A video you cannot afford to miss!
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/videos.aspx?id=9210
Monday, July 30, 2007
Nothing Shahi about the Imam or his conduct
'Shahi Imam' has Ahmad Bukhari has embarrassed many of us with his conduct. Even if someone from the journalists had made a comment from behind, such verbal abuse coming out of Bukhari is unacceptable of a sane person let alone an Imam and that too at PM's office in front of the national media.
Just when it seemed that Bukhari was turning into a responsible person and the image of the Shahi Imam as created by his father who did tremendous damage to Muslims through his 'fatwas' at the time of elections, Bukhari has shown his true character.
I have seen journalists ask much tougher and harsh questions and people replying without getting angry. Journalist speaks for the people and thus makes the public figure, politicans uncomfortable. But Bukhari and his supporters neither kept silent or just ignore the question, they instead prompted me to hang my head in shame.
Time to stop calling him Shahi Imam. There is no such post and nothing regal about him. Imams in all mosques are equal and respectable because they lead prayers and that's all.
And now Bukhari says that he will float a political party. What a joke! Does he have any idea of his influence. Parties may think that he has an influence. Even in the Jama Masjid area let alone Delhi, he does not have a following. I am sure except his household no body is going to vote for his candidates. If such people will keep shut, they will do lot good for Muslims in India.
Source: http://indscribe.blogspot.com/2006/04/nothing-shahi-about-imam-or-his.html
Just when it seemed that Bukhari was turning into a responsible person and the image of the Shahi Imam as created by his father who did tremendous damage to Muslims through his 'fatwas' at the time of elections, Bukhari has shown his true character.
I have seen journalists ask much tougher and harsh questions and people replying without getting angry. Journalist speaks for the people and thus makes the public figure, politicans uncomfortable. But Bukhari and his supporters neither kept silent or just ignore the question, they instead prompted me to hang my head in shame.
Time to stop calling him Shahi Imam. There is no such post and nothing regal about him. Imams in all mosques are equal and respectable because they lead prayers and that's all.
And now Bukhari says that he will float a political party. What a joke! Does he have any idea of his influence. Parties may think that he has an influence. Even in the Jama Masjid area let alone Delhi, he does not have a following. I am sure except his household no body is going to vote for his candidates. If such people will keep shut, they will do lot good for Muslims in India.
Source: http://indscribe.blogspot.com/2006/04/nothing-shahi-about-imam-or-his.html
Do Jews ever recall the historic role of Muslims in saving them?
Ahmadinejad reportedly said that Israel should be wiped off from the world and then said that Holocaust was doubtful and that Israel ought to be shifted to Europe.
Not very simple comments indeed but the figure of deaths attibuted to Holocaust has been disputed for long. Head of states are not supposed to issue such statements, more so when it concerns Israel. It is not politically correct! The West (Europe) perpetrated Holocaust and six decades later the mention of the word unsettles them to no end. What a moral guilt! They created Isreal, the rogue state in Palestinian land. And Muslims who for centuries gave refuge to Jews fleeing the excess of Christian west have been paying the price. But see the shock on the faces of many self-styled intellectuals in countries who have nothing to do with either Israel/Holocaust or Iran. The collective guilt of Europe has brought tremendous suffering for Palestinians.
At least, Ahmadinejad has the courage to call a spade a spade. After all, Jews of the present generation must know that it was Muslims who safeguarded their interests and rights for centuries while Christian world was burning them and condemning the whole community across Europe.
Examples of intolerance towards Jews in Chrisitian world:
1. IN spain, every child born of marriage between Christian and Jew was to be baptised. Later at the height of inquisition all Jews were given the option to convert or leave Spain. Thousands were burnt alive and many lived as crypto-Jews.
2. WHEN epidemics like plague spread, the Jews were always blamed and charged with the spread of diseases. Like in 14 th century when thousands of Jews were held responsible for Black Death and killed.
3. IN 1215 Jews were ordered to wear distinct dress from Christians so that they could be identified. At many places they were made to wear yellow badges or specified dress.
4. Almost 13,000 Jews were burnt in Spain alone during inquisition for not converting to Christiantiy in 15th-16th centuries.
5. Popes throught out history condemned Jews. Pope Julius III publicly condemned their holy book Talmud.
6. For two millennium (2,000 years) Jews were persecuted in one form or the other in Europe. Always harassed and thrown into ghettoes.
But forgetting all this the Jews after getting the state turned against the new enemy--Muslims, who had always welcomed the Jews who fled the European persecution. I wonder if jews ever think about it or they are really too selfish and driven by avarice to have forget the humiliation of centuries!
Source: http://indscribe.blogspot.com/2005/12/do-jews-ever-recall-historic-role-of.html
Not very simple comments indeed but the figure of deaths attibuted to Holocaust has been disputed for long. Head of states are not supposed to issue such statements, more so when it concerns Israel. It is not politically correct! The West (Europe) perpetrated Holocaust and six decades later the mention of the word unsettles them to no end. What a moral guilt! They created Isreal, the rogue state in Palestinian land. And Muslims who for centuries gave refuge to Jews fleeing the excess of Christian west have been paying the price. But see the shock on the faces of many self-styled intellectuals in countries who have nothing to do with either Israel/Holocaust or Iran. The collective guilt of Europe has brought tremendous suffering for Palestinians.
At least, Ahmadinejad has the courage to call a spade a spade. After all, Jews of the present generation must know that it was Muslims who safeguarded their interests and rights for centuries while Christian world was burning them and condemning the whole community across Europe.
Examples of intolerance towards Jews in Chrisitian world:
1. IN spain, every child born of marriage between Christian and Jew was to be baptised. Later at the height of inquisition all Jews were given the option to convert or leave Spain. Thousands were burnt alive and many lived as crypto-Jews.
2. WHEN epidemics like plague spread, the Jews were always blamed and charged with the spread of diseases. Like in 14 th century when thousands of Jews were held responsible for Black Death and killed.
3. IN 1215 Jews were ordered to wear distinct dress from Christians so that they could be identified. At many places they were made to wear yellow badges or specified dress.
4. Almost 13,000 Jews were burnt in Spain alone during inquisition for not converting to Christiantiy in 15th-16th centuries.
5. Popes throught out history condemned Jews. Pope Julius III publicly condemned their holy book Talmud.
6. For two millennium (2,000 years) Jews were persecuted in one form or the other in Europe. Always harassed and thrown into ghettoes.
But forgetting all this the Jews after getting the state turned against the new enemy--Muslims, who had always welcomed the Jews who fled the European persecution. I wonder if jews ever think about it or they are really too selfish and driven by avarice to have forget the humiliation of centuries!
Source: http://indscribe.blogspot.com/2005/12/do-jews-ever-recall-historic-role-of.html
Importance of knighthood & Muslim world's response
The photograph on the left shows Muslims in Lucknow, registering their protest against knighthood to Salman Rushdie.Is it an attempt to provoke Muslims? And is knighthood important enough for people to get angry. It is an outdated concept. Britain, a former imperial power, is also neither an important nation, nor the honours given by the 'Queen'.
Neither it is the Nobel prize nor any honour given by an international platform or organisation like United Nations.
Meanwhile, why can't Muslim nations start some really good awards and titles for writers, activists, academicians, scientists and pioneers in other fields, and honour deserving persons both from West and the East, which would be a much better way to tackle such situations. More than 50 Muslim nations, many of them quite rich, but none seems to have an idea about what good PR is. I really don't understand this outrage over the outdated 'Sir', this colonial hangover. yeh angrez maai-baap hain kyaa hamaare!
Still, if you are angry or offended. It is better to sign protest letters, rather than the images of people protesting on streets, unnecessarily giving it undue importance. Mercifully we haven't seen such protests in India on this occasion except in parts of Kashmir. That's why I like this photograph. Meanwhile, on the entire issue, Mohib has written a beautiful piece at IndianMuslims.in here.
Source: http://indscribe.blogspot.com/2007/06/importane-of-knighthood.html
Where is poet Vali's tomb, asks High Court
It was five years ago when the tomb of poet Vali Gujarati (also known as Vali Dakni) was demolished and a road was constructed overnight, leaving no trace of the mazaar. The mob that destroyed the heritage of their own state, went ahead with building a temple 'Huladia Godharia Hanuman Mandir' on the spot.
