Author: Prafull Goradia
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: January 21, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/151282/Roots-of-extremism-lie-in-India.html
While the Government turns a blind eye to
divisive forces, the Muslim League, AMU and Darul Uloom Deoband continue to
sow seeds of religious extremism in India
The Indian Union Muslim League, led by Janab
Panakkad Syed Mohammadali Shihab Thangal and Minister of State for Foreign
Affairs E Ahamed, has called for India snapping ties with Israel for launching
military offensive on Hamas-infested Gaza strip.
Hamas is a proxy of oil-rich Iran, which would
like the nuclear installations of Israel to be destroyed. Hamas had been previously
launching missiles towards these facilities and thus, Israeli's attack is
in self-defence.
It was inexplicable charity of then Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his followers to permit the Muslim League, known
for its extreme communal ideology and eventually led to the Partition in 1947,
to continue to function in India. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has done better
than Nehru by making the League a coalition partner and its only MP Foreign
Minister. Uncannily, it is not the only communal and divisive force in India.
The Aligarh Muslim University is another cradle of communalism and divisive
ideology. Its teachers' association has condemned what its secretary Qazi
Ehsan Ali has described as Israeli savagery. Their resolution has reiterated
that the Palestinians have every right to respectable life. As if Indians
and Israelis have no such right.
Neither the Muslim League nor the AMU condemned
the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Each one of the targets and victims was either a
guest or an Indian citizen. The Muslim League has not asked for snapping ties
with Pakistan.
At the UN council meet Mr Ahamed not only
excluded the fact that Nariman House was attacked but he also didn't condole
the deaths of Jews in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Whatever Mr Ahamed's intentions
were, the popular perception is that in his eyes killing of Jews was legitimate
and, being such a small number in India, the incident would not matter. Was
Mr Ahamed influenced by his sympathy for Hamas which has been fighting a war
against Israel? He had at one stage expressed his anger over the assassination
of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Pakistan's permanent envoy to the UN, Mr Abdullah
Hussain Haroon, has openly blamed the clerics of Darul Uloom at Deoband for
being the fountains of extremist mischief in the subcontinent. Jaish-e-Mohammed
chief Maulana Masood Azhar is also of Indian origin. What Mr Haroon meant
was that the seed of terrorism was in India which had also brought problems
for Pakistan. If we introspect objectively we would know that much of the
Islamist ideology is being inspired by institutions in India.
The prototype of the AMU was Anglo-Oriental
College founded in 1877 by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. The university was a hot-bed
of separatist ideology providing a large number of 35 Muslim eminences who
called on the Viceroy in 1906 at Shimla for reservations for the community
in employment as well as the introduction of separate electorates which would
ensure for Muslims parity in numbers with the majority Hindus. This visit
to Shimla was followed up by the establishment of the Muslim League in December
1906 under the presidentship of the Nawab of Decca.
Darul Uloom, which began as a maktab or school,
was chosen by its founder Maulana Muhammad Qasim as Deoband was away from
British strongholds. There prevailed a persecution mania amongst the Muslims
as a result of the mutiny of 1857. The environment appeared harsh to them
with several ulema like Haji Imdad-Allah going away to Mecca for good. The
course of study was strictly Islamic; no English or modern science was taught.
The inspiration was obviously anti-British and continues to be anti-ruler
to this day. The ulema of Deoband pride themselves on being ahl al-sunna wa'l
jama a. In other words, they are utterly faithful to the practices of Prophet
Mohammad who lived and preached 14 centuries ago.
The first graduate of the Darul Uloom in 1877
was Mahmood ul-Hasan who founded Samaratul Tarbiyat, a quasi-military body
whose volunteers known as fidayeens were taught to prepare themselves for
armed jihad. This then was the Gangotri of Taliban. The Darul Uloom at Deoband
continues to propagate strict pro-tawhid, pro-ulema, anti-innovation, anti-polytheist,
fundamentalist revivalism first initiated in Syria by Ibn Taymiyya, in Arabia
by Al-Wahhab and in India by Shah Waliullah.
In contrast, AMU was founded in order to educate
and prepare pro-British Muslims. Remember, Sir Syed's policy was to befriend
the British and thus counter the Hindu majority. After Partition, the same
tradition has continued; an illustration being the founding of SIMI at the
University in 1974. Yet, the Indian Government pays for the whole institution.
All in all, this situation proves that Mr
Abdullah Hasan Haroon is right when he alleges that the ideological root of
extremism lies in India and not in Pakistan.
