ઋણાનુબંધ/4. The Outsider—Muslim in Gujarati Literature

4. The Outsider—Muslim in Gujarati Literature

The recent Hindu-Muslim riots exposed several myths about Gujarat. The most common myth that such flagrant communal riots do not happen in Gandhi’s Gujarat was undeniably shattered. Further, the notion that upper-class urban Gujaratis known for their entrepreneurial acumen and shrewd commercial sense would not indulge in such violent mass behavior was also rendered invalid.

Above all, the Gujarati literary community known for its genteel Gandhian influence of secularism and nonviolence has shown, it too could fall prey to prevailing winds of narrow communalism as shown in comments made by distinguished Gujarati literary personalities on Godhara riots. For instance, K. K. Shastri, a 99-year-old venerable scholar and the past President of Gujarati Sahitya Parishad (Gujarati Literary Academy) once presided over by Mahatma Gandhi himself, remarked that the Hindu reaction to the Godhara massacre was appropriate and that Muslims were taught a good lesson. Another major literary figure, the 91-year-old, the prestigious Jnanpith award winner poet, Rajendra Shah made a statement that has created a lot of controversy because it appeared to condone Hindu counter violence.

The equivocal comments made by other eminent Gujarati writers and the delayed statements issued by Gujarati Sahitya Parishad seem to rationalize the extreme Hindu reactions without severely condemning it. Ensuing debate among literary circles revealed that most Gujarati writers and intellegentia had mixed feeling about the recent Hindu-Muslim riots that were not congruent to their Gandhian heritage.

MARGINAL PRESENCE

There is at least a century old cultural domination of Gujarat by upper class Hindus. These include Brahmins, Banias and of late the Patidars. This domination is nowhere more evident than in Gujarati literature. All presidents of Gujarati Sahitya Parishad, the primary literary association of Gujarat, have been upper class Hindus since its inception in 1905. All of nearly seventy-five winners of its prestigious literary award the Ranjitram Suvarn Chandrak have been upper class Hindus and mostly men. In all its history, there has never been a major Muslim writer in Gujarati literature. The only notable living Gujarati Muslim poet Adil Mansuri now lives in the United States. There have been other Muslim writers, particularly poets such as Gani Dahivala, Saif Palanpuri, Aasim Randeri, Shunya Palanpuri and Mariz, all of whom specialize in Gazal, a form of poetry inherited from Urdu literature that most literate Gujarati Hindus admire for its literary elegance. Only Mohammad Mankad has been a novelist of some note. However, none of these Muslim writers has achieved a major status in Gujarati letters.

Muslim content in Gujarati literature has been historically marginal. The general attitude toward Muslims is one of indifference despite the fact that they comprise nearly ten percent of Gujarati population. K. M. Munshi, a notable Gujarati novelist of the last century, is a case in point. In his famous novel Gujaratno Nath, Munshi narrates movingly about Muslim houses being put on fire and the description of how Kaak, the secularist hero saves a Muslim man named Khatib. Later on Khatib is brought in by Kaak to provide evidence of atrocities performed by his nemesis Uda. And that is the end of Khatib and the Muslim presence in the famous novel.

Similarly, another major novelist Govardhanram Tripathi brings in a Muslim to do some burglary in his magnum opus Sarsvatichandra still considered the greatest novel written in Gujarati. All this reflects the Gujarati view of an average Muslim as creature of low life. Gujarati literature merely portrays that view when it deals with Muslim characters. Even though Muslims have lived in Gujarat for centuries, there is not a single notable piece of literary work dealing with their lives. It is as if they have lived an invisible existence, except unless when they go on a rampage on a collective basis or are needed for some low-life activity on an individual basis.

OUTCAST STATUS

The marginal presence of Muslim in Gujarati literature has a lot to do with their outcast status in Gujarati society. With the exception a few middle-class and even fewer upper class Muslims, the Muslim existence in Gujarat has been generally on the fringes. They have more or less lived a ghettoized existence that has been forced upon them by their economic and social conditions. A pattern of frequent rioting has intensified their segregated existence. It all begins with the children. The Muslim children often go to separate schools. Given that Muslims live in separate neighborhoods, chances of social interaction are minimal and confined mostly to upper classes.