Now, the High Court has issued a show-cause notice to the Chief Secretary and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), regarding the status of the shrine and its restoration. The petition has been filed by All Gujarat Minorities Association. The AMC's hand was suspected in the construction of the smooth road and AMC bulldozers were used. The make-shift temple was later removed though.
Ironically, the dargaah was just next to the Police Commissioner's office. But when there was no police to save the living, who would have thought about saving the abode of a dead. Alas, he was the man who had sang paens of Ahmedabad, Surat and Gujrat.
Source: http://indscribe.blogspot.com/2007/07/where-is-poet-valis-tomb-asks-high.html
Now, the High Court has issued a show-cause notice to the Chief Secretary and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), regarding the status of the shrine and its restoration. The petition has been filed by All Gujarat Minorities Association. The AMC's hand was suspected in the construction of the smooth road and AMC bulldozers were used. The make-shift temple was later removed though.
Ironically, the dargaah was just next to the Police Commissioner's office. But when there was no police to save the living, who would have thought about saving the abode of a dead. Alas, he was the man who had sang paens of Ahmedabad, Surat and Gujrat.
Source: http://indscribe.blogspot.com/2007/07/where-is-poet-valis-tomb-asks-high.html
Kashmiri Hindus Overwhelmed With Love Across The Border
Five elderly men who went to Pak-occupied Kashmir to see their ancestral place were overwhelmed with the love they received on the other side of the border.
Yuvraj Gupa, Yashpal Gupta, Rajkumar Kohli, Shivdas Sahni and Kulbhushan Kumar were permitted by Pakistan government to visit their hometown. Wherever they went, the hospitality astonished them.
The leader of the group Yuvraj Gupta said, ‘We have learnt that the bond of language and culture is too strong. We had few words but tears did most of the talking for us”.
The group went to Mirpur, Kotli and Bhambher. Everywhere the residents were eager to invite them at their house. At Mirpur, people got so emotional that they offered land to construct their houses and live. In Kotli, the group was welcomed at the local mosque.
Yuvraj Gupta was asked to give a speech but he got so emotional that he couldn’t complete his speech. He wished to touch feet of a Sufi saint. They went to their schools where children welcomed them and sent message for Indian children.
Source: http://indianmuslims.in/kashmiri-hindus-overwhelmed-with-love-across-the-border/
Yuvraj Gupa, Yashpal Gupta, Rajkumar Kohli, Shivdas Sahni and Kulbhushan Kumar were permitted by Pakistan government to visit their hometown. Wherever they went, the hospitality astonished them.
The leader of the group Yuvraj Gupta said, ‘We have learnt that the bond of language and culture is too strong. We had few words but tears did most of the talking for us”.
The group went to Mirpur, Kotli and Bhambher. Everywhere the residents were eager to invite them at their house. At Mirpur, people got so emotional that they offered land to construct their houses and live. In Kotli, the group was welcomed at the local mosque.
Yuvraj Gupta was asked to give a speech but he got so emotional that he couldn’t complete his speech. He wished to touch feet of a Sufi saint. They went to their schools where children welcomed them and sent message for Indian children.
Source: http://indianmuslims.in/kashmiri-hindus-overwhelmed-with-love-across-the-border/
13 Muslims get Padma Awards
This year the government has selected 13 Muslims in the list of 106 persons selected for the Padma Awards. Though every year a few classical musicians and artists amongst Muslims get the award, the good thing is that this year women from different spheres, scientists, doctors are included in this list.
Obaid Siddiqui of Karnataka was amongst the nine persons who got the highest of Padma Awards viz. Padma Vibhushan in the field of Science and Technology.
Ustad Abdul Halif Jafar Khan and Ghulam Mustafa Khan got the Padma Bhushan for art. Ustad Sabri Khan also got it in the field of art amongst the 36 who in all got Padma Bhushan.
Of the 61 who got Padma Shree, the journalist Fatma Rafiq Zakaria (mother of celebrit journo Farid Zakaria, editor of Newsweek), Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman (UP) in the field of medicine, Mahmooda Ali Shah, Dr Ahtesham Husain, Mahmood Dhaulpuri, Ustad Rashid Khan, beautician Shahnaz Husain, Tennis star Sania Mirza and Qatar’s Sheikh Abdul Rahman.
Source: http://indianmuslims.in/13-muslims-get-padma-awards/
Obaid Siddiqui of Karnataka was amongst the nine persons who got the highest of Padma Awards viz. Padma Vibhushan in the field of Science and Technology.
Ustad Abdul Halif Jafar Khan and Ghulam Mustafa Khan got the Padma Bhushan for art. Ustad Sabri Khan also got it in the field of art amongst the 36 who in all got Padma Bhushan.
Of the 61 who got Padma Shree, the journalist Fatma Rafiq Zakaria (mother of celebrit journo Farid Zakaria, editor of Newsweek), Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman (UP) in the field of medicine, Mahmooda Ali Shah, Dr Ahtesham Husain, Mahmood Dhaulpuri, Ustad Rashid Khan, beautician Shahnaz Husain, Tennis star Sania Mirza and Qatar’s Sheikh Abdul Rahman.
Source: http://indianmuslims.in/13-muslims-get-padma-awards/
Remembering Gujarat and Lessons for Congress
It is now five years since Gujarat plunged into moral darkness. A darkness that was so thick that even five years could not erase it. A darkness that was so deep that it has now entrenched itself to become a part of the Gujarati society. It has infected so deeply that a majority of people in Gujarat are in a complete denial of this.
It is a moral darkness because for many people there is not even an acknowledgment that something utterly inhuman happened five years back. Reading through the comments put by readers on Internet forums or in reply to the articles on Gujarat pogrom one will find that they consistently pose the question ‘Who started it?’ or they attempt to hide it under the plight of Kashmiri Hindus or other issues which are unrelated! It is a tribal mentality. Just because a bunch of hooligans torched a train compartment (an assumption which has been questioned) unjustly killing more than 50 people it is given as the justification by so many in Gujarat and the right wing for the rape and massacre of thousands of Muslims. This sort of logic is an anathema to any justice system or to any major religion. Not only that, but it is the murder of the very teachings of the religion that they who justify these acts claim to profess. What more shameful would have been than to hear the then Prime Minister of India Mr. Vajpayee, in the BJP conclave after sensing the mood of the gathering, saying ‘But who started it?’ In other words the former Prime Minister put a collective guilt on 140 million Muslims of India for the utterly inhuman act of a mob in Godhra! So much from the Prime Minister of a country of more than a billion people!
Though I personally think that Vajpayee was driven by political motives and he did not agree with many in his party but there are times when you have to take a moral ground which is rooted in your own traditions. He would have learnt something from Mahatma Gandhi, a Gujarati, who in the toughest situations picked up the moral position that he was convinced about and then stood by it. His fasts-unto-death, which were to strive for issues that were often completely against the public mood, make it evident. When the country was burning at the time of partition his strong stand brought in a sense of sanity in many parts particularly in Bengal.
That takes us to the party that talks about standing by the ideals of Gandhi. Congress has recently been shown the door in Uttaranchal and Punjab. A few weeks before that it got the drubbing in Maharashtra Municipal elections. The factor that is being ignored in the Maharashtra defeat is the Muslim vote factor. The state Congress had to pay by taking unprincipled stand on a few sensitive issues. The investigation in the Malegaon blasts has been skewed. Secondly, even though the TADA cases in the Mumbai blasts are going on in full steam right now (and that is how they should be), no one hears about the Sri Krishna report. It needs to be seen in perspective that the systematic damage to the life and property of the Muslims in Mumbai happened even before the Mumbai blasts. The scale of damage was even wider than the Mumbai blasts. But while the progress on one has happened there is almost no progress on the other. Perhaps Congress is too afraid to open the cupboard full of skeletons from its own rule.
The same confusing message came when recent violence happened in Gorakhpur. While the violence was still going on the state unit of the Congress was more inclined in deriving political mileage from the situation. The Central Government took a strong position and sent in paramilitary forces but the local unit did not act in any way that is worthy of mentioning.
