America: Threat to Pakistan

It has emerged from Pakistan that its people see America, its brazen interference especially, as a bigger threat than the Taliban against whom their army has been waging a relentless war for over a month. This public opinion has developed in Pakistan despite massive US aid to the country. When analysed objectively, the opinion of the Pakistanis seems to be absolutely right.

The question before the Pakistanis is not whether Taliban’s outlook and approach to life and society are right or wrong. Taliban’s ideology is no doubt extremist which most Pakistanis would not approve of. Moreover, they would have sorted out their ideological aberrations as well as extremism by arguing with them with a more balanced view of Islam. The unfortunate development is that Taliban have become a military problem. In fact, the short-righted American policies have converted Taliban’s ideological extremism into a big military and strategic headache.

Taliban, whether in Pakistan or Afghanistan, are a by-product of wrong American-Pakistani policies. A bit of exploration into the modern history of Afghanistan and Pakistan’s North-Western Frontier Province is essential to understand this point.

Compelled by its need and desire to have access to the warm waters, Soviet Union began to increase its influence in the Middle East that included Afghanistan also. To their dismay, they discovered that the Americans were alert everywhere except in Afghanistan. Capitalising on the American absence, they first overthrew the monarchy and installed a communist government. And when their stooges failed they occupied the country to rule with guns, tanks and fighter planes.

In response to the Russian occupation of Afghanistan the Americans raised the army of the Mujahideen with Pakistani and Sandi help. Ultimately the Americans emerged victorious in this proxy battle of the cold war era. But they committed a blunder when they swiftly ‘left’ Afghanistan immediately after the disgraceful Russian withdrawal from there.

Devastated by the war, Afghanistan needed a stable government and generous help to rebuild itself. The American blunder or selfishness deprived them of any such opportunity. Infighting erupted among the victorious Mujahideen shattering people’s hope of political stability and economic development. Meanwhile there arose Taliban with Pakistan’s help. The Taliban were also helped by the Arab-Islamic Mujahideen who had refused to leave Afghanistan fearing operation from the authorities of their respective countries. Many such Arab-Islamic Mujahideen had joined the Afghanistan’s Jihad at American invitation and persuasion. They felt betrayed by the Americans and as result decided to punish it. Thus happened the 9/11.

Apparently Afghanistan is the last victim of the cold war era. They had not done any wrong to Russia and yet it attacked and ravaged their country. The ongoing war on terror has further destroyed the already ravaged country. Instead of learning a lesson from the Russian defeat, the Americans set out to occupy the unconquerable and, as a result, are facing the music today.

The problem with the Americans is that they think that they are better than all others and far more intelligent than any individual or group of people. This erroneous self-perception prompted them to force Pakistan to pursue a hot policy in its North Western Frontier Province. Thus the Pakistan army is today involved in fighting against its own people. The sad aspect of the whole affair is that they have not chosen this war, rather America has imposed it on them. Thus what Pakistan had created as an asset for itself has been converted in to a big headache by the US.

The people of Pakistan have seen these developments with their naked eyes. They have seen how the Americans have arm twisted their rulers to adopt a policy which is harmful to Pakistan. This is the reason that they see the US, not only as the main culprit, but also as the greatest threat to their country.

People of a country are the main source of its strength. The Pakistanis, therefore, need to realize that only they can solve their multiple problems including the one called America. Meanwhile New Delhi should draw satisfaction from the fact that the Pakistanis no longer think that India was a major threat to their country. India occupies third place in their threat perception. This relegation to third position deserves to be welcome and appreciated.

[November, 2009]

How to Regenerate Knowledge?

An acute problem of the academia in our time is that most outsiders, who have shallow knowledge of a thing or distant connection with a subject, presume that they are more knowledgeable than the men who matter. For these pretentious outsiders the men on the spot, the trained teachers, the experienced researchers and intellectually far more superior authors carry no weight. So, one thinks that his diplomatic assignment in Saudi Arabia has made him an expert of the country as well as the region. The journalists are not far behind; they feel that their short-term posting in West Asia entitles them to write on any aspect of the region without acquiring any training in the concerned subject. The problem becomes very grave indeed when such outsiders begin to behave as expert of Islam, its history, civilization and culture.

It is not our case that the outsiders have no right to speak on Islamic Studies. But we do demand that they must study a discipline thoroughly and deeply, for this is the only way to become the expert of a subject. Knowledge acquired by reading a book or two would not work.

A saying of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has made it obligatory on Muslims to acquire knowledge. The Prophet is also reported to have said that “wisdom is the lost property of believing Muslims” and has urged them “to get hold of it wherever they find it”. On one occasion the Prophet (PBUH) preferred the knowledgeable believer over the worshipper (Aabid) with little knowledge.

The Holy Quran has also highlighted the importance of Knowledge in various ways. It has asserted that the knowledgeable and illiterate can never be equal. In another verse the Quran says that, “God raises the status of believers and men of letter”. Similarly the first few verses revealed to the Prophet in the cave of Hira speak volumes about the importance of knowledge.

The key words in these verses are “read”, “pen” and “knowledge” which cover all the activities of the academia. There are several other blessings of God which the Holy Quran has enumerated in its various chapters. However, the fact that God chose to speak first about reading, writing and learning cannot be missed as it shows the high importance that Islam attaches with Knowledge. This message of the Quran was ably grasped by the early followers of Islam. As a result, they launched an intellectual movement which has no parallel in human history.

