HT Special Report on the New Muslims of India:

[Flintlock]

Equality, at any cost

Sunita Aron
Pudukkottai (Tamil Nadu)

It's a big project, with all the necessary trappings - fund-related delays, a big bunch of opponents and, therefore, the need for secrecy of the kind surrounding a defence project. Will it ever be completed?

Deep inside a village in Tamil Nadu's Pudukkottai district is a building under construction. The base is ready and there are a couple of unfinished columns sticking out. It looks like some one ran out of money here.

And that, indeed, is the situation. The building is an unfinished mosque and its builder is a woman called Daud Sharifa Khanum. When, and if, it is completed, it will be the world's first mosque for women.

This will be the second first for Sharifa. Her first first was starting a jamaat made of only women. A jamaat is a group of religious leaders and elders for sorting community and domestic issues in villages. They are always made of men. And because jamaats are held in mosques - women never get a hearing, and cases involving them are settled without their presence or participation. Sharifa started jamaats of women.

The 41-year-old is a fulltime activist; she began social work in 1991. She was born in a large family of 10 siblings. Just after she was born, her parents separated, and Sharifa was raised by her mother, a teacher. Most of her education took place in Tamil Nadu. She then left for the famed Aligarh Muslim University to study office management. She lives with her husband, a businessman, in Pudukkottai.

Sharifa has grand plans. Not only will it be the first mosque open to women, it will also have women in all key positions there such as the muezzin (the one who calls for the prayer - the azaan) and the pesh imam (the one who leads the prayers). "We will invite men also," Sharifa says without a hint of rancour, "they can come and pray." But here is the revolutionary idea: "All positions of power and responsibility shall remain with women."

Just as she did with the jamaat. Her female jamaats have been so successful that even men approach them for help now. Also, the all-male jamaats are little more sensitive to women now.

The buzz around the mosque project is growing in the area. And though money is hard to find - the construction work happens in fits and bursts - there is hope that it will be completed. Some day.

An estimated 10,000 women showed up for prayers at the groundbreaking ceremony. Now, however, she is struggling for funds. Things haven't improved much since, despite many appeals. "I can complete the construction work in three months provided I have the funds," said Sharifa. The project began in 2003, and she hopes to complete it by 2009, if she can find the funds for it.

She says women had access to mosques during the Prophet's time, and to his abode, to clarify doubts. But, today, men have interpreted the religious tenets to their advantage, keeping women out. "Ninety percent of Muslim women face issues related to dowry, a practice prohibited in Islam. Rs 50,000 dowry and Rs 500 meher, our clerics know about it, but no one raises these isssue. But when it comes to discriminating against women, they never lose an opportunity. See how they opposed Sania Mirza, Imrana, Khushboo…"

Getting land for the mosque was difficult, too. Some people enthused by her campaign backed out when they heard the clerics were up in arms against Sharifa's mosque. She says clerics tell her to turn the building into a community centre - they are fine with that. There have been threats to her life, too, something that she does not take seriously despite police advice.

Eventually, Sharifa donated her own land. "How can anyone stop me from constructing anything on my land? I have kept our beliefs about the mosque direction in mind while getting it designed."

She agrees to give us a tour of the mosque - or the building under construction. But makes it a condition that we will not identify the village. We agree readily. The building has plenty of natural green cover.

The project is likely to cost Rs 35 lakh. She has launched a $1 million project urging her friends in India and abroad to donate a dollar each. And her appeal has started fetching support. A friend sent her Rs 55,000.

In her appeal, she says: "I appeal to you to contribute to accomplish the historical edifice, which stands as a mark of rights of Muslim women and ensures space for them."

And here is her ultimate dream: down the road from her mosque is a church managed by two sisters, and there is a temple that is being looked after by the 75-year-old mother of the man who made it. "One day this would emerge as the biggest holy centre in the world run and owned by women."