What Congress needs to understand is that for the Indian Muslims security of life and property is the most important priority. Now that priority is for all, but in other cases it is taken for granted that it will be there. The Indian Muslim has to consciously think about it and it has got inbuilt in the psyche. The ghettoization of the Muslim communities across the country is a symptom of this feeling. It is evident that two Chief Ministers, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Laloo Yadav, who were involved in mere tokenism, were still voted by Muslims time and again just because they gave a sense of security. Maintaining law and order is the basic function of an administration and the surprising part is that it is this that often becomes too much to be asked for. If you maintain that with an iron hand and bring to task whoever breaks it, whether he is a Hindu or a Muslim, you set the right expectations. There needs to be a consistent policy of zero tolerance for violence. That will be good politics not bad politics.
It will be naive on the part of Congress to think that the message from one state is not heard by people in other states. Gujarat is an example. Any party that supported BJP was drubbed aside by the Muslim voters. Ask Chandra Babu Naidu. Congress needs to introspect and take the moral high-ground at times without thinking about the politics involved in it. The Congress high-command needs to send this message to its state units in Maharashtra and Gujarat and to all the rest. We want a Congress that not only follows Manmohonomics but also that remains rooted in Gandhian principles sans rhetoric. People are intelligent enough to separate rhetoric from sincerity. Then only they will vote for Congress with full conviction instead of a Mulayam or a Laloo.
It is sad that in United States where the Black History Month is being commemorated and many are highlighting Martin Luther King’s ‘pilgrimage’ to Gandhi’s Gujarat as his tribute to non-violence, in the same Gujarat we have a Chief Minister who continues to rule over a majority which has lost part of its moral compass somewhere. A state where extra-constitutional force have a upper-hand in stopping, boycotting or banning voices which do not follow their lines. They can stop a Parzania or a Fanaa just because they did not like the movie or the actor. This is not democracy but fascism under the skin of democracy. And we know from China that societies without respect for true democracy can be economically successful. Gujarat confirms that even further. But we need to understand that as a nation we take pride that we are the biggest democracy on the planet. The Gujarat pogrom five years back was a blot. The healing can start only with an acknowledgment by one and all. Then only many can see the monster that is sitting dormantly and will be able to defeat it. Indian did this successfully with the 1984 anti-Sikh violence and it can do this again with the 2002 anti-Muslim violence. But it is perhaps too much to ask for from many of those who have in the past glorified the Nazis and Hitler!
Source: http://indianmuslims.in/remembering-gujarat-and-lessons-for-congress/
It is a moral darkness because for many people there is not even an acknowledgment that something utterly inhuman happened five years back. Reading through the comments put by readers on Internet forums or in reply to the articles on Gujarat pogrom one will find that they consistently pose the question ‘Who started it?’ or they attempt to hide it under the plight of Kashmiri Hindus or other issues which are unrelated! It is a tribal mentality. Just because a bunch of hooligans torched a train compartment (an assumption which has been questioned) unjustly killing more than 50 people it is given as the justification by so many in Gujarat and the right wing for the rape and massacre of thousands of Muslims. This sort of logic is an anathema to any justice system or to any major religion. Not only that, but it is the murder of the very teachings of the religion that they who justify these acts claim to profess. What more shameful would have been than to hear the then Prime Minister of India Mr. Vajpayee, in the BJP conclave after sensing the mood of the gathering, saying ‘But who started it?’ In other words the former Prime Minister put a collective guilt on 140 million Muslims of India for the utterly inhuman act of a mob in Godhra! So much from the Prime Minister of a country of more than a billion people!
Though I personally think that Vajpayee was driven by political motives and he did not agree with many in his party but there are times when you have to take a moral ground which is rooted in your own traditions. He would have learnt something from Mahatma Gandhi, a Gujarati, who in the toughest situations picked up the moral position that he was convinced about and then stood by it. His fasts-unto-death, which were to strive for issues that were often completely against the public mood, make it evident. When the country was burning at the time of partition his strong stand brought in a sense of sanity in many parts particularly in Bengal.
That takes us to the party that talks about standing by the ideals of Gandhi. Congress has recently been shown the door in Uttaranchal and Punjab. A few weeks before that it got the drubbing in Maharashtra Municipal elections. The factor that is being ignored in the Maharashtra defeat is the Muslim vote factor. The state Congress had to pay by taking unprincipled stand on a few sensitive issues. The investigation in the Malegaon blasts has been skewed. Secondly, even though the TADA cases in the Mumbai blasts are going on in full steam right now (and that is how they should be), no one hears about the Sri Krishna report. It needs to be seen in perspective that the systematic damage to the life and property of the Muslims in Mumbai happened even before the Mumbai blasts. The scale of damage was even wider than the Mumbai blasts. But while the progress on one has happened there is almost no progress on the other. Perhaps Congress is too afraid to open the cupboard full of skeletons from its own rule.
The same confusing message came when recent violence happened in Gorakhpur. While the violence was still going on the state unit of the Congress was more inclined in deriving political mileage from the situation. The Central Government took a strong position and sent in paramilitary forces but the local unit did not act in any way that is worthy of mentioning.
What Congress needs to understand is that for the Indian Muslims security of life and property is the most important priority. Now that priority is for all, but in other cases it is taken for granted that it will be there. The Indian Muslim has to consciously think about it and it has got inbuilt in the psyche. The ghettoization of the Muslim communities across the country is a symptom of this feeling. It is evident that two Chief Ministers, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Laloo Yadav, who were involved in mere tokenism, were still voted by Muslims time and again just because they gave a sense of security. Maintaining law and order is the basic function of an administration and the surprising part is that it is this that often becomes too much to be asked for. If you maintain that with an iron hand and bring to task whoever breaks it, whether he is a Hindu or a Muslim, you set the right expectations. There needs to be a consistent policy of zero tolerance for violence. That will be good politics not bad politics.
It will be naive on the part of Congress to think that the message from one state is not heard by people in other states. Gujarat is an example. Any party that supported BJP was drubbed aside by the Muslim voters. Ask Chandra Babu Naidu. Congress needs to introspect and take the moral high-ground at times without thinking about the politics involved in it. The Congress high-command needs to send this message to its state units in Maharashtra and Gujarat and to all the rest. We want a Congress that not only follows Manmohonomics but also that remains rooted in Gandhian principles sans rhetoric. People are intelligent enough to separate rhetoric from sincerity. Then only they will vote for Congress with full conviction instead of a Mulayam or a Laloo.
It is sad that in United States where the Black History Month is being commemorated and many are highlighting Martin Luther King’s ‘pilgrimage’ to Gandhi’s Gujarat as his tribute to non-violence, in the same Gujarat we have a Chief Minister who continues to rule over a majority which has lost part of its moral compass somewhere. A state where extra-constitutional force have a upper-hand in stopping, boycotting or banning voices which do not follow their lines. They can stop a Parzania or a Fanaa just because they did not like the movie or the actor. This is not democracy but fascism under the skin of democracy. And we know from China that societies without respect for true democracy can be economically successful. Gujarat confirms that even further. But we need to understand that as a nation we take pride that we are the biggest democracy on the planet. The Gujarat pogrom five years back was a blot. The healing can start only with an acknowledgment by one and all. Then only many can see the monster that is sitting dormantly and will be able to defeat it. Indian did this successfully with the 1984 anti-Sikh violence and it can do this again with the 2002 anti-Muslim violence. But it is perhaps too much to ask for from many of those who have in the past glorified the Nazis and Hitler!
Source: http://indianmuslims.in/remembering-gujarat-and-lessons-for-congress/
And What Is My Issue With Vande Mataram?
Vande Mataram issue is again hogging the limelight and political denominations of all hue are palnning to make a killing. I have nothing to say of them. Such people have been squarely criticized at this blog and elsewhere. For me the issue is that of an individual’s right to practise his religion and be a patriotic citizen at the same time. Suppose I don’t sing Vande Mataram because it clashes with my religious beliefs. Would that make me any less Indian? Would that weaken my resolve to fight and die for the country? More importantly, as a citizen of a democratic society, do I have a choice to to say no to things that are not mandatory, and by not doing them I am not causing any harm to others? We talk about freedom of religion and secularism all the time but still have a blinkered view of them. Why do I need to adhere by somebody else’s benchmark of patriotism. If we are still thinking in terms of society and not individuals and expect everyone to submerge into some greater-common-patriotism then how different are we from let’s say China or Saudi Arabia. Does an individual has the space to stand alone and be different in our society? Would we have that in 10-20 years?
