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HAMID DALWAI TO HAMID ANSARI: Bankruptcy of Muslim Intellectuals
Long years ago, Edmund Burke, an Irish statesman and philosopher had famously observed while speaking on the floor of British parliament, on the ‘Impeachment of Warren Hastings’, “It is enough for the good to keep quiet for the bad to become worse” According to Burke, it was a case of “Good stopped being Better”, which truly meant they stopped being good too. If a person can’t be better then he cannot be good either. Decades later, Martin Luther King, the famous U.S Civil Rights Leader, had given a clarion call to Africans in the U.S to fight for their honour like everybody else in the United States of America, “Our life begins to end, the day we become silent about the things that matter”.
Both the above observations by these celebrated historical figures only buttress the Arab proverb of yore. “If you cannot fight for your rights, you only deserve to be a slave”.
All these statements of wisdom from days bygone have been the lamp posts in the march of man in his journey of evolution from monkey to man. Hence despite these inspiring gleanings from the great minds, why man, which includes woman as well, has been indulging in clearly visible inequities and practicing suppressive mores among his own kind based on colour, creed, caste and even gender?
All through the history of mankind, it was the might that was right. Weak and vulnerable were always suppressed to do the bidding of the powerful. And women always remained weak and were subjected to oppressive measures, for far too long. Women have accepted without any resistance, the dominance of man, as husband, as father, as uncle, as brother or whatever. India is as bad as any other country in the ill-treatment of women. However it is true that in Christian dominated western world of Europe and Americas, this male dominance is less. Their societies have evolved faster and better. These Christian practices of the west have certainly travelled far and wide among practitioners of Christianity. Hence even in countries like India, treatment of women among Christians is certainly far better than both Hindus and Muslims. However liberal thinking among Hindus has made very early inroads into the social psyche. There were people like Raja Ram Mohan Roy or even Saawarkar who have become cult figures of social reforms among Hindus. And ordinary Hindus have not protested and life has greatly improved for Hindu women by and large. Same may not be easy to say in respect of Muslim women in India.
Thus, in India, human rights of women are at best a mixed bag. Of course no society including the west can be without blemish. West too have its own sets of inequities towards women, but far less overall, as compared to the rest of the mankind. Human rights of Christian women are better guaranteed because of their men being more respectful of their duties towards women. Among Hindus too, it has been recognized to a great extent. The lot of Hindu women in the 21st century is certainly far better than it was in earlier centuries, with large scale improvement in the level of educational attainment among Hindu women. But the hugeness of its population has certainly restricted the liberal mindset of the vast majority of Hindus to percolate down to every nook and corner, while accepting that there are pockets of medieval practices too among some sections of Hindus. But sadly among Muslims large scale dominance by men is clearly visible. In an evolving India, looking for a place of prominence in the comity of nations, lot needs to be done among our Muslims brethren.
And appears Shayara Bano, a 35 year old woman from Uttarakhand who literally shook the Muslim world: An M.A, before her marriage to one Rizwan Ahmed, she received her divorce notice from husband by speed post sometime in October 2015. Early 2016, she approached the court demanding the triple talaq or talaq-e-biddat pronounced by her husband be declared void. She contended that such unilateral, abrupt, irrevocable form of divorce be declared unconstitutional since it violated the fundamental rights of Muslim women.
According to her, the fight is against the social custom that gives men power to abandon women at their whims and fancies and victims lived a life worse than dogs without maintenance.
Noorjehan Fiaz and Zakia Soman, under the banner of BMMA, joined the issue started by Shayara Bano, and raised 3 issues of triple talaq, polygamy and nikah halala. All these three situations have reduced Muslim women, like it or not, to mere pawns. They could do just nothing about it. And these practices have been there for centuries.
Sometime in October last year, a meeting of some Muslim intellectuals took place in New Delhi. The report mentioned names of Prof Irfan Habib, Prof Ayesha Kidwa, Dr Gauhar Raza, Prof Zoya Hassan and activist Shabnam Hashmi. Reportedly they were discussing of the triple talaq among Muslim women in the context of BMMA (Bharathiya Muslim Mahila Andolan) going to the Supreme Court.
However, it was way back in 1967, Hamid Dalwai, a Marathi speaking Muslim from Ratnagiri, mustered enough courage to lead the first street protest against triple talaq in the then Bombay. And Hamid was only 34 years old at that time. With him, there were 7 women, including his wife Meherunnisa and his sister.
