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
Hari Om
ReplyDeleteAs ever, your review is lucid, pertinent, and encouraging. YAM xx
Glad you said it.
DeleteVery troubling.
ReplyDeleteWhen humankind must be moving beyond the primitivity of religions, we're being taken back to their savagery by a man who thinks too highly of himself.
DeleteI don't think we have any muslim here my community.
ReplyDeleteIf they remain far from you, so much the better. But I don't endorse any persecution in the name of any religion.
DeleteThis is the alternate perspective we do not care to know about.
ReplyDelete