For now, she says, work will resume shortly on the mosque.

saron@hindustantimes.com

 

[Flintlock]

Some of her Quotes:

"Ninety per cent of Muslim women are facing dowry problem prohibited in Islam -- Rs 50,000 dowry and Rs 500 meher -- our clerics know about it but no one is raising it - but when it comes to discriminating against women, they will not lose an opportunity - see how they opposed Sania Mirza, Imrana, Khushboo…", says Sharifa, a social worker.

"We will invite men also, they can come and pray... but all positions of power and responsibility shall remain with women" -- Daud Sharifa Khanum, 41, who is building a mosque for women in Tamil Nadu

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

It seems that cultural norms tend to exercise control that even religion finds hard to break - indeed inadvertently itself being molded and twisted to conform to, and justify even, culture.

 

[Flintlock]

It seems that cultural norms tend to exercise control that even religion finds hard to break - indeed inadvertently itself being molded and twisted to conform to, and justify even, culture.

Yeah. Majority of muslims in India are very different from those in Pakistan or Middle-East.

A lot of them don't wear burkha, but saris, practice dowry, etc.

Also there are a lot of sufi-influenced muslims in India, who's practices would shock any devout muslim in other parts of the world.

But then we have Deobandis, who are famous for banning TV and music.

Then we have the elite muslims, who form the crop of businessmen, film stars, artists, musicians etc. and vehemently deny when accused of being non-islamic. Unfortunately those are few in number.

Islamic culture in India had a great contribution in terms of architecture, poetry, dance, music etc. The classical Hindustani Urdu-speaking culture of Lucknow seems to have disappeared.

Majority of Indian muslims tend to live in ghettos and isolate themselves from secular education and the changing India around them. Strangely enough, the conservative values they are trying to protect weren't even practiced by their former Mughal rulers.

 

[su-47]

Yeah. Majority of muslims in India are very different from those in Pakistan or Middle-East.

Muslims everywhere are different, just like christians are different in different in different countires. Religion is not the only factor determining way of life. Culture and society are also critical factors. The culture and society in india is different from that in pak, so obviously there will be a difference in the people too.

Majority of Indian muslims tend to live in ghettos and isolate themselves from secular education and the changing India around them. Strangely enough, the conservative values they are trying to protect weren't even practiced by their former Mughal rulers.

Thats wrong. majority of muslims in india blend in society. its the fanatical minority that cut themselves off

 

[Flintlock]

Thats wrong. majority of muslims in india blend in society. its the fanatical minority that cut themselves off

Comeon Su, even in a cosmopolitan city like bombay, muslims live in separate areas and from the rest of the population.

Similarly in Delhi, where Muslims live in only the old city and don't mix with the outsiders a lot.

They don't cut themselves off completely, but they refuse to become part of the mainstream middle class with jobs in the new economy.

 

[su-47]

well, in cities i know like cochin in kerala, the muslims just blend in, so i was posting on that basis

 

[Shivakumar]

I think it is an old news that I had read it in tamil weekly two years back.

 

[Flintlock]

well, in cities i know like cochin in kerala, the muslims just blend in, so i was posting on that basis

Oh yeah, South India is different. There Muslims tend to be more part of mainstream society than North India.

 

[Flintlock]

I think it is an old news that I had read it in tamil weekly two years back.

Dunno...it was posted in HT just yesterday.

 

[Flintlock]

It's possible even in Kashmir

Neelesh Misra
Srinagar

As street noises of a lazy Kashmir afternoon filtered into the hotel room, Mehraj Gulzar jolted the reporter with a controversial quote from George Bernard Shaw.

"I remember, a famous person said `Islam is the best religion but Muslims are the worst followers'," said Gulzar.

It was his son's birthday, and his wife was waiting for him at a relative's to begin shopping for the evening party. But the discussion had taken a turn towards religion, and the 34-year-old had too much to say.

"I am a very proud Muslim. But yes, there are certain things, which are being projected very wrongly about every Muslim. There is a lot of politics getting into religion and everybody interprets Islam according to his requirement, the way it suits him," Gulzar said of Jammu & Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state. "Even our priests these days, the mullahs, they interpret Islam the way it suits them."

