Being Muslim in India

Book Review

Title: Being Muslim in Hindu India: A critical view

Author: Ziya Us Salam

Publisher: HarperCollins India, 2023

Pages: 313

The greatest disservice that Narendra Modi has done to India is to divide the country into two sects: Hindus versus the rest, particularly Muslims. There are concerted efforts to strip the Muslims of their very citizenship. The Muslims have been victimised in many ways. Their food is blocked, their dress-choice is questioned, their jobs are made illegal, their history is distorted, their places of worship are attacked, their residences are bulldozed… This book takes a hard look at these painful truths.

The book is divided into seven parts with 30 chapters in all. The titles of the seven parts will give you a clear and comprehensive idea about the contents of the book: Political Marginalization; Rubbishing Medieval History; Kill a Muslim a Day; Wrath on Houses of Worship; Matters of Love, the Jamaat and the Hijab; Looks and Beyond; and Finding Their Voice.

Muslims in India are portrayed as antinational terrorists, religious fundamentalists, breeders of children and stealers of Hindu women. “The largest political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), steadfastly marginalized the community,” the Preface asserts. In 2014, BJP gave only 7 tickets to Muslims out of the 482 seats the party contested, the percentage of representation coming to an abysmal 1.45. For the first time since Independence, the ruling party had no Muslim Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha.

Muslims are disappearing from India, the author says. They are removed from political power and even the voters’ lists. A little before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the National Herlad carried a telling a headline: Lok Sabha Elections 2019: 3 crore Muslims, 4 crore Dalits among 12.7 crore voters missing from electoral rolls.

The book is based entirely on such revealing data and facts. Only the last chapter offers some hope. Titled ‘Muslims Move Past Their Clerics,’ the last chapter discusses the revolt by some Muslims against the Shahi Imam of the Delhi Jama Masjid. The Muslims bluntly refused to follow the counsels given by their religious leaders about the Citizenship Amendment Act and related issues. The Muslim women who protested using some ingenious methods at Shaheen Bagh were the beacons of hope for a different kind of Islam, the author thinks. The semi-literate, conservative religious leaders may not now find it easy to control their people. “It was time for the masses to be heard. And the imams to listen.”

The final message is that the Muslims need to reform themselves too. It’s no use to play the victim card. Certain reforms are necessary from within. The going won’t be easy even then, the author knows. “It is dark, very dark still,” he knows. But “a new dawn may just beckon.” Let a new dawn break out. Let India rise above ancient religious savagery and modernise itself, humanise itself.

If you are interested in knowing how India has treated her Muslim citizens in the past ten years, this book is an ideal read. But it offers little more than the painful data and facts.

PS. Related Post: Being Hindu in Bangladesh