The save religion, save nation conference was uncalled for the slogan that is bound to provide impetus to agencies and rabble-rousing organizations that are at work to divide and communalize the Indian society on religious lines.
By Manzar Imam
Seminars, meetings and conferences are organized mostly in two ways: academically, within select group of experts and/or publically, for the larger constituencies of masses. Both these are done either by academics or public representatives or a mix of both. The other kind of such meetings are organized by governments and their policy bodies whose nature is intrinsically political to advance respective governments’ policies, state interests and plan enforcement mechanisms.
The Deen Bachao, Desh Bachao (Save religion, save nation) conference held at Patna on 15 April, 2018 was convened under the umbrella of the highly regarded Phulwari Sharif-based Muslim organization, Imarat Shariah, established by late Maulana Abul Mahasin Mohammad Sajjad in 1921 with the consent of Muslim luminaries and scholars like Maulana Mohammad Ali Mungeri, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Among its former members have been religious and political stalwarts like Maulana Syed Shah Badruddin, Maulana Minnatullah Rahmani, Maulana Abdur Rahman, Qazi Mujahidul Islam Qasmi, Maulana Syed Nizamuddin, Dr A.R. Kidwai, who have immensely contributed to the uplift of Muslims.
Possibly no problem would arise in holding such conferences as part of asserting one’s right to freedom of expression and freedom to assemble and associate granted by the Constitution to every citizen. However, keeping in view the troubled times that India is going through and also, looking at the very title of the theme of the conference, one can sense the underlying dangers and suspicions and its ramifications especially in times when religion is being increasingly used by certain organizations to polarize voters and divide people on its ground. I therefore wrote this on my FB wall two days before the conference:
The very theme of Imarat Shariah’s programme with active support of many members of All India Muslim Personal Law Board on 15 April at Patna – Deen Bachao, Desh Bachao – is shorn of any insight, leave aside farsightedness. Some ulama are desperate to save their dignity under the guise of threat to deen, whereas the fact is that it is their own prestige and bargaining power with their political masters which is increasingly declining. Their claim to leadership is based on the false notion of their ability to lead the ummah. They are trying to save their own charity boxes or promoting their kith and kin in the name of protecting Islam which never faces so much threat from outside as it does from inside. It is this kind of lowly politics which has helped communal forces unite. Whenever, secular powers try to unite to defeat fascist forces, such religiosity defeats the very cause for which saner voices put their whole might together. Some ulama have completely lost sense!
With a number of already existing challenges to religious liberty, such conferences will only help foment majoritarian religious ideas in “the state’s efforts to associate national identity with the practice of a particular religion” as one of the scenarios described by Samuel Gregg, author and director of think-tank Acton Institute that aims to promote a free and virtuous society.
What comes in Islam as ‘natural’ and ‘universal’ and is enshrined in the Constitution as a right, left to individual choice, is being unnecessarily raised publically to be protected against the onslaught of non-state actors; a measure that would instigate an ugly counter-reaction to justify the majoritarian claim by groups with vested interests in a democratic country based on secular ideals, as pointed by British broadcaster and commentator Richard D North, “liberty is not a zero-sum game” and it faces difficulties in the modern age. It needs to be used consciously keeping in mind the reaction that such actions may invite in the already troubled waters. The use of this ‘religious freedom’ and the timing chosen for it crossed the wisdom mark.
The save religion, save nation conference was an uncalled for the slogan that is bound to provide impetus to agencies and rabble-rousing organizations that are at work to divide and communalize the Indian society on religious lines.
Further, the political motive behind the use of deen (religion) came in full display when name of the editor of an Urdu daily, considered a trusted follower of the leader of the conference, was announced for the post of MLC by the BJP ally and Bihar’s ruling party Janata Dal (United) even before the conference, in which the speakers, mostly comprised of politically imprudent ulama, took potshots at the BJP and its political bedfellow in Bihar and their anti-Muslim policies, ended. The entire political drama staged at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan, set against the backdrop of religious threat, reminds me of these two lines of a beautiful poem of Shakeel Azmi:
Ab to badnami se shohrat ka who Rishta hai ke log,
Nange ho jaate hain akhbaar mein rehne ke Liye.
(Disrepute is now so closely associated with fame that/People volunteer to dress down to figure in news headlines).
(The author is a freelance journalist and political commentator based in Delhi)