As an Indian Muslim I have to prove my patriotism to others, many times and many times over. A bomb blast, no Sir, please believe us, we did not do it, we condemn it in strongest terms. Does anyone asks hard questions about the failure of our intelligence apparatus, about how many people have ran away to other countries after selling sensitive information, about how it has compromised the security of the common citizen? Vir Sangvi writes about our amazing ability to gloss over facts in lieu of our anti-terror paranoia. Oh and these guys are not singing Vande Mataram. Didn’t I tell you, they are unpatriotic. There loyalties lie elsewhere. Come on, let us make them sing Vande Mataram.
Pankaj Vohra, political editor of Hindustan Times has written a piece on the Vande Mataram issue. He seems to have presumed a lot. I would like to address some of the issues he raises in his article.
1.) Debate over the issue is settled:
No, it is not. Had it been so, Vande Mataram would have been our national anthem and not national song. Muslims have had genuine issues with the text of the song and the context in which it was originally written and consquently used in Anand Math. The committee under Nehru in 1937 which Pankaj cites in his article has this to say of the issue:
The Constituent Assembly reached a compromise decision to accord it the status of national song. Gandhi ji advised Muslims to appreciate its historic association but counselled against any imposition. “No doubt, every act… must be purely voluntary on the part of either partner,” he said at Alipore on August 23, 1947. Now, we have the President of the largest opposition party in India saying that it would be made mandatory in the BJP ruled states.
Bottomline: Vande Mataram can’t and shoudn’t be enforced, neither on an individual nor on a community.
2.) It is AIMPLB and mad mullahs again:
Now we are increasingly seeing educated Muslims that do not toe the line of either All India Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) or rent-a-fatwa-mullahs and are willing to stand up and speak out for themselves. I am totally against mullahs rendering fatwas on the issue. Forcing someone not to sing Vande Mataram is akin to forcing someone to sing the song. Individuals should be able to decide for themselves. I have had my differences with both these groups. This is not about them, this is about me.
Bottomline: I don’t really care what is their stand on the issue.
3.) Vande Mataram is secular:
It is not. Had it been so, there was no need to expunge the last three stanzas of the song. People are acting as if the first two stanzas were written by someone else for a totally different purpose than the last three stanzas. It was basically a song meant to arouse the sentiments of Bengali Hindus against the ruling Muslims by using religious imagery. Nirad C. Chaudhuri writes, “The historical romances of Bankim Chatterjee and Ramesh Chandra Dutt glorified Hindu rebellion against Muslim rule and showed the Muslims in a correspondingly poor light. Chatterjee was positively and fiercely anti-Muslim. We were eager readers of these romances and we readily absorbed their spirit.” It is true that the song acquired a nationalistic tone during the freedom struggle. It still does not absolve it of its history. For the right-wing backers of the song, this is just a start. Already there are talks of why only two stanzas, why not the entire song? And Rajeev Srinivasan is arguing “mohammedans in india should follow indian norms. after all, they expect indians in saudi arabia to follow saudi norms.” Not many years ago, BJP government in Uttar Pradesh tried to make the recital of Saraswati Vandana compulsory in schools.
Bottomlime: All this makes me wonder what ‘being Indian’ translates to them and their ‘real’ intentions.
4.) Hey its just Sankritized Bengali, in Urdu it is just fine:
Pankaj Vohra quotes an Urdu translation by none other than Arif Muhammad Khan (messiah of Muslims, beacon of hope, harbinger of glad tidings and a surrendered member to BJP). Being a former Union minister and President of A.M.U. are cited as his qualifications. I have heard about sarkaari poets, we have had our fair share of them. But this is the first time I am hearing about a sarkaari translator. I am not a Sankrit pandit (I read it till class 12th) but I am sure what Vande Mataram would translate to in Urdu. Again, people are trying to take two stanzas, out of text and out of context, and making it appear like well-what’s-the-problem-with-it?
Bottomline: The last thing India needs to progress in the 21st century is sarkaari patriotism.
Amidst all this, I have hope for the future. Many of the popular Indian bloggers on the web have supported the individual freedom position. Many Indians who were not aware of the original text and context of the song and the reason why Muslims are uncomfortable with the song are taking a more nuanced position. The only way forward for our country is the Gandhian position of mutual respect and no imposition. Not singing Vande Mataram does not lessen my committment to my country and I would always fight for the right of my fellow Indians (of whatever religion) to recite the song. Others should respect mine.
P.S. Some quotes have been taken from A.G. Noorani’s article, How secular is Vande Mataram?. If you have not read it, please do so. It is worth it.
Source: http://indianmuslims.in/and-what-is-my-issue-with-vande-mataram/
As an Indian Muslim I have to prove my patriotism to others, many times and many times over. A bomb blast, no Sir, please believe us, we did not do it, we condemn it in strongest terms. Does anyone asks hard questions about the failure of our intelligence apparatus, about how many people have ran away to other countries after selling sensitive information, about how it has compromised the security of the common citizen? Vir Sangvi writes about our amazing ability to gloss over facts in lieu of our anti-terror paranoia. Oh and these guys are not singing Vande Mataram. Didn’t I tell you, they are unpatriotic. There loyalties lie elsewhere. Come on, let us make them sing Vande Mataram.
Pankaj Vohra, political editor of Hindustan Times has written a piece on the Vande Mataram issue. He seems to have presumed a lot. I would like to address some of the issues he raises in his article.
1.) Debate over the issue is settled:
No, it is not. Had it been so, Vande Mataram would have been our national anthem and not national song. Muslims have had genuine issues with the text of the song and the context in which it was originally written and consquently used in Anand Math. The committee under Nehru in 1937 which Pankaj cites in his article has this to say of the issue:
“Taking all things into consideration, therefore, the Committee recommend that, wherever Bande Mataram is sung at national gatherings, only the first two stanzas should be sung, with perfect freedom to the organisers to sing any other song of an unobjectionable character, in addition to, or in the place of, the Bande Mataram song.”
The Constituent Assembly reached a compromise decision to accord it the status of national song. Gandhi ji advised Muslims to appreciate its historic association but counselled against any imposition. “No doubt, every act… must be purely voluntary on the part of either partner,” he said at Alipore on August 23, 1947. Now, we have the President of the largest opposition party in India saying that it would be made mandatory in the BJP ruled states.
Bottomline: Vande Mataram can’t and shoudn’t be enforced, neither on an individual nor on a community.
2.) It is AIMPLB and mad mullahs again:
Now we are increasingly seeing educated Muslims that do not toe the line of either All India Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) or rent-a-fatwa-mullahs and are willing to stand up and speak out for themselves. I am totally against mullahs rendering fatwas on the issue. Forcing someone not to sing Vande Mataram is akin to forcing someone to sing the song. Individuals should be able to decide for themselves. I have had my differences with both these groups. This is not about them, this is about me.
Bottomline: I don’t really care what is their stand on the issue.
3.) Vande Mataram is secular:
It is not. Had it been so, there was no need to expunge the last three stanzas of the song. People are acting as if the first two stanzas were written by someone else for a totally different purpose than the last three stanzas. It was basically a song meant to arouse the sentiments of Bengali Hindus against the ruling Muslims by using religious imagery. Nirad C. Chaudhuri writes, “The historical romances of Bankim Chatterjee and Ramesh Chandra Dutt glorified Hindu rebellion against Muslim rule and showed the Muslims in a correspondingly poor light. Chatterjee was positively and fiercely anti-Muslim. We were eager readers of these romances and we readily absorbed their spirit.” It is true that the song acquired a nationalistic tone during the freedom struggle. It still does not absolve it of its history. For the right-wing backers of the song, this is just a start. Already there are talks of why only two stanzas, why not the entire song? And Rajeev Srinivasan is arguing “mohammedans in india should follow indian norms. after all, they expect indians in saudi arabia to follow saudi norms.” Not many years ago, BJP government in Uttar Pradesh tried to make the recital of Saraswati Vandana compulsory in schools.
Bottomlime: All this makes me wonder what ‘being Indian’ translates to them and their ‘real’ intentions.
4.) Hey its just Sankritized Bengali, in Urdu it is just fine:
Pankaj Vohra quotes an Urdu translation by none other than Arif Muhammad Khan (messiah of Muslims, beacon of hope, harbinger of glad tidings and a surrendered member to BJP). Being a former Union minister and President of A.M.U. are cited as his qualifications. I have heard about sarkaari poets, we have had our fair share of them. But this is the first time I am hearing about a sarkaari translator. I am not a Sankrit pandit (I read it till class 12th) but I am sure what Vande Mataram would translate to in Urdu. Again, people are trying to take two stanzas, out of text and out of context, and making it appear like well-what’s-the-problem-with-it?
