Prologue
A Song and a Scare.
Chalachithra ganangal (the film songs programme in Malayalam) by Akashavani (Indian national radio) after 1:00 PM was quite a part of the life of every Keralite (a native of the southern state of Kerala in India) born before late 80′s. A few days back, all of a sudden, perhaps from an upsurge of nostalgia, I tried to simulate it by putting a long playlist of Malayalam songs in my laptop with the random pick option. I was expecting a nap with the songs playing in the background like a sweet lullaby, yet the very first song sank me into a deep and disturbing thought………
Jaanakee jaanee raamaa ……. (lyrics)
I was completely taken over by the voice of Yesudas to the edge of slipping into a relaxing nap when I tried to recollect the details of the song.
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Movie : Dhwani Singer : K. J. Yesudas Lyrics : Yousuf Ali Kechery Music : Naushad Ali |
Yousuf Ali Kechery and Naushad (known after Mugal-e-Azam‘s music)! For the very first time in my life I was conscious that a beautiful Hindu devotional song in Sanskrit (about Ram from Ayodhya- did that ring any bells) was written and composed by two great artists who happened to be Muslims. The very next second, this very thought gave me a scare. Never in my life were I conscious about the fact that Yousuf Ali Kechery or the legend Naushad Ali were Muslims. That thought simply did not occur any time.
I was not concerned if I too were getting communalised. Having moved out from the shell of religious identity and even theism, there was no grain of doubt regarding that. But what arouse my concern was that this sycophantic communal hysteria and the rampant identity profiling happening around is having a subconscious effect. Yes, to that extend, the very fact that I find it relevant to think and appreciate that two Muslims composed one of the best ever Hindu devotional songs in Sanskrit that appeared in a Malayalam movie and was sung by a Christian, made me ashamed of self on the second thoughts.
What is happening to us? Why is the world shrinking to narrow identities which were just a matter of accident? What has led me to think – even for a split second- that it was wonderful symbol of harmony, while the greater and normal course should have been to appreciate the musical talents of those legendary individuals?
A Conflict of Identities
A year before or so, Shabana Azmi, the renowned Hindi film actress, had remarked in an interview that she was becoming more and more conscious of her Muslim identity in recent times. I had visited the comment section of the article (published online) and wasn’t surprised by the gush of hooligan comments accusing her for being ungrateful towards the generosity (!!) showered by the majority population (Hindus). It was a revealing example of supposedly well educated urban upper middle class of India sparing no opportunity to vent out their self-imagined frustrations.
More recently I confronted the other side of the same issue when a colleague of mine, who happened to be a Muslim, was surprised when he saw that I was mailing to a close friend who had a distinguishable Muslim name. ‘Hey, so you have a Muslim friend too’ came as a shock to which I didn’t bother to answer and just smiled back. Both the confession of Mrs. Azmi and my colleague’s exclamation are current reality in stark terms.
Coming to think about it, our complex, intertwined identities, which have helped people to be more than the sum of the parts, and are getting more and more reduced and compartmentalised into a monoliths where choices are fast becoming binary. My colleague had multiple choices to look at the identity of my friend whom he didn’t even know; he could have been my classmate, belonging to my home town, a Keralite, an erstwhile colleague etc. While him being a Muslim by birth was the most interesting part that my colleague found. Also, this was not a singular incident and some Hindus (more often non-Keralites) too have wondered how it is possible to share and appreciate the cultural values of a Muslim (as if religion is the sole reason for all cultural diversities).
After the human tragedy of partition, the resolute intention of the Indian leaders (despite their own ideological differences and personal failures) was to lay the foundation of an all encompassing nationality where every other identity could still remain and flourish, but without being at war with each other. Have we failed them or were their intentions based on fundamentally flawed assumptions?
Presently in the wake of the so called war against terror, a much more terrifying paradigm shift is happening around us. On one side, being a Muslim is equated to a potential extremist or terrorist (at least in the subconscious level) by the right wing while on the other side being a religious Hindu, which is just one of the subsets of personal identity, is portrayed as the symbol of ‘Indianness’. Slowly, the definition of nationality is getting re-written along narrow communal lines without the knowledge of individual citizens. The blame does not squarely fall on one particular community- be it Hindu or Muslim- but on the very national discourse after independence and partition when we identified the communalist tendencies rightly but didn’t come up with a fool proof agenda to eradicate them. We forgot that chanting mantras of communal harmony (which although important) alone will not effect to wipe out or marginalise communalism. The issue has much more to do with our own perceived identities. And to understand this conflict of identities we need to have a fresh look at the pages of history- the history of communalism in India.
This series on the history and dynamics of communalism in India is in a way an attempt to contribute towards the question of ‘various identities vis-a-vis nationhood’. Rather than making sweeping generalisations on the question ‘who is to be blamed’, I would like to take the stand of a spectator. I would like to take this opportunity to review various perspectives about birth and growth of communal politics in undivided India- from right wing Hindu, through Colonial, Marxist, Centrist, Secularist views to right wing Muslim views from Pakistan.
To be continued