Gulzar speaks with quiet, unflinching confidence that comes from years of living through both war and peace. He left Kashmir to study engineering in 1992 after his father was abducted several times during some of the worst initial years of militancy.

Then, nine years ago in May 1998, when the region was in the thick of India-Pakistan tensions after their rival nuclear tests, he returned and quietly set up a Kashmiri novelty not too far from the sandbagged airport: an information technology company.

"People here did not know anything about information technology. The main task was to educate people about what it all means - what software means, what hardware means, what a mouse means, what a keyboard means," Gulzar said. "It was not that just the young generation did not know about it - even the high level bureaucrats did not know about it."
Now his company, MIT, develops computer software. It is a career graph unimaginable for Gulzar in 1989, when he was in the Xth grade and the militancy began.

"To be honest, there were occasions when I really would get angry enough to pick up arms," Gulzar said.

Thousands of Kashmiri Muslim youth took buses to border towns and then trekked across into ***. Many were Gulzar's own classmates.

Someone else was travelling out as well - Kashmir's Hindu minority, known as Pandits. Facing threats and attacks from militants and sympathisers, thousands fled with their families, leaving their homes. The militancy - based on the main demand of separatism - suddenly assumed an Islamic flavour.

"There were certain agencies here in Kashmir who wanted to give the armed struggle in Kashmir a communal look," Gulzar said. "The militants or people involved in the armed struggle also knew that if Pandits continued to stay in Kashmir, they are going to harm their cause very deeply."

Pandit or Muslim teenagers grew up over the past two decades often without ever getting to see a Kashmiri of each other's religion.

"The Pandits loved Kashmir, Kashmiriyat even more than Muslims. I think Muslims miss them even today. If you go to the neighbourhoods where they lived, they are remembered by name," he said.

Trouble reached his doorstep as well. Gulzar's father, an engineer with the state government, came under threat from armed groups.

"My father would often be kidnapped … we never knew which person belonged to which agency," he said.

Soon his family feared for the son's safety as well. He packed his bags to leave the valley.

"I remember before going to Bangalore I had this notion in mind that it is going to be very tough as far as studying in Bangalore is concerned, being a Muslim," he said. "I was very scared and apprehensive because I would always hear stories that Muslims are being troubled outside."

He was so concerned about fitting in that he didn't even join the Bangalore University hostel.

"We were about four-five Muslim guys from Kashmir and decided to stay in a flat because we thought we would have our privacy and there would be nobody to trouble us," he said. But after a year at college, he changed his mind.

"My whole impression proved to be wrong. Even today, all my friends are Hindus and Sikhs. We stayed in the hostel, we would share a common mess, and sometimes we would share a common plate also," Gulzar said.

When he returned in 1998, violence continued in Kashmir and the economy was virtually defunct. Job opportunities were scarce and industries almost non-existent. Gulzar and a Kashmiri friend from his engineering college decided to take a leap of ambition.

"We wanted to get some latest innovative ideas to our native place," he said. The software business began.

In the years since, much has changed for young Kashmiri Muslims, he said.
"In their heart of hearts, there is definitely political hatred towards America, Israel, etc. But the youth are becoming more career-focussed rather than politics-focussed … they are focussing on learning the latest IT courses," he said.

Alongside, he sees Kashmiri Muslim youth leaning much more towards religion than ever before, with one of the reasons could be the Muslims' hostility towards the West.

"It is making them more religious. When I go to a mosque now, I see that the attendance is much, much more than what it used to be previously," he said.

Even at his dinner table, Gulzar finds himself increasingly talking about religion - something that rarely happened before.
"I don't deny that there is a lot of injustice and a lot of politics being played with Muslims," Gulzar said. "But the way we are dealing with these problems, if you ask me personally I don't exactly agree with them. It's really important for a Muslim country or a Muslim region associated with injustice to make themselves economically and technologically strong."
But in embattled Kashmir, that is faraway dream for now.

"I would really cherish a Wipro or Infosys coming to Kashmir, but I doubt it," he said.

neelesh.misra@hindustantimes.com