Is the RW wasting time on the Hijab controversy? A corollary to this question is, is it BJP’s job to reform Muslim social practices?
As it is with anything that has the potential to be turned into an anti-Modi weapon, the hijab story is now hitting global headlines. The narrative is simple – that Modi is targeting minorities and trampling on their “rights”.
Now it hardly matters what the facts are. Did it ever? Who cares if hardly a dozen girls, among thousands of Muslim students, many of whom had no issues with the no-hijab rules all this while, turned it into a controversy? Who cares if, as school authorities, media reports and even columnist Tavleen Singh says violent Islamist organisations are raking this up, inciting the girls? Who cares if a dozen Western and other countries have done the same or worse? Who cares if other “minority” run schools in the same zone impose the same rule? Who cares if even some Muslim countries have banned the headscarf in schools? Who cares what Tasleema or Arif Md Khan has to say about that?
What matters, in today’s world is that the Stalinist left, that controls the liberal narratives has concluded that it is in its best interests that Muslims in India remain wedded to the most extreme and most “conservative” streams of thought. If it is Wahabism today, so be it. If something “better” comes along, the left-liberals will embrace it and be delighted if all Muslims obey that. The woke crowd in the West simply follows suit, having anyway come to the same conclusion in their own countries for pretty much similar reasons.
This is because keeping closer to the 7th century is the best way to ensure they kept in constant “fear”, anti-Hindu hate, and the speedy return of dynastic loot era, where the left can enjoy not just the table scrap of taxpayer-funded shindigs and awards, get free license to pursue their Pol Potist pogrom on Hindu faith from their perches in academia, history writing and such. I have elaborated on this earlier. While their heroes like Stalin, Mao or Pol Pot may have butchered millions, 800 million Hindus are simply too many to kill so the next best option is to destroy their faith. The frantic, clownish and pathetic lashing out at Dr Vikram Sampath shows how cornered and desperate the left is. And they are handed issues on a silver platter.
While efforts to expose the left’s lies and seize the narrative, such as those made by Dr Sampath are indeed praiseworthy, we simply have to acknowledge that we are now colonised, mentally by the left’s overwhelming control of institutions of power, patronage, academia and media. As the Islamists would say, we are in “Dar al harb”. Living in hostile territory. It is foolish to believe that you rule simply because you got elected. Rahul Roushan says it brilliantly in his pinned tweet.
So what should RW in general and BJP in particular do?
It is not your job
It is somewhat true that “woke” Muslims of the Kalam, Arif Md Khan type generally are sympathetic to BJP. In fact, Muslims that dare to come out and declare their pro-BJP sympathies (risking enormous backlash and sometimes violence) are usually modern. Yes, you do find photos of hijab-clad women or religiously attired men meeting and appreciating PM Modi for this or that. But by and large, it can be said that BJP’s chances are better with secular and modern Muslims. Yet, it is pointless for Hindu right to take up the reform job to get them there.
Even ignoring the fact that there are tons of work to do on the home front, it is doomed to fail. Even assuming the party receiving the sermons of women’s rights are convinced of your intentions (they are not), what are the chances they are going to listen?
To use nerd language, is it worth wasting bandwidth on this? Of course, not! Because that bandwidth is needed elsewhere!
This may sound like we are letting down the brave Muslim girls and women who dare to go without hijab and get beaten offline, shamed online and ostracised at home. That is unfortunately true. But if the likes of Rana, Saba, Arfa and others that don’t themselves wear one want rural Karnataka kids to go around in one, who is the bigger culprit here? Of course, they couch it in “freedom” language, exactly the sort used by Erdogan types. They are fooling none. Just check how many of them defend the ones that truly want to be free. You have your answer.
And yes, we all know it is a slippery slope with Taliban / Khoemeni type of restrictions as the destination. In case you missed it, let me repeat – it suits the left.
A bit of history
So am I suggesting that we wait another 200 years or whatever it takes for every minority to become a Kalam? I have this to say – things move surprisingly fast – and not necessarily in one direction.
The history of hijab in India as well as South East Asia is interesting. I say SEA because of cultural and other similarities and the fact that Islam is an imported religion for both. If you visit museums or look at old pictures from Malaysia or Indonesia, you will rarely come across a hijab-clad woman. Right up to the early 90s this was true of Indonesia in my own experience.
Forget about ordinary women. The Wiki page of Abdurrahman Wahid, grandson of founder of Nahdlatul Ulema, biggest Islamic organisation in Indonesia, (who went on to become Indonesia’s President) has a picture of his mother, daughter in law of its founder, without any headscarf or hijab! Ditto one of the country’s most famous pioneering and progressive women – Kartini. Today it is unthinkable.
In parts of India like Tamil Nādu and even Kerala, even Pakistan, this was the case too. Numerous other pieces of evidence abound on the internet that will prove beyond any doubt that the hijab, in whatever form, is not essential for millions of Muslim women. There is a famous YouTube clip of Egypt’s ex-President Gammel Nasser joking about it. Pictures of Iranian and even Saudi women before the oil era, happily enjoying the beach sun and surf in modern clothing are easily found on the net. Of course, Ataturk banned it. For years, Turkish generals used to refuse to shake hands with hijab-clad Erdogan’s wife until he managed to impose that “freedom” on them.
How did they slide backwards? The oversimplified but generally accepted answer to a complex question is Saudi oil money and Wahabism. Crown Prince MBS knows this and is desperately trying to change this. But the ideology they exported may outlive his reforms, even if KSA itself changes and its women go back to beaches. Now you understand why the Ranaa’s of the world are tweeting against Saudis. And how long did it take to change? Less than one generation. And in the space of that one (or maybe two) generations, traditional Brahmin women have gone from deeming singing music in public as sin to openly embracing it and emerging victorious.
We cannot predict the future, but my point is, if things change again, for the better, it may not take 200 years, but much less. And to repeat the point, Hindu RW cannot simply force the pace.
A better use of time
What then can the RW do?
The answer is both simple and difficult.
Simple because it practically writes itself – BJP, as well as Hindu RW, should not focus on Muslims but instead expose Stalinist left’s (and by extension, that of corrupt fascist dynasties that act as each other’s B-team) hypocrisy, real agendas, double-standards and vested interest in keeping Muslims backwards. It should expose their so-called intellectuals for the morally corrupt frauds they are. It should tell the Muslim women that brave threats to cast off their patriarchal chains and medieval practices that they are with them.
Difficult because this is a long-term game and easy to botch up.
But it should leave those that don’t want to listen alone.
