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 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 , 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 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 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. Our feelings are second handed. Our love is con- structed. Our beliefs colored. Our originality valid through artificial art. It has become truly difficult to love without Iyyotheethasa pandithar getting hurt. The value of a man was reduced to his imme-

06 The Companion | October 2017 diate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a for some birth is a curse; and his birth is a fatal ac- thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made cident (Vemula 2016). Is there any birth that is not a up of star dust. In every field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and fatal accident, one wonders? One could also extend in dying and living. whether the birth of nation, the birth of what is to I am writing this kind of letter for the first time. My first time of a be human, who is an untouchable – are they not final letter. Forgive me if I fail to make sense. My birth is my fatal accidents? If they are indeed just accidents, why is the value of a person never treated as a glorious Faculty, Centre for Comparative Literature accident. I can never recover from my childhood loneliness. The un- University of Hyderabad appreciated child from my past … being made out of star dust? Why s/he is reduced to an identity, to a number, to a vote, to a thing? He went on further to state, in a Christ-like manner that – Desiring to be a writer of science, Rohith became a … No one has instigated me, whether by their acts or by their ghost-writer of sorts in hiseventual death. words to this act. This is my decision and I am the only one respon- Rohith’s gesture against violence – his sacrifice, sible for this. Do not trouble my friends and enemies on this after I his gift of life and death – is perhaps against caste am gone (Vemula 2016). that “things” human beings to their immediate While his death was considered as a sacrifice, it was also widely identity and nearest possibility. A question of val- perceived that his aspiration was humiliated, rejected, and reduced ues against the notion of “what it is to be” was to death. The Dalit presence is then perhaps ontologically never hu- raised. Did Rohith’s death signify the death of a man enough, as many a time, as increasingly cows are holier than community? Or did it signify the political valency a Dalit and a Muslim in contemporary India. And, the Dalit pres- of the community of deaths? Is death, an offering ence in academic spaces haunts the privileged and the dominant as to the community, a gift? What about the death – they are made to belong to a different time, who however occupy – a living social death – before the physical death, non-meritoriously – the present, “modern,” spaces that are largely which is inscribed in the corporal experience of an populated and designed by/for the “upper” castes. Though rejected untouchable Dalit-ness? Is death a gift then, for a over dead-meat; they haunt in their presence as socially dead be- community to come? Did Rohith’s death embody ings. They are subjected as incompatible beings in life but become the lack or a failure of an anti-caste community, powerful icons in their deaths. They, perhaps, are ghost-presences. located and positioned from an outcaste ontology, However, Rohith rejected this rejection, willfully, through his death. especially in modern spaces in this country? ROHITH’S SHADOWS Can (caste) death be one’s own? As births are nev- Rohith Vemula wrote in his un-departing note (and I repeat) that er treated as fatal accidents; deaths too are never

