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In his article former Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyer
sarcastically commented, "Atal Behari Vajpayee ...has
posed to the Muslims of the India 'Babri ya barabari? ...
Who is Vajpayee to make barabari for our largest minority
conditional on their surrendering of Babri to the Sangh
parivar?"
Then he went on building the case for protective
discrimination in favour of minorities. The so-called
protective discrimination has its roots in vote-oriented
thinking. The late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru
invented the protective umbrella and sowed the seeds of
vote bank politics. For Congress, Muslims have been just
the voters. And a whole lot of Muslim vote managers was
thrown up to manage the Muslim votes en bloc. Just
before every election, problems related to religious
separatism were forwarded. And then kept pending with a
affirmative nod for decades thereby keeping the religious
separatism alive.
The real problem of Muslims like poverty, illiteracy, and
unemployment were not attended to. This is because the
basic concern of the Congress was en block vote of the
Muslims, which they sought to achieve through appeasing
Muslim religious appetite. Later, this competitive
appeasement-cum-neglect proved to be disastrous for the
Muslim masses. Ultimately, in the section of Muslim
society, realisation dawned that vote bank politics is a
sterile process, which will lead the Muslim society
nowhere.
That is why Babri or barabari is reverberating in Muslim
society today after what has happened in Ayodhya on 6
December, 1992. Vajpayee was quoting this phrase from
what he heard from a Muslim delegation of eastern UP lead
by Badhohi's carpet king. Vajpayee has cautioned them
that before joining the party they must consider
everything including the Ayodhya episode. The answer of
the delegation leader was interesting. He said that a
lot of thinking has been done by Muslim society in
various groups and they have come to the conclusion "we
want barabari, not Babri". Vajpayee had only repeated
their words. And look at the sarcastic comments by Mani
Shankar Aiyer. It is as if Vajpayee himself has offered
barabari (equality) conditional to leaver Babri.
Presently there are two trends in Muslim politics of
India. One is to consolidate further the separatist
trends and the second is to create an atmosphere where
equality may really bloom. The first trend is being
harboured by religious separatists and fundamentalists
aided and abetted by outside agencies. A lot of money
and arms are being poured in to sustain the momentum of
separatism. The same trend is zealously supported by
every shade of ultra secularists.
But this is also a fact that a section of Muslim society,
which is not negligible, is becoming more vocal against
the former and trying to understand the approach of the
Sangh school of thought.
What is the Sangh approach towards Muslims? This
subcontinent has a culture of its own from times
immemorial. Its unity depends on cultural nationalism
which is independent of religious unity or uniformity.
The various ways of worship or of the sects do not
disturb the spirit of cultural nationalism at all.
Religious tolerance is in built in the Hindu psyche.
The Sangh school of thought is inclusivistic in its
nature. It realises that 95 percent of the Muslims are
converts and have the same forefathers as that of Hindus
and others. Even the remaining five percent has acquired
a lot of Indianness.
On the other hand, the Sangh school of thought is more
aware of the political character of Islam unlike the
previous generation Hindus who thought that Islam is like
any other religion. It has understood the control
mechanism of Islam through which Islamic Umma controls
the Muslim clerics the world over while the local ulema
exercise grip over the masses.
It understands well that classical Islam does not have
scope for nationalism, secularism or even democracy. The
Sangh school of thought is a little more aware than the
rest of the society about what has happened to India's
geography, history and people in the last one millennium.
The partition of India in 1947 was yet another
confirmation of its perception of the character of
political Islam. The father of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali
Jinnah, laid the foundation of the two nation theory in
the Lahore resolution of the Muslim league in 1940.
Jinnah articulated the philosophy of separatism and said
"Notwithstanding thousand years of close contact, there
is nothing common between Hindus and Muslims spiritually,
culturally, socially, linguistically or in their
perception of their separate national destinies."
The Sangh school of thought, despite the partition, still
thinks that racially Hindus and Muslims are from the same
stock, they have common forefathers. For example,
Malayalee Muslims and Hindus both speak the same
language, despite the efforts of the Islamists to create
a separate language. Despite of all these, the partition
of the country and the separatist trends of large
sections of the Muslim society are undeniable facts.
Theocracy is the very core of Islam.
Babri mentality is the offshoot of Islamic psyche and
Jinnah's two nation theory. Shariat laws, special status
of J&K, insistence on Urdu script, support for Muslim
infiltration to change the demographic structure with the
aim of ultimately converting it into Dar-ul-Islam - all
these are ingredients of the Babri mentality. The Babri
structure has gone but the structure of the Babri
mentality remain. The movement over Ramjanmabhoomi
temple was not just to have a Ram janma mandir at its
original site. It was not the intention to demolish the
physical structure of Babri, but the abstract structure
of Babri mentality.
Today what is the condition of the Muslim masses?
According to a survey, 52.4 percent of the Muslims are
illiterate of which women constitute 66.7 percent.
Compared to that only 29.3 Hindu males and 42 percent of
the females are illiterate. Muslims have just 2 percent
representation in the central government services. For
the Muslims who constitute 11 percent of the country's
population, this is a pathetic figure. And the
responsibility lies with the Babri mentality, which has
vested interest in perpetuating Madarsa education so that
their grip over the Muslim masses will remain intact.
Barabari or equality of opportunity is in the interest of
the Hindus as well as Muslims because that would create
the condition of getting rid of the Babri mentality. The
Hindu psyche is ready for equality. The acceptability of
barabari is very much evident in the film industry. Just
after the partition, even an artist like Dilip Kumar had
to hide his name Yusuf Khan, so that his Muslim identity
may not have adverse impact on the box office.
Today, the success of Shah Rukh Khan and his like is
there for all to see. Every ticket of their show is a
vote for acceptability. Barabari is boon for the
Muslims. The politics of protective discrimination would
be counter-productive in the given set of circumstances.
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