Targeting secular edifices

By Shamsul Islam

THE SHIBLI National Post-Graduate College (SNPC), Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh and the Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), Delhi, are two well- known educational institutions run by Muslims with a common nationalist heritage. Both these institutions have their genesis in the freedom movement. The present-day SNPC started as a madarsa founded by the great nationalist, Maulana Shibli, in 1883. He was well aware of the designs of the British rulers to divide Hindus and Muslims after the Great Uprising of 1857. He was quick to realise that the education system run by the rulers was a powerful tool to divide Indians and make them rootless.

A few months before his death in 1914 he also founded the Darul Musannefeen (the House of the Authors) where intellectuals and authors would live together to work on series of books on different aspects of knowledge, keeping in view the interest of the Indian people. After Shibli's death it was named Shibli Academy, housing one of the greatest reference libraries in Asia. In the 1930s when communal forces among both Hindus and Muslims were out to divide society to the satisfaction of the British rulers, the followers of Maulana Shibli renamed the madarsa Shibli National Inter College which later developed into the present SNPC. Those were times when the British rulers hated the word ``national''.

This whole complex became the hub of activities of great personalities of the freedom struggle such as Gandhiji, Motilal Nehru, Madan Mohan Malviya, Sarojini Naidu and Jawaharlal Nehru. They came here to hold important meetings of the Congress. This institution is known for its principled opposition to the two- nation theory and never wavered from it.

The present-day SNPC proudly continues the same heritage. Today out of a total strength of 9,500 students, almost 7,000 are Hindus. On its library walls hang big rare photographs of Mira Bai, Premchand, Rabindranath Tagore, Gandhiji, Dr. Ambedkar and Maulana Shibli, reflecting the unique essence of this great institution. It is also one of the rare educational institutions run by Muslims which does not have a mosque on its campus.

Following the same tradition, Jamia was co-founded by Gandhiji and Maulana Mohammed Ali Johar in 1920, after Gandhiji's call to boycott the educational institutions run by the British rulers. It too, became a centre of the national movement and remained an eyesore for both the Muslim League and the British masters. The JMI which was founded in Aligarh shifted to Delhi in 1925. The Jamia academic community stood solid as a rock against the two- nation theory. Gandhiji was always proud of this institution.

Interestingly, when the Muslim League claimed to be the sole representative of the Muslims of pre-partition India, these were the Muslims who firmly rejected its postulations and claims.

The intellectuals from amongst these `nationalist' Muslims were aware of the fact that if Muslims were to be saved from falling prey to communal politics and the idea of their being a separate nation, they had to have educational institutions which would provide an environment of objectivity and reason. These would not only act as a bulwark against the imperialistic designs of divide and rule of the British masters but also give birth to a resurgent India.

These two notable Muslim centres of education with a common glorious anti-colonial and nationalistic heritage have recently been subjected to a common communal onslaught from police and forces of hindutva. The SNPC was the first institution to face the burnt. Communal Hindu forces chose the last Republic Day for the onslaught on this secular institution. The SNPC, as in the past, celebrated Republic Day on January 26, with the tricolor- hoisting ceremony and the NCC parade in which more than 500 students, teachers, employees and district officials participated. However, one ABVP leader filed an FIR on the afternoon of the following day, January 27, complaining that the college did not celebrate Republic Day as the Muslim management was not willing to have Vande Mataram sung. The FIR also mentioned that on January 26 itself, in the presence of the College Principal, one Muslim teacher of the Chemistry Department not only abused `Bharat Mata'' but also insulted the national flag. The same day, two more FIRs were filed by persons connected with the RSS, implicating many more unnamed persons in the same kind of offences. Most astonishingly the administration without verifying the facts arrested the college principal and kept him in jail with hardened criminals for two days with all kinds of communal insinuations showered on him. Fourteen students were also arrested and kept in jail for more than 45 days.

A fact- finding team consisting of Dr. Asheesh Mital, Mr. Satender Singh, advocate from Allahabad, Dr. N. Bhattacharya and this writer (from Delhi University), which went to Azamgarh found that all the boys who happened to be Muslims were not allowed to sleep for four days, were beaten black and blue in the jail everyday, repeatedly forced to shout ``Jai Hanuman'', sodomised by hardened criminals at the instigation of some people (who used to roam inside the jail as officials but seemed to have direct links with the Hindu communal organisations) and were bailed out only by the Allahabad High Court.

The bone-chilling details of religious persecution (like shaving off their beards) which these boys related to the team will put even the most barbaric theocratic states of the past to shame. Here, despite there being no named FIR against these innocent young boys and men, the local judiciary forgot to assure them basic human rights. In the case of the teacher, under the garb of attachment orders even the doors of his house were taken away.

Jamia was targeted on April 9. The PUCL and other media reports have clearly highlighted the fact that this time it was the Delhi police which took upon itself the responsibility of teaching a memorable lesson to the `ISI agents', `Pakistanis', `anti- national', Muslim hostelers of this university. The rampaging Delhi Police, while using phrases such as Pakistan bana rakkha hae yahan, specificially targeted students with beards and wearing kurta-pyjama thus greviously wounding many non-Muslim students also. The students who were busy preparing for exams were thrown down from first, second and third floors of the hostel buildings and then beaten up again. Police dogs were let loose on students who hid themselves with the police shouting mulla ki tang pakar ke laa. The sniffer dogs were taken to the mosque situated in the hostel complex. It was ransacked and the Imam was left along only when multiple fractures on his body were visible. Beards were plucked in order to make the victims, `Indian'.

You have to meet the victims to gauge the feeling of hurt, humiliation, helplessness and isolation. The feeling of disillusionment with the Indian secular state is too glaring to be missed. It is difficult to believe that these are unrelated and isolated incidents. M. S. Golwarkar, ideologue of the RSS, while referring to ``internal threats'' named Muslims, Christians and communists in that order. His dictum that ``the hostile elements within the country pose a far greater menace to national security than aggressors from outside'', seems to be the latest wisdom of the police who have been communalised meticulously.

In fact, by targeting all such institutions that symbolise peoples' unity and common nationalist heritage, hindutva wants to achieve another nefarious goal. It knows very well that such attacks are only going to strengthen the communal and fundamentalist organisations among Muslims. The RSS, unfortunately, believes that without communal Muslims it will not be possible to legitimise the communal extremism of hindutva. Secular Muslims are proving to be the greatest stumbling block on the road to the fulfilment of its dream of ``Hindu Rashtra''. Hence they are working overtime to destroy secular India.

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