Away from the hullabaloo around the meeting of Muslim intellectuals with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leaders, the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind is completing 75 years in independent India in a predictably low-key fashion with the focus on women’s empowerment.
The Jamaat recently elected 22% women to its Council of Representatives, the highest decision-making body. The election of 36 women to the 162-member body stood in direct contrast to other Muslim bodies where no woman is found in a decision-making capacity.
Incidentally, while the Tablighi Jamaat and the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind have either been opposed to the idea of women entering mosques for prayers, or pay only lip service in affirmation, the Jamaat has been at the forefront of giving women their prayer space in mosques.
The mosque at the Jamaat’s headquarters in Delhi can accommodate up to 2,000 women worshippers. This action came well ahead of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board’s recent submission in the Supreme Court where it agreed that women have the right to go to mosques and no scripture prohibited them from doing so.
Also, the Jamaat stays in favour of madrasas for the girl child where students are imparted holistic education with a neat blend of religious and secular subjects. The Jameatus Salehat in Rampur is a fine example.
Lack of connect with the common man
For all the brave noises and some action on women’s education and empowerment, the Jamaat has failed to make a dent in the common man’s life. Schools, madrasas and mosques either established by the Jamaat or following its ideology, can be counted on finger tips. Its talks, seminars, workshops and exhibitions are largely urban centric and participation is often limited to the Jamaat circles. Even for a function recently hosted at the Constitution Club in New Delhi to mark the beginning of 75 years’ celebration, the attendance was thin as the Jamaat failed to get across to the common man.
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There is seldom any grassroot struggle waged by the Jamaat on issues affecting the common man’s life. While aid is regularly extended to the poor and the needy, and its members encouraged to be ambassadors of Islam through their action, the Jamaat has failed to bring into loop a larger circle of people. Its doors, while not closed to the commoners, are very hard to break open. The organisation seems to function more like a coterie of the devout.
Much of it is disappointing considering the Jamaat bore the brunt of Indira Gandhi’s ire during Emergency when many of its leaders either went underground or were arrested, and even Radiance, a journalistic publication of the Jamaat, was not spared by the government.
The arrest of its editor and staff members besides raids on the premises made it to international headlines. The ban was lifted in 1977.
Similarly, after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the Jamaat was banned by the Narasimha Rao government, only for the Supreme Court to lift the ban in 1994, calling the Jamaat, “an all India organisation professing a political, secular and spiritual credentials with belief in the oneness of God and universal brotherhood”.
Yet after vindication on both occasions, the body failed to hit the streets to win over the common man to its ideology.
Turning a new leaf
The Jamaat, which was started by Maulana Abul Ala Mawdudi in 1941, turned a new leaf with the departure of the founder to Pakistan following Partition.
The Jamaat-e-Islami was rechristened Jamaat-e-Islami Hind in April 1948, making a clear break with its counterpart in Pakistan.
While the Pakistan outfit has been largely a political entity, the Jamaat in India has assiduously been non-political and for the first couple of decades or so after Independence, was even opposed to the idea of its members contesting the Lok Sabha or Vidhan Sabha elections.
Incidentally, this is now a subject of litigation in the Kerala High Court where a PIL filed by Abdul Samad has sought an investigation into the Jamaat’s ideology. In response, the Kerala government has contended through an affidavit filed by Mary Joseph that the Jamaat “directs its followers to relinquish any key posts which he/she holds under an ungodly governmental system or the membership of its legislature or a judicial officer under its judicial system”.
While the initial days were devoted to the establishment of Hukumat-e-Ilahiya or God’s government, the Jamaat, since the early 60s has taken on a more pragmatic approach.
It not only allows its members to participate in elections whether as a candidate or a voter but also seeks to have an understanding with the political parties to ensure “the defeat of communal and divisive parties”.
Today, the Jamaat claims to be focused on the one hand on protecting the idea of India with equality and secularism as the cornerstones, and on the other, it facilitated the launch of the Welfare Party of India in 2011, in which many of its functionaries have held key positions. The Welfare Party contests elections to various State Assemblies and aims to stitch up alliances before elections to Parliament.
