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Noble laureate V S Naipaul toured extensively the non-Arab Muslim countries of Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan and Malaysia before writing the book Beyond Belief - Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples. Before writing Among the Believers too, he had travelled these very countries. In the prologue of 'Beyond Belief...', Naipaul has summarised the crux of the problem in the following words, "Islam is in its origins, an Arab religion. Everyone not an Arab who is a Muslim is a convert. Islam is not simply a matter of conscience or private belief. It makes imperial demands. A convert's world view alters. His holy places are in Arab lands; his sacred language is Arabic.
"His idea of history alters. He rejects his own; he becomes, whether he likes it or not, a part of the Arab story. The convert has to turn away from everything that is his. The disturbance for societies is immense, and even after a thousand years can remain unresolved; the turning away has to be done again and again. People develop fantasies about who and what they are; and in the Islam of converted countries there is an element of neurosis and nihilism. These countries can be easily set on the boil".
The phenomenon of these Islamic countries applies to India as well. Here also we see periodic efforts on the part of Islamic scholars and Ulemas to severe the ties of the Muslim masses with their ancestral heritage including language, dress code, local ethos, culture, etc. Year before last, I had visited Islamabad and while returning, I was amazed to see the festival of Basant being celebrated enthusiastically by local Muslims. I also learnt that there was resistance to the celebration every year, resulting in lesser participation. This confirms the concerted effort by Muslim fundamentalists who constantly strive to detach the converted from what they have been before conversion. The methodology of detachment is inbuilt in the system of Islamisation, which operates through Islamic institutions and instruments like fatwah.
APJ Kalam has been frowned upon by Islamic scholars and many noted Muslims only because in his demeanour, he has not disowned the cultural heritage of India, rather he proudly displays it. The eminent Islamic scholar Dr Rafiq Zakaria, in his criticism of Kalam, states that the whole of it converges to one point that he did not detach himself from the cultural heritage of this ancient country. Is it a complaint about his playing Veena or reciting Mantras or his quoting Gita or being a vegetarian? Persons like Syed Shahabuddin or Shahi Imam Abdulah Bukhari may not have said so in so many words but their grudge also comes from the very mindset.
To take Syed Shahabuddin's two arguments, firstly, that Kalam never has taken up a Muslim cause and secondly, Sangh Parivar lauded his candidature. What Shahabuddin calls Muslim causes, generally include separatist agenda, whether it is question of Urdu as the language with its script or reservation in government jobs, issues relating to Muslim personal law board or Kashmir issue; how can a nationalist Muslim associate with the divisive and absolutely communal demands? I do not know the real reasons why Kalam did not associate with these causes or Muslim organisations. May be, his vocation did not leave any scope for these activities for he has been very busy with his priorities. Perhaps, his single-minded devotion to achieve his targets was too strong to be diluted.
Generally, Muslims are delighted to have him as the President for he is one among them whose identity as an Indian first precedes any other identity including his Muslim identity. But those who want every Muslim to have Muslim identity first and Indian identity later and dilute Indian identity bit by bit till only the Muslim identity remains with no trace of Indian identity at all, would hardly be satisfied with the elevation of a person like Kalam.
Sangh Parivar's endorsement to his candidature has been used as an argument. In fact, it should have been treated as a welcome symptom on the part of RSS. I quote here the congratulatory letter written by the RSS chief KS Sudershan to APJ Kalam when he was president-elect. In its latter part he said, "I remember you once said that this country has been facing invasions since centuries but we never invaded a foreign land, which has been this nation's distinguishing characteristic. If we were defeated it was because the aliens surpassed us in weapons technology. We had not adapted the status of our defence preparedness to face the new-age warfare. Therefore the first priority for achieving success and progress is to make our defence establishment invincible. What you say is true to the last word and is compatible with the country's hopes and aspirations. We are confident Bharat will take giants strides not only in the fields of Defence, Economy and Science but also arrive the glory of its pristine culture and civilisation, surmount all challenges and inspire the world to tread along the path of that unique gift from Bharat - peaceful co-existence and the world as one family (Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam)".
Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Syed Ahmad Bukhari went ahead of both Dr Zakaria and Syed Shahabuddin and opined that Muslims forwarded or associated with BJP or RSS are Muslims in name only. He has in fact, denied Muslim identity to such Muslims. In contrast, one can see the trend of inclusivism in RSS chief's statement and exclusivism in the Zakaria - Shahabuddin - Bukhari's psyche.
There has been a debate on secularism on political front to generate the sense of political untouchability to anything relating to Sangh Parivar. A person belonging to Sangh Parivar, automatically, losses the right of equal treatment in whichever surrounding he is.
Everytime an appointment of Parivar
bigwig is done, immediately, his Sangh relationship is declared illegitimate
by the media. Here, there is no relationship between Kalam and Parivar
but merely the fact that his candidature was welcomed by Parivar became
disqualification in the eyes of the leftists and the Islamists. We can
call it advanced untouchability.
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