Muslim youth today wish to be independent-minded and liberal, able to exert free will and free choice.
It is generally held that Indian Muslims vote ‘en masse’, that they are a votebank to be cultivated by affirmative action or by the bogey of ‘minority tag’, both of which have been exploited by the spectrum of political parties in an unholy conspiracy for electoral gains. It is assumed that as part of the largest minority grouping in India, they are comfortable with such political and ideological positioning.
Refusing to fall in line, journalist Hasan Suroor dispels this stereotype in his book. He says Muslim youth today wish to be independent-minded and liberal, able to exert free will and free choice. He says an Indian Muslim spring has been happening quietly these last two decades. These youth reject the era of ‘self-styled’ spokespersons who make them political victims. However, Suroor agrees that an obsession with identity and symbols—the skull cap, beard etc—continues.
It may well be the story that journalists have missed. Coming as the book does, at the doorstep of the Lok Sabha elections, much of his surmise may be tested and proved otherwise. But whatever the outcome, this book is compulsory reading for those who watch such developments, lest the Muslim spring becomes a ‘catchy contagion’, a precursor to other events, unnoticed but with the ability to turn politics as we know it upside down.
There is no doubt today that Islam, which came to India via the Malabar coast with Arab traders in 7th century, has become an integral part of India’s cultural heritage and economic rise. Therefore, a question located in the historical past always emerges when such matters are debated—why have Indian Muslims who spawned ruling dynasties and a ruling culture cornered themselves into believing they deserve a minority mindset in post-independence India? Where did they go wrong? Certainly, affirmative action for Indian Muslims who were once rulers must come from a radically different construct than that of Blacks in America.
It is commonly supported by historical evidence that many ruling or ‘ashraf families’ of Muslims from the erstwhile states of Awadh, Hyderabad, Junagadh and principalities of Murshidabad etc migrated to Pakistan because they were unable to take relegation from ruler to ruled. This was inevitable in the Jinnah-dominated Muslim discourse in the post-1920s Congress years. However, once in Punjabi Pakistan, they were equally unable to hold on to their tenuous past, becoming a dominated subculture termed as Mohajirs or migrants. In India, the ensuing hiatus in Muslim political leadership fell into the lap of fundamentalist mullahs. What Muslims gained in espousing a schizophrenic votebank identity, they lost out in mainstream opportunity. This realisation is partly generating the momentum for a Muslim Spring that Hasan speaks of. The author authenticates this by quoting voices of Muslim youth across a cross-section. It should act as a timely precursor to generate further academic research.
An important impact could come too from mainstream TV media—if Muslim youth are ready to herald change, what could possibly hold them back? The nation would surely like to know. Mainstreaming the Indian Muslim should be a national agenda. It is, after all, their rightful place. Kudos to Hasan for stating it so unambiguously.