The Companion | October 2017 07 inci- dents of choice. Writing, and reading, is to be exposed, Per- to expose oneself … to ‘exscription.’ haps, The exscribed is … that opening into there is itself, of writing to itself, to its own nothing inscription as the infinite discharge of in caste meaning (Nancy 1990:64) that tran- scends one’s out of social death, and exhibits a will to life. He had signed- death off his death desiring movement – “from shadows to stars.” from His death can be evaluated as a gift of death towards life. It birth. is a call for a future; perhaps, for a coming community. This Defiant- prophetic call could treat someone as “a glorious being made ly, Ro- of star dust.” This clarion call is against caste that “things” hith’s human beings to their immediate identity and nearest possi- Sree Narayana Guru depart- bility. His martyrdom, perhaps, raised the value of what it is ing “to become.” It is a call for a community that values how one note is dies, rather than what is one’s birth. It is a call towards a com- about the life of death as an incident of choice and munity of death, not birth – which is an exciting freedom from a lack-of-choice.It is a gift – that communities’ give social-death – a call towards “exscription.” and take – where death defies and refutes one’s own EXSCRIPTION(IN THE LIGHT)OFSHADOWS birth and becomes an open call for a movementto The Dalit subject is often objectified by an existential bro- come. Perhaps Rohith’s movement taught us in an ken-ness and is a subject of venomous prejudice. Pain, trau- Ambedkarite sense that “the battle is in the fullest ma, and scars are its markers though many have intervened to sense spiritual … it is a battle for freedom.” change this phenomenon. However, it is generally understood When not given a proper burial, where his body that this broken image is deprived of any positive memory. was taken away and burnt on a pyre in haste, his However Dalits as oppressed communities have foregrounded kith and kin decided to have a Buddhist death cer- exscriptions of caste-lessnessagainst various hermeneutics of emony in an Ambedkarite fashion with his ashes. caste – be they colonial, missionary, nationalist, brahminical, On his 27th birth anniversary (30th January 2016), and casteist. In this attempt, they have continuously engaged around eight thousand people clad in white walked and conceptualized a theory of anti-caste community that is in silence from Deeksha Bhoomi to the Rashtriya generated from Dalit experience which invariantly exposes Swayamsevak Sangh headquarters at Nagpur in inscriptions of caste. Thinkers like IyotheeThass and Dr. B.R. protest. Besides, Ambedkarite Buddhists received Ambedkar have creatively retrieved a civilizational memory students throughout the train stations from Hyder- through Buddhism from a vernacular resource. This act of ex- abad to Delhi, when students travelled to Delhi to scription, perhaps, is a specific kind of modernity that is both seek justice for Rohith. And on the 125th birth anni- “closed and open-ended, fragile and ecologically just.” versary of Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar – on 14th French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy introduces the term “ex- April 2016, Rohith’s mother and brother – Ms. Ra- scription” to refer “becoming-other-than-itself,” whereby writ- dhika and Mr. Raja Vemula converted to Buddhism ing and reading exposes oneself to the other – to “exscription” in Bombay, thereby inaugurating another debate on (Nancy 1994:18-19). He states – conversion and caste. Perhaps death raises the ques- Writing, and reading, is to be exposed, to expose oneself … tion of community, sociality, and fraternity much to ‘exscription.’ The exscribed is … that opening into itself, of more intimately for the Dalit community, as a social writing to itself, to its own inscription as the infinite discharge death precedes an eventual death. of meaning (Nancy 1990:64). Rohith’s life and death seem to suggest that Dalit- And differs it from inscription thus – “the being of existence ness is accepted and romanticized only if it remains can be presented … when exscribed … where writing at every socially-dead. It threatens, if it rejects passivity, exits

08 The Companion | October 2017 moment discharges itself, unburdens sure, discharge, and unburdening. This dation. Such name can be the property itself” (64). Moreover, it “distances sig- is reflective even in their adopting and of the Untouchable only if they undergo nification and which itself would be exploring Other’snames – or in other religious conversion. A conversion with- communication … they communicate as words, exscripting themselves. For in- in Hinduism is a clandestine conversion complete what was only written in piec- stance,Iyothee Thass was born Kath- which can be of no avail (Ambedkar es and by chance” (65). Nancy argues avarayan in the year 1845. And as he 2014:420). that it is an exscription of finitude as admired his teacher Tondai Mandalam A little earlier, in the early 20th centu- against inscription towards infinity. And VallakalatinagarVee. Iyothithaasa Kavi- ry, the Tamil intellectual Pandit Iyothee this is could be applied to Dalits’ disen- rayar Pandithar, he changed his name Thass (1845-1914) had run the magazine gagement with caste and Brahminism, to Pandit C. Iyothee Thass, coincident- Tamizhan (1907-1914), which revived and their creative exploration with an- ly, just like Dr. B.R. Ambedkar did five interest on Buddhism as an anti-caste ti-caste religions – specifically as writing decades later. Bhimarao Ramji Amba- religion.Thass was born a Dalit from the and reading – as ex-scribing a casteless vadekar also changed his name to B.R. Parayarcommunity, nevertheless, he community. Ambedkar in memory of his teacher. contested the category Parayar through- Thus, anti-caste intellectuals treat And later, in “Away from the Hindus,” out his life. He floated alternative, open naming as a political act – as an expo- Ambedkar explores a very interesting identities such as poorva Bouddhar search and theory of names in the wake (Ancient Buddhist), Jaadhi pedha matra of the resolution passed in the 1936 Ma- Tamizhar/Dravidar (Caste-less Tamils/ The mass-conversion of har conference in Bombay, where the Dravidians), and Tamil Bouddhar (Tamil five lakh Dalits to Buddhism community decided to abandon Hindu- Buddhist). in October 1956 under the ism and convert to some other religion. A man of anti-caste ideas, Thass was leadership of Dr. B.R. Ambed- Ambedkar argues that – a major leader, intellectual and activist kar, just seven weeks before The name matters and matters a great whose life, work, and legacy have regret- his death, has been the sin- deal. For, the name can make a revolu- tably remained neglected by historians gle-most defining moment of tion in the status of the Untouchables. until recently. In many ways, a precursor conversion in history “out- But the name must be the name of a to towering anti-caste figures like Peri- side the fold.” community outside Hinduism and be- yar E.V. Ramasamy (1879-1973) and Ba- yond its power of spoliation and degra- basaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (1891-1956),