Take any branch of knowledge from Tafsir, Hadith and Fiqh to medicine and natural sciences, the early Muslims worked hard to excel in all of them. They toiled in libraries, undertook difficult journeys and burnt mid-night oil to achieve expertise in their chosen subjects. On the contrary, people of our time, specially the Muslims, lack focus, concentration and commitment and want to become scholars overnight. The sadest aspect is that there exists an army of superficial intellectuals who collect easily available data about universities, Nobel Laureates and other related things and complain that the Muslim Ummah is no where visible on the shining horizon of knowledge.

Well, you are within your right to mourn the demise of Knowledge from the Muslim world. I would just request such people to look within. Why do you ask “others” to excel? Are you really better than the non-performing “others”?

The best approach is to know what one can do instead of asking others to perform this or that. An individual, sincere and humble, knows both his potentials as well as limitations. He is surely better placed to make a realistic assessment of his academic/intellectual prowess and prepare pragmatic programmes accordingly. Such sincere and humble scholars would surely succeed and contribute greatly to their disciplines provided a congenial academic atmosphere is created by the establishment – the government and the university administration.

It would not be proper here to discuss the policies and programmes of the government and university administrations as these are outside the topic under focus here. However we must ask the leaders, intellectuals and activists, who are never tired of complaining about the decline of knowledge in the Muslim world, if they have done any thing to create an academic atmosphere in their areas/zones of influence. If they ask these questions and try to answer them sincerely, they would indeed render yeoman service to the country as well as the Muslim community.

Often we hear that our academics should compete with their counterparts in the West. Occasionally we also hear why our scholars excel in Western universities but not here in the East. The reason is simple. Campuses in the West are not as politicized as they are here. External interference is either non-existent or the minimum. The system, central, regional or local, supports the individual scholars, but it creates all kinds of difficulties for academics here. Above all, the academics in the West are not just provided with the state-of-the-art facilities but are also given the feeling that they are important and that they are capable of delivering what is expected from them. They are also free to work according to their interests, and things are not imposed on them. In our part of the globe, however, the academics, barring some exceptions, are normally given a raw deal. Instead of focusing on research and teaching, they are often compelled to fight for their rights and things which should be automatically available to them in order to enable them to achieve academic excellence. It is, therefore, not surprising why our academics, by and large, fail to perform as effectively as their counter-parts do in the West.

Mourning over the decline of knowledge in the Muslim world would not work; instead we need to fully focus on regeneration of knowledge in a sincere, honest and meaningful manner.

[October, 2009]

Worship and Social Service

Ghar se Masjid Hai Bahut Door Chalo Aisa Karein
Kisi Rote Hu-e Bachche ko Hansaya Jaa-e-
(Far away is the mosque from the house
(Hence can’t offer the prayer)
Let us do this, then
(We pick up) a weeping child
And make him laugh.
The only problem I have with this powerful Urdu couplet is that it seems to suggest that prayer and social service can not go hand in hand. My humble and limited understanding of the Quran, however, suggests the otherwise. That it is possible to pray and also carry out the desirable social work. It is not necessary that one offers prayer only in a mosque; it can be said at any clean place within or outside the house/immediate locality if the mosque happens to be far away. My apology for this Maulviana comment but, then, I felt it was necessary.
The Holy Quran is full of verses which urge believers to establish prayer and pay the poor due in the same breath. In one Surah (chapter) those worshipers have been severely criticized who deny small things to the needy. Quoting the whole Surah would be in order here:
Have you seen him who denies the Recompense?
That is he who repulses the orphan (harshly)
And urges not on the feeding of Al-Miskin (the needy)
So woe to those performers of Salat
Thos who do good deeds only to be seen
(Of men). And withhold Mau’n (small kindness)
(like salt, sugar, water)
The idea is that it is impossible for a true worshiper of God to be harsh towards fellow human begins, especially the weaker sections. The generosity of the Prophet (Pbuh) is famously well know. He was known for his kind nature even before he was blessed with the responsibilities of prophethood. When the Prophet (Pbuh) received the first revelation in the Cave of Hira, he rushed to his beloved wife shivering with the sense of realization of the big responsibility he was asked by Allah to bear. What Khadija, the Prophet’s wife, spoke on the occasion bears testimony to the great character of her husband. She consoled him saying that your God will never forsake you because you establish relations (and fulfill their rights) and bear the burden of the weak.
Moreover, you give people what they do not have, you welcome guests and treat them well and also you help the right or stand for truth during troubles or tragedies. It is easily discernable that Khadija did not make any reference to her husband’s habit of meditation and worship but enumerated numerous good works he used to perform for the needy and the poor.
The fact of the mater is that social service occupies a very high place in Islam. Helping the needy has been described as an essential consequence of true worship. That a true worshiper can not be blind to the sufferings of those who have been left behind in the race of life. This aspect of Islam has been highlighted in various ways in numerous Urdu couplets. One such famous couplet reads as follows:
Darde dil ke waste paida kiya Insan ko
Warna taat ke li-e kuch kam na the Karrubian
He created man (and endowed Him with) a heart to ache.
For, God’s (chosen) angels
Were quite sufficient for worshiping Him.
Another Urdu poet has captured this same spirit of Islam in the following beautiful couplet:
Meri hawas ko aish-e- do aalam bhi tha qabul
Tera karam kit u ne dia dil dukha hua
Acceptable to my lust
Was the pleasure of the two worlds.
It is your blessing
That you gave me an aching heart
God has, no doubt, created man to worship Him. Worship in Islam means complete surrender to the will of Allah both in spiritual and mundane matters. There are two key Quranic terms which present before us the essence of Islam. The two terms are Salat and Zakat. Salat symbolizes man’s attempt to fulfill the rights of Allah and through Zakat he tries to fulfill the rights of fellow human beings. This is Islam, nothing less and nothing more.
It is sad to note that today’s Muslims have not been able to maintain the desirable balance between the rights of man and those of God Almighty. There are Muslims who neither pray properly nor do they pay the poor due. There are also Muslims who stand the whole might in prayer but do not pay attention to the poor the way they ought to. Then there are Muslims who are good in the arena of social service but fail to fulfill the rights of Allah. These imbalances are not desirable in Islam.
There are countless illiterate and poor people in India. They need and deserve the attention of those who worship Allah sincerely. Sadly a good number of prayer-sayers have ignored this aspect of Islam. We have no intention of committing Kufr by undermining prayer and worship. Our intention rather is to impress upon the Muslims that both worship and social service are important in Islam. Due to a variety of reasons Muslims have not been doing well in the sector of social work. They need to treat social service as worship thinking it is as much required by Allah as He wants men to worship Him. God would surely love Muslims championing the cause of the poor. God’s beauty is that He never rejects the erring men and welcomes them whenever they return to Him. Perhaps this is what Parveen Shakir has tried to capture in her famous couplet:
Who Kahin bhi gaya lauta to mere pas aaya
Bas yehi baat hai achchi mere harjai ki
Wherever (he liked) he went
But when he returned, he came to me
This is the only good thing
About my unfaithful (beloved).

