Sunday, February 16, 2003		Books

Islam in the subcontinent
by Mushirul Hasan. Manohar. Pages 530. Rs 995.

MUSHIRUL HASAN, Professor of modern Indian history at Jamia Millia Islamia at New Delhi and born just after Partition, seems to have an in depth understanding of the Muslim psyche. In this definitive work he has crystallised the learning and wisdom of many scholars on the subject, puts in perspective the complex process of the gradual politicisation of Islam and the call for a separate Muslim nation voiced by Jinnah and many others based on the Two-Nation Theory. Covering pan-Islamism, the Khilafat Movement, the formation of a Muslim society as a counter-identity to a Hindu India, the rise of the Muslim League, the communal divide between the Hindus and Muslims in northern India and eventually the legacy of Partition, this book is well worth its somewhat high price.

Much has been written criticising the Congress for not opposing Partition and permitting the break-up of the subcontinent. Maulana Azad termed it a ‘betrayal’, and others termed it as the failure of secular nationalism. Hasan provides another possible cause for the bloodshed that could have been avoided, when he quotes Nehru confessing to author Leonard Mosley in 1960, "The truth is that we were tired men and we were getting on in years…the plan for partition offered a way out and we took it….". Earlier in 1940 Nehru had even told Malcolm Darling, a civil servant, that he, "would accept Pakistan rather than not have freedom". Many Indians are bound to question whether Partition was a valid and justifiable price for freedom. The mad rush to get it over with, whether on the part of the British, the Congress or the Muslim League, which did not want a diluted role in the governance of the country had they stayed on, are all discussed at length, and a discerning reader is bound to draw his own conclusions with considerable profit.

The vision of a secular and democratic Hindustan is given prominence as Hasan examines the role and contribution in a given era, of many prominent political and religious leaders. Hakim Ajmal Khan, Ansari, Azad, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, are some of the personalities who impress as symbols of unity, national concern and stability. The unwelcome trend of looking upon Muslims as ‘fifth columnists’ and aggressive fundamentalists has also been examined in some depth, and the author is very candid when he writes, "A disquieting feature of the Hindutva wave was not just the demolition of the Babri Masjid but the way Hindu propagandists conjured up the image of a community outside the ‘national mainstream’". The Arya Samaj was often found to be in the forefront of open criticism of the Muslims, and termed Islam a religion that sanctioned war against and killings of ‘non-believers’. Hasan quotes V.C. Joshi who edited Lajpat Rai: Autobiographical Writings, recording in his collection the words of Lajpat Rai, whose father turned Muslim for a while, "When I considered how devoted a Muslim is to his religion, how he regards the propagation of Islam as a bounden duty and how he believes that the highest reward is attached to converting a man to Islam, I can well imagine what great pressure must my father’s Muslim friends have brought to bear upon him…and how often they must have tried to induce him to become a Mussalman openly".

This study of Muslims also concerns itself with an important aspect of what has come to be known as the ‘delineation of the contours of Muslim identity’, the ‘Muslim face’ and such other terms, in the context of South Asia. Does such a face really exist today, or are these just some of the deep anxieties and aspirations of a representative body of Muslims who are gearing up to deal with numerous communal and separatist tendencies that are once again rearing their head in so-called modern India. What needs to be remembered is the fine example set by the intellectually committed who stuck to secular nationalism and totally repudiated the Two-Nation Theory. These ‘marginal voices’ as the author puts it, need to be rediscovered and the history of Partition rewritten. This revised (but true) historical account would no doubt discuss the role of the Barelwi school, the Deobandis, the Farngi Mahal and many other groups of the day, apart from the landed gentry in UP, who for their own reasons and the Raj at the time of World War II, had deemed it necessary to project the Congress (their main rival), as a ‘Hindu’ party working against the interests of Islam.

A thought came frequently to my mind as I read this fascinating account, that since even today the people of both India and Pakistan have considerable regard for each other, can creative writings on Partition bring the masses of the two countries together? Hasan writes about this possibility, and quotes Ali Sardar Jafri who saw the people on both sides of the Wagah border one day accepting this reality. The translation reads: "You come covered with flowers from the Garden of Lahore/We bring to you the light and radiance of the morning of Banaras, the freshness of the winds of the Himalayas/And then we ask who the enemy is?" If only the leaders on both the sides cared to give this matter a serious thought.

Hasan rounds off his readable account with suggestions for Pakistan. He writes, "Out of various contradictory tendencies the Pakistanis must find the capacity to create a secularised state and confront the powerful trends towards authoritarianism."

This is a honest account of the Muslim community in the subcontinent, that all Indians can read with considerable profit.