AN ISLAMIC CRITIQUE to LOUIS ALTHUSSER and the ‘END of PHILOSOPHY’ Anwar Haneefa
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EDITOR’S NOTE fear of proselityzing islam The word ‘proselityze’ has a negative implication when we having a peaceful democratic protest. gaze it using the epistemology of modernity. Because there At the same time, Hindutva forces spearhead the cam- has been an assumption that persuading someone to change paign as Muslim young boys are trying for love jihad to his/her belief is a bad thing which should be avoided in a convert Hindu girls which have been negated officially modernized society. This impulse is covertly spread the idea by the state claiming that there is no such a practice. that one should not change his/her beliefs which s/he born What is the politics of fear behind the conversion into with. In a Brahmanical castist society like in India, it always Islam is raising some serious indications towards the serves the interest of the upper castes and dominant commu- social psyche of the nation? The propaganda by the nities to hold their exploitative hierarchial position. But the exaggerated facts of the Muslim population-increase is other way around, it was making obstacle for the oppressed also an another side of the same coin. It would not be lower castes to have a castless life. History of conversion in an exaggeration that all these campaigns are basically India is also the history of emancipation from caste system exposing the fear of Brahminical forces who felt chal- in India. lenged by every other belief especially Islam. A relevant document which was collected from one of Though Indian constitution allows its citizens to Propagate the exhibition centers which was organized as part of and proselytize, it is always a matter of denunciation espe- Indian history congress conducted in Kerala university cially when it is related to Islam. sometimes it even resulted Trivandrum last year, tells the same story which hap- in the murder of converted. Recently converted Hindu young pened around a century back approximately. That in- man Faisal who hails from one of the largest Muslim dense cident had taken place in the Malabar region in Kerala. districts in the country Malappuram got murdered by Hindu Some police officers then serving in malabar who were bigots. The high court of Kerala in one of its recent judgments from dominant hindu castes had been accused of the nullified the marriage of a Hindu converted young woman custody violence against a Hindu man for embracing Is- named Hadiya with Shefin Jahan and send her with her par- lam. The document was a notice which called for a joint ents even without hearing what Hadiya has to say on her will meeting of Muslim organizations to protest against this with whom she wishes to live with. constodial illegal violence. This incident obviously in- dicates that the story of Faisal Kodinji or Hadiya is not There is no furor or uproar over the violation of the very fun- new. According to this document, upper caste police damental right of a citizen to propagate, profess and to em- officers had full power to entertain their ultimate -su brace the belief as the wish. Those who stand for free speech periority even in the colonial rule. But what makes the either kept silent or had a token of protest. In some occa- ongoing incidents really new and more worse is that all sions, the reaction was too worse. these are happening with the help of well structured CPM Kerala demonized the protest of the concerned citizens modern state apparatuses. The power that might be in including representatives of many Muslim organizations in indian society are trying to satisfy their communal con- demand of speedy probe in the murder case of Faisal kodinji science instead of written law of the land, to keep the who embraced Islam, by denouncing that protestors are call- Brahmanical power protected. ing for a riot. In the reality, they were - JASEEM P P Chief Editor Annual Subscription: Rs. 160.00 I Habeeb Haris on behalf of Student Islamic Organisation of India A P Zone. Printer Jaseem PP Each Copy : Rs. 15.00 Publisher & Editor Mohd Salimullah Khan. Printed at Bharat Ofset 2034/35 Qasim Jan Street, Delhi-110006, Published from D-300 (Old 230) Abul Fazal Enclave, Jamia Na- DD/Cheque In the favour of Assistant Editor gar, Okhla New Delhi-110 025. The opinions expressed in the columns of THE COM- THE COMPAN ION, New Delhi-25 PANION contain positions and viewpoints that are not necessarily those of editorial Afsal Rahman CA board or the Students Islamic Organisation of India. These are ofered as a means for SIO to stimulate dialogue and discussion in our continuing mission of being a student Layout & Cover Design D-300 Abul Fazal Enclave, and youth organisation. Salim Shafi Jamia Nagar Okhla New Delhi-25 Manager Tel : 011-26949817. Fax 26946285 Total number of pages is 36 with cover pages. Bilal