Bottomline: The last thing India needs to progress in the 21st century is sarkaari patriotism.
Amidst all this, I have hope for the future. Many of the popular Indian bloggers on the web have supported the individual freedom position. Many Indians who were not aware of the original text and context of the song and the reason why Muslims are uncomfortable with the song are taking a more nuanced position. The only way forward for our country is the Gandhian position of mutual respect and no imposition. Not singing Vande Mataram does not lessen my committment to my country and I would always fight for the right of my fellow Indians (of whatever religion) to recite the song. Others should respect mine.
P.S. Some quotes have been taken from A.G. Noorani’s article, How secular is Vande Mataram?. If you have not read it, please do so. It is worth it.
Source: http://indianmuslims.in/and-what-is-my-issue-with-vande-mataram/
How secular is Vande Mataram?
The Bharatiya Janata Party's attempt to make 'Vande Mataram', originally a song expressing Hindu nationalism, into an obligatory national song is unconstitutional.
A.G. NOORANI
UTTAR PRADESH Minister for Basic Education Ravindra Shukla declared on November 17 that "the order to make the singing of 'Vande Mataram' compulsory stands, and will be enforced". That the "order" would not cover schools run by the minority communities does not detract from its unconstitutional nature. It clearly violates Article 28 (1) and (3) of the Constitution. "(1) No religious instruction shall be provided in any educational institution wholly maintained out of state funds" and "(3) No person attending any educational institution recognised by the State or receiving aid out of State funds shall be required to take part in any religious instruction that may be imparted in such institution or to attend any religious worship that may be conducted in such institution or in any premises attached thereto unless such person or, if such person is a minor, his guardian has given his consent thereto." (emphasis added throughout). The language could not have been broader. It hits at the actual practice, regardless of a formal order and at attendance even if there is no participation in the worship.
What applies to Vande Mataram applies also to Saraswati Vandana, a hymn to the Goddess Saraswati. The Supreme Court's ruling that the singing of the National Anthem cannot be made obligatory applies both to Vande Mataram and Saraswati Vandana with yet greater force.
The U.P. Minister, who belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party, revealed on November 17 that "the order" did exist and "will be enforced". But a few days later, on November 21, Union Home Minister L.K.Advani said that the "factual position" needed to be ascertained though he was against the singing of that song being made "mandatory". (Shukla has since been dropped from the Ministry.) More royalist than the BJP king, the Samata Party said on November 23: "Vande Mataram has no religious connotation". This is utterly false.
Else, in 1937 the Congress Working Committee would not have said: "The Committee recognise the validity of the objection raised by Muslim friends to certain parts of the song." It declared that "only the first two stanzas should be sung". A poem which needs surgical operation cannot command universal acceptance.
The song 'Vande Mataram' occurs in Bankimchandra Chatterjee's novel Anand Math published in 1882.
In his Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, Nirad C. Chaudhuri has aptly described the atmosphere of the times in which the song was written.1 "The historical romances of Bankim Chatterjee and Ramesh Chandra Dutt glorified Hindu rebellion against Muslim rule and showed the Muslims in a correspondingly poor light. Chatterjee was positively and fiercely anti-Muslim. We were eager readers of these romances and we readily absorbed their spirit."
R.C. Majumdar, the historian, has written an objective account of it.2 "During the long and arduous struggle for freedom from 1905 to 1947 'Bande Mataram' was the rallying cry of the patriotic sons of India, and thousands of them succumbed to the lathi blow of the British police or mounted the scaffold with 'Bande Mataram' on their lips. The central plot moves round a band of sanyasis, called santanas or children, who left their hearth and home and dedicated their lives to the cause of their motherland. They worshipped their motherland as the Goddess Kali;... This aspect of the Ananda Math and the imagery of Goddess Kali leave no doubt that Bankimchandra's nationalism was Hindu rather than Indian. This is made crystal clear from his other writings which contain passionate outbursts against the subjugation of India by the Muslims. From that day set the sun of our glory - that is the refrain of his essays and novels which not unoften contain adverse, and sometimes even irreverent, remarks against the Muslims" (emphasis added). As Majumdar pithily puts it, "Bankimchandra converted patriotism into religion and religion into patriotism."
The novel was not anti-British, either. In the last chapter, we find a supernatural figure persuading the leader of the sanyasis, Satyananda, to stop fighting. The dialogue that follows is interesting:3
"He: Your task is accomplished. The Muslim power is destroyed. There is nothing else for you to do. No good can come of needless slaughter.
"S: The Muslim power has indeed been destroyed, but the dominion of the Hindu has not yet been established. The British still hold Calcutta.
"He: Hindu dominion will not be established now. If you remain at your work, men will be killed to no purpose. Therefore come.
"S: (greatly pained) My lord, if Hindu dominion is not going to be established, who will rule? Will the Muslim kings return?
"He: No. The English will rule."
Satyananda protests, but is persuaded to lay down the sword.
"He: Your vow is fulfilled. You have brought fortune to your Mother. You have set up a British government. Give up your fighting. Let the people take to their ploughs. Let the earth be rich with harvest and the people rich with wealth.
"S: (weeping hot tears) I will make my Mother rich with harvest in the blood of her foes.
"He: Who is the foe? There are no foes now. The English are friends as well as rulers. And no one can defeat them in battle. (emphasis added).
"S: If that is so, I will kill myself before the image of my Mother.
"He: In ignorance? Come and know. There is a temple of the Mother in the Himalayas. I will show you her image there.
"So saying, He took Satyananda by the hand."
Anti-Muslim references are spread all over the work. Jivananda with sword in hand, at the gate of the temple, exhorts the children of Kali: "We have often thought to break up this bird's nest of Muslim rule, to pull down the city of the renegades and throw it into the river - to turn this pig-sty to ashes and make Mother earth free from evil again. Friends, that day has come."
The use of the song 'Vande Mataram' in the novel is not adventitious, and it is not only communal-minded Muslims who resent it because of its context and content. M.R.A. Baig's analysis of the novel and the song deserve attention. "Written as a story set in the period of the dissolution of the Moghul Empire, the hero of the novel, Bhavananda, is planning an armed rising against the Muslims of Bengal. While busy recruiting, he meets Mahendra and sings the song 'Bande Mataram' or 'Hail Mother'. The latter asks him the meaning of the words and Bhavananda, making a spirited answer, concludes with: 'Our religion is gone, our caste is gone, our honour is gone. Can the Hindus preserve their Hinduism unless these drunken Nereys (a term of contempt for Muslims) are driven away?'... Mahendra, however, not convinced, expresses reluctance to join the rebellion. He is, therefore, taken to the temple of Ananda Math and shown a huge image of four-armed Vishnu, with two decapitated and bloody heads in front, "Do you know who she is?" asks the priest in charge, pointing to an image on the lap of Vishnu, "She is the Mother. We are her children Say 'Bande Mataram'" He is taken to the image of Kali and then to that of Durga. On each occasion he is asked to recite 'Bande Mataram'. In another scene in the novel some people shouted 'kill, kill the Nereys'. Others shouted 'Bande Mataram' 'Will the day come when we shall break mosques and build temples on their sites? 4
The song has five stanzas. Of these only the first two are the "approved ones". Jawaharlal Nehru was 'opposed to the last two stanzas'. The approved stanzas read:
"I bow to thee, Mother, richly watered, richly fruited,
cool with the winds of the south,
dark with the crops of the harvests,
the Mother!
Her nights rejoicing in the glory of
the moonlight, her hands clothed
beautifully with her trees in flowering
bloom, sweet of laughter, sweet of
speech, the Mother, giver of boons
giver of bliss!
The third stanza refers to 'Thy dreadful name', evidently, a reference to the Goddess Kali. The fourth is in the same vein. 'Thou art Durga, Lady and Queen, with her hands that strike and her swords of sheen'.
It is essentially a religious homage to the country conceived as a deity, 'a form of worship' as Majumdar aptly called it. The motherland is "conceived as the Goddess Kali, the source of all power and glory."
