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Varanasi: cosmopolitan and a role model

Vidya Subrahmaniam

The most spectacular yield of the recent affirmation of communal harmony in Varanasi is undoubtedly the Muslim effort at introspection — possible only because of Hindu support.

IN HER book Varanasi, City of Light, Isabella Tree expresses amazement that "one of the most patently polluted places on earth" should be "a place where people come to be purified." But the more astonishing thing about Varanasi, the holiest of holy places for Hindus, their stairway to heaven, is that it should be so delightfully free spirited, so unbigoted.

Local residents, surging pilgrims, salvation seekers, foreigners lapping up Indian exotica — if the Ganga seems to embrace them all, further on, in the winding lanes crammed with shops selling the Banarasi saree, the Hindu topi seamlessly mingles with the Muslim skull cap. Most wholesalers are Hindu while most weavers are Muslim, and the six yards of shimmering silk is quite the metaphor for Varanasi's composite culture. Enter any shop, and you will hear paeans sung to the city's ganga-jamuni sanskriti (complementary like the Ganga and the Jamuna) and to the reshmi mizaz (gracious manner) of its people. "Kashi jahan banti hai yeh saadi, Hindu uska tana hai, Muslim uska bana hai (Kashi where the Banarasi saree is made, Hindu is its warp and Muslim its weft)," goes an ode to the intertwined lives of Varanasi's Hindus and Muslims. This is not made-in-Bollywood integration but integration born of proximity, interdependence, and of an understanding shaped by years of sharing each other's joys and sorrows, of celebrating holi and Id as secular festivals. In these parts, it is the Hindu wholesaler who hosts the Roza iftar during Ramzan.

Varanasi's liberalism is unaffected and pervasive — visible in the evolved environs of the Sankant Mochan temple, a sanctuary for the soul and mind, and open to all faiths; in the composure of Veer Bhadra Misra, the temple's Mahant and the toast of the Muslim community for his courage of conviction in the dark hours after the bomb blasts of March 7. And in the quiet daring of Maulana Abdul Batin Nomani, the young Mufti-e-Banaras, who defied the orthodoxy to receive ganga jal from the Mahant in a gesture of communal harmony that was balm to wounded Banaras.

The Mahant's brilliant management of the blast aftermath is the talk of the town — resuming puja and aarti before nightfall, converting the evening bhajan to a shanti aur satbuddhi (peace and equanimity) prayer for communal harmony, and evicting those — Vinay Katiyar's entourage arrived to shouts of Har Har Mahadev and Jai Shri Ram — looking to stir the communal pot. To quote the Mahant, "Katiyar wanted to sit on a dharna and Advani wanted to start a rath yatra from the temple. I said nothing doing." For Muslims, the gallantry could come only from a true man of God, and with the Mufti responding in kind — swift and emphatic condemnation of the blasts followed by visits to the temple, hospitals, and appeals for calm — it was as if the floodgates had opened. Says Mahant Misra: "These days I'm very popular with Muslims. But I remind them that I'm not a neta." Yet the respect the two men command is, in fact, because they are not netas, because they foiled the politicisation of the blasts. If the Mahant has lost count of the invitations for Muslim seminars and festivities, the Mufti is a similar attraction at Hindu gatherings.

Today the Mahant and the Mufti, each a visionary in his own way, are local heroes whose communal spirit has spawned a rush of copycat gestures — on both sides. Consider the following: The temple city's showcase annual event is the Ram Katha Mandakini Shobha Yatra — an illuminated procession of motorboat-driven tableaux along the Ganga on Ram Navami day. The yatra is flagged off by Mahant Misra with a celebrity invited to be the chief guest. This year, there were two chief guests, the Mufti-e-Banaras and Noor Fatima, a practising criminal lawyer who last year built a temple in the city. A third attraction was Bismillah Khan's son, Mohammad Jamin Khan, who played the Ram dhun.

Yatra over, Varanasi was witness to a unique sight — of burqa-clad Muslim women taking to the streets, shouting "Khichdi hai saara Hindustan, alag na honge Hindu, Musalman (We are a composite people, no one can divide us) and "Muslim mahilaon ne thana hai, aatankwad mitana hai (it is our promise to end terrorism)." The chunauti rally (challenge rally) ended at the Sankat Mochan mandir where the women assembled at the very spot where the bombs had gone off and recited the hanuman chalisa. The same evening, the temple resounded to the strains of Hindustani classical music — again a composite annual festival. But this year the festival became a statement with the biggest names in music and dance turning up to support the Mahant — Birju Maharaj, Pandit Jasraj, Rajan and Sajan Misra, and so forth.

Solutions to intractable problems

The atmosphere of trust has facilitated solutions to seemingly intractable problems. A case in point is the disputed shivling-fountain adjacent to Varanasi's Shia Jama Masjid. Recently, the shivling was damaged by a falling tree causing tensions to rise. In the presence of the local police, the Mahant and the Mufti jointly decided that there could be no objection to installing a new shivling in its place.

It is not that Varanasi has no history of communal strife — there were riots in 1972, 1978, 1989, and 1990. However, in an essentially large-hearted city, these could never grow out of hand. Today in the post-blast environment of mutual consideration and support, there is a new determination to fight provocation, a new resolve to turn the light within.

The most spectacular yield of the recent affirmation of communal harmony is undoubtedly the Muslim effort at introspection. Among a string of initiatives from Varanasi Muslims, three stand out. First, the decision to end the practice of fatwas and instead have the clergy send out a strong, unified message whenever necessary but especially after a terrorist strike. Secondly, to streamline admissions to madrassas and make their functioning transparent. And thirdly, to revisit Islam for answers to searching questions on terrorism, nation building, patriotism, and so on.

Among other things, the coordination committee of Arabic Madrassas decided on mechanisms: a) to screen admissions — under the new rules, students will need to provide proof of residence besides affirmation of character and family background from the local MP and MLA/ district collector; and, b) to monitor their day-to-day activity in school and in the hostel, and c) to deport any student about whom there was suspicion, taking him back "only if he was able to prove his innocence." Says Ateeque Ansari, chairman of the co-ordination committee: "We want our madrassas to function in a clean and neat environment. Our gates should be open for inspection, for anyone to come in. When recently a madrassa student was picked up, our response was that in the event he was found even slightly guilty we will not tolerate his wajood (existence) but if he was found to be innocent we will protest."

One month after the blast, Mr. Ansari invited Muslim intellectuals and clerics from different Islamic schools, besides priests from other religions, to a seminar whose purpose was to discuss issues arising from terrorism. Said Mr. Ansari in his opening address: "We are not being defensive in organising this seminar. Today our madrassas are being looked upon with suspicion. It is in our interest that we give no reason for anyone to raise a finger at our children. Let us make our madrassas transparent, let us tell the world that there is no place for terrorism in Islam." The chief guest at the seminar was Mahant Misra. The clerics, though concerned that madrassas should have earned disrepute, were nonetheless unequivocal in condemning terrorism. Mahant Misra's unforgettable words, "ek bedeen, beimaan Hindu se ek sachcha Musalmaan lakh guna achcha hai (A good Muslim is a million times better than an immoral, dishonest Hindu)," elicited an instant reply from Maulana Abul Qasmi Nomani, "ek bedeen, beimaan Muslamaan se ek sachcha Hindu lakh guna achcha hai (A good Hindu is a million times better than an immoral, dishonest Muslim)."

Varanasi has done its bit. It is now for the Government to help Varanasi — a starting point could be to look at the ailing Banarasi saree industry. For the Banarasi saree is more than a saree — it speaks to a Hindu-Muslim unity that is a model for the whole country.

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