[September, 2009]

Congress Owes it to Muslims

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s assertion during his independence day speech that taking welfare measures for the minorities is not appeasement is a welcome development. Undoubtedly a lot many people would raise their eye-brows that it was Congress’s shameless attempt to win back the Muslim community which had deserted the party in the wake of Babri Mosque demolition. Not in a distant past the PM was criticized for having said that the minorities had the first claim on nation’s resources.

We Indians have got in the habit of looking at every thing from a political prism. Therefore, the PM’s concern for minorities can’t be seen as genuine, but only as a gimmick for political gains. Here the question must be asked if there is anything apolitical in the country?

Dr Manmohan Singh is heading a Congress government and the party must do a great deal to atone the wrongs it has done to the Muslim community. Members of Congress were in great majority in the Constituent Assembly which took away political, economic and educational reservations which was promised to the Muslims in the draft constitution. It was the long uninterrupted 30-year rule of the Congress Party from 1947 to 1977 which brought about the all round decline of the Muslim community. It was the Congress government in U.P. that issued a secret circular instructing officers to deny jobs to the Muslims in the police force. Elsewhere, it was open practical discrimination which robbed Muslims of many gifts and benefits that others received as of right.

According to 1940 Census the Muslim population of undivided India was 94.4 million which may have crossed the 100 million mark in 1947. Some 60% Muslims were in the areas that formed Pakistan and the remaining 40% remained in India. They had the option to go to Pakistan but they preferred to stay in India believing in its age-old golden tradition of tolerance, accommodation and cooperation.

But the Muslim hopes and aspirations began to be frustrated immediately after independence. They discovered to their surprise and horror that many Congress leaders, who earlier believed in composite politics, became brand communalist overnight. They shocked the Muslims when they blamed the community for partitioning the country. Soon they began maltreating Urdu language and culture. They gave Muslims the right to establish and manage their own educational institutions but threatened and undermined the minority character of Aligarh Muslim University. They allowed the community to practice its religion but hanged the sword of uniform civil code over its head. In sum, they did and undid things which harmed Muslim interests in one or another way.

The Muslim leadership did not help the Muslim cause either, especially immediately after independence. They held a convention in U.P. in 1948 which was attended, among others, by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Some two lakh Muslims gathered to hear their leaders who told and advised them in unambiguous terms to shun “Muslim politics” and espouse “composite politics”. Maulana Hifzurrahman advocated to join the Congress Party, for he considered it to be the best for Muslims. For thirty years the Muslim community followed the advice of their leaders in spirit and letter and voted for Congress in election after election. It required the Emergency and its excesses to shake the Muslim belief in Congress.

The point to be made here is that while Muslims continued to be loyal to the Congress, the party, or at least a section of its leadership, presided over its speedy decline. Today the Muslim condition is the worst in the country. The majority of Muslims live below the poverty line. Their share in white-colour jobs is less than three per cent and in industrial loan it is even less than 2%. Politically, too, the Muslims are under-represented both in Parliament and state assemblies. And their poor literacy record is a universally acknowledged fact.

What is, then, wrong if the Congress has chosen today to address the Muslim problems. In view of the facts presented above, the Muslim community deserves special welfare measures. May be, it is a political gimmick, so typical of Congress. We shall welcome such political gimmicks by the BJP and other political parties as well as long as it serves our purpose. The Muslims are in dire need of help to get out of the situation they have fallen in. Please do not give us the boring advice that under the constitution every one has got equal opportunity. Is it not BJP’s political gimmick to keep the Muslims in perpetual backwardness.

[August, 2009]

Towards Better Prospects for Madrasa Graduates

There was a time when everybody seemed to be “concerned” about the state of Madrasa education and the graduates it was giving to the country. An impression had been created that Madrasas were the main centres of Muslim education in India. Our critics held our fascination with Madrasas as being responsible for our backwardness. The non-BJP governments rushed to modernize Madrasas ignoring the Sangh Parivar’s allegation of minority appeasement. Many Muslim intellectuals became “Milli” leaders overnight for championing the cause of Madrasa education.