This, in the song itself. The context makes it worse. "The land of Bengal, and by extension all of India, became identified with the female aspect of Hindu deity, and the result was a concept of divine Motherland".5 How secular is such a song? The objection was not confined to mere bowing and it was voiced early in the day.
In his presidential address at the Second Session of the All-India Muslim League held in Amritsar on December 30, 1908, Syed Ali Imam said:
"I cannot say what you think, but when I find the most advanced province of India put forward the sectarian cry of 'Bande Mataram' as the national cry, and the sectarian Rakhibandhan as a national observance, my heart is filled with despair and disappointment; and the suspicion that under the cloak of nationalism Hindu nationalism is preached in India becomes a conviction. Has the experiment tried by Akbar and Aurangzeb failed again? Has 50 years of the peaceful spread of English education given the country only a revival of denominationalism? Gentlemen, do not misunderstand me. I believe that the establishment of conferences, associations and corporate bodies in different communities on denominational lines is necessary to give expression to denominational views, so that the builders of a truly national life in the country may have before them the crystallised need and aspirations of all sects...
"Regard for the feelings and sentiments, needs and requirements of all is the key-note to true Indian nationalism. It is more imperative where the susceptibilities of the two great communities, Hindus and Musalmans, are involved. Unreconciled, one will be as great a drag on the wheel of national progress as the other. I ask the architects of Indian nationalism, both in Calcutta and Poona, do they expect the Musalmans of India to accept 'Bande Mataram' and the Sivaji celebration? The Mohammedans may be weak in anything you please, but they are not weak in cherishing their traditions of their glorious past. I pray the Congress leaders to put before the country such a programme of political advancement as does not demand the sacrifice of the feelings of the Hindu or the Mohammedan, the Parsee or the Christian."
The Congress Working Committee, which met in Calcutta on October 26, 1937, under the presidentship of Nehru, adopted a long statement on the subject.6 It asked that the song should "be considered apart from the book." Recalling its use in the preceding 30 years, the resolution said:
"The song and the words thus became symbols of national resistance to British Imperialism in Bengal especially, and generally in other parts of India. The words 'Bande Mataram' became a slogan of power which inspired our people and a greeting which ever remind us of our struggle for national freedom.
"Gradually the use of the first two stanzas of the song spread to other provinces and a certain national significance began to attach to them. The rest of the song was very seldom used, and is even now known by few persons. These two stanzas described in tender language the beauty of (the) motherland and the abundance of her gifts. There was absolutely nothing in them to which objection could be from the religious or any other point of view... The other stanzas of the song are little known and hardly ever sung. They contain certain allusions and a religious ideology which may not be in keeping with the ideology of other religious groups in India.
"The Committee recognise the validity of the objection raised by Muslim friends to certain parts of the song. While the Committee have taken note of such objection insofar as it has intrinsic value, the Committee wish to point out that the modern evolution of the use of the song as part of National life is of infinitely greater importance than its setting in a historical novel before the national movement had taken shape. Taking all things into consideration, therefore, the Committee recommend that, wherever Bande Mataram is sung at national gatherings, only the first two stanzas should be sung, with perfect freedom to the organisers to sing any other song of an unobjectionable character, in addition to, or in the place of, the Bande Mataram song."
'National' songs do not need political surgery; the songs which do, do not win national acceptance. Against this was the fact of history that, however ill-advised, the song had come to be associated with the struggle for freedom. Gandhi advised Muslims to appreciate its historic association but counselled against any imposition. "No doubt, every act... must be purely voluntary on the part of either partner," he said at Alipore on August 23, 1947.
THE Government of India acquired this emotion-charged legacy. Its stand was defined in a statement by Prime Minister Nehru to the Constituent Assembly (Legislative) on August 25, 1948:7 Nehru said:
"The question of having a national anthem tune, to be played by orchestras and bands became an urgent one for us immediately after 15th August 1947. It was as important as that of having a national flag. The 'Jana Gana Mana' tune, slightly varied, had been adopted as a national anthem by the Indian National Army in South-East Asia, and had subsequently attained a degree of popularity in India also... I wrote to all the provincial Governors and asked their views about our adopting 'Jana Gana Mana' or any other song as the national anthem. I asked them to consult their Premiers before replying... Every one of these Governors, except one (the Governor of the Central Provinces), signified their approval of 'Jana Gana Mana'. Thereupon the Cabinet considered the matter and came to the decision that provisionally 'Jana Gana Mana' should be used as the tune for the national anthem, till such time as the Constituent Assembly came to a final decision. Instructions were issued accordingly to the provincial governments...
''It is unfortunate that some kind of argument has arisen as between 'Vande Mataram' and 'Jana Gana Mana'. 'Vande Mataram' is obviously and indisputably the premier national song of India, with a great historical tradition, and intimately connected with our struggle for freedom. That position it is bound to retain and no other song can displace it. It represents the position and poignancy of that struggle, but perhaps not so much the culmination of it. In regard to the national anthem tune, it was felt that the tune was more important than the words... It seemed therefore that while 'Vande Mataram' should continue to be the national song par excellence in India, the national anthem tune should be that of 'Jana Gana Mana', the wording of 'Jana Gana Mana' to be suitably altered to fit in with the existing circumstances.
"The question has to be considered by the Constituent Assembly, and it is open to that Assembly to decide as it chooses. It may decide on a completely new song or tune, if such is available."
A MORE definitive statement was made by the President of the Constituent Assembly, Rajendra Prasad, on January 24, 1950. He said: "There is one matter which has been pending for discussion, namely, the question of the national anthem. At one time it was thought that the matter might be brought up before the House, and a decision taken by the House by way of a resolution. But it has been felt that, instead of taking a formal decision by means of a resolution, it is better if I make a statement with regard to the national anthem. Accordingly, I make this statement... The composition consisting of the words and music known as 'Jana Gana Mana' is the national anthem of India, subject to such alterations in the words as the Government may authorise as occasion arises; and the song 'Vande Mataram', which has played a historic part in the struggle for Indian freedom, shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it. (Applause) I hope that will satisfy the Members."8
Mutual understanding will lead to the Gandhian formula - respect for the song but no imposition. But even more than that, if the problem were understood in depth, what would emerge is a far better appreciation of the reasons why the Muslims and the Congress drifted away from each other. Those reasons have many a lesson for us today as we build a secular India. Attempts at imposition reflect a conscious decision to break with the national secular ideal.
REFERENCES
1. Jaico; page 235.
2. British Paramountcy and Indian Renaissance, Part II: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1965; page 478.
3. Sources of Indian Tradition compiled by William Theodore de Bary and others; Columbia University Press; 1958; page 715.
4. Vide his essay "The Partition of Bengal and its Aftermath; The Indian Journal of Political Science; Volume XXX, April-June 1969, Number 2, pages 120-122.
5. D.F.Smith: India as a Secular State; Princeton University Press; 1963; page 90
6. Indian Annual Register, 1937, Volume II, p. 327.
7. Official Report on "Constituent Assembly Debates"; Third session, Part I, Volume VI, August 9-31, 1948.
8. Constituent Assembly Debates, Volume XII; January 24, 1950.
Source: http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1601/16010940.htm
A.G. NOORANI
UTTAR PRADESH Minister for Basic Education Ravindra Shukla declared on November 17 that "the order to make the singing of 'Vande Mataram' compulsory stands, and will be enforced". That the "order" would not cover schools run by the minority communities does not detract from its unconstitutional nature. It clearly violates Article 28 (1) and (3) of the Constitution. "(1) No religious instruction shall be provided in any educational institution wholly maintained out of state funds" and "(3) No person attending any educational institution recognised by the State or receiving aid out of State funds shall be required to take part in any religious instruction that may be imparted in such institution or to attend any religious worship that may be conducted in such institution or in any premises attached thereto unless such person or, if such person is a minor, his guardian has given his consent thereto." (emphasis added throughout). The language could not have been broader. It hits at the actual practice, regardless of a formal order and at attendance even if there is no participation in the worship.
What applies to Vande Mataram applies also to Saraswati Vandana, a hymn to the Goddess Saraswati. The Supreme Court's ruling that the singing of the National Anthem cannot be made obligatory applies both to Vande Mataram and Saraswati Vandana with yet greater force.