The Companion | October 2017 09 Thass was the first to develop an anti-caste narrative by and in letter” (Choudhary 2017:18). Ambedkarite Buddhism espousing and writing on Buddhism. He was a practition- emerges from the perspective of “annihilation of caste” er of Siddha medicine, who during the 1881 British-India or as an assertive “rejection of rejection” (Guru 2009:212). census, appealed that the panchamas(ex-untouchables) Thus,anti-caste movements would consider “naming” and were not Hindus and that they must be recorded as orig- “conversion” as a movement towards an embodied ethical inal Tamils – Adi Tamizhar (Aloysius 2015:69). He used community that isexscribed beyond textuality – a “becom- Tamil literary resources and palm-scripts, so as to field an- ing” that could transform the “Dalit rage” and enlighten “the ti-caste, Tamil literature, and folk lore based explanations shadows” adequately. on Buddhism.

This anti-caste exscription gestures towards an autono- Dickens Leonard M., submitted his PhD thesis on Iyoth- mous embodiment, beyond just being restricted as a pol- ee Thass and Tamil Buddhism titled Casteless Community luted shadow. It counter-looks caste with an oppositional (2017) at the Centre for Comparative Literature, University gaze, with a resistant touch, with an act of annihilation. of Hyderabad. He presently teaches at the same centre as a Its struggle against civilizational violence unravels caste’s temporary faculty. He largely works and writes on anti-caste direct, insidious violence, and its chronic inalienable dis- intellectual thought and religion, as well as on film and cul- honour. It, hence, fashions a “genealogy of loss” that in- ture. tegrates experience, understands social inheritances, and REFERENCES : anchors the living present with a conscious community through civilizational memory beyond conscious rage. Adcock, Catherine S. 2014.The Limits of Tolerance: Indian Secularism and the Politics of Religious Freedom. Oxford: (BE)COMING OUTSIDE THE FOLD Oxford University Press. Throughout India, the majority of converts out of Hindu- Aloysius, G. 2015.Iyothee Thassar and Tamil Buddhist ism today, as in the past, are significantly Dalit, and the Movement: Religion as Emancipatory Movement. New Del- present Indian legal and political system minoritize both hi: Critical Quest. Dalit and women in this context – in the sense that they are not fully capable of making their own decisions and there- fore require supervision (Roberts 2016:7). Moreover, reli- gious conversion is portrayed in the national discourse as an attack on Indian culture and the innermost essence of the nation itself. Religion, however, is conceptualized very differently by Thass and Ambedkar from those imagined by the nationalist public sphere. In thorough borrowing of tropes and inspiration from various religions and regions across the world, and through a radical articulation from different cultural resources, anti-caste thinkers (Thass and Ambedkar) seem to set a different discourse on conver- sion – in the context where anti-conversion laws advocate that conversion disrupts social cohesion; and Christianity and Islam are portrayed as converting-religions which are made responsible for communal conflict (Adcock 2014). They seem to counter this argument completely and turn the gaze on caste and Hinduism as ultimately responsible for creating conflict and violence. The mass-conversion of five lakh Dalits to Buddhism in October 1956 under the leadership of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, just seven weeks before his death, has been the single-most defining moment of conversion in history “outside the fold.” Since then, many Dalits in the sub-continent had converted to Navayana Buddhism as “a mass communica- tive action” in the Ambedkarite sense. The new Buddhism Bhima Bhoi prescribes “the creation of a new collective body, in spirit

