Author: VK Shashikumar
Publication: The Tehelka
Date: October 9, 2010
URL: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main47.asp?filename=Ne091010Coverstory.asp
A new Islamist body, the Popular Front of
India, is causing alarm with its religious overdrive in the south. VK SHASHIKUMAR
tells us why we should be worried
ENGINEERING STUDENT Rayana Khasi returned
home to north Kerala from Chennai four months ago, charmed and unaware that
she was carrying deadly arsenal in her baggage. She had just finished with
a course in aeronautical engineering, and was considering a career in the
civil services. From Chennai she brought a few of her favourite things. Dreams.
Knickknacks. Jeans. In Kasargod, northern Kerala, where she lived, Rayana
got the shock of her life. They hated her jeans. They called her at odd times,
men she didn't know, and told her what they would do with her if she didn't
dump the jeans and put on purdah. Each time Rayana stepped out, they stared
and said horrible things.
Then, four months later, she wrote to the
Women's Commission asking that she be allowed to wear what she likes. The
state posted constables to protect Rayana so she could sport denim. Now, they
stalked her. One day Rayana was returning after meeting her lawyer in Ernakulam,
a town near the middle of Kerala. The constable got off midway. A group tried
to block the car Rayana was in. She drove off. They chased the car and attacked
her with stones. She had to drive to a town nearby, where the locals lent
a touch of security. All this, because they didn't like what she wore. Because
they thought she was impious.
THEY SAID they were from the Popular Front
of India. Initially it was teasing and harassment. But harassment is worse
than a threat to life. The comments and staring each time I ventured out,
as if I was a criminal, was intolerable. They wrote to me saying they want
me to wear purdah. They said what I did was blasphemy. But I don't think it
is a problem of Islam. This is an issue of the right over one's body. It is
sad that everybody is making it out as a religious problem, even those who
support me," says Rayana. Soon after the stone attack, she met Chief
Minister VS Achuthanandan and the DGP. "They promised me they would do
their best."
The Popular Front of India (PFI), with its
headquarters in Kozhikode, Kerala, is throwing up a curious test for India's
secularism. In classified central government reports, the PFI is accused of
introducing an extremist pan-Islamist movement to India. In submissions to
the High Court, the Kerala police claim it is linked to the Al Qaeda. Achuthanandan
suggested the PFI has a 20-year plan to Islamicise Kerala. And then, Keralites
were jolted out of their secular somnambulism on the first Sunday of July
when a bunch of PFI cadres chopped the right palm of a college teacher, TJ
Joseph, for setting a question paper that allegedly insulted Prophet Mohammad.
Hindus and Christians are beginning to feel
uncomfortable with this brand of assertive, militant religion-centred politics.
"They are the Indian Taliban, but they cannot overcome the syncretic
culture of Kerala," says Raveendran, a building contractor in Thrissur.
According to him, the PFI is a temporary fad funded by petrodollars from Saudi
Arabia. Mathew Nethumpara, a lawyer in Ernakulam, says he is not surprised
because "intolerance has been brewing for several years". Rayana's
struggle is a graphic illustration of the holes in Kerala's secular net. This
young student from Cherkalam in Kasargod has already received two death threats
from the PFI for refusing to wear the veil. "I will not succumb to their
pressure," she says.
The PFI is a four-year-old organisation that
has thrived on the controversy it generates. It was formed in December 2006,
when three organisations, the National Development Front (NDF) of Kerala,
the Manitha Neethi Pasarai (MNP) of Tamil Nadu, and the Karnataka Forum for
Dignity (KFD) merged to form the new entity. The NDFwas involved in the Marad
Beach carnage, Kerala, in May 2003. Its cadres killed eight Hindu fishermen
after a scuffle over drinking water at a public tap spiraled into a communal
conflict. In 2009, a special court sentenced 65 NDF cadres to life imprisonment
for this. The MNP is believed to be the new avatar of Al Umma, accused of
attacking an office of the rightwing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in
Chennai in November 1993. Eleven RSS cadres were killed here. The PFI considers
the members of Hamas, Taliban, and Al Qaeda as freedom fighters. In one of
its publications, it says: "We declare solidarity to the freedom fighters
in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq."