But today only lip service is being paid to Madrasa education. To be true, it has yet not disappeared for the public memory and the government, too, has made allocation in the budget for modernizing Madrasas. But the enthusiasm at the level of a part of Muslim leadership is missing. Ever since the revelation made in the Sachar Committee Report that just about 4% of Muslim students population studies in Madrasas, the kind of Muslim leadership alluded to above has gone into hibernation. They have not offered any explanation for their inactivity.
Given the size of Muslim population in India, even 4% of its student community is a big number and must continue to be important attracting the attention of the government as well as the Muslim leadership. There is no reason to ignore Madrasas at this juncture.

It is not our case here to judge the merit of various ideas and schemes for Madrasas. We just want to emphasize the point that Madrasas are the only source of education for a good number of people. There is no denying the fact that there are Muslims who can afford modern/formal education for their children and yet they send them to Madrasas out of conviction. But the large population consists of those who are poor; some indeed living below the poverty line. A few years ago this writer had carried out a survey in select districts of U.P for Unicef, Lucknow which proved beyond doubt that the parents of an overwhelming majority of students studying in Maktabs belonged to the disadvantaged groups. This fact alone should be compelling both for the government as well as the Muslim leadership to continue with their attention and focus on Madrasa education.

Human genius has never been tied up with riches. That only the children of rich parents or students of good public schools will excel is a wrong notion. We do accept the fact that good education is a key to success. But sometimes good education is acquired in adverse circumstances as well, in Madrasas for example and not necessarily in famous public schools. As a result we see many Madrasa graduates excelling in various fields of life. For over two decades Madrasa graduates have been getting admission in some modern universities like AMU, Aligarh, Jamia Millia Islamia and Hamdard University in Delhi. Recently, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi has also recognized the degrees of some Madrasas for admission to some of its courses. Many more universities need to follow the examples set by the above-mentioned institutions of higher learning because this would open a window of opportunity for otherwise disadvantaged students. This gesture would also bring them in mainstream educational institutions and enable them to join the national mainstream.

Madrasa graduates normally get admission in courses of Unani medicine, arts and social sciences. Some directly get admission in Masters Courses of Arabic language, Islamic Studies and Theology. These students are fortunate in that they have found an opportunity to study in modern universities. But one can easily realize looking at the programmes of study they are pursuing in universities that even their modern degrees will have little market value. We concede that knowledge in itself is valuable. But we also insist that it should be “enabling” as well. That it should enable students to find a place in today’s market to earn their livelihood.

Madrasa students face many problems in universities which are of emotional, psychological and intellectual nature. All these cannot be addressed here, but one of them is indeed pressing and deserves our immediate attention.

Many Madrasa students, as mentioned above, get admission to M.A in Islamic Studies and Arabic language etc. Apparently, it might be pleasing for them that they are going to get their Masters so soon. In reality, however, they close many opportunities on them. The problem is that the one and the same Fazeelah degree is recognized as equivalent to B.A in one university and to +2 in others. As a result the Madrasa graduates with M.A without B.A have just one option of pursuing Ph.D programme which is not available in large numbers.

A Madrasa student pursuing a B.A programme, on the contrary, has many opportunities of higher education. On the basis of good performance in subsidiary subjects at B.A level, he can seek admission in all M.A programmes of Social Sciences and humanities. Also he can opt for such professional courses as B.Ed, BTC, B.Libb, and some programmes in journalism, computer application and mass communication etc. The need, therefore, is to strengthen graduate programmes of Arabic and Islamic studies with a view to helping Madrasa students for better prospects.

[July, 2009]

For Quality Education in Government Schools

Sunday Times of India (June 14, 2009) carried out a revealing report on class X results: “Free Vs fee: Why govt. schools deliver results”. The write-up has been penned analytically by Divya A of Times News Network. A picture accompanying the write-up shows two different worlds of government-run and public schools. On the left side are students of a government school sitting on ill-kept/broken benches under a tree and on the right side are students of a public school sitting in an air-conditioned class room in front of a computer. The picture tells all except the results of this year’s class X examinations.

The Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNV) are government aided schools; though administered by the Human Resource Development ministry, these schools are substantially autonomous. This year JNVs have outshined all other schools with a pass percentile of 97.8 in CBSE class X exams. Kendriya Vidyalayas or Central Schools are a close second with a pass percent of 96.3 whereas the public schools—many of them air-conditioned—have fared poorly with only 92% of their class X students passing out this year’s exams.

JNVs and Central Schools are somewhat “privileged’ schools which are run with special government attention. The government schools which crisscross the country, especially in slums and villages are indeed in bad shapes. It is in these schools where teachers are normally absent and parents of wards studying in them are equally helpless as they suffer from intellectual and economic poverty. These schools, too, have improved with a pass percentage of 80.1 which was 4 or 5 percent less the previous year. The improvement is a direct result of government’s threat to teaches that they deliver or perish.

Anyone who is acquainted with the conditions prevailing in Government-run schools in rural India, knows well that children studying in them are severely handicap on many counts. Compared to public schools, these schools have hardly any facilities. Misery upon misery, most teachers are indifferent to the future of their students; they are either absent or hardly teach when present. The poor students thus hardly get any encouraging or congenial academic atmosphere at schools. Their problem is further compounded when they go home. Their parents are mostly illiterate or semi-literate and thus fail to provide any academic assistance to their dear ones. Being intellectually poor, they also fail to pressurize teachers to do the job that the Government has assigned to them, and for which they are paid. In such discouraging circumstances the poor students perform poorly and gradually march into a bleak and distressing future. They either drop out early or get an education which hardly helps them.