Since the independence, on the whole, the Hindu upper classes have enjoyed the lion’s share of economic development gains in Gujarat, particularly in agriculture and industry. The lower classes and Muslims have been left out of most economic progress. No matter what the measure, whether it is the land ownership or occupations, the Muslims have been consistently at the lower end of the scale, even though they comprise roughly twelve percent of the state’s over all population.

For example during mid-eighties, fifty-six percent of Muslims had held no land, while fifty-eight percent were eking out existence through low-level agricultural labor. Only about 2 percent of Muslims had held some type of professional jobs. Their presence in civil service and in police force has similarly been quite low as well.

Their presence and participation in political process has also been abysmally low and that too on a token basis as reflected in their presence in Gujarat Assembly, the only legislative body and in the ministry that actually runs the State government. During the thirty-year period spanning 1960-90, the Muslim participation in the legislative assembly had actually declined from about 3% (4 out of 132 in 1960) to about 1% (2 out of 180 in 1990). Similarly, during a thirty-four year period spanning 1960-1994, during which there have been twenty ministries of which three had not a single Muslim minister, fourteen had one and only two had two Muslim ministers. Even at the height of the Congress party’s KHAM strategy, where by Muslims bargained for a higher participation in exchange of their voting block, their presence was never more than four percent which is less than a third of their proportionate strength in population.

The virtual exclusion of Muslims from professions and the upper and middle strata of the economy left them with only low level activity where they can barely exist. This peculiar set of conditions has also driven them to criminal underground activities such as illicit bootlegging and smuggling.

QUESTION OF LOYALTY

In general, Hindus and Muslims have always been suspicious about each other. Their coexistence, though long, has always been uneasy. Hindus have always kept the Muslims at distance fearing their loyalty to India. The horrendous carnage that erupted between the two people after the Partition left a bitter legacy of hatred and deep distrust. Hindus have always felt that Indian Muslims carry a soft corner for Pakistan where their loyalties lie. From critical national issues such, as Kashmir and wars with Pakistan to cricket matches, there is a wide spread opinion among Hindus that Indian Muslims always root for India’s archenemy Pakistan.

The emergence of Muslim fundamentalism and associated acts of Muslim terrorism against secular landmarks such as Indian Parliament, Bombay Stock Exchange and other places deepened Hindu suspicions. Hindus felt under attack by Muslims, a religious minority that had been enjoying all the advantages of a secular nation without being loyal to its secular principles. For example, Muslims bargained for and got special exemptions from the Indian Civil Code on matters relating to polygamy and inheritance. According special status to Muslims was not welcome by upper class Hindus who had already felt pushed by aggressive affirmative action policies of Indian government that required rigid quotas for minorities for highly prized civil service jobs and professional school admissions.

Since Hindus have always questioned the Muslim loyalties, they have never accepted Muslims as full citizens of India. Muslims were accorded the advantages of secular India’s citizenship not as a right but more as a privilege that was the courtesy of a generous Hindu majority. Here in lies the rub of the Gujarati Hindu response to external criticism of the carnage that followed the tragic Godhara massacre. Instead of quickly and unilaterally condemning the police acquiescence and support of an organized massacre of Muslims by Hindus and supporting the Muslims’ right to rehabilitation as Indian citizen, the Gujarati literary community generally was slow to respond and when it did respond, it appeared to rationalize the Hindu response. Indeed, when Manju Jhaveri, editor of Forbes Journal, the oldest Gujarati magazine, complained that the Gujarati literary reaction to the Hindu violence has been too little and too late, she was chastised by several writers.

However, there were a few exceptions. Sarup Dhruv’s ‘Hastakshepa’ (interference) a book of poems in which she is enraged and speaks with a great sense of identification with Muslim women who had been victimized by the riots. For instance, as Hindu Gujarati woman poet, she writes, “I am not separate or distant from Suraiya, Salma, Fatima, Shahnaz or Amina. (These are common names among Muslim women.) Whenever evil hands strip them of their clothes, I feel someone undressing me. When violent animals touch, open, smell, press, suck, penetrate their body making it bleed I also feel violated by thousand communal penises.”