The U.P. Minister, who belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party, revealed on November 17 that "the order" did exist and "will be enforced". But a few days later, on November 21, Union Home Minister L.K.Advani said that the "factual position" needed to be ascertained though he was against the singing of that song being made "mandatory". (Shukla has since been dropped from the Ministry.) More royalist than the BJP king, the Samata Party said on November 23: "Vande Mataram has no religious connotation". This is utterly false.
Else, in 1937 the Congress Working Committee would not have said: "The Committee recognise the validity of the objection raised by Muslim friends to certain parts of the song." It declared that "only the first two stanzas should be sung". A poem which needs surgical operation cannot command universal acceptance.
The song 'Vande Mataram' occurs in Bankimchandra Chatterjee's novel Anand Math published in 1882.
In his Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, Nirad C. Chaudhuri has aptly described the atmosphere of the times in which the song was written.1 "The historical romances of Bankim Chatterjee and Ramesh Chandra Dutt glorified Hindu rebellion against Muslim rule and showed the Muslims in a correspondingly poor light. Chatterjee was positively and fiercely anti-Muslim. We were eager readers of these romances and we readily absorbed their spirit."
R.C. Majumdar, the historian, has written an objective account of it.2 "During the long and arduous struggle for freedom from 1905 to 1947 'Bande Mataram' was the rallying cry of the patriotic sons of India, and thousands of them succumbed to the lathi blow of the British police or mounted the scaffold with 'Bande Mataram' on their lips. The central plot moves round a band of sanyasis, called santanas or children, who left their hearth and home and dedicated their lives to the cause of their motherland. They worshipped their motherland as the Goddess Kali;... This aspect of the Ananda Math and the imagery of Goddess Kali leave no doubt that Bankimchandra's nationalism was Hindu rather than Indian. This is made crystal clear from his other writings which contain passionate outbursts against the subjugation of India by the Muslims. From that day set the sun of our glory - that is the refrain of his essays and novels which not unoften contain adverse, and sometimes even irreverent, remarks against the Muslims" (emphasis added). As Majumdar pithily puts it, "Bankimchandra converted patriotism into religion and religion into patriotism."
The novel was not anti-British, either. In the last chapter, we find a supernatural figure persuading the leader of the sanyasis, Satyananda, to stop fighting. The dialogue that follows is interesting:3
"He: Your task is accomplished. The Muslim power is destroyed. There is nothing else for you to do. No good can come of needless slaughter.
"S: The Muslim power has indeed been destroyed, but the dominion of the Hindu has not yet been established. The British still hold Calcutta.
"He: Hindu dominion will not be established now. If you remain at your work, men will be killed to no purpose. Therefore come.
"S: (greatly pained) My lord, if Hindu dominion is not going to be established, who will rule? Will the Muslim kings return?
"He: No. The English will rule."
Satyananda protests, but is persuaded to lay down the sword.
"He: Your vow is fulfilled. You have brought fortune to your Mother. You have set up a British government. Give up your fighting. Let the people take to their ploughs. Let the earth be rich with harvest and the people rich with wealth.
"S: (weeping hot tears) I will make my Mother rich with harvest in the blood of her foes.
"He: Who is the foe? There are no foes now. The English are friends as well as rulers. And no one can defeat them in battle. (emphasis added).
"S: If that is so, I will kill myself before the image of my Mother.
"He: In ignorance? Come and know. There is a temple of the Mother in the Himalayas. I will show you her image there.
"So saying, He took Satyananda by the hand."
Anti-Muslim references are spread all over the work. Jivananda with sword in hand, at the gate of the temple, exhorts the children of Kali: "We have often thought to break up this bird's nest of Muslim rule, to pull down the city of the renegades and throw it into the river - to turn this pig-sty to ashes and make Mother earth free from evil again. Friends, that day has come."
The use of the song 'Vande Mataram' in the novel is not adventitious, and it is not only communal-minded Muslims who resent it because of its context and content. M.R.A. Baig's analysis of the novel and the song deserve attention. "Written as a story set in the period of the dissolution of the Moghul Empire, the hero of the novel, Bhavananda, is planning an armed rising against the Muslims of Bengal. While busy recruiting, he meets Mahendra and sings the song 'Bande Mataram' or 'Hail Mother'. The latter asks him the meaning of the words and Bhavananda, making a spirited answer, concludes with: 'Our religion is gone, our caste is gone, our honour is gone. Can the Hindus preserve their Hinduism unless these drunken Nereys (a term of contempt for Muslims) are driven away?'... Mahendra, however, not convinced, expresses reluctance to join the rebellion. He is, therefore, taken to the temple of Ananda Math and shown a huge image of four-armed Vishnu, with two decapitated and bloody heads in front, "Do you know who she is?" asks the priest in charge, pointing to an image on the lap of Vishnu, "She is the Mother. We are her children Say 'Bande Mataram'" He is taken to the image of Kali and then to that of Durga. On each occasion he is asked to recite 'Bande Mataram'. In another scene in the novel some people shouted 'kill, kill the Nereys'. Others shouted 'Bande Mataram' 'Will the day come when we shall break mosques and build temples on their sites? 4
The song has five stanzas. Of these only the first two are the "approved ones". Jawaharlal Nehru was 'opposed to the last two stanzas'. The approved stanzas read:
"I bow to thee, Mother, richly watered, richly fruited,
cool with the winds of the south,
dark with the crops of the harvests,
the Mother!
Her nights rejoicing in the glory of
the moonlight, her hands clothed
beautifully with her trees in flowering
bloom, sweet of laughter, sweet of
speech, the Mother, giver of boons
giver of bliss!
The third stanza refers to 'Thy dreadful name', evidently, a reference to the Goddess Kali. The fourth is in the same vein. 'Thou art Durga, Lady and Queen, with her hands that strike and her swords of sheen'.
It is essentially a religious homage to the country conceived as a deity, 'a form of worship' as Majumdar aptly called it. The motherland is "conceived as the Goddess Kali, the source of all power and glory."
This, in the song itself. The context makes it worse. "The land of Bengal, and by extension all of India, became identified with the female aspect of Hindu deity, and the result was a concept of divine Motherland".5 How secular is such a song? The objection was not confined to mere bowing and it was voiced early in the day.
In his presidential address at the Second Session of the All-India Muslim League held in Amritsar on December 30, 1908, Syed Ali Imam said:
"I cannot say what you think, but when I find the most advanced province of India put forward the sectarian cry of 'Bande Mataram' as the national cry, and the sectarian Rakhibandhan as a national observance, my heart is filled with despair and disappointment; and the suspicion that under the cloak of nationalism Hindu nationalism is preached in India becomes a conviction. Has the experiment tried by Akbar and Aurangzeb failed again? Has 50 years of the peaceful spread of English education given the country only a revival of denominationalism? Gentlemen, do not misunderstand me. I believe that the establishment of conferences, associations and corporate bodies in different communities on denominational lines is necessary to give expression to denominational views, so that the builders of a truly national life in the country may have before them the crystallised need and aspirations of all sects...
"Regard for the feelings and sentiments, needs and requirements of all is the key-note to true Indian nationalism. It is more imperative where the susceptibilities of the two great communities, Hindus and Musalmans, are involved. Unreconciled, one will be as great a drag on the wheel of national progress as the other. I ask the architects of Indian nationalism, both in Calcutta and Poona, do they expect the Musalmans of India to accept 'Bande Mataram' and the Sivaji celebration? The Mohammedans may be weak in anything you please, but they are not weak in cherishing their traditions of their glorious past. I pray the Congress leaders to put before the country such a programme of political advancement as does not demand the sacrifice of the feelings of the Hindu or the Mohammedan, the Parsee or the Christian."
The Congress Working Committee, which met in Calcutta on October 26, 1937, under the presidentship of Nehru, adopted a long statement on the subject.6 It asked that the song should "be considered apart from the book." Recalling its use in the preceding 30 years, the resolution said:
"The song and the words thus became symbols of national resistance to British Imperialism in Bengal especially, and generally in other parts of India. The words 'Bande Mataram' became a slogan of power which inspired our people and a greeting which ever remind us of our struggle for national freedom.
"Gradually the use of the first two stanzas of the song spread to other provinces and a certain national significance began to attach to them. The rest of the song was very seldom used, and is even now known by few persons. These two stanzas described in tender language the beauty of (the) motherland and the abundance of her gifts. There was absolutely nothing in them to which objection could be from the religious or any other point of view... The other stanzas of the song are little known and hardly ever sung. They contain certain allusions and a religious ideology which may not be in keeping with the ideology of other religious groups in India.
