The relationship of Muslims with the media is one of the most widely debated themes in the 20th century. Though Muslims and Media Images discusses the impact of 9/11 on broadening Islamophobia, it is more specifically focused on contemporary reality, examining all aspects of the problematic relationship between the Indian media and Indian Muslims.
Like Muslims across the world, Indian Muslims too have many complaints against the media, but have done little to improve their image. All one comes across are screaming stories of mullahs and their fatwas. Indian Muslims have no television channels, newspapers and magazines to air their views as normal human beings. In the name of media, the community has invested only in the propagation of Islam. The only potential readers of Urdu newspapers are the alumni of madrasas. Muslim participation in the non-Muslim media is virtually non-existent, barring a few well-known faces who oversimplify Muslim issues. They have no idea of the complexities involved. Neither has the Indian academia done any serious work on the issue.
It’s difficult to involve Indian Muslims in a serious discussion on the issue. Whether it is educational backwardness or the lingering effects of Partition, the common Indian Muslim is only too willing to be involved in non-serious dialogue, such as the ‘fatwa’ on the singing of Vande Mataram by the clerics of Deoband. This attitude has brought us to a stage that puts at stake the very survival of pluralistic Indian society and Indian Muslims.
The 19 articles by a galaxy of intellectuals, academics and journalists includes a thought-provoking piece by Chandan Mitra and a rather disappointing one by Siddharth Varadarajan. Of the two contributions by Vinod Mehta, one is perceptive and analytical, but the other seems to have been written only to meet the deadline for Outlook. Ather Farouqui’s harsh rejoinder to this was published in the same magazine.
In his scholarly but blunt introduction, Farouqui questions many propositions of Islam and raises the issue of modern Muslim identity, especially those who didn’t choose their faith nor are party to religious hate but now face the heat for carrying a Muslim name.
The visual media has played its part in the negative projection. Bollywood cinema, for instance, has distorted—certainly without any agenda—their image to such an extent that these stereotypes linger in public perception. The community, as usual, has not even stirred in self-defence. But, recently, the film A Wednesday brought in a breath of fresh air, with Naseeruddin Shah playing a modern middle-class urbanite in a powerfully portrayed lead role, fighting and discussing terrorism.
The author, an alumnus of JNU and a one-time fellow traveller with the CPI—he has since parted with the status quoists—is perhaps one of the few modern Indian Muslims who is very clear about issues relating to his community and suggests how they should project themselves in a pluralist society like India. He has never tried to become a part of the establishment, unlike the Muslim elite and educated Muslims obsessed with the power structure. A must-read for all those interested in a scholarly work on Indian Muslims.