Confidential missives of the Union Ministry
of Home Affairs and the Kerala Police accessed by TEHELKA suggest the PFI
is the fastest-growing cadre-based Muslim organisation in India. It held its
first political conference in 2009 in Kozhikode, where it came out with its
influential Kozhikode Declaration. In it, the PFI said: "The War on Terror
is a US agenda. It is a political tactic shaped by hegemonic forces bent upon
world domination. The Muslims are the victims of the war on terror. The Indian
government supports the WOT and makes available the county's machinery for
implementing the plan hatched by the US-Israel axis. It's in the wake of this
alliance that we witness the increase in bomb blasts in the country.
"The Muslims, on the other hand, have
been pushed down by inferiority complex created by peculiar historic developments.
They are under the wrong impression that any political move of their own is
wrong. While the national secular parties are anxious to use the Muslim votes,
they have been reluctant to take them in as equal partners. They have failed
to secure the rights of the Muslims as citizens and refused to give even legal
protection to them during communal riots which are a byword for collective
anti-Muslim attacks. When the administration joined hands with anti-Muslim
forces it created fear in Muslim minds. There is strong suspicion that plans
are being hatched and implemented deliberately to break the Muslims economically
and socially.
"The denial of basic needs and willful
negligence of their just demands have imposed social slavery. No political
party can shrug off responsibility for creating this situation. So it is imperative
that Muslim organisations come to the forefront for the advancement of the
community and to create awareness about their rights."
It is impossible to judge whether the PFI
has really sown the seeds of Talibanisation in India. For instance, Kerala's
Director General of Police Jacob Punnose says, "I realise the danger
but I don't want to exaggerate it." Unnikrishnan, a well-known Malayalam
filmmaker and culture critic says educated Muslim youth in Kerala cannot be
seen in a monolithic context. "But we cannot deny that the consolidation
of pan-Islamism can be seen in Kerala." He considers the PFI's militant
retaliation for perceived injustices "a dangerously romantic imagery".
He says Muslim radicalisation in Kerala would have a big impact.
THE PFI's Kerala head Nasrudheen Elamaram
says his organisation is expanding because there is a feeling among Muslims,
Dalits and Adivasis that they have been cheated. The PFI sees the State as
the enemy. That there are visible signs of Islamisation is accepted by all.
Unnikrishnan describes this as "hybrid Islamisation". Suddenly,
over the past decade, Kerala's 26 percent Muslims appear to be twice their
number. That's because the dress code of Kerala Muslims has been made Arabic.
All across Kerala most Muslim women wear head scarves or purdah or hijab.
"It is fashionable to wear hijab," says Salima, a student of BSc,
Applied Statistics, in Kozhikode's Ferook College. When first-generation educated
Muslims went to the Gulf countries, they returned far more conservative than
they might have been when they left India. This has been subsequently imbibed
by friends, relatives and neighbours. While Elamaram admits "Gulf influence"
is a factor, he adds, "Purdah is matter of faith. There is no compulsion."
Sunil Kumar KK, is an administrator in Calicut
University. He has been an anti-communalism activist working primarily among
students. "In the past few years I have seen more women, and more educated
women, for instance my neighbour who has a Phd, take to the hijab. There is
radicalisation but that would be in small pockets. Also, one must not underestimate
the role of the mafia in fuelling terror activities or easing recruitment.
Go to a remote town and promise jobs or college admissions or just money.
Tell people that 'another community' has lots of college seats and Muslims
don't. This seems to be what works for groups like the PFI," he says.
PART OF the PFI's growth is because it has
a separate media company, the Inter Media Private Limited, held by the Thejas
Publishing Charitable Trust. Thejas is the name of the PFI's Malayalam daily
that started publishing in January 2006. Since then the PFI has launched four
news publications in Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada. It also has four book publishing
ventures in the same languages. It has a website and a dedicated web team.
It has set up an 'Empower India Press' to publish titles in English, Hindi
and Urdu. Another organisation, called 'Media Research and Development' produces
audiovisual products and documentaries. "We see the media as a vehicle
for political empowerment," says NP Chekkutty, Executive Editor of Thejas.
"The PFI's membership is only for Muslims because a cadre-based organisation
is important for social mobilisation. So, it is not the Talibanisation or
radicalisation in the sense of what is happening in Pakistan and Afghanistan,"
he adds. Soon Thejas will start an edition in Saudi Arabia. So far, Thejas
has employed more than 400 media professionals and is working on a Saudi Arabia
edition.
All this has caught the Centre's attention.