The Government opened JNVs and Central Schools to provide quality education to the under-privileged students. But such schools are few and far between. Therefore, the Government must focus on improving the quality of education in schools located all across the country, mainly in small towns and villages. Bulk of India still lives there and most parents are dependent on poorly-managed Government schools for the education of their wards. Forcing teachers to be present in class rooms has worked to increase the pass percentage from 75 to 80%. Motivating parents to take interest in the education of their wards, saying it alone would secure a bright future for them might be equally or even more helpful.

But the Government’s real job is to equip these schools with necessary facilities. Here the teacher is the most important factor. He needs to be paid properly and on time. He also needs to be motivated to perform. Above all, teachers must be impressed upon to be more than teachers; they must also be the guide of the parents of the wards given in their care. Perhaps only the teachers are in a position to inspire and motivate parents to create an “academic atmosphere” at home by giving their children enough time to do the home works. The problem, in fact, lies at this level and it needs to be solved here in order to prevent children from dropping out of schools. A healthy and quality primary education is necessary to perform well at the secondary level. In the given circumstances, it is a tough goal to achieve which makes it necessary for the Government to pay special attention to it.

One way to address the problem is to provide incentives to the teachers and principals to motivate parents to help their wards remain in schools. They may be further rewarded if their schools perform well. District level schemes, for example, may be launched to give out of turn promotion or cash incentives provided 50% of their students secure first class or no enrolled student drops out of schools due to parental indifference. Many more methods may be thought out to change the fate of the poor through education. This is Government’s duty which it must fulfill. This important work can not be left for social reformers yet to be born. We can not wait for miracles to happen; rather we must create miracles by our performances.
[June, 2009]

Muslims and New Manmohan Government

After getting near-absolute majority in the recently held general elections many Congress leaders have spoken arrogantly. They have specially done so in the context of U.P. where they have reaped rich electoral dividends. The Congress arrogance has been directed towards Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal which were equally arrogant before the polls when they had sought to reduce the grand old party to being a marginal player in U.P. and Bihar. If it were just political tit for tat, no one would raise his eyebrows. It would be, however, alarming if the Congress behaviour is the result of a deeply thought out policy. It is alarming because it smacks of what in plain words is called “use and throw policy”. Congress may have a million complaints against the SP, especially its talkative leader, Amar Singh but it must remember that this was also the party which saved Manmohan government during the confidence vote last year.

It is not our case that one or another party is good or bad, nor do we subscribe to the idea that a political party should always act morally ignoring its long-term strategic interests and considerations. We already know that morality has long been banished from Indian politics, hence talking about the non-existent would serve no purpose. What concerns us here is that a political party or formation, which notoriously lacks internal democracy, is usually prone to corruption and dictatorial attitude. In this context, we feel that a coalition government consisting of like-minded parties is good for the complex and diverse Indian society. Such a government naturally develops a working mechanism of checks and balances to keep it focused on the goals for which it has come into being.

India’s most political parties are in the habit of forgetting the electorate after the general elections. More than other groups, Muslims have experienced it time and again. Since 1952 Muslims have consistently been voting for secular parties and formations which have ruled over the country for a major part, and yet they have been ignored by the very people whom they have been voting to power. This explains the reasons for their all round marginalization.

True, the political parties have used Muslims as a vote bank. There is also no denying the fact that they have been victims of “use and throw” policies of the political parties. But this is one side of the coin.

Common people are normally simple-minded and hold some external agencies/factors as being responsible for the problems or tragedies that happen in their lives. Few indulge in self-introspection to find out the weaknesses within which the outside inimical forces might have exploited to bring about tragedies in their lives. This side of the coin is often hidden from the eyes of the common Muslims. This is especially true about the Indian Muslims.

Over the years we have developed a mentality to find out and blame external enemies for all our problems. It is not our case that our external enemies are sitting idle; they are indeed proactive. But surely they succeed in their inimical designs only when our own weaknesses collaborate with them. While it is important to know our external enemies, it is equally essential to discover the enemy within. And the greatest enemy we have among ourselves is our indifference to higher education. It is clear that the new Manmohan government would create many more institutions of higher learning. The fifteen central universities it set up just before the elections are bound to offer thousands of lucrative jobs. Let us introspect how many Muslims have the necessary qualifications to grab them.

Within days the new Manmohan government will be in place. During his last tenure the Prime Minister gave us a sort of official document in the form of Sachar Committee Report which bears testimony to the all round decline and marginalization of the Muslim community. There was a strong case for giving reservations to Muslims on the line the Congress government has done in Andhra Pradesh. The fear of BJP’s hue and cry over the issue prevented the last Manmohan government from doing it. As a result it created some scholarships etc. to help young Muslims pursuing higher education.

As a part of its long-term policy of winning back Muslims to its fold, Congress, or the Manmohan government has created a full-fledged Ministry of Minority Affairs. We hope the new cabinet will have a relatively young and dynamic Minister of Minority Affairs. There is need to devise a practical strategy to quickly bring Muslims in the arena of higher education. The new Minister of Minority Affairs should specifically be tasked for creating avenues and atmosphere for higher education among the Muslims. Over and above all, it is the duty of the Muslim community and its leadership to devise ways to benefit from the new government. Our failure on this front would be our enemy within which we alone can overcome. The advantage we have today is that the Sachar Committee has already identified the problems of the Muslim community. Surely a responsible government should be duty-bound to act positively in this regard. But as Muslims we also owe a responsibility to think or apply our mind to devise strategies for solving our problems. We must prepare proposals and submit to the government for making the Ministry of Minority Affairs more meaningful. One such suggestion may be to empower this Ministry to open and run good schools in minority-dominated areas. Another may be to open branches of Maulana Azad Open Urdu University in Delhi, Srinagar and Lucknow etc. There are some minority-managed institutions, like Jamia Hamdard in Delhi or Shibli College in Azamgarh, which may be offered special packages to be viable and vibrant centres of higher and quality education benefiting both the minority and majority communities.

