Educate, Don t Appease: The interest of ordinary Muslims in new India lies in embrac ing modernity By Minhaz Merchant

As we turn our minds to the demolition of the Babri masjid 18 years ago, politic al and religious leaders on both sides of the Ayodhya divide should try to under stand the new India, especially the new Muslim India.A BBC survey revealed that 97 per cent of Indians believe in God a higher percentage than almost anywhere e lse in the world. But while their faith is precious to them, the young Indian Mu slim, Hindu, Sikh, Jain is focussed on a better life, not a better mosque or tem ple. And they have a common heritage. As a group of visiting senior Muslim clergy from Ayodhya, with wisdom born of gr eat learning, said recently to Swami Shri Swaroopananda Saraswati, the highly re spected Shankaracharya of Dwarka: Even though our religions are different, we sh are the blood of the Hindus. The Shankaracharya replied gently: That makes our L ord Ram your ancestor as well. This is not just about genealogy, it reflects Indias embedded religious diversit y.Six of Indias highest constitutional functionaries are Sikh (prime minister),C hristian (UPA chairperson ),Muslim (chief election commissioner),Parsi (chief ju stice of India),Dalit (speaker of the Lok Sabha) and Hindu (president).There is no other country in the world with such breathtaking plurality at the highest le vel of leadership. Consider Britain: only Protestant (not Catholic) Christians can be monarch. The law of blasphemy protects only Christian citizens in the United Kingdom. In Saud i Arabia and Pakistan, minorities (including, in Pakistan, even Muslim Ahmadis) have restricted rights. Unlike burqabanning western democracies such as France a nd Belgium, Indian secularism does not separate church and state. It allows them to swim together in a common if sometimes chaotic pool. Fundamentalists dislike the concept of liberal Islam flourishing in the syncreti c soil of India. Indian Muslims, however, remain rooted in a Vedic civilisationa l ethic that has celebrated our religious plurality for over 3,000 years. Despit e al-Qaidas and the ISIs concerted recruitment efforts, Indian Muslims except re negades from the Students Islamic Movement of India and the Indian Mujahideen ha ve consistently spurned the call to jihad. Indias innate respect for all religions, which does great credit to its silent H indu majority, has historically made the country the refuge-of-last-resort for a ll faiths: Jews, Parsis, Christians, Buddhists. This secular instinct cannot be elided by politicians. Moderate Muslim clerics like Maulana Mahmood Madani of th e Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind can,however, play a positive role. As the third-generation custodian of the Jamiat, Maulana Madanis word carries weight with influential D eobandis. The Maulana and other Muslim clerics must liberate the dialogue betwee n Muslims and Hindus from the counterfeit secularism politicians embrace to seek votes. Significantly, if the Congress loses even half its current Muslim vote due to di saffection over Ayodhya, its overall vote-share could drop dramatically from 28. 55 per cent in the 2009 general election to around 22 per cent in 2014.Its Lok S abha seats would collapse from 206 to under 120.That explains the Congresss care ful approach to the Babri masjid dispute as it enters its final judicial lap.The Congress cannot afford to shed even a sliver of its faithful Muslim vote. But must this be at the expense of ordinary Muslims who vote for Indias largest political party in order to feel protected from Hindutva forces only to end up i n social and economic ghettos denied jobs, flats and respect by a resentful majo rity The cost of keeping the Congress in government is a burden the broader Musl im community should not have to bear. Indias 160 million Muslims can be a powerful repudiation of the two-nation theor y Pakistan has used to justify a theocratic state if they recognise where their true interests lie. Those interests lie, first,in modernity. That involves repla cing outdated personal laws unsuited to a progressive, secular democracy. Second, modernity is linked directly to education. Madrassas teach maths and sci ence, not just the Quran.But the number of Muslim graduates is far lower than th

e national average. Muslim literacy is 59 per cent against 66 per cent nationall y. Modernising the community means embracing a liberal, forward-looking ethic wi thout diluting religious tradition. Indian Jews, Christians and Parsis have mode rnised themselves economically and intellectually without sacrificing their trad itions or culture which originate in the same West Asian geography as Islam. Caught between fundamentalist clerics and vote-obsessed politicians, the average Indian Muslim hardworking, God-fearing and poor lives in a time warp.He contrib utes far less than he could to the national economy and to the intellectual and social resurgence that is reshaping India. His leaders pose as his benefactors b ut are often his worst enemies. By appeasing rather than educating nearly 14 per cent of its minority population , Indian politicians have choked a powerful nationalist voice against terrorism directed at India by Pakistan. As the 21century ebbs and flows, Indias global as cent cannot be slowed by a marginalised minority. But imagine how much the ascen t could gather pace were that minority turned into an economic and social asset: modern, educated and forward-thinking. The politics of minority appeasement creates a community cocooned in backwardnes s easy prey for minoritarian politicians. Ayodhya is an inflection point. Used w isely, terfeit secularism that divides. The writer is an author and chairman of a media group. Source: Times of India URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamAndPluralism_1.aspx?ArticleID=37 74 Forward to a friend Print

COMMENTS bpshah An excellent article.... I totally agree with Mr. Mohiyuddin's comments. Mr. Mer chant conveys what Gandhiji espoused and not what Mr. Jinnah conveyed. Basically the British wanted the country divided between caste & religious lines and our Netas today are following British even better than British would have envisaged & they are not following Gandhiji.

Syed Rizvi Me too I ditto what Ghulam Mohiyuddin stated. Syed Rizvi

Ghulam Mohiyuddin Excellent article! Mr Merchant says that the true interest of Indian Muslims lie s in modernity. "That involves replacing outdated personal laws unsuited to a pr ogressive secular democracy". He asks us to embrace "a liberal, forward-looking ethic without diluting religious tradition". I heartily endorse his views.

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