Religion on Campus

A few days back, a college near my home witnessed an odd kind of disturbance on the campus. Some Muslim students, particularly girls, demanded a separate prayer room for them. The college authorities refused to consent. The college which was established more than 70 years ago belongs to a Christian management. Though the management is Christian, the college is entirely secular in its workings. Students belonging to all religious communities in the state, particularly Hindus, Christians and Muslims, have studied (and still do) in this college for over seven decades without letting their religion interfere with their academic pursuits. The recent face-off led by students of a particular religious community doesn’t augur well for a state with a high population of all the three major religions: Hindus (55%), Muslims (27%) and Christians (18%).

The controversy could have become a cauldron of sectarian savagery in many other parts of the country. In Kerala, however, the Muslim leaders of the area themselves came forward to resolve the issue amicably. They apologised to the college authorities on behalf of the students who raised the unwonted demand.

It is quite certain that the hijab-wearing students wouldn’t have raised the demand on their own in the first place. Some vested interest coaxed the girls into it. When the entire non-Muslim population of the area, and even from outside, supported the college management’s decision, the Muslim men bowed down to the pressure and saved their face by blaming it all on the immaturity of the girl students.  

I have come to learn from reliable sources that the Muslims in Kerala are pursuing certain religious goals which are not in tune with the objectives of any modern society. They use devious methods to achieve their goals. Youngsters are the easiest victims of their devious games and strategies.

It is tragic, if not catastrophic, that the Muslims, having been victimised in the mainland of the nation by the ruling party, are trying to establish some primitive version of their Al-Ummah in the very tolerant and liberal soil of Kerala. This will do no good to anyone in the end, not even to the Muslims themselves.

We need to move ahead, not backward. Even if we had a glorious past in the ancient period, a journey backward will only be disastrous. Muslims didn’t have any such glorious history, anyway. So they seem to be moving backward in another way: a regression to an ossified conservatism of the Arab kind. The Muslim men in Kerala have succeeded in veiling almost all their girls and elder women with the hijab. Soon these hapless creatures may be forced to wear the niqab. Their men are all seemingly becoming gruesome caricatures of the medieval Templars.

Come on, let’s move ahead, not backward.

The future won’t be much interested in religion, take that first of all. Too many people are already identifying themselves as ‘nondenominational’ or ‘spiritual but not religious’ and so on. I have a student in grade 12 right now whose ‘religion’ in her official document at school is: “No Religion.”

Science and technology are here to stay, however much mullahs and sadhus and evangelists may try to uphold superstitions and mumbo-jumbo. It may be advisable to make use of that technology for making religion more acceptable to people in the imminent future. Make online prayer groups, for example. Provide praying apps and virtual rooms to the girls in the college mentioned above.

Better, make religion more meaningful through innovations that address contemporary issues such as social justice, environmental concerns, and mental health. Why does the spirited mullah in Kerala forget that drugs are a burgeoning menace in the state? [I have a friend who is convinced that the drugs are being imported and made easily available by the Muslim Templars in the state.]

The world has transcended national borders. People travel constantly all over, work in other countries, and settle down there too. Quite a lot of my own students are all living in other countries now so much so I can go on a world tour relying on little more than their hospitality, irrespective of their religious affiliations. In such a world, what are you trying to do with your superannuated notions and devotions? 

PS. It is pertinent to remember that some Muslim men hacked off the palms and inflicted brutal injuries on the body of a professor in the same town where the above-mentioned college is located. The reason for the attack was that he allegedly insulted the Prophet by giving his name to a character in a literary passage. The professor’s biography is available here: A Thousand Cuts

PPS. I have a hectic schedule these days preventing me from posting regularly in this space. Incessant rains, which are wreaking much havoc in north Kerala, have forced the schools in my region to shut down. Our rivers are overflowing with riled waters that look bloody. Is nature wreaking vengeance on man for his borderless stupidity?