A letter classified as secret issued by the union home ministry on 25 November
2009 states: "Thejas is part of a pan-Islamic publication network catering
to the communal agenda of certain organisations. The publication invariably
takes anti-establishment views on issues like plight of Muslims, Kashmir,
and India's relations with the US and Israel. Occasionally, it describes the
government's counter-militancy effort as state-sponsored terrorism, thereby
endorsing the stance of militant elements. More importantly, contemporary
developments and issues are invariably projected with a communal slant."
The Kerala Government took this seriously and withdrew all advertisements
from Thejas on 14 May this year. "In the past financial year we got more
than Rs 80 lakh as revenue from government advertisements. The decision to
withdraw them from Thejas is a political decision aimed at destroying the
newspaper," says Chekkutty. But, in strange twist, the Centre's Directorate
of Advertising and Visual Publicity revived government advertisements in Thejas.
The first one was an appeal by the central government to maintain calm and
peace in the aftermath of the Allahabad High Court's Babri Masjid verdict!
In the period after the Babri Masjid verdict,
the PFI is gearing up to bring all Muslim groups in India under its banner.
At its Kozhikode conference, Zafaryab Jilani, the convener of the Babri Masjid
Action Committee, articulated a long-cherished dream. "The Front should
make sure that under its banner all the suppressed sections close ranks."
The Kozhikode Declaration also called for the unification and consolidation
of Muslims, Dalits and Backwards as a 'genuine Third Force' in Indian politics.
The PFI has garnered rapid support within
the Muslim community because it has been able to demonstrate its organisational
capability. Its 'Freedom Parade' is the shining showpiece of its cadrestrength.
On 15 August in the past two years, PFI cadres dressed in uniforms similar
to paramilitary organisations staged a perfectly synchronised march in cities
across Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Muslims in Kozhikode thronged the
roads and packed into the city stadium to watch the march. In 2008, the PFI
chose to stage the Freedom March in Mangalore, a town known for its Hindutva
extremist groups like the Sri Ram Sene. PFI seniors take pains to explain
the rationale of the Freedom Parade. "The Muslim community needs to show
its strength for political mobilisation. A disciplined cadre-based organisation
is necessary for the progress of the community," says Elamaram.
This year the Kerala Government banned the
parade. Kerala police officers point to a few curious features of the PFI's
show of strength. It was always held in the afternoon or evening after the
official Independence Day functions were over. No PFI senior has ever turned
up for official I-Day functions. The PFI has consistently refused to furnish
the list of names and contact details of its marching cadres to the police
so their strength is not precisely known. Police officers claim the cadres
have been trained by former police and army personnel. The police claim that
within the PFI, there is an Ideology Wing, Intelligence Wing and an Action
Group.
SOME SOUTH Indian Muslims admire the PFI for
its educational, social and public health initiatives. It offers career counselling,
distributes educational aids and study material, and runs motivational programmes
like the 'School Chalo' campaign every summer. Its medical camps are also
popular. But the biggest inducement for Muslim youth to join the PFI is jobs.
"We have been fairly successful in building an organisation. There was
a change because employment was given to Muslim girls, boys and Dalits,"
says Elamaram. The police claim PFI goes beyond providing jobs. "All
Muslim youth joining the PFI are given mobile phones, motorcycles and money.
The organisation also assists in job recruitments in the Gulf," says
Vinson M Paul, ADGP, Crime.
The PFI says it tapped into the anger of the
Indian Muslim community after the release of the Sachar Committee Report.
The official admission by the government that the Muslim community is the
most backward in India set the ground for the PFI's spectacular growth. Its
assertive, militant brand of politics aimed at acquiring political power at
the national level appealed to Muslims who felt powerless. The PFI's political
rationale, that the Indian Muslim community's absence in the corridors of
power is the root cause for genocidal attacks on Muslims, has resonated deeply
within the community. This powerlessness leads to systematic killings of Muslims
in fake encounters and communal pogroms, the PFI holds.
The Babri Masjid demolition, the riots in
its wake and the Gujarat genocide are often cited in PFI literature. The organisation
believes the American war on terror and India's new-found friendship with
Israel has furthered weakened Muslim "servility". They claim that
India's security and strategic establishment have been irreparably influenced
by American and Israeli intelligence and security agencies. PFI claims that
Indian Muslims are victimised by Hindus for eating beef. The media constantly
questions their patriotism and unquestioningly accept the role of Muslims
in terrorist activities.