Similarly, Sharifa Vijalivala, a Muslim woman critic was very saddened by the thinking of people around her. She wrote a very moving piece entitled “Amaaravaala, Tamaaravaala, Ane Hun” (ours, theirs and I) about her predicament as a Muslim and also as a woman. “Lately I hear the leaders say that if ‘our 500 people are killed we will kill your 50,000 people.” I see that the Gujarati middle class mentality is changing. All of a sudden the people are becoming very religious. I grew up in a small village in Saurashtra where religion was observed within the four walls of the house. I followed all the religious holidays of Hindus and had learned by heart their religious texts. I had vowed at worship altar that I will not lie, I will be honest, and I will remain a vegetarian. I used to say with pride that I am a vegetarian and don’t even eat a cake. I was ever eager to show that I was one of them and to prove that I increased the size of bindi on my forehead. I never ever felt any different then but things changed when I went to college. No landlord was willing to have me as a tenant saying ‘we don’t trust you Muslims.’ I could teach Hindu children their religious texts but I cannot live amongst them. Why can’t I live as an Indian woman in any locality I choose? Why do I have to live in Muslim neighborhood only?”

There is also a new play, ‘Dost, Chokkas Ahin Nagar Vasatun Hatun (Surely Dear, There Was a City Here!) by Saumya Joshi set in circa 4002, in which two archaeologists discover the ruins of a city long dead and buried. Endeavoring to unveil the truth behind the destruction, they unravel the ruins of Ahmedabad, the major city of Gujarat where there has been a long history of Hindu-Muslim co-existence as well as riots. Joshi says, “Though the recent riots gave me the required jolt to actually sit down and writ the play, it’s not only about the riots…It’s a twenty year history of a city seen through an artist’s eye,” he says, describing a slow death of prosperity and then a decadence into polarization…the poor suffer in such a situation, irrespective of the community they belong to. Also, class discrimination is widely used for fanning religious fundamentalism.”

FAILING THE UMASHANKAR TEST

Barring a few exceptions noted above, the wider and established Gujarati literary community was simply reflecting the prevailing attitude among upper class Hindus about the Muslim community. There was no Gandhian soul searching. No major writer or poet penned any significant creative work reflecting on the horrendous events.

In general, Gujarati writers, particularly poets are quick in responding creatively to current events. Witness, for example, outpouring of numerous poems, novels, short stories, essays, etc. written to celebrate the Indian independence struggle and the achievement of Independence itself. There have been creative works lamenting post-Independence corruption and the politicization of society. Umashankar Joshi, the most admired literary figure of the post-Independence Gujarat even wrote a series of poem celebrating the founding of State of Gujarat in 1960. Ironically, in one of the poems at that time he had asked pointedly to the new state whether it would follow the Gandhi’s way. Gaa>2Ine rSte calIxne, gujrat?

What has happened since Godhara suggests that Gujarat has surely failed Umashankar Joshi’s test. Sadly, there is not a single writer of note who has raised his or her voice to remind Gujarat about how it failed and what it should do to mend its course. Instead, we have K.K. Shastri who has rather crudely, but still correctly reflecting the Gujarati literary sentiment, summed it all up by saying that the Muslims were taught a lesson and if they want to live in India, they better learn to live on Hindu terms.

A NOTE ON SOURCES

The following sources have been most useful in developing the theme as well as data cited in the paper. Two issues of Seminar (#470, October 1998, Gujarat—A Symposium on the Current Trends in an Important State and #513, May 2002, Gujarat—A Society under Siege) have been indispensable in providing a wide ranging views from a variety of experts. Numerous points of views argued in contemporary issues of Parab, a monthly publication of Gujarati Sahitya Parishad and Neeriskhak, a fortnightly journal of thought have shown the ambivalence of Gujarati literary community. Also, two books, (1) Nagindas Sanghvi’s Gujarat—A Political Analysis (Surat, Gujarat: Center for Social Studies, n.d.) and (2) Siddharth Varadrajan, ed., Gujarat—The Making of a Tragedy (Bombay: Penguin Books, 2002) provided historical as well as contemporary perspective on Gujarat politics. I am grateful to all these sources.