Feminism/Fundamentalism/Communalism/
Pramod Muthalik/Malegaon
By Mustafa Khan
12 February, 2009
Countercurrents.org
If the English poet John Keats were alive today and based in the international IT hub city of Bangalore what would he have done? He would have written another of his immortal poems like the Eve of St Agnes. Keats would have been perplexed by Pramod Muthaliks and Raj Thackerays and the Praveen Valkes and their antics.
However Keats died too young to even see the fate of many contemporaries or the younger generation. One such was Thomas Carlyle the moral philosopher of the Victorian age. There is good deal of similarity between Carlyle and Muthalik. They lack what the minister of women and child development Renuka Chowdhary calls the give and take of life. The prudery of the Victorian age is paralleled by what is going on in India today. The skeletons in our wardrobe as in their backyard are quite numerous and hypocrisy the ruling passion. Frank Harris writes in his famous book My Life and Loves that after death of Carlyle when Mrs. Carlyle went for medical checkup on account of menopause the doctor was surprised to see that she had her maidenhead intact!
To the randy writer Harris it may have been amusing but to the health minister it is rather abnormal. She believes that members of her jat community have confidence of their masculinity and take care of their girls and women. But then it would also mean that others are not like her sturdy community and therefore their women go 'astray.' Or else what does she mean by that?
More is at stake than just male prowess, if that can be all satisfying according to the consideration of the minister. The kidnapping and assault on the Kerala MLA's daughter Shruthi and her Muslim boy friend is quite a serious matter. There are many reasons why young people come together for a chat. Sex alone is not the predominant thought when they meet. It is also true more informed youths know the limits of family and surrounding on their choice for a future. Thier relationship may or may not be intimate physically or spiritually. And if it is, what is the degree that is allowable, sharing joint seats or talking across the aisle? Physical health is no problem in Kerala but marriage, depression and suicides are. There are many socio-economic-educational factors responsible. Religion alone cannot be held accountable for such behavior. Moreover there is nothing wrong in boys and girls aboard a bus talking with each other while en-route to their destination. Politicizing and communalizing the behavior is.
And that is what has happened in Karnataka as it did in Kashmir. I recall nearly three weeks spent in Kashmir in 1988 just before the scourge of terror and insurgency and the counter insurgency violence erupted. The people lived much different. They had what can be called the modest 'veiling of eyes". They would not look or pry into the face or figure of a girl or woman. Sizing up, ogling or groping was almost nonexistent. But then that situation changed drastically, and now you have a Pandora' box of manners and morals opened.
Anyway, in the rest of the country and more notably in Bangalore, and Mangalore is not far from there, the upheaval of globalization and floating population created problems. Those who felt their hold on culture was fragile began to react in a paranoid manner and others jumped in for their political craze. Five thousand years of Indian culture does stick to people who care for it but those who are swayed with the tide of time find different moorings.
On the eve of St Valentine's we need to step out of our work places and houses, to stand out to be counted for basic rights of all human beings and stamp out fundamentalism of all sorts so that India can remain a free democracy for all the people who enjoy equality before laws of the land and equal share in all other spheres of life. As it is this resolve of protest of pink chaddi against the khak (and the farcical return of pink sarees)is not and should not be the matter of one day. It calls for a comprehensive and lasting venture together to rid the society of lawlessness of all kinds and bring in better governance.
In the meantime, Muthalik with his goons will be moving around with tubs of turmeric solution, mangalshutra, and priests (of course, moulvis will not be allowed, but then will Shruthi be allowed to tie the rakhi which the Shri Rama Sene will have abundance in stock?). Similarly, what if people of two different communities not necessarily of two different faiths want to marry? Will the constitution of the country be allowed to take its course? Renuka says we straddle the entire world and we are fond of new things despite our ancient culture and identity or identities.
Indian society is rich in multiple identities and hence there is need for multiple pronged attempts to find solution to the problems that beset all and not just one community. As no community is free from the threat of fundamentalism and yet we have to live together there must evolve a common strategy to ward off violence produced by fundamentalism. All efforts must be within the framework of the civil laws of the land. Even more important is creating understanding among the people as well as inculcating tolerance. Compulsive and competitive communalism has wrought havoc and threatens to unravel the society itself.
There are extremists who throw acid at girls coming out without covering themselves in veils. If caught such people would be sentenced to imprisonment. Already our prisons have highest number of prisoners from Muslim community. Adding more does not make sense but reforming those does. It can help bring equilibrium and result in sanity. There is an incident to think over. The blind Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel Rehman who became famous after he was indicted and imprisoned for life for involvement in the February 1993 attack on the World Trade Centre killing 6 and injuring a thousand in New York once visited the famous Masjid at Taqwa, Brooklyn, where Siraj Wahhaj was imam. Omar told the gathering of about 150 that they should rob banks to benefit Islam! The imam stopped him, "Sheikh, no. You got brothers here, some of them came out of prison, and you are letting them know that this is permissible. I disagree with that." Omar smiled and said "Imam Siraj is right." Therefore not rhetoric but wise counsel must prevail. It is important to note that reforming the felonious benefited Islam more than robbing banks, improving the neighbourhood benefited Muslims more than turning a blind eye to the degradation and neglect of the ghettos. Fifteen drug houses were shut down when the imam and his followers peacefully boycotted them, full forty days ala Noah and his flood.
The state and the government of India cannot and must not allow any fundamentalist to sink roots. Srikant Purohit, Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur, Pramod Muthalik as also the acid throwing Muslims are extreme fundamentalists of different hues and degree and their deeds create terror with varying range of disaster. The bomb that Ramji, Mutalik and Dange planted in Bhiku chowk, Malegaon, killed seven and injured more than seventy. If purda enforcing extreme fundamentalists move around from the bus stand to Bhiku chow the disaster would be unimaginable. It does not warrant drawing sword at women who come out of their houses unveiled. The area is so densely populated that there are no snakes left as they were in Arabia fourteen hundred years ago. The women rush out of their tenements not because they see a snake but because the chore and children outside call them urgently. There is such degradation of life that most of the natives of Malegaon in the indicated area have their drinking water stored outside the house and also their washing tubs, hedging in a dingy space with spinning wheels and what not as their drawing room! Therefore the need of the hour is not enforcing the diktats of the fundamentalists but understanding of the judicious counsel of the well meaning. No more 'jhalaks' of Malegaon!