"The Committee recognise the validity of the objection raised by Muslim friends to certain parts of the song. While the Committee have taken note of such objection insofar as it has intrinsic value, the Committee wish to point out that the modern evolution of the use of the song as part of National life is of infinitely greater importance than its setting in a historical novel before the national movement had taken shape. Taking all things into consideration, therefore, the Committee recommend that, wherever Bande Mataram is sung at national gatherings, only the first two stanzas should be sung, with perfect freedom to the organisers to sing any other song of an unobjectionable character, in addition to, or in the place of, the Bande Mataram song."
'National' songs do not need political surgery; the songs which do, do not win national acceptance. Against this was the fact of history that, however ill-advised, the song had come to be associated with the struggle for freedom. Gandhi advised Muslims to appreciate its historic association but counselled against any imposition. "No doubt, every act... must be purely voluntary on the part of either partner," he said at Alipore on August 23, 1947.
THE Government of India acquired this emotion-charged legacy. Its stand was defined in a statement by Prime Minister Nehru to the Constituent Assembly (Legislative) on August 25, 1948:7 Nehru said:
"The question of having a national anthem tune, to be played by orchestras and bands became an urgent one for us immediately after 15th August 1947. It was as important as that of having a national flag. The 'Jana Gana Mana' tune, slightly varied, had been adopted as a national anthem by the Indian National Army in South-East Asia, and had subsequently attained a degree of popularity in India also... I wrote to all the provincial Governors and asked their views about our adopting 'Jana Gana Mana' or any other song as the national anthem. I asked them to consult their Premiers before replying... Every one of these Governors, except one (the Governor of the Central Provinces), signified their approval of 'Jana Gana Mana'. Thereupon the Cabinet considered the matter and came to the decision that provisionally 'Jana Gana Mana' should be used as the tune for the national anthem, till such time as the Constituent Assembly came to a final decision. Instructions were issued accordingly to the provincial governments...
''It is unfortunate that some kind of argument has arisen as between 'Vande Mataram' and 'Jana Gana Mana'. 'Vande Mataram' is obviously and indisputably the premier national song of India, with a great historical tradition, and intimately connected with our struggle for freedom. That position it is bound to retain and no other song can displace it. It represents the position and poignancy of that struggle, but perhaps not so much the culmination of it. In regard to the national anthem tune, it was felt that the tune was more important than the words... It seemed therefore that while 'Vande Mataram' should continue to be the national song par excellence in India, the national anthem tune should be that of 'Jana Gana Mana', the wording of 'Jana Gana Mana' to be suitably altered to fit in with the existing circumstances.
"The question has to be considered by the Constituent Assembly, and it is open to that Assembly to decide as it chooses. It may decide on a completely new song or tune, if such is available."
A MORE definitive statement was made by the President of the Constituent Assembly, Rajendra Prasad, on January 24, 1950. He said: "There is one matter which has been pending for discussion, namely, the question of the national anthem. At one time it was thought that the matter might be brought up before the House, and a decision taken by the House by way of a resolution. But it has been felt that, instead of taking a formal decision by means of a resolution, it is better if I make a statement with regard to the national anthem. Accordingly, I make this statement... The composition consisting of the words and music known as 'Jana Gana Mana' is the national anthem of India, subject to such alterations in the words as the Government may authorise as occasion arises; and the song 'Vande Mataram', which has played a historic part in the struggle for Indian freedom, shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it. (Applause) I hope that will satisfy the Members."8
Mutual understanding will lead to the Gandhian formula - respect for the song but no imposition. But even more than that, if the problem were understood in depth, what would emerge is a far better appreciation of the reasons why the Muslims and the Congress drifted away from each other. Those reasons have many a lesson for us today as we build a secular India. Attempts at imposition reflect a conscious decision to break with the national secular ideal.
REFERENCES
1. Jaico; page 235.
2. British Paramountcy and Indian Renaissance, Part II: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1965; page 478.
3. Sources of Indian Tradition compiled by William Theodore de Bary and others; Columbia University Press; 1958; page 715.
4. Vide his essay "The Partition of Bengal and its Aftermath; The Indian Journal of Political Science; Volume XXX, April-June 1969, Number 2, pages 120-122.
5. D.F.Smith: India as a Secular State; Princeton University Press; 1963; page 90
6. Indian Annual Register, 1937, Volume II, p. 327.
7. Official Report on "Constituent Assembly Debates"; Third session, Part I, Volume VI, August 9-31, 1948.
8. Constituent Assembly Debates, Volume XII; January 24, 1950.
Source: http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1601/16010940.htm
In support of Dr. Haneef
Dr. Mohammad Haneef is innocent. Not enough evidence is out there to suggest he was in anyway involved with people who were arrested in UK for failed terrorist plan. But in the new jungle law of post-9/11 world, you are guilty until proven innocent. Case of Dr. Haneef is most extreme. Even Australian Court did not think that there is any evidence to link him to any terrorist or their activities and therefore granted him bail.
But of course, we are forgetting that Dr. Haneef is a Muslim and even when court agreed that he is innocent he was not released. Australian Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews revoked his visa. Sure, Australia has any right to revoke their visa but then deport him to India, his country of origin.
But alas that did not happen and India bound doctor is behind bars. They can do this because they have no respect for Indians and contempt for Muslims. A Double whammy for the poor doctor, who was in Australia to serve Australians and earn a respectable living.
Unfortunately, Indian Muslims have remained silent on this issue, no vigil, no protest, no rally. Indian Muslim leaders and Indian Muslim organizations who are quick to condemn terrorism should also be quick in championing issues that concern us and protesting things that bother us.
If we are serious in making sure that terrorism does not find home amongst Indian Muslims then our intellectuals, leaders, and organizations need to be more outspoken. They should be able to speak their mind without fear. A major reason for support of Al-Qaida in the Arab world is due to the fact that only Al-Qaida was speaking what Arabs wanted to hear from their leaders.
Let this not happen in India. Let not terrorist and extremist take control of the debate and issues. Moderates can not be timid, they have to lead or lose the leadership position and all respect. This is what has happened in Arab countries. India provides democracy, stability and freedom that moderates can take advantage of nip all extremist tendencies in the bud by discussing and addressing all grievances.
I am happy that India has rightfully protested the illegal detention of one of its own by summoning Australian diplomat and complaining. GOI should be forceful and loud in their protest. Let the world know that an Indian life is not cheaper than any Australian, American or British. A nation of one billion and the largest democracy in the world deserve some respect.
Source: http://indianmuslims.in/in-support-of-dr-haneef/
But of course, we are forgetting that Dr. Haneef is a Muslim and even when court agreed that he is innocent he was not released. Australian Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews revoked his visa. Sure, Australia has any right to revoke their visa but then deport him to India, his country of origin.
But alas that did not happen and India bound doctor is behind bars. They can do this because they have no respect for Indians and contempt for Muslims. A Double whammy for the poor doctor, who was in Australia to serve Australians and earn a respectable living.
Unfortunately, Indian Muslims have remained silent on this issue, no vigil, no protest, no rally. Indian Muslim leaders and Indian Muslim organizations who are quick to condemn terrorism should also be quick in championing issues that concern us and protesting things that bother us.
If we are serious in making sure that terrorism does not find home amongst Indian Muslims then our intellectuals, leaders, and organizations need to be more outspoken. They should be able to speak their mind without fear. A major reason for support of Al-Qaida in the Arab world is due to the fact that only Al-Qaida was speaking what Arabs wanted to hear from their leaders.
Let this not happen in India. Let not terrorist and extremist take control of the debate and issues. Moderates can not be timid, they have to lead or lose the leadership position and all respect. This is what has happened in Arab countries. India provides democracy, stability and freedom that moderates can take advantage of nip all extremist tendencies in the bud by discussing and addressing all grievances.
I am happy that India has rightfully protested the illegal detention of one of its own by summoning Australian diplomat and complaining. GOI should be forceful and loud in their protest. Let the world know that an Indian life is not cheaper than any Australian, American or British. A nation of one billion and the largest democracy in the world deserve some respect.
Source: http://indianmuslims.in/in-support-of-dr-haneef/
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