His was a one-man crusade against the obscurantism of Muslim society in India. For a youth in his 30s, it was a huge risk to antagonize his co-religionists. Mind you, no known Muslim face supported him. And Rafiq Zakaria was a well known liberal thinker politician in the Bombay horizon of those days. Rafiq Zakaria is also well known for his silence on the issues involving Muslim women. According to A.B Shah of Indian Secular Forum, ‘he Hamid Ansari was running a great personal risk. He had already received letters threatening dire consequences, including death, for him and his old parents, who have been subjected to ostracism, including denial of services by the village functionaries’.
Thus, it took 50 years to stir the national consciousness of India to recognize the need to scrap this pernicious practice of triple talaq which most Muslim countries in the world have banned, including our neighbours, Pakistan & Bangladesh.
And comes the historic Supreme Court judgement banning triple talaq, acting on the plea by BMMA. So for the first time a group of Muslim women got together to challenge their men in the community to mend their wayward ways of treating their women as a worn-out cloth. These women, Norjehan Fiaz and Zakia Soman besides Shayara Bano have comprehensively proved the intellectual bankruptcy of community intellectuals.
These so-called intellectuals while joining the issues with BMMA took umbrage at the initiative and the stand of BJP led NDA government as politics, exposing themselves of petty politics. They had the opportunity all their life to do what BMMA did or what Shayara Bano did as an individual. But they were afraid to admit that they were cowards without the courage to stand up to thick headed communally driven Muslim leaders of their time. This indeed is the unfortunate lot of Muslims in this country. This misfortune was compounded when a film made by a Mangalore youth TH Altaf, “Beary”, was boycotted by local leadership to be seen by local Muslims. Based on the story by Mangalore based thinker-writer Saara Abubaker, ‘Beary’ had won the ‘Golden Lotus’ or ‘Swarna Kamala’, the nation’s highest award in 2012/13. Instead of celebrating the creative zeal of young Altaf, community succumbed to medieval mindset of its local leaders. And our so-called intellectuals were nowhere around. The film had visually raised the very same issues which were raised by BMMA. That was indeed a fall and a missed opportunity.
As a politically free country, India is 70 years old. The constitution of India is 67 years, where Uniform Civil Code to all Indians was included as one of the Directive Principles of State Policy. And yet, for all these years, there has not been any concrete move to bring this issue of triple talaq to the centre stage either by the governments of those years or by the Muslim intelligentsia. In fact, it was the denial of justice to Shah Bano, by the then government of Rajeev Gandhi, in late 80s, who instead supported the Muslim clergy and put paid to any possible reforms. According to Hussain Dalwai, a Congress MP and brother of late Hamid Dalwai, ‘Shah Bano case damaged the cause of reforms among Muslims like nothing else’.
Hamid Dalwai unlike any of his contemporary Muslim intellectuals had very bravely weathered opposition from obscurantists within the community by continuously writing against practices like Triple Talaq, polygamy, Nikah Halala and even burkha. Unfortunately he passed away at a young age of 44 in 1977 due to kidney failure. Prof Irfan Habib born before Hamid Dalwai in August 1931, did not join the like of Dalwai in trying to address the issues pertaining to Muslim women. It was only after BMMA went to court in 2015 and Supreme Court took an active role in finding lasting solution to the vexed issues plaguing the Muslim women, that Muslim intelligentsia took to public space to air their opposition to these practices. These intellectuals, whose average age is about 65, did not find the courage to raise these issues all their life. They woke up only when the present government in Delhi decided to support the BMMA cause. They probably felt threatened that they would become irrelevant if they do not mouth their views even so late in the day. However, their conclusion that BJP is only trying to score political marks in this struggle of BMMA has only made their honesty look suspect. They appeared more interested in painting BJP/ NDA poorly rather than the importance of the issues raised by BMMA. Adding to the list of these intellectuals is Hamid Ansari, the former Vice President of India, retired only a few months ago. Born in opulence, Hamid Ansari has not seen difficult days unlike most Muslims in India. It was only when he was sure, that he may not become the President of India, under constantly changing political combinations at the centre, he decided to go public with his views on issues concerning Muslims. Here too he was more interested in reservation for Muslims than addressing core issues concerning the exploitation of Muslim women. Being a highest constitutional functionary, he had the opportunity to raise issues which BMMA had raised. These issues are there despite all the advances of post independent years and yet all these Muslim gentlemen who rose to the top failed to measure up to the expectation of Muslim women. Indeed there is a serious need of Muslim intellectuals to speak up where needed, especially issues concerning their women folk.