Much of this is true and a decision by Indian
Muslims to consolidate themselves as a self-confident political force, partaking
of democracy as equal players not second-class citizens dependent on "appeasements",
could have been a welcome move. Like the social churn Lalu Prasad and Mayawati
brought in their wake, it could bring positive yield: more jobs, more education,
more leverage. What makes the growth of the PFI and its associate organisations
worrying though is its undertow of violence and Islamic fundamentalism.
Says Hameed Chennamangalur, former Calicut
University professor and social commentator, "It's not just the PFI.
There are many other groups that share their Islamist ideology. They are like
the Al Qaeda and similar groupings in Egypt, Pakistan or Bangladesh. They
oppose America not because it is imperialist but because it is Christian imperialism
and they see Islam as the only truth. The PFI, unlike older avatars, is extremely
well funded and has been steadily building institutions - newspapers, publishing,
schools.
"Mainstream Muslims in Kerala may not
come out and applaud them when they do things like cutting the professor's
hand but they support them inwardly. They have supported them quietly earlier
when, as the NDF, they conducted similar moral policing. The question paper
incident was a small issue that they blew up because groups like them do not
tolerate criticism or perceived criticism of Islam. Just like the Ram Sene
or the Shiv Sena they are geared to blowing up tiny incidents.
A MUSLIM school in Kannur that took boys and
girls out on a normal school excursion gets attacked. Their bus gets blocked
because the NDF does not want boys or girls to mix. Or in Malapurram they
tell Muslim owners of restaurants that they cannot open during Ramadan. Or
decades ago in the same region the NDF burnt movie theatres they suspected
were showing pornographic films. The people who need to worry in Kerala are
liberal Muslims. The people who supported the professor who had his hand chopped
off, pro-Rushdie people, pro-Taslima Nasreen people ... they are the ones
who need to watch out. People like the Chekkanur Moulvi who was a progressive
cleric who was kidnapped and killed in 1993 ... those are the kind of people
who need to worry."
There is evidently big following for the PFI
even in states other than Kerala. In the past two years the PFI and its political
wing, Social Democratic Party of India, have set up committees in 15 states
and already have a significant following in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
The PFI's formulations of "total empowerment" for Muslims, Dalits,
Adivasis and Backward Castes have connected with other Muslim political groups
and parties. The Asom United Democratic Front (AUDF), led by perfume magnate
Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, has declared solidarity with the PFI. The AUDF, with
11 MLAs in the 126-member Assam legislature, is a significant player in Assam
politics. Political midgets like the Milli Ettehad Parishad in West Bengal
and the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhgam (TMMK) have joined the PFI-led
national alliance of Muslim groups and parties. Much of this comes from the
Kozhikode conference. There, Ebrahim Rasool, then advisor to the South African
President, energised the PFI leadership with a simple proposition: "Muslims
in South Africa account for 3 percent of its population, but have 15 percent
representation in Parliament. If we can do it, why can't the 13 percent Muslims
in India do the same thing?"
Stuff like this is raising an alarm in New
Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram. Achuthanandan said the PFI was trying to make
Kerala a "Muslim country." "How can we convert all the people
of Kerala to Islam in 20 years?" rebuts Elamaram. "If this is true,
then Achuthanandan and his children too will have to change their religion."
Taking a cue from the freedom guaranteed in
the Indian Constitution to propagate religion, the PFI has set up religious
propagation and education centres in Theni and Ervadi in Tamil Nadu. While
Kerala police officials allege that these Arivagam centres for men and women
are basically conversion centres, the PFI claims these are institutions for
teaching the basic tenets of Islam over four months to those who voluntarily
accept it as their religion. The course covers "reading Quran, performing
salah, learning basic duas and hadiths and also conveys the message of Islam
to the people. Accommodation, food and other basic requirements are given
free for those who undergo these courses." The 'Q' (intelligence) Branch
of the Tamil Nadu Police has despatched several missives to the government
alleging that the PFI is conducting a conversion campaign through its Arivagam
centres.
The PFI also mobilised the Imams in Kerala,
Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to form the Imams Council "for unity among the
ulema". The eventual aim is to string together a National Imams Council
"to undertake (Muslim) social causes more effectively. But this is being
viewed suspiciously by central intelligence agencies and the Kerala police
because one of the first acts of the Imam Council was to republish a controversial
55-page book, 'Asavarnarkku Nallathu Islam' (Islam is Good for Non-Savarnas).
This book was first published by the Thiyya
Youth League of Kochi in 1936. It contained essays by well known Ezhava and
Thiyya intellectuals like Sahodaran K. Ayyappan, K. Sukumaran, K.C. Vallon
and AK Bhaskar. They advocated mass conversion to Islam because of stubborn
denial of temple entry rights to backward castes by the rulers of Travancore.
