the 1920s when mass-based politics was taking
shape in the country. He pleaded to the Congress leadership to safeguard and
protect the Muslims from the freebooters among the Hindu majority community.
Jinnah, as a gesture of reconciliation, proposed 14 points to
safeguard Muslims' interests at the Allahabad Congress session in 1928. This
was not only shot down but he was hooted by the rouge element of the Congress
party. Disgusted, by the way majoritarian politics was panning out Jinnah
retired from Indian politics and went to practice law in London. It was there
that Kalique – u- -u-Zaman went to beg him to return and protect the Muslims
from the onslaught of the majority community’s offensives.
Jinnah participated in round table conferences that were held
in London and again tried to influence the Congress leadership to protect the
Muslim interests in India. Congress
remained non-committal and took refuge in saying independence first and the
rest of the issues could wait. Congress did not give any assurances to allay
the fears of Muslims in India nor did it discuss the issues of their
safeguards.
The 1936 elections sealed the fate of Jinnah’s politics and
Nehru thundered; “there are only two political forces in India the Congress and
the British, rest has to pack up.” Jinnah retorted to this and said “Hang on,
don’t forget there is another force and that is Indian Muslims.
Since then, Jinnah shunned the politics of cooperation with
the Congress, embarked on the separatist path, and tried to do competitive
politics with the Congress. He seemed
convinced that Congress would head to parity and that he had to gain by hook or
crook to bargain to safeguard the Muslim interests in India. The 1946 election
turned the table in favor of the Muslim League. The new electoral muscle that
the Muslim league gained gave Congress only two options; either to agree
to the safeguards of the Muslims in
India or to willingly approve the Partition proposal of Jinnah.
In this moral dilemma, the core Hindu leadership in the
Congress like Sardar Vallabbhai Patel and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee decided in
favor of Partition to shed the Muslim load over India. They consented to divide
the country rather than give any safeguards to the Indian Muslims. The
narrative that was built was; “It’s better to cut the head than have constant
headache.” The blame game started and
Jinnah was held responsible for the vivisection of India.
Notwithstanding the fact, the fact remains that the same set
of problems that Jinnah raised in pre-independent India haunts the Indian
Muslims even now. The situation of the Muslims has enormously worsened in the
independent India. In contemporary India, Muslims have become a rudderless
community being abused, humiliated, and bulldozed as if they are outcasts in
their own motherland.
Good riddance the competitive religious politics ended with
Partition of India. After independence,
Nehru took up the cause of Indian Muslims assured them of protection, and
committed to their prosperity in India. However, after Nehru the vote bank
politics primed for electoral supremacy and Muslims were subsequently used as
the vote bank for the electoral victory of a political party.
The book titled “Jinnah, Sahabuddin & Owassi “Tackling
Muslim’s Problem in India” tries to look at the issues confronting Muslims in
India. It also looks at the different styles of politics pursued by the Muslim
leadership at different times and spaces in India. Under the leadership of
Jinnah competitive and separatist politics were being pursued. Such kind of politics accentuated the
problems of Muslims in India in the post-partition India.
It was around the 1980’s when the Muslim community was subjected to all kinds of embracement that Syed Sahabuddin, an Indian foreign diplomat took upon the mantel of the Muslim leadership. Being a lawyer, he drew his political strength from the constitution and the independence of the judiciary in India. He took up issues such as Muslim personal law, Babari masjid, Salman Rushdie, etc. He started a politics of confrontation with the majority community of Muslims as an alibi. His faith in the probity of courts and justice to safeguard Muslim interests vitiated the communal atmosphere in India. He little understood the brute majority forces can have their sway not necessarily on the right side of justice. Syed Sahabuddin’s belief in the judiciary and the primacy of the constitution was thrown into the wind when his campaign for the protection of the Babri masjid ended up pulling down the contested structure by the Hindu fundamentalists. Posterity judges Syed Sahabuddin's politics as one instead of mitigating the problems of the Muslims accentuating them and spoiling the social relationships in the country.
Subsequently began the resurgence of Hindu nationalism.
Against this backdrop, Assaduddin Owsaii has emerged to take up the cause of
Muslims in India. His style of politics is of ‘Protest’ against numerous
injustices going on against the Muslim community in India. His brand of
politics is also towards Muslim political empowerment. Such politics has yet to
see any tangible results.
The dominant narrative that prevails in India is the
Muslim leadership has done nothing to
ameliorate the ills of the community rather they are hand in glove to castigate
the Muslims into oblivion blaming democracy to be ill for their problems.
The purpose of this book is to look at the real problems of
Muslims in contemporary India and find the ways and means to mitigate them
within the democratic and constitutional framework.
The executive summary is; that Muslims have survived after
the 1857 upheaval when they lost their political power to foreign invaders. They
have also lived through the agony of the Partition of India. Currently, Muslims
are living under the shadow of resurgent Hindu nationalism. They are being
confronted by hostile forces that are hell-bent on dismembering their religious
identity in India. In such a situation rather than feeling despondent Muslims
should recalibrate their politics to the needs of the contemporary situation.
There is little doubt that Indian Muslims are living in
toroid times. They have to wake up to
the reality that the ground below their feet is being pulled down by their
hostile forces. They have to build a decisive response to the harsh reality
surrounding them. This response should be through capacity building first
through political empowerment at gram panchayats, municipal ward councils,
state assemblies, and Lok Sabha levels. Muslims have sufficient electoral
muscle to be present in these bodies and this strategy can alone regain their
self-esteem in India. The other strategy is that through educational merit they
can they can have a visible presence in the administration in the country.
Their presence in the police being in charge of police stations and upward can
make a difference. The presence in administrative posts such as block-level
circle officers, sub-division officers, and the district magistrate post can
stop the social injustices against their community. Needless to say, such
change has to be brought within the democratic framework and within the
constitutional parameters.
The book –“Jinnah, Sahabuddin & Owassi - Tackling
Muslim’s Problem in India” can be a submission to the nation that sees Muslims as
an obstacle to national growth but hardly gives any support to the nature
and direction of the change.
The volume is going to be self-authored as the author carries
the academic baggage of PhD on the theme “The Demand of Partition of
India.” The fascinating story of Jinnah
is on his lips, As an eyewitness the author is witness to Syed Shahabuddin’s
brand of politics. As a working journalist starting his career in Hyderabad, he
is previewing the rise of Asaduddin Owassi in Indian politics. Nationalist to
the core the author holds the view that independent India promises an exciting
future for the Muslim community. They only have to help themselves for their
betterment.
---
Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He is the author of five books including “The Demand for Partition of India” (Mittal,
2002). Publishers can contact him at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com
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