Commenting on NDA, more importantly on PM Modi’s “Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas” at the 50th Anniversary of AIMMM, an opponent of reforms among Muslims, Ansari had complained “identity and security, education and empowerment, equitable share in the largesse of the state, besides fair share in the decision making are the principal problems of India’s Muslims. These are rights of citizens and this discrimination has to be corrected”.
Hamid Ansari is the son of a former Congress President Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari. And situation of Muslims was no different under 60yeras of Congress and Non NDA governments. He did not utter a single word those days, because, he was in active employment of these governments, as a UN representative, as a High Commissioner, as ambassador to many countries, as Minority Commission Chairman and then the Vice Presidency.
Tufail Ahmed, director of South Asian Studies at the Middle East Research Institute in Washington tore the views of Ansari to pieces. Writing in the media, ‘WHY NOT CONSTITUTIONAL PATH FOR MUSLIMS’ Tufail recounted, “At the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM), Ansari spoke as the leader of Muslims, not as the nations Vice President. Indians are in search of a Muslim politician in the mould of APJ Abdul Kalam, not Hamid Ansari”. Tufail says further “India is yet to produce a Muslim who could present himself as the leader of all Indians”. Tufail, in his write up, almost asked Hamid Ansari to ‘get lost’, when he added. “Ansari must keep in mind, Sachar like reports were produced to serve official secularism”, while asserting “Indian Muslims do not qualify as a minority”.
According to Tufail “Any attempt by Ansari and others to insert Islam as a criterion for politics must be condemned. It is time India’s youth spoke against leaders who advocate quotas in the name of religion and caste”.
Thus, he was very emphatic that Hamid Ansari had no business to mess up the already messy waters of reservation. However what is relevant to the topic under discussion is, former VP Hamid Ansari simply did not express his opinion or advocated any thoughts on the vexed issues raised 50 years ago by his name sake Hamid Dalwai and later taken up by Muslim women who suffered at the hands of their men.
Of course in their wisdom, Apex Court took up only the issue of Triple Talaq and have left the other two for the government of the day to come up with an enactment of law duly debated in the parliament with participation of all stake holders to the issues involved to bring about UNIFORM CIVIL CODE.
In conclusion, this has to be mentioned that this is a sincere and honest attempt to highlight an apparent state of affairs among Muslim intelligentsia in the overall scenario among our Muslim brethren with a hope that the educated youth of the community shall rise to the occasion in support of their suffering sisters and mothers.
Long years ago, Edmund Burke, an Irish statesman and philosopher had famously observed while speaking on the floor of British parliament, on the ‘Impeachment of Warren Hastings’, “It is enough for the good to keep quiet for the bad to become worse” According to Burke, it was a case of “Good stopped being Better”, which truly meant they stopped being good too. If a person can’t be better then he cannot be good either. Decades later, Martin Luther King, the famous U.S Civil Rights Leader, had given a clarion call to Africans in the U.S to fight for their honour like everybody else in the United States of America, “Our life begins to end, the day we become silent about the things that matter”.
Both the above observations by these celebrated historical figures only buttress the Arab proverb of yore. “If you cannot fight for your rights, you only deserve to be a slave”.
All these statements of wisdom from days bygone have been the lamp posts in the march of man in his journey of evolution from monkey to man. Hence despite these inspiring gleanings from the great minds, why man, which includes woman as well, has been indulging in clearly visible inequities and practicing suppressive mores among his own kind based on colour, creed, caste and even gender?
All through the history of mankind, it was the might that was right. Weak and vulnerable were always suppressed to do the bidding of the powerful. And women always remained weak and were subjected to oppressive measures, for far too long. Women have accepted without any resistance, the dominance of man, as husband, as father, as uncle, as brother or whatever. India is as bad as any other country in the ill-treatment of women. However it is true that in Christian dominated western world of Europe and Americas, this male dominance is less. Their societies have evolved faster and better. These Christian practices of the west have certainly travelled far and wide among practitioners of Christianity. Hence even in countries like India, treatment of women among Christians is certainly far better than both Hindus and Muslims. However liberal thinking among Hindus has made very early inroads into the social psyche. There were people like Raja Ram Mohan Roy or even Saawarkar who have become cult figures of social reforms among Hindus. And ordinary Hindus have not protested and life has greatly improved for Hindu women by and large. Same may not be easy to say in respect of Muslim women in India.