Khan Mobile : +91 8447622919 The contents under this magazine are licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA (unless stated Email : [email protected] otherwise) which means you’re free to copy and share them (but not to sell them) Asst. Manager Abdul Jabbar Zahir This issue Vol 39/ Issue 05/ October 2017/ Rs:15/- Hadiya: A Muslim Woman’s fight with RSS, Brahmin Courts , Left Govern- ment and Much More PAGE 12 / COVER STORY/Mrudula Bhavani PAGE 05 / COVER STORY PAGE24 / OPINION WHAT IS IN A NAME? ISLAMOPHOBIA OF THE LEFT CONVERSION AS EXSCRIPTION AND WHY MUSLIM SOLIDARITY Dickens Leonard M POLITICS MATTERS Waseem RS PAGE 18 / VIEW FINDER PAGE 26 / IN DEPTH ROHINGYAN REFUGEES IN DELHI MULLA SADRA AND POST Bilal Veliancode PHILOSOPHY; AN ISLAMIC CRITIQUE TO LOUIS ALTHUSSER AND THE ‘END OF PHILOSOPHY’ Anwar Haneefa PAGE 20 / OPINION PAGE 29 / OPINION HADIYA’S HOUSE ARREST: QUES� TRIPLE TALAQ:RE READING THE TIONING THE PUBLIC AND MEDIA SC JUDGEMENT DEMONISATION Avantika Tiwari (LL.M) Dhanak PAGE 23 / REFLECTIONS PAGE 30 / REVIEW MY JOURNEY INTO ISLAM OF CONTEXT AND SEMANTICS Chalukyan G Musab Khalid 04 The Companion | October 2017 COVER STORY WHAT IS IN A NAME? CONVERSION AS EXSCRIPTION The Companion | October 2017 05 … No one has instigated me, whether by their acts or by their words to this Dickens Leonard M act. This is my decision and I am the only one responsible for this. Do not Faculty, Centre for Comparative Literature University of Hyderabad trouble my friends and enemies on this after I am gone (Vemula 2016) To be a Negro in this country and to be rela- tively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time - Baldwin 1961:205. This statement from the lish-speaking audience, but also across vernacular, re- African-American writer James Alfred Baldwin gional, and global spaces as well. Dalits across the globe suitably parallels, and well applies, to a “relatively agitated, mobilized themselves, and brought out protest conscious” Dalit (ex-untouchable) in an alienating statements. Academics, writers, journalists, workers, caste-context anywhere in the world, particularly, street- hawkers, and students together became a part of this in India.RohithVemula committed “suicide” on 17th uprising. Many public personalities came out openly about January 2016 andhis death sparked off massive stu- their Dalit identity. It became a social movement across the dents’ agitation and widespread Dalit mobilization country, starting from a University in South India. Perhaps across the globe as he became an anti-caste icon for the first time in India, an agitation in a University be- across the subcontinent. A new meaning to student came a rallying point for a global resistance against caste. struggles was only added after Rohith’s “suicide” And, Rohith became an iconic presence in any protest note was circulated far and wide. Ever since, the against caste-discrimination thereafter. institutes of higher education have increasingly be- Despaired after struggling against social boycott at the come sites of anti-caste struggles. Particularly Hy- University of Hyderabad, five Dalit research scholars – stu- derabad – home to an assertive anti-caste student dent leaders from Ambedkar Students’ Association – bore politics since 1990s – in South India has become a the brunt against the institutional powers of the nation. battle ground for such an incessant rage, almost all But Rohith’s death sparked off wide-spread protests across the time. the world, where dalit politics converged along with stu- Though there have been many anti-caste student dents’ and social movements against caste-discrimination movements across the country, ever since 1960s, in higher educational spaces in the country. His death was they had largely worked within a vernacular or re- considered as an institutional murder and a case under gional space. The post-Rohith movement, and the prevention of atrocities against SC/ST act was also filed in events that followed, brought to light the newer Hyderabad high court. However, Rohith’s desire to be writer political energy of an anti-caste consciousness and was fulfilled only in his death. And all he got to write was an emergent mobilization not only within an Eng- this “last letter for the first time” (Vemula 2016). Rohith Vemula – an aspiring writer and academic – son of a sin- gle Dalit mother (divorcee) became an iconic catalyst for a movement against caste-discrimination in contemporary India. However, Rohith and his family are now denounced as non-Dalits, and even in his death, his birth is clarified through enumerative categories to apprehend his life, and others (Mondal 2016; Henry 2016; The News Minute 2017). However, in the eye of the storm was Rohith’s haunting yet philosophical “suicide” note – … I loved Science, Stars, Nature, but then I loved people without knowing that people have long since divorced from nature.