The Statesman
Treading a fine line
Over the past few years considerable attention has been devoted to addressing various issues pertaining to the Muslim community and its religion. The apparent cause for such an interest has been the proliferation of religious fundamentalism that has acquired the nomenclature Islamic Terrorism. In Kolkata, the recent controversy over the book by Taslima Nasreen has brought the issue closer home. There has been much debate, dialogue and analysis of the issue. One good thing emerging from such discussions is the opportunity for a better understanding of Islam by Muslims and especially non-Muslims. It is still very unfortunate that I face situations where I have had to rectify that Bengali and Muslim are not mutually exclusive. I am both Bengali and Muslim.
Fundamentalism as commonly understood has to be denounced in all forms, colours and hues. However, the issue involving violent protests over Taslima Nasreen cannot be adequately understood through the frame of fundamentalist attack on literary freedom. Kolkata has an approximately 27 per cent Muslim population (roughly three million, the corollary of West Bengal) and only a miniscule participated in the rampage that followed after Nasreen’s book. Although I was not among them, I share their feeling of disgust and choler against Nasreen. She is known for her candid, critical and anti-religious stance. As an author she has creative freedom. But however creative or literary, freedom cannot be a granted license to write whatever one wants without respect for social-political-cultural norms.
I understand that my opinion treads a fine line between freedom and un-freedom. The same arguments are used by religious bigots to assert their claims and subvert freedom of expression. Yet it must be kept in mind that contested claims become meaningful only when they have some social relevance. But writing debased articles about the Prophet who is revered by all Muslims has no contemporary relevance. Nasreen is no scholar of history or Islam and has no specialised knowledge or academic skill to criticise historical and religious figures. Preconceived interpretation and highly selective manipulative referencing can present arguments but never the truth.
Although Nasreen has been writing for quite some time, one cannot recall widespread and violent protest against her in Kolkata, apart from a few fanatics. The sizeable Muslim community of Kolkata did not restrict her freedom or challenge it. However, when she writes heinous and false facts about the most revered figure of Islam she takes her literary license just too far. I do not endorse religious fanaticism or communal bias. All I intend to say is that criticism of religion and criticism of practices in the name of religion are not the same. Moreover, any criticism should always bear in mind that such criticisms must be sensitive, logical, and, foremost, reasonable.
Well, I do not intend to write about Nasreen’s writing as there is a greater issue in hand. She does not deserve the kind of attention she elicits now. Coming back, the issue of fundamentalism and Islam occupies a central position in contemporary discussions. Islam is criticised as a stagnant religion which has an intrinsic fundamentalist nature. However such an argument is flawed on two grounds: logical fallacy and interpretative fallacy. Any religion is susceptible to criticism on two grounds: 1) the belief system, ie the fundamental tenets, being incompatible with other normative systems; and 2) practices that are based on religion and, at times, may not subscribe to identical expressions being culturally and socially influenced.
Islam is a comprehensive religion. It can be viewed as socio-political-economic religious ideology. Islam prescribes five fundamental tenets that must be subscribed to by all Muslims. Islam (Hadith) prescribes the mode of behaviour, conduct to be followed by the ummah (followers). For example, the Hadith prescribes a certain mode of dressing, certain mode of economic activity, certain model of criminal punishment, certain mode of statecraft, and so on. However, the latter part is prescribed but not always followed by many Muslims because these do not constitute an absolutely necessary attribute. Here cultural and social norms play a dominant role. That is why Muslims across India differ in their social cultural norms and across the world there exists heterogeneity. We must be aware that culture and religion are not the same and both have influence on human action.
The tendency to criticise Islam as an inward looking, stagnant religion is an example of logical fallacy. It is argued that most religions change with time but Islam is caught in a time warp. In fact, religions of the world such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam have all stayed largely the same in terms of their principles through the ages. Protestantism, which emerged as a protest movement within Christianity, was a movement to reform the Church and not Christian principles. The changes in Hinduism are more in terms of practice than in terms of scriptures. This can be attributed to the nature of Hinduism which is a socio-religious ideology characterised by a multiplicity of scriptures, deities and preachers. Religion is a matter of belief. Just as one is free to believe, one is free not to believe.
Coming to the issue of interpretative fallacy, religious practices or actions constitute the most important artifact of investigation. In general, Muslims are considered more religious than other communities. Muslims in India or Bengal are economically, socially backward. Much of the cause for such backwardness has been attributed to Islam without a clear cut concept about underdevelopment. Writers like Nasreen promote such misunderstanding.