Thus, in India, human rights of women are at best a mixed bag. Of course no society including the west can be without blemish. West too have its own sets of inequities towards women, but far less overall, as compared to the rest of the mankind. Human rights of Christian women are better guaranteed because of their men being more respectful of their duties towards women. Among Hindus too, it has been recognized to a great extent. The lot of Hindu women in the 21st century is certainly far better than it was in earlier centuries, with large scale improvement in the level of educational attainment among Hindu women. But the hugeness of its population has certainly restricted the liberal mindset of the vast majority of Hindus to percolate down to every nook and corner, while accepting that there are pockets of medieval practices too among some sections of Hindus. But sadly among Muslims large scale dominance by men is clearly visible. In an evolving India, looking for a place of prominence in the comity of nations, lot needs to be done among our Muslims brethren.
And appears Shayara Bano, a 35 year old woman from Uttarakhand who literally shook the Muslim world: An M.A, before her marriage to one Rizwan Ahmed, she received her divorce notice from husband by speed post sometime in October 2015. Early 2016, she approached the court demanding the triple talaq or talaq-e-biddat pronounced by her husband be declared void. She contended that such unilateral, abrupt, irrevocable form of divorce be declared unconstitutional since it violated the fundamental rights of Muslim women.
According to her, the fight is against the social custom that gives men power to abandon women at their whims and fancies and victims lived a life worse than dogs without maintenance.
Noorjehan Fiaz and Zakia Soman, under the banner of BMMA, joined the issue started by Shayara Bano, and raised 3 issues of triple talaq, polygamy and nikah halala. All these three situations have reduced Muslim women, like it or not, to mere pawns. They could do just nothing about it. And these practices have been there for centuries.
Sometime in October last year, a meeting of some Muslim intellectuals took place in New Delhi. The report mentioned names of Prof Irfan Habib, Prof Ayesha Kidwa, Dr Gauhar Raza, Prof Zoya Hassan and activist Shabnam Hashmi. Reportedly they were discussing of the triple talaq among Muslim women in the context of BMMA (Bharathiya Muslim Mahila Andolan) going to the Supreme Court.
However, it was way back in 1967, Hamid Dalwai, a Marathi speaking Muslim from Ratnagiri, mustered enough courage to lead the first street protest against triple talaq in the then Bombay. And Hamid was only 34 years old at that time. With him, there were 7 women, including his wife Meherunnisa and his sister.
His was a one-man crusade against the obscurantism of Muslim society in India. For a youth in his 30s, it was a huge risk to antagonize his co-religionists. Mind you, no known Muslim face supported him. And Rafiq Zakaria was a well known liberal thinker politician in the Bombay horizon of those days. Rafiq Zakaria is also well known for his silence on the issues involving Muslim women. According to A.B Shah of Indian Secular Forum, ‘he Hamid Ansari was running a great personal risk. He had already received letters threatening dire consequences, including death, for him and his old parents, who have been subjected to ostracism, including denial of services by the village functionaries’.
Thus, it took 50 years to stir the national consciousness of India to recognize the need to scrap this pernicious practice of triple talaq which most Muslim countries in the world have banned, including our neighbours, Pakistan & Bangladesh.
And comes the historic Supreme Court judgement banning triple talaq, acting on the plea by BMMA. So for the first time a group of Muslim women got together to challenge their men in the community to mend their wayward ways of treating their women as a worn-out cloth. These women, Norjehan Fiaz and Zakia Soman besides Shayara Bano have comprehensively proved the intellectual bankruptcy of community intellectuals.
These so-called intellectuals while joining the issues with BMMA took umbrage at the initiative and the stand of BJP led NDA government as politics, exposing themselves of petty politics. They had the opportunity all their life to do what BMMA did or what Shayara Bano did as an individual. But they were afraid to admit that they were cowards without the courage to stand up to thick headed communally driven Muslim leaders of their time. This indeed is the unfortunate lot of Muslims in this country. This misfortune was compounded when a film made by a Mangalore youth TH Altaf, “Beary”, was boycotted by local leadership to be seen by local Muslims. Based on the story by Mangalore based thinker-writer Saara Abubaker, ‘Beary’ had won the ‘Golden Lotus’ or ‘Swarna Kamala’, the nation’s highest award in 2012/13. Instead of celebrating the creative zeal of young Altaf, community succumbed to medieval mindset of its local leaders. And our so-called intellectuals were nowhere around. The film had visually raised the very same issues which were raised by BMMA. That was indeed a fall and a missed opportunity.
As a politically free country, India is 70 years old. The constitution of India is 67 years, where Uniform Civil Code to all Indians was included as one of the Directive Principles of State Policy. And yet, for all these years, there has not been any concrete move to bring this issue of triple talaq to the centre stage either by the governments of those years or by the Muslim intelligentsia. In fact, it was the denial of justice to Shah Bano, by the then government of Rajeev Gandhi, in late 80s, who instead supported the Muslim clergy and put paid to any possible reforms. According to Hussain Dalwai, a Congress MP and brother of late Hamid Dalwai, ‘Shah Bano case damaged the cause of reforms among Muslims like nothing else’.
