How to transform BJP-Muslim relationship

Shariq Ahmad’s last sentence set me thinking: Can the equation between the BJP and Muslims ever change? If it does, it would benefit the BJP electorally. But I am not primarily interested in which party benefits and which party loses. Far more important is: Isn’t this transformation worth attempting because of its immense contribution to communal harmony, national integration and India’s inclusive and all-round development? I do not have all the answers to how this transformation can be brought about. However, I feel an inner urge to share my reflections with readers through this series of four articles.

All those who work sincerely for Hindu-Muslim unity within the larger framework of Indian nationalism — and I consider myself to be among them — soon realise that it is not an easy task. It is often frustrating, and sometimes looks almost Sisyphian in its doomed denouement. Sisyphus, a Greek mythological figure, was condemned by the gods, for all eternity, to push a rock up a mountain. Each time he shoved it up, the rock rolled down and Sisyphus had to start his fruitless attempt again.

One looks wistfully at the high degree of communal harmony and national solidarity witnessed during India’s War of Independence in 1857. Sadly, it could not be sustained. Ninety years later, weak Hindu-Muslim unity led to the blood-drenched division of India, rendered bloodier by Lord Mountbatten’s messing up of the Partition plan. Even in independent but truncated India, we have not found an assured path to achieving strong Hindu-Muslim unity based on a shared commitment to harmonious national living.

The analogy with the Sisyphian fate is of course misplaced. Firstly, Sisyphus was engaged in what was essentially a meaningless endeavour. In contrast, the effort to promote Hindu-Muslim unity is anything but meaningless. It is a pre-condition for the emergence of India, and the rest of South Asia, as a land of peace, harmony and progress. Hence, all those who deeply desire to see a better future for India and the Indian subcontinent — free of violence, tension, poverty, inequitous development and human suffering on a colossal scale — must continue to strive for this ideal, irrespective of failure or partial success along the way.

Secondly, Hindu-Muslim unity is not really a chimera as it sometimes seems. In Hindu India’s millennium-old contact with Islam, the two have influenced each other in so many positive ways that numerous common social, cultural and spiritual bonds have been forged. Before Partition, there was something called ‘Indian Islam’, spread all across the subcontinent, which was quite different from Islam in the Arabian desert. Similarly, spiritual Islam left its fragrance on the best of Hindu minds, taught by the Vedas to “welcome noble thoughts from all sides”. So much so, that Swami Vivekananda, the greatest of the Hindu renaissance leaders in the 19th century, said this in a letter to a Muslim friend on 10 June 1898: “I see in my mind’s eye the future perfect India rising out of this chaos and strife, glorious and invincible, with Vedanta brain and Islam body.”

If both Hindus and Muslims unhesitatingly accept the truth of this mutual influence, which is the bedrock of our common Indian nationalism, we will be able to together push the rock of unity up the mountain of hurdles without fear of seeing it roll down to the bottom.

After India became independent and adopted a democratic Constitution, the problem of Hindu-Muslim unity acquired a new dimension exhibiting two contradictory features. On the one hand, democracy, for the first time in a thousand years, wiped out all notions of rule by a Muslim king or a Hindu king, and established rule of the people, in which the vote of every citizen, irrespective of their faith, caste or class, had the same value. This had a tremendous potential for promoting national integration.

On the other hand, the dynamics of electoral politics have to some extent complicated the problem of Hindu-Muslim unity, best seen in the phenomenon, in recent decades, of the Hindu votes divided on caste and other lines, and Muslim votes more or less united against any party or candidate who is most likely to defeat the BJP. This has hurt the BJP. But has it helped Muslims? No. Has it helped India? No.

Hence the urgent need for the BJP and Indian Muslims to change their attitude toward each other.