There are two aspects that require elaboration. First, practices justified in the name of religion are not always strictly according to scripture. Many a time cultural and social norms play an important part. To confuse religious percepts with social customs is fallacious. There is much criticism of Islam being fundamentalist, being oppressive to women, minorities, etc. It is not possible to deal with all the questions in this article yet I would like to point out how Islam is misinterpreted by some non-Muslims and Muslims. It is commonly argued that Islam treats women as inferior. However, there are abundant examples in the Koran which clearly elaborate that womean are never inferior to men, they are just different. The Koran 4:124 states, “But the believers who do good works, whether men or women, shall enter the gardens of Paradise. They shall not suffer the least injustice.” In Abu Dawud, Sunan, Kitab al Adab 4/337, the Prophet Muhammad says, “If a man to whom a girl is born neither buries her alive, humiliates her, nor gives his sons preference over her, he will be allowed to enter heaven by God, as a reward.” (This was 1,400 years ago in the so called Dark Ages.) Similarly, in Islam all Muslims are treated as equal and it is the duty of Muslims to help their brethren. Similarly, Islam gives very high priority to knowledge. It is well known that the first university in the world (Cordova University in Spain) was established by Arab Muslims. Amartya Sen’s Identity and Violence presents a telling account of how Arab Muslims were instrumental in a way in bringing about the reformation in Europe. If Muslims fail to stick to the principles of Islam, is the religion to be blamed? Moreover, there occurs a serious error in analysis when such portions are ignored in the interpretation of Islam.
To argue that social backwardness has a certain religious cause is certainly most illogical and fallacious. It hinges on certain Weberian logic (Protestant ethics) that religion and culture are all too same. Religion and social-cultural norms are different even though they overlap on many occasions. The simple example of Muslim Bangladesh seceding from Muslim Pakistan on the ground of culture presents my case. Muslim backwardness in India is not due to religious belief but due to other socio-economic cultural reasons. It is the lack of economic, educational and social opportunity that leads to the backwardness of people and communities. That is why a non-Bengali Muslim slum in Kidderpore bears a resemblance to a non-Bengali Hindu slum in Kankinara. The quests for education, lifestyle, inter-personal norms are more a question of culture than religion for ordinary Muslims. Muslims are inward looking not because they follow Islam. Poverty and lack of education are good starting points and they are not caused by religion but by other historical factors.
For example, historically Muslims in India are academically backward. The other religious communities of India, during colonial rule, adopted colonial education much earlier than the Muslims who distanced themselves from the colonial rulers in the initial phase. Most established historians like Sumit Sarkar and Bipan Chandra point out the stern attitude of the Britishers towards Muslims in the initial phase who held the community as conspiring against English rule during 1857 and the early part of the 19th century. This educational backwardness had a spiralling effect on the overall development of the community.
There exists a problem in most of the approaches to address the backwardness afflicting the Muslim community. Muslims are stereotyped in a particular manner. However, a look into India’s history or present would elaborate that Muslims are not one singular lump of humanity. Most analyses of the Muslim question suffers from certain stereotypes that categorises the entire Muslim identity as one. To elucidate my point, let us consider the most dominant representation of Muslims in Bollywood films. It is the underworld criminal or terrorist, subaltern destitute or honest police officer. The identity of ordinary common Muslims, which is vastly greater than standard stereotypes, somehow escapes imagery. The moot point that is glossed over in such stereotyping is that there exists diversity in the socio-economic political situation among Muslims. It is to be borne in mind that as a religious group Muslims share a similar identity but as a social group they are disparate like any other community. As such, the problem has to be addressed according to specificity.
The issue is not of religion but of social, economic opportunity and upliftment. Here educated, enlightened, progressive Muslims have to come up in greater numbers to help the community. Even the Al Koran mentions in sura Radh that Allah does not help those groups or communities who do not help themselves. The Muslim question in India is both a class and a cultural question. The issue of correct understanding of Islam is something that Muslims must strive for from within.
People like Nasreen who criticise religion and its tenets without doing anything for the community in a constructive manner do not help the cause. One must also remember that Muslim identity creation is also a response to social perception. Material reality of the majority of Muslims and social psychology of both Muslims and especially non-Muslims are important considerations where the Muslim question no longer remains exclusively Muslim but becomes a broader social concern.
Let me conclude with an example. Madrasas have often been pointed out as being on the bottom of the institutional knowledge chain. Well, madrasas are indeed at the bottom of the structure and immediate reforms are required. However, many people are ignorant that senior madrasas are under the Madrasa Board (now Aleya University) which imparts formal education along with Arabic knowledge. If for the backward conditions of the village schools the government is held responsible, for the condition of madrasas, how come the Muslims are solely responsible?
(The author is lecturer, SA Jaipuria College, Kolkata.)