Jamiat-RSS meeting, a
positive step
Asad Mirza
The recent meeting on 30 August between RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and
Jamiat Ulema-I Hind president Maulana Arshad Madani, has created quite a stir
and took the social media by storm, with people voicing both appreciation and
criticism for the maulana.
The meeting, which took place at the Keshav Kunj office of the RSS
in New Delhi, preceded hectic parleys between the two outfits during the last
one-and-a-half years. The leading role for arranging the meeting was played by
Sunil Pandey, the chief of the RSS Training Centre. He and colleagues had even
visited Darul Uloom at Deoband about a year back and had met Maulana Arshad at
Masjid-e Rashidia in Deoband.
What transpired at the meeting was not immediately known, as the
details started emerging after some days only and that too from Jamiat’s side,
the RSS on its part kept completely quite about the confabulations, further the
Jamiat leaders were at pains to point out that Mohan Bhagwat wanted to come to
Jamiat’s headquarters but the leaders thought it fit to go to the RSS office
themselves. After coming out from the meeting, Maulana Arshad said, “It was a
completely non-political discussion between two non-political organisation
leaders. BhagwatJi listened to what I had to say on the current situation in
the country and I am happy that he agreed to most of the things.”
According to Maulana Madani Jamiat-e Ulama has always publicly stood
for the unity between Hindus and Muslims. It is also regularly pushing it in
its sessions and at different levels, and urged the RSS also to do the same. He
added that he raised the issue of mob lynching and rising hatred among the
communities. "At the time of rampant hatred, we should all come together
and work for the country. We should all keep aside our personal agenda and work
for the common cause of saving this country from hatred and intolerance",
he said.
However, the RSS leaders made no comment after the meeting, but the
Muslim community seems to have been divided between two camps, one supporting
the maulana and other one condemning him and cautioning that Muslims can’t
trust the RSS.
Some Muslim leaders including Maulana Salman Nadwi if Nadwatul
Ulema, Lucknow and Naved Hamid, president of All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarrat
have unequivocally come out in support of the maulana. There view was that
there should be a dialogue between the representatives of the largest minority
community in the country and the people who are governing the country. Even
Islam does not teach one to cease talking and exchange of ideas, even with its
enemies.
It indeed is the high time to engage with people who are
ideologically governing the country. If the responsibility lies on the
shoulders of the Muslims, then they should take the initiative. Because the
need of the hour is to change the current narrative being played out in the
country, we have to change the mindset of
‘Us’ and ‘Them’ or labelling Muslims as ‘Others’.
If the Muslims take the first step in that direction to get the
current atmosphere changed in the country, then there is no harm in it.
Muslim leaders and common people have always stood with their Hindu
brethren, right from the First War of Independence in 1857 till the attainment
of independence in 1947. Jamiat and Deobandi ulemas played a stellar role
during the freedom struggle of the country. Shyakh Ul Islam Maulana Hussain Ahmad
Madani, not only participated actively in the freedom struggle and served jail
sentence, but also spelt out the ethos of Indian nationalism for future
generations. It was this ethos that provided vital support to Gandhiji’s
movement for building ‘national unity on the principles of non discrimination
and social justice for all’.
Various social and religious leaders to whom I spoke on the issue
were of the view that a dialogue should always be open with your adversaries,
however, they also felt that in the whole episode Muslims are being painted as
the one who should take the first step, instead of the party or the government
in power, which should be seen as taking the first step, instilling confidence
amongst the minorities that everyone is equal and safe in the country under
their watch.. And in this case your adversaries are with the government of the
day. So if you really want to get your views before, and voice be heard by the
government then you have to rely on the people who are close to it. And there
is no harm in it, as we have to think about the future of 14 million Muslims of
the country, and not bow down to false egos or tantrums. If we wish our version
to be placed before the government then we have to engage with it. The results
depend on the sincerity of the other party but at least Muslims will not be
blamed that they did not engaged.
Maulana said he urged the RSS Chief to make it a point to emphasis
on Hindu-Muslim unity in its meeting. "Jamiat-e Ulama has always publicly
stood for the unity between Hindus and Muslims. It is also regularly pushing it
in its sessions and at different levels. The RSS should also do the same",
he said.
It is now incumbent upon the RSS chief to brief the power wielders
of the government as to what transpired at the meeting and also to make it
aware of the genuine concerns and demands of the minorities. If the RSS fails
in this duty then it will mean that this meeting was just a charade and the RSS
and the government are in mood to listen to the minority community and the
issues that bother it like mob lynching, triple talaq and Art 370. It has been
observed that the government due to its majority in the parliament sees no
point in engaging with the Muslim community and feels that it can bulldoze
Muslim opinion and aspirations, which in the real sense are great dangers to
the parliamentary democracy in the country and also the diverse cultural ethos
of the country.
The Muslims in India have never seen the Hindus as ‘Others’, instead
they themselves have been labelled as ‘Others’, though Muslims south to north,
east to west of India have always become part and parcel of the local ethos of
the regions and assimilated themselves with the local folklore and traditions,
their only crime is that in spite of becoming assimilative they retained their
identity as a Muslims and the core principles of Islamic faith intact. I fact
the Sufi tradition is an apt example to show the Hindu-Muslim unity. Most of
the Muslims Sufi saints across India have
a large number of Hindu followers who revere the saints and in some
cases are more supportive economically of these shrines than the Muslims.
Indeed if we want to let this Ganga-Jamuni
tahzeeb of India survive, then dialogue, reconciliation and tolerance are
the only means to achieve that end. Our only hope is that this initiative
should not die an untimely death and instead the government shows its resolve
to get the communal situation in the country improved and a sense of ease
prevail amongst the minorities in the country.
---Ends---
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