[May, 2009]

WELFARE IS WISDOM

Islam would become relevant to the people of the Swat Valley if the Taliban deal with their problems first, says Ishtiyaque Danish

First, they whipped a girl in public because she was “seen” with a man who was not her husband. Then, they imposed Jizya on the Sikhs. Recently, they gunned down a couple for trying to elope. And now the latest: Taliban say that democracy is a Western concept and incompatible with Shariah.

But here’s a question: Is the Taliban compatible with the Shariah? They are trying to impose it in the way Zia ul-Haq and Jaafar Nemeiri did in the 1970s and 1980s. The Taliban seem to understand Shariah as no more than a set of tough laws and harsh punishments.

Is this accurate? Not according to some hadith, which means sayings and actions of Prophet Muhammad. There are many Quranic verses that explain the Shariah as a civilizing ideology. Sufis’ understanding of Islam also presents Shariah as a caring message of social service.

The Quran mentions Jizya, the tax levied on non-Muslim citizens of an Islamic state but only in lieu of military service. This, because an Islamic state cannot force military service on non-Muslims. But, a non-Muslim citizen willing to serve in the army would be exempt from Jizya. In any case, Shariah says this tax should secure non-Muslim citizens many rights and privileges, which it would be hard to believe the trigger-happy Taliban granting to the Sikhs. Many believe the Taliban imposed the tax to humiliate the Sikh community, rather than uphold the Quran.

It is hard to understand how the Taliban justify opposition to “Western” democracy. A recent study by John Esposito, professor of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University, concluded that most modern Islamists support democracy even as they interpret Shariah as a way of life. This is in line with the thinking of many prominent medieval Islamicists. For example, al-Ghazali, one of the greatest Islamic Jurists, theologian and mystical thinker, described the Shariah’s purpose as ensuring the welfare of man. Sunni jurist and thinker Ibn Qayyim also believed that “the basis of the Shariah is wisdom and welfare of the people… This welfare lies in complete justice, mercy, well being and wisdom. Any thing that departs from justice to oppression, from mercy to harshness, from welfare to misery and from wisdom to folly has nothing to do with Shariah.”

That was how the early Muslims understood and implemented the Shariah. It is well known that the second caliph, Umar, was pious and had an admirable method of governance. Mahatma Gandhi was greatly impressed by Umar. Even though this caliph lived and ruled in an age that believed moral dereliction needed to be punished by the whip, Umar started putting people behind bars for such crimes. It was clear that his approach to crime and punishment was kindness. According to one account, a girl who committed an indiscretion, tried to commit suicide for fear of harsh punishment. She was saved and repented sincerely. A man, who did not know of the girl’s misdemeanours, sought her hand in marriage. The girl’s guardian asked Umar for advice. Should he tell all to the suitor? Umar reprimanded the questioner, saying don’t reveal what God has hidden. He also urged him to marry off the girl with customary fanfare.

There are many lessons from this and other stories about Umar, not least his secret nightly trips to check on the welfare of his subjects. During one such nocturnal outing, he came upon a house where he could hear a man singing loudly. He knocked on the door but received no response, so he climbed over the wall and saw that the man was enjoying women and wine along with the song. But the culprit coolly told Umar that the caliph had sinned three times more than he. “First, God has forbidden you from prying into one’s privacy but you have spied on me. Second, God has ordained that private houses be entered through the door but you jumped up on the wall to look inside my house. Third, God has ordered that no one enter a house without its owner’s permission but you have done so against this clear Quranic injunction.” Umar admitted he was in the wrong and apologized profusely.

Is it possible to see this self-correctional, enlightened form of Islamicism among Taliban rulers? The Swat Valley abounds in problems, including poverty and illiteracy. Why can’t the Taliban deal with these first? If they did, Islam would become relevant to the local people.

At least some of the problem with a hardline interpretation of Shariah is the lack of knowledge of Islamic history. Mutual consultation was the hallmark of the early Muslims who ruled the Islamic state they built immediately after the Prophet’s death.

Various election and selection procedures were adopted to appoint a caliph but he assumed office only after the common man approved the choice.

The Talibans’ excesses and their threats to impose their brand of Shariah on the whole of Pakistan have not gone unchallenged. Intellectuals have been very critical. But the Pakistan government seems confused. On the one hand, it has signed an agreement with the Taliban; meanwhile, it bombs Taliban targets in other parts of the country. It almost appears to be a clever move to use the Taliban threat to secure billions of dollars in aid. But perhaps such strategies too have nothing to do with Shariah.

[ Published in TIMES OF INDIA on 26th April]

India Needs Babar Ali, Not Varun Gandhi

IBN CNN, probably the best English news channel in the country, was broadcasting a unique programme, Real Heroes on 22.3.2009 at 10.00 p.m. A year ago the channel, in collaboration with Reliance Industries, decided to find out little-known Indians who have taken initiatives to change India in their own way. Away from the spotlight of media, both print and electronic, they are trying to change the destinies of men and women, and also children, who have fallen behind in the race of life or have been condemned to an under-privileged existence. This year the channel had picked up 20 such heroes whom it had invited to honour in a grand function attended by business leaders, film stars and sports personalities. For a change, the channel was celebrating the unknown and under-privileged achievers than the famous and the powerful. One such real hero was the sixteen-year old Babar Ali from Murshidabad, West Bengal who has taken it upon himself to educate the children of his village which has neither government nor private schools. Ali’s school has no building. He runs it in the open or under a tree. Understandably the school has no furniture except an old chair on which Babar Ali rarely sits. The students, children of the village of varying age groups sit on the ground and Ali quickly walks through them, guiding, encouraging, inspiring and helping them learn and write.

