Crucial role of Urdu-speaking Muslims

By BALRAJ PURI

MQM leader Altaf Hussain, during his recent visit to India, reiterated his
statement which he made in his earlier visit that the partition of India
was the greatest blunder in human history . In essence, it divided the
Urdu speaking Muslim community which he represents and among whom the
movement of the partition had maximum support, into three countries.

Some years back I met MQM leaders in London. I told them that while I
concede that a girl's loyalty, after her marriage should be to her in laws,
her emotional and cultural ties with her parent's home need not be snapped.
My analogy appealed them to very much as it aptly summed up their dilemma.
they confessed that their cultural roots lay in India--in Ganga-Jamuna
belt. The urge to belong to their roots was becoming stronger and stronger
over the years.

Dilemma of Urdu speaking Muslims has its own specificity, different from
the Muslim problem viewed from global, sub-continental, historical and
macro angles, which implies an inevitable oversimplification.

However, problems relating to specific time and space have often not only
some degree of autonomy but are closer to reality and provide much needed
corrective to long-term generalizations. Out of micro dimensions of the
Muslim problem, the current crisis of the Urdu-speaking Muslims is perhaps
the most significant- in itself as also as a clue to understanding the
wider problem.

The community has been victim of riots in Meerut, Aligarh and Delhi as also
in Karachi. It suffered a worse fate in Bangladesh where around 2.5 lakh
Bihari Muslims (as Urdu-speaking community is called there) are in refugee
camps whom nobody wants to accept. In all the three countries, the
community faces a similar crisis of identity and a similar charge.
Bangladesh does not forgive it for opposing its struggle for liberation.
Local communities of Pakistan do not forgive it for its continued nostalgia
for the land of its origin. Many Indian Hindus have not quite forgiven it
for having demanded the partition of the country.

Notwithstanding its present plight, the community had a unique
geo-historical entity. Drawn from diverse ethnic stocks, it was homogenized
and indegenised by a common political role and powerful Urdu culture. Under
the impact of the two greatest civilization of the world — ancient Indian
and modern Western — its intellectual and cultural attainments are almost
unparalleled by any other Muslim community of the world. Though a minority
in its own region, it materially shaped the religious and political role of
Islam in the entire sub-continent. The Red Fort, Taj Mahal, Ajmer Sharif,
Deoband and Aligarh represent political glory, aesthetic achievement,
spiritual centre, seat of religious learning and symbol of modern Muslim
resurgence respectively not only of the Urdu region but also of the Muslims
all over the sub-continent.

In its hey days, the community shared power with the non- Muslim elite of
the heartland region of India, which no other Muslim community is known to
have done elsewhere, and with its help subjugated Muslim communities around
like those of Kashmir, North West and Bengal in the name of extending the
frontiers of Hindustan. Even today folk tradition of these peripheral
regions regards Mughals as aggressors. Some of the Hindu rulers also
revolted against the Central authority. But revolts of both communities
were more regional than communal.

The Mughals and the Urdu-speaking Muslim aristocracy came to represent not
only the central authority but also a spirit of pan-Indian patriotism. It
was therefore not an accident that Bahadurshah Zafar became the natural
choice for leadership of the first war of India's independence in 1857. The
end of the Mughal Empire was a traumatic experience for the ruling Muslim
elite. From a dominant community of the heartland, it stepped into the role
of a leading elite of the pan-India Muslim community. But in its new role,
it could not settle terms with the emergent Indian nationalism, defined in
Hindu religious idiom and with the expanding role of the more numerous
communities of the Hindus in the national stream.

Separate homeland

The attempt to redefine Indian Muslim identity in Pan-Islamic terms, though
encouraged by Gandhi, was rebuffed by the collapse of the Khilafat. It is
obvious that the identity problem was not so acute for those Muslims who
were in a majority. But minority Muslim communities, of which the
Urdu-speaking community was the most vocal, sought an answer to their
identity urge in a separate homeland.

Far from consolidating the Muslim identity, the formation of Pakistan split
it and the worst victim of the split was the Urdu-speaking community. Its
dilemma was tellingly demonstrated during the Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and
1971 when it learnt what it meant to be divided into two-and later
three-different nation states with conflicting claims of patriotism.
Loyalties of the community were heavily strained.

The people who comprise the present Pakistan were never too deeply enthused
by its ideology. The Muhajirs as the Urdu-speaking migrants to Pakistan are
called were the most faithful followers of that ideology. They supported
the Muslim league and later the Jamaat-I-Islami to demonstrate their belief
in the primacy of religious identity and disapproval of ethnic, linguistic
and regional loyalties. Those who were in the then eastern wing of Pakistan
never wavered in their loyalty to united Pakistan during the revolt of
Bangladesh. But while Bangladesh treated them as traitors; Pakistan refused
to accept them. Ironically, loyalty of the other part of the same community
who had migrated to the western wing of Pakistan also came to be suspected
by every other community there.

A liberal Pathan leader like Mr Wali Khan said, during his visit to India,
that if Muhajirs were unable to adjust themselves in Pakistan, they should
return to the country of their origin. A Sindhi leader, Pir Ahmad Bux had
retorted that if "Urdu wallahs had their way and India was willing to admit
them, Karachi would overnight be denuded of 70 percent of its population.
"A Sindhi daily Hilal-e-Pakistan described them as "virtual Indian agents
who should be sent to India".