The Kerala Police claims that in the present circumstances this book is "highly
inflammatory". The police interrogated the President of the Imam Council,
Abdul Rehman Bakhiq, on the grounds that the Council was promoting communal
discord. "What I am seeing is not radicalisation in the traditional sense.
We understand what we are doing here is very effective. We are giving voice
to a segment of people who have been ignored. We are becoming assertive through
reasoned argument," says Chekkutty. "And keeping it within the limits
of the Indian Constitution."
One argument the PFI is making is the implementation
of Sharia or Islamic Banking in India. In early September, a team of Islamic
scholars assembled by the PFI met RBI officials to present their case on Islamic
Banking. According to the PFI, banking in accordance with Sharia laws "is
the answer to abolish economic inequality and discrimination". But RBI
officials have already informed the government that under the current banking
laws and regulations, Islamic banking cannot be legally implemented. The World
Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) and the Muslim World League (MWL) or Rabitha,
both funded by Saudi Arabia's royal family are actively engaged in the propagation
of Islam and Sharia banking in India.
Muslim politicians from Kerala, like Minister
of State for Railways E. Ahmed and PV Wahab have been pushing the agenda of
Islamic banking. WAMY's representative Abdul Rahman and the MWL or Rabitha's
advisor Khalaf Bin Sulaiman Namary have also been in touch with Kerala Government
and Muslim politicians for this. "The PFI is one of the beneficiaries
of WAMY and Rabitha largesse," says a police officer involved in investigating
the PFI's alleged terror linkages. For the sake of context, it is instructive
to recall that American and European governments have severely curtailed the
activities of WAMY and MWL on grounds of "terror financing".
THE FUNDING requirements are channeled through
these representatives, often through the hawala route. Union Home Secretary
GK Pillai, during a recent visit to Kollam in Kerala, told journalists that
"the funding (for Muslim organisations) seems to be more from outside
than from locals." These funds are then apportioned by WAMY and MWL's
local representatives to mosques and local Muslim community organisations
for religious propagation, relief activities and education. More often than
not these funds are used for religious indoctrination and radicalisation.
Remittances to Kerala via legal channels show
a 135 percent growth in the past five years. In 2003, remittance from the
Gulf was $38 billion. In 2008 it was $90 billion. It is well known that funds
transferred through hawala are 300 times the officially documented remittance.
The Kerala Government has also come up with a curious nugget on land purchases.
In several districts nearly 70 percent land ownership is held by Muslims,
of which a considerable chunk is held by Muslim religious institutions and
organisations through proxies. "We do not have a mechanism to monitor
these activities. India will be taken by surprise," says Dr Siby Mathew,
ADGP Intelligence, Kerala Police. There are 25 lakh Malayali expatriates in
the Gulf. More than half are Muslims. A significant amount of funding to fundamentalist
and religious organisation is through their donation. A classified home ministry
report alleges that rich Muslim businessmen in India and abroad fund PFI activities.
Also, the Internal Security Investigation
Team (ISIT) of the Kerala Police is probing PFI activities. They claim to
have seized Talibanic material, videos and "highly communal" and
subversive literature, in raids conducted across Kerala. In an affidavit submitted
to the Kerala High Court by R. Rajashekharan Nair, Deputy Secretary (Home),
the government claimed the ISIT found CDs linked to the Al Qaeda. The court
was also informed of the PFI's alleged connections with the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba
(LeT). The suspected PFI terror links were backed by revelations made the
Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad when it arrested LeT operatives Mirza Himayat
Baig and Shaikh Lal Baba Mohammad Hussain Farid, alias Bilal, for carrying
out the German Bakery blast in Pune. According to the Maharashtra ATS, Baig
was an active PFI cadre and was involved in arranging recruits for the LeT.
None of this has been proved, of course, and PFI leaders rubbish the investigations
as a fallout of India's proximity to the US.
The Indian government believes that Kerala
is turning into a cauldron of competing religious and communal interests.
"Kerala should be concerned about religious fundamentalism," warned
Home Secretary Pillai in the first week of September. Surely, Kerala's citizenry
are aware of their responsibility. Only they can goad their political representatives
to find a power-sharing solution for its large-sized religious minorities.
It might become a role model for rest of India.
(With inputs from Shahina KK in Thiruvananthapuram)