Hamid Dalwai unlike any of his contemporary Muslim intellectuals had very bravely weathered opposition from obscurantists within the community by continuously writing against practices like Triple Talaq, polygamy, Nikah Halala and even burkha. Unfortunately he passed away at a young age of 44 in 1977 due to kidney failure. Prof Irfan Habib born before Hamid Dalwai in August 1931, did not join the like of Dalwai in trying to address the issues pertaining to Muslim women. It was only after BMMA went to court in 2015 and Supreme Court took an active role in finding lasting solution to the vexed issues plaguing the Muslim women, that Muslim intelligentsia took to public space to air their opposition to these practices. These intellectuals, whose average age is about 65, did not find the courage to raise these issues all their life. They woke up only when the present government in Delhi decided to support the BMMA cause. They probably felt threatened that they would become irrelevant if they do not mouth their views even so late in the day. However, their conclusion that BJP is only trying to score political marks in this struggle of BMMA has only made their honesty look suspect. They appeared more interested in painting BJP/ NDA poorly rather than the importance of the issues raised by BMMA. Adding to the list of these intellectuals is Hamid Ansari, the former Vice President of India, retired only a few months ago. Born in opulence, Hamid Ansari has not seen difficult days unlike most Muslims in India. It was only when he was sure, that he may not become the President of India, under constantly changing political combinations at the centre, he decided to go public with his views on issues concerning Muslims. Here too he was more interested in reservation for Muslims than addressing core issues concerning the exploitation of Muslim women. Being a highest constitutional functionary, he had the opportunity to raise issues which BMMA had raised. These issues are there despite all the advances of post independent years and yet all these Muslim gentlemen who rose to the top failed to measure up to the expectation of Muslim women. Indeed there is a serious need of Muslim intellectuals to speak up where needed, especially issues concerning their women folk.
Commenting on NDA, more importantly on PM Modi’s “Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas” at the 50th Anniversary of AIMMM, an opponent of reforms among Muslims, Ansari had complained “identity and security, education and empowerment, equitable share in the largesse of the state, besides fair share in the decision making are the principal problems of India’s Muslims. These are rights of citizens and this discrimination has to be corrected”.
Hamid Ansari is the son of a former Congress President Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari. And situation of Muslims was no different under 60yeras of Congress and Non NDA governments. He did not utter a single word those days, because, he was in active employment of these governments, as a UN representative, as a High Commissioner, as ambassador to many countries, as Minority Commission Chairman and then the Vice Presidency.
Tufail Ahmed, director of South Asian Studies at the Middle East Research Institute in Washington tore the views of Ansari to pieces. Writing in the media, ‘WHY NOT CONSTITUTIONAL PATH FOR MUSLIMS’ Tufail recounted, “At the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM), Ansari spoke as the leader of Muslims, not as the nations Vice President. Indians are in search of a Muslim politician in the mould of APJ Abdul Kalam, not Hamid Ansari”. Tufail says further “India is yet to produce a Muslim who could present himself as the leader of all Indians”. Tufail, in his write up, almost asked Hamid Ansari to ‘get lost’, when he added. “Ansari must keep in mind, Sachar like reports were produced to serve official secularism”, while asserting “Indian Muslims do not qualify as a minority”.
According to Tufail “Any attempt by Ansari and others to insert Islam as a criterion for politics must be condemned. It is time India’s youth spoke against leaders who advocate quotas in the name of religion and caste”.
Thus, he was very emphatic that Hamid Ansari had no business to mess up the already messy waters of reservation. However what is relevant to the topic under discussion is, former VP Hamid Ansari simply did not express his opinion or advocated any thoughts on the vexed issues raised 50 years ago by his name sake Hamid Dalwai and later taken up by Muslim women who suffered at the hands of their men.
Of course in their wisdom, Apex Court took up only the issue of Triple Talaq and have left the other two for the government of the day to come up with an enactment of law duly debated in the parliament with participation of all stake holders to the issues involved to bring about UNIFORM CIVIL CODE.
In conclusion, this has to be mentioned that this is a sincere and honest attempt to highlight an apparent state of affairs among Muslim intelligentsia in the overall scenario among our Muslim brethren with a hope that the educated youth of the community shall rise to the occasion in support of their suffering sisters and mothers.
J. Shriyan
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