Having come to clash with other Pakistani nationalities separately, now a
joint Punjabi-Pathan front is threatening their physical existence in
Karachi where most of them are settled. Ethnic assertion of others, says
the Muhajir Qaumi Mahaz leader Khalid Sultan, "made us aware that we have a
separate, cultural, historical and linguistic identity from other
nationalities of Pakistan". Having failed to discover an Islamic melting
pot in which all ethnic identities would dissolve, the Muhajirs too
demanded their recognition as one of the five nationalities of Pakistan and
a separate homeland within the country which they called Urdu-Pradesh, to
revive their nostalgia for U.P. the land of their origin.

Nostalgia for the mother country and a sense of pride for their roots are
becoming as powerful among the Muhajir as among any other Indian community
settled abroad. Rais Amrohi, the doyen of Pak-Indians, as he preferred to
call his community, was proud of the fact that "our ancestors gave to the
sub-continent one of the greatest civilizations of the world". He is
equally proud of the delta land between the Ganga and the Jamuna on which
flourished "the great edifice of the Indo-Islamic civilization". If four
other nationalities like Punjabis, Pathans, Sindhis and Baluchs can claim
their homeland in Pakistan Rais Amrohi asked, "What is wrong in the demand
of Pak-Indians for recognition and having its own homeland." Further a
confidential survey conducted by the central government of Pakistan quoted
by the daily News some years back revealed that broadcasts of Urdu service
of All India Radio were heard in 90 per cent homes in Karachi. Asked why
they were switching to the enemy radio, some of the listeners replied "this
is the only source of correct pronunciation of Urdu for their family
members, especially children."

Such assertions are being regarded by the compatriots of the Muhajirs as
disloyalty and even treason. As alienation of Muhajires from other
nationalities increased, their plight worsened. India should not remain
unconcerned about their plight, not only from humanitarian angle but also
because they are the largest NRI settled abroad.

The experience of the Urdu-speaking Muslims in the third country of the
sub-continent viz India is hardly happier. The first and foremost casualty
was of Urdu language, which was dislodged from the status of dominant
language of culture and politics in its homeland. They were the main
targets of the riots in places outside their own region like Bhiwandi where
they had migrated. Even in case of Gujarat, the epicenter of the communal
trouble was in the U.P. The basic problems of the community in India is
similar to that in Bangladesh and Pakistan viz of its urge for identity and
of its adjustment with the requirements of other communities and of the
national identity. But there is a vital difference. In India, the community
is asserting its religious identity while in other countries of the
sub-continent; it is asserting its cultural identity. Muslims like any
other human beings need and belong to a multiplicity of identities; out of
which religion and language are the most important basis of identity
formation in the politics of the sub-continent. That identity becomes
pronounced at a time, which the people perceive to be threatened. Thus
Muslims of Kashmir asserted their Kashmiri identity in 1947 and are now
asserting their Muslim identity. Likewise Muslim Bengalis asserted their
religious identity, against their colinguists in 1947, but asserted their
regional-cultural identity in 1971.

Siege mentality

As long as the Urdu-speaking Muslims suffer from a siege mentality, they
would not be able to grow in all dimensions and unfold their cultural
potentialities. But converse is also true. If their cultural potentialities
are unfolded, it would be easier for them to get adjusted with other
communities and feel free from the siege.

While it is important to discuss the role and obligations of Muslim
identity in a secular India, it is equally important to know the needs and
urges of the components of its identity and its cultural and ethnic
dimensions. In fact a view from the sub-regional angle may be further
instructive; to rediscover and replenish grass root level integrating
forces e.g. folk tradition, legends, local faqirs and saints and even
innocent superstitions. Some institutional innovations might be needed to
strengthen such grass root forces. It is certainly not easy to remove all
accumulated prejudices, fears and suspicions between the two major
communities of India to resolve all contentious issues like the dispute in
Ayodhya. But a beginning may be made with another approach at another
level, besides what is being customarily done.

Taking note of the current deep psychological and political crisis of the
Urdu-speaking Muslims in the changed sub-continental perspective, their
indegenisational compulsions, and potential of a pluralist democratic
polity, a fresh agenda may be drafted for an inter-community dialogue at
micro-regional level. Mush certainly needs to be done by this vital segment
of the Muslim community in learning from lessons of the last over half a
century, if not more, properly analyzing its national and sub-continental
dilemma and redefining its role and identity in an idiom that is understood
and appreciated by others and in a manner that revives its creative
potentialities. Similarly, Hindus too, need to outgrow their obsessions
about a simplistic view of a monolithic and transnational character of
Islam and its extra-territorial loyalties and update their understanding of
the ethnic, cultural and regional aspirations of the core of the Indian
Muslims community.

In particular, three vital facts about the Urdu-speaking Muslims must be
noted. Firstly, there is now no other Muslim society in the world which is
intellectually and culturally superior to them and thus able to be a source
of inspiration and loyalty to them. Pakistan has, in any case, lost that
status. Secondly, their cultural roots lie deep within India and they are
as much in need of continued cultural nourishment as any other people are.
Thirdly, Urdu speaking Muslim community could possibly be the most vital
bridge between India and Pakistan. In the interest of friendly relations
between the two countries, this bridge needs to be strengthened.

Such factors should encourage an attempt, to arrest the present drift and
correct an aberration in the behaviour of the Ganga-Jamuna delta, the
original home of the Urdu speaking Muslims of the subcontinent, that had
deflected the course of the great Indian civilization about a century ago.


Source: The Milli Gazette, 1-15 December 2004, p. 9