The anchor of the programme, Real Heroes, invited Ali to receive his award, who slowly started walking towards the dais when, all of sudden, the channel began to air news about the Election Commission’s unprecedented decision to reprimand Varun Gandhi for having delivered an inflammatory and communally-charged hate speech in U.P. It was sad to note that in comparison with Varun Gandhi the channel gave less importance to those whom it had described as “Real Heroes”.

Sixteen-year old Ali is a Muslim. People of his age are not expected to launch initiatives like educating village children who do not have access to any formal school. And see this Muslim teen-ager is preoccupied with learning and teaching. His action is noble and inspiring. He is teaching children to learn and write. He is not raising his hands against Hindus, which Varun Gandhi wants to cut.

Men like Varun Gandhi are well-placed to do a lot of good to India. We have three hundred million people who are illiterate and under-nourished. They suffer from economic as well as intellectual poverty and deserve a helping hand, and not the punishment that Varun Gandhi is proposing for them. It is easy to deliver a hate-speech or destroy a life. But doing constructive things like building the lives of village-children is a noble prophetic mission, which the dark forces Varun Gandhi has chosen to champion are unable to comprehend.

Varun Gandhi might succeed in polarizing people in his constituency and reap rich electoral dividends. But he has lost the esteem that people would have exhibited towards a scion of Gandhi-Nehru family. He has degraded himself in the eyes of millions and millions of people in order to champion the cause of a few lunatics. What a bad bargain he has made.

The way the BJP has reacted to the advice of the Election Commission speaks volumes about the shape of things to come. It is abundantly clear that they would try utmost to vitiate the atmosphere in U.P. This is the state which had given them enough MPs to form government in Delhi. And it is their decline in U.P. which worries them the most. The road to Delhi goes through U.P. where the BJP is expected to fare poorly.

BJP knows the reasons for its continuous poor showing in U.P. The caste configuration in the state does not favour it. And, misery upon misery, they have lost the Muslim votes forever that constitute over 18 per cent of the electorate in U.P. Not only Muslims but also Hindus have understood BJP’s communal and divisive agenda. They have refused to be fooled any longer by their temple agenda. The BJP is short, nay, bereft of ideas. Therefore, they are hell bent on communalizing the atmosphere in U.P. through venomous hate speeches.

And in the communally-charged situation which BJP is seeking to create in the country, the Muslim masses as well as leaders would be well-advised to follow into the footsteps of Babar Ali. For, education alone is key to success. Also it is the best strategy to counter and frustrate the nefarious designs of the BJP.
[March, 2009]

Obama’s Foreign Policy Challenges

Barak H. Obama is youthful, dynamic, intelligent and also inexperienced. There is no denying the fact that by occupying the White House he has performed a near-miracle. He overcame race and colour barriers to become America’s first black president. He has been hailed as the leader par excellence who can change America, and can especially save its ailing economy.
Obama’s electoral campaign was like a fairytale. He always looked oozing with confidence and self-belief. He successfully convinced America that he was their messiah. Initially the world took interest in him because of his colour and oratory. As he came near to winning the presidency, he grew in stature and the world leaders began to study his ideas and policies closely. Obama himself gradually became conscious of the high status and powers that an American president carries and began to believe that he could change not only America but also the world. He took independent positions on burning issues of the world including Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan. Initially he expressed sympathy for the Palestinians and even criticized Israel for some of its excesses. He stood for an independent Palestine which angered the Jewish lobby in America. Under Jewish pressure the media launched attack after attack on his Palestine policy and forced him to openly support Israel. He immediately realized that the powerful Jewish lobby would hamper his campaign for American presidency and began to woo Israel. He even wrote articles in Israeli newspapers assuring Tel Aviv that his administration, too, would blindly support Israel. And today the world knows that Obama administration is not a neutral umpire in Israeli-Palestinian dispute but a strong ally of Tel Aviv.
Guantanamo Bay and Iraq were other issues on which Obama differed from the Bush administration. Steps are being taken to close the infamous Guantanamo Bay and Obama seems still committed to withdrawing American forces from Iraq. Insurgency continues in Iraq but not on the high scale it was a few years ago. The reason is not the so called “success” of Bush administration’s “surge policy” but rather it is Maliki’s accommodation of the elements of Saddam regime who were not avowed Ba’athist. Today Iraq does not need bulk of American forces any way which makes their withdrawal even more sensible. But it must be borne in mind that even Obama administration would prefer to have sizeable presence of American forces in Iraq to keep the insurgents at Bay. Even Maliki needs at least American Airforce to survive in office. Obama’s real test would be to engage Iran diplomatically. The Western world has realized well that Iran was determined to make nuclear bomb. They also realize that economic and diplomatic sanctions would not work. It is also clear that in the prevalent situation in West Asia any attack on Iran would prove to be counter-productive. Thus the only option which remains open is to engage Iran diplomatically. It is clear that it will take sometime when Obama would decide his Iran strategy.
Obama’s biggest challenge right now seems to be Afghanistan, the last victim of the cold war between the Soviet Union and the US. The country has been battered by continuous wars and conflicts. Obama thinks that by pumping more American forces into Afghanistan he can win the war. But this is a naïve thinking and smacks of Obama’s inexperience. Bill Clinton, the former US president, has recently warned that Afghanistan might prove Obama’s Vietnam. Wars never solve problems, rather they multiply them. It is diplomacy that ultimately succeeds. No one is sure when this wisdom would dawn on Obama. For many years American and NATO forces have been bombing and killing people, many of whom are innocent including children, women and the aged. But these bombings have yielded no results; instead they have aroused Afghans’ anger all over the country. This explains why the Taliban movement controls more than 70 percent of the country. Obama would be well-advised to engage Taliban diplomatically than try to batter them with more ferocious bombings. More than weapons, strategic and diplomatic moves solve problems. This is a lesson that Obama must learn sooner than later, as it would help both America and the world.

