Education and Radicalization: an existential threat for The Indian State
In March 2020 during the first lockdown due to Corona Pandemic the Nizamuddin Markaz fiasco happened in the total defiance of rules and regulations of lockdown. Young boys of tender age, poor Muslims from all parts of India were caught or hiding all around the country post the revelation of this communion in the Markaz. News of quarantined inmates from the Markaz reported to be spitting, urinating in the quarantine centres, misbehaving and making obscene gesture to nursing staff, were witnessed by the common Indians with disgust and disbelief. Tablighi was the buzzword and people were talking about them with utter curiosity.
In the year 2018 on the occasion of Republic Day a Tiranga Yatra organised by local ABVP youth was attacked by the Muslim residents in the Balram Gate area of Kasganj in UP. It resulted in the death of Chandan Gupta and loss of public property subsequently. The reason for this attack was allegedly chanting of Vande Matram by the marching youth and objections raised by the local Muslims on it. Similarly in the November month of 2017 objections were raised on an order by the then BJP led Jharkhand Government for making the singing of National Anthem mandatory in the madrasas. The usual excuse was that it is in violation of basic principle of madrasas.
Opposition to singing of National Anthem was also raised by clerics in UP in August 2017 against an order of the UP Government for the same reason. They further stated that singing of National Anthem is against the Islamic tenets. Another incident in the same state in the May of year 2015 witnessed stone pelting, burning of vehicles and injuries to at least sixteen policemen in Shamli district following an alleged assault and robbery of five Tablighi Jamaat members in a train.
In all these incidents one thread runs common: an act of violence or defiance of law is committed in the name of outraged feelings or non compliance of a particular order with the Islamic principles. The disgusting acts of Tablighis following the Nizamuddin incident in Delhi, stone throwing Tablighis in Shamli in UP and the defiance of Governments orders for singing National Anthem in Madrasa in UP and Jharkhand all these incidents are the manifestations of a particular mindset. And this mindset is the continuation of the ‘Do Quami Nazriya’ of the pre-partition Muslim Politics in India.
The idea that Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations in India has been the guiding principle of the Muslim political imagination following the partition of India in 1947. And this imagination hasn’t died despite one third of India’s geographical area cut off from its cultural and civilisation roots and converted into a Muslim land. But the biggest irony is the proclamation by the fountain head of the Pakistan movement, the Aligarh Muslim University that they believe in secularism and Muslims stayed back in India out of their own choice. Contrary to the fact that it was done largely due to two key factors: the impracticality of total migration to Pakistan and advantage of playing the nationalist and victim card at the same time by remaining in India by the Muslim elites at that time. And the covert operation of weakening India from inside and converting it into Dar-ul-Islam is continuing.
This hidden agenda comes out from time to time in the political rant of people like Akbaruddin Owaisi and Waris Pathan from AIMIM. Although these assertions can be rejected as being political in nature, and most of the times that’s exactly what is done by the Liberal-Secular media, the systematic brainwash of Muslims through the educational institution is a reality. The Jinnah Portrait controversy in AMU and shouting of slogans like ‘Jinnah wali azadi’ during Shaheen Bagh Protest shows that the pro-Pakistan and anti-India feelings are systematically inculcated in the minority educational institutions run by Muslims in India. The so called ‘spontaneous protests’, erupted in Jamia Milia Islamia University, after the enactment of CAA were the culmination of the frustration following the abrogation of Article 370, criminalisation of instant Triple Talaq and Ram Mandir judgement.
And it was manifested in the imageries used during these well organised protests all around the country. The Free Kashmir posters, Ma Kaali shown in hijab, women with bindis shown in burqa and standing over broken Swastika and many other communal and incendiary symbols and slogans were used freely in the name of freedom of expression. Very interestingly the leadership role in these protests was assumed by AMU and Jamia Milia University. The slogans of ‘Hindutva ki kabr khudegi, AMU ki dharti par’ and ‘Khilafat 2.0’, the outrageous speech of Sharjeel Imam asking for cutting off North-East from India and Arfa Khanum Sherwani talking of ‘Ideal society’ and ‘inclusive protest’ were all done in the campus of AMU. Similarly Jamia Milia Islamia was the nerve centre of anti-CAA protest before the protests were shifted to Shaheen Bagh. If the university students of AMU and Jamia Milia are behaving the way they are little is left for imagination. And post anti-CAA protests the reality has come to the surface and open death threats are issued by using simile such as brass-hijab in the AMU campus.
One can imagine if such is the state of Central Universities which are supposed to be ‘secular’ institutions, what would be the state of madrasas all around the country where the stated objective is religious education. No wonder that the Maulavis are defying the orders of state governments and declare National anthem against the tenets of Islam. Post Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan the amount of hate expressed against it by the prominent Muslim individuals and groups speaks volume about the hatred that is nurtured in the young minds of Muslim community. All India Muslims Personal Law Board, Maulana Sajid Rashidi of All India Imam Association, Munnawar Rana and countless others have shown their true colours.
All these developments in conjunction with Delhi Riots 2020 are a wakeup call for the Indian State for the future challenges it will face. More than that it must be clearer to the all the non-Muslim communities that the unfinished agenda of partition in 1947 is not limited to Kashmir only. The ‘Do Quami Nazariya’ is quite very much alive and thriving and new strategies have been adapted to enforce it upon the people of India. Like in past it is a lethal combination of showdown of muscle power on the streets and intellectual support from universities and educational institutions. The advanced modes of communication and deep penetration of social media has made the reach of this toxic ideology much larger and wider. While the institutional reforms are must for stemming the growth of this phenomenon the wider society also need to shun the ostrich approach and face the situation as such. Calling a spade a spade is the starting point for challenging and defeating this monstrous tendency which is a clear and present danger to the cultural and civilizational identity of Bharat.
https://www.india.com/news/india/up-singing-national-anthem-unislamic-say-muslim-clerics-2397552/
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