[ February, 2009]

Critique of UGC’s New Service Conditions

(Here is a hurriedly prepared critique of the new UGC guidelines/ service conditions for University/ College teachers. It might interest some of our colleagues. I shall greatly appreciate your comments)

Herewith I respond to item Nos 6.4.2 to 6.4.5 on pages 14 and 15. These are new guidelines which the UGC has proposed and put them on its website with a view to seeking comments/suggestions from concerned quarters. I find the new rules/guidelines extremely discriminatory against the Readers. In fact, it goes against the HRD Notification/ Board guidelines and has sought to curtail the benefits of Readers which they otherwise deserve.
Whosoever has formulated these guidelines/ rules has wrongly understood that the post of Readers is inferior to that of Associate Professor. The Chandha Committee Report has merely changed the nomenclatures from Lectures and Readers to Assistant and Associate Professors. There is no change in substance. That the two positions are not substantially different from one another. It would really be cruel to subject Readers, many of whom were recruited directly on general posts some 12 years ago, to face interview once again to become Associate Professor which in substance is nothing but the old position of Reader. Whosoever has designed this rule has merely exhibited his mental and intellectual bankruptcy.
Senior Readers have been subjected to more humiliation when the framers of the new rules ignored their longer period of service. Today there are Readers with seven or eight years of service; still others have 12 or more years of service because they were unfairly rejected by “hostile administrations” when they sought professorship under CAS. Under the new guidelines they are being placed with the newly-recruited Associate Professor which means their longer period of service as Reader is being treated as insignificant and therefore underserving of any additional monetary incentives. It may be noted that the Fifth Pay Commission had applied the formula of one increment for three increments for all Lectures, Readers and Professors. The Readers who had completed five years of service on 01-01-1996 or attained this mark on 31-12-1996 were placed at Rs 14940/-. This was a genuine recognition of the longer period of service that the Readers had rendered. Fro reasons best known to the UGC or the Sixth Pay Commission, senior Readers are not only being treated unfairly but are also being humiliated. A humiliated army of Readers would not serve the purpose of higher education.
To give concession to the UGC, it might be in the fitness of things to place even the newly and directly recruited Associate Professors in the pay grade of 15600-39000 for three years and thereafter they automatically move to the level of Associate Professor. In an otherwise case, it would be right to conclude that being senior academics is like being a disadvantage, monetarily as well as intellectually.
There is another drawback which I would like to point out. Often academics with independent minds are victimized, so much so that some affected faculties even file cases in the courts. Most such litigations result from the arbitrariness of administrations/ vice chancellors. Some Vice Chancellors even favour their sycophants and indulge in brazen violation of rules/regulations. The UGC must take note of such very real happenings and come out with or set up a grievance redressal mechanism. This might minimize/ prevent victimization at academic campuses.
The main purpose of a teacher is teaching and research and his participation in co-curricular activities is secondary. But surprisingly the API and WP have assigned only 150 points for teaching and even less for research works/ publications. Why the hell anyone would like to supervise a thesis to secure 10 points or write a book to be published by international publishers to obtain 20 points. Instead, he would be well-advised to organize cultural evenings etc to secure 200 points. One wonders if this is the way to promote higher education.
Even more disturbing is the nefarious distinction between Indian and International publications. Does it mean that nay thing published in India is not international? Or what constitutes to be international should have been explained. The impression I have gathered is that things Indian are necessarily condemned to be inferior to things “international”. Foreign academics must be laughing at the inferiority complex of those who have framed these guidelines. In my opinion one must clarify first what is meant by “Indian” and “international” and only then qualify a publication with being inferior or superior. Moreover, I feel, publications, Indian or international, should be given more weightage than extra curricular activities and contribution to corporate life of campuses.
The bureaucracy seems to be avowedly biased against the teaching community. Even a Vice Chancellor would not get parity with them. The Fifth Pay Commission had fixed the salary of a Vice Chancellor at Rs 25000/-, which was on par with that of a secretary of Government of India. The Sixth Pay Commission, however, has degraded Vice Chancellors by fixing their pay at Rs 75000/-. Well, in addition they will get an extra amount of 5000/- as special pay but the fact is that they are equal to additional secretary only, a step below the secretary, Government of India. Heavens would not have fallen, had Vice Chancellor’s salary been fixed at Rs 80,000/-. But this was not to be just to satisfy the bloated ego of the over-rated IAS fraternity.
But the saddest aspect is that the Vice Chancellors have swallowed this bitter pill without protest. There are both good and bad Vice Chancellors. The good ones must have been busy with developing ideas and strategies to develop their institutions. And the bad ones are so much busy with victimizing their independent-minded subordinates that they hardly find time to protect even their own status and honour. But the teaching community also failed as a whole when it did not lodge protest against the degradation of the heads of their institutions.