10 The Companion | October 2017 Ambedkar, B.R. 2014. “Away from the Hindus.” Dr. Babasa- heb Ambedkar: Writing and Speeches. Vol. 5. New Delhi: Dr. Ambedkar Foundation. 403-421. Baldwin, James. 1961. “The Negro in American Culture.” Cross Currents 11.3 (Summer): 205-224. Choudhury, Soumyabrata. 2017. “Ambedkar’s Words: Ele- ments of a Sentence-to-Come.” Social Scientist 45.1-2 (Janu- ary-February): 3-18. Guru, Gopal. Ed. 2009.Humiliation: Claims and Context. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Hegde, Sasheej. 2016. “The Gift of a Life and Death: Rohith Vemula and ‘Us’.” Economic and Political Weekly51.49 (De- cember): 28-30. Henry, Nikhila. 2016. “It’s Official. Rohith Vemula was Dalit.” (18 October). http://www.thehindu.com/news/na- tional/andhra-pradesh/It%E2%80%99s-official.-Rohith-Vem- ula-was-Dalit/article14424041.ece. Web. 26 June 2017. Mondal, Sudipto. 2016. “Rohith Vemula: An Unfinished Poikayil Yohannan Portrait.” Times (January). http://www.hindu- stantimes.com/static/rohith-vemula-an-unfinished-portrait/. Web. 26 June 2017. Nancy, Jean-Luc. 1990. “Exscription.” Yale French Studies 78: 47-65. Nancy, Jean-Luc. 1994. “Corpus.” Thinking Bodies. Ed. Juliet Flower MacCannell and Laura Zakarin. Trans. Claudette Sartil- iot. California: Stanford University Press. Roberts, Nathaniel. 2016.To Be Cared For: The Power of Con- version and Foreignness of Belonging in an Indian Slum. Cali- fornia: University of California Press. The News Minute. 2017. “A Year On, Rohith Vemula Case Held up by Confusion over Caste.” (17 January). https://www. thequint.com/india/2017/01/17/a-year-on-police-claim-rohith- vemulas-caste-uncertain-case-makes-no-headway-dalit-sui- cide-death. Web. 26 June 2017. Vemula, Rohith. 2016. “My Birth is my Fatal Accident.” (19 January). http://indianexpress.com/article/ india/india-news-india/dalit-student-suicide-full-text-of-sui- cide-letter-hyderabad/. Web. 26 June 2017.

Jyotirao Phule

The Companion | October 2017 11 COVER STORY

Hadiya: A Muslim Woman’s fight with RSS, Brahmin Courts , Left Government and Much More 12 The Companion | October 2017 phone call, the phone is switched off. Hindu Father and his Muslim Daughter Mrudula Bhavani There begins Hadiya’s strange case, Hadiya’s father Ashokan had served Journalist at Narada News a 25 years old Muslim woman who is a the Indian army for 17 years, that too in doctor by profession. It is quite evident Jammu and Kashmir. He stood chin up “Plzhelpme” that the outer world, the state and the and unchallenged in front of us, when Hadiya sent this message to her hus- patriarchal institutions and the Brah- we went to meet Hadiya for the first time band Shafin Jahan in June, right after she minical terror outfit RSS is sending ma- on August 26. Me and my colleague Libin was dragged and dumped into the in- licious messages about this woman. And went there faking as trainee journalists. sides of her own house, which she left on tearing her apart in all possible ways, Ashokan told us that he is not letting her own will, in search of a new identity, the world is so unkind towards Hadiya. anyone to meet Hadiya until the case is new faith and of course new life. That Later, Shafin sent a letter to Hadiya. But over. was the only attempt Hadiya could make the letter returned within days, saying When I asked him when the case will from that prison cell inside her house. ‘’Refused”. get over, he said “I have no idea” and he She could steal the phone and take it to By then, their marriage became the laughed out loud. I could see the system the toilet and call Shafin. tricky political myth ‘Love Jihad’ and a laughing at his face. I asked him, “till Eager to know about the updates about national security threat. Because, she then you are going to keep her in custo- their case, and to let Shafin know about is not a Muslim woman who embraced dy?”he said “yes”. her case, Hadiya made a phone call. She Hinduism, she is a Hindu woman who “How long it would be?”I asked. told Shafin she is under RSS custody and embraced Islam. A brave woman who “who knows! It’s the supreme court asked him to help her somehow. She en- denounced Hinduism. This country will and NIA investigating the case.” Once quired about their case. Shafin told her not allow you to denounce Hinduism again laughter. that they are moving to the Supreme and embrace Islam, it needs you inside Court. The 36 seconds phone call ended it, bend headed in front of the tricolor This is the care and protection she re- there. This call she could make some- flag, otherwise you are invalid. ceives at home. how is the last communication between But, fortunately Hadiya got Dr. Ambed- A female’s body is under custody of her Hadiya and Shafin. After this particular kar on her side. parents, of a religion her parents belong

The Companion | October 2017 13 to, of an ideology her parents believe in, of an in- wanted to meet and talk to us, she was not stitution they are slaves of, of patriarchy which is allowed. The room sickens her. She is under Brahminical, of RSS, the Hindutva terror outfit. surveillance even inside her bedroom. Is she Hadiya sent back several RSS councilors. They a criminal? Is she a suspect? Is she a terror- came to change her mind. To take her back to her ist? No. she is, in the eyes of law, an anti-na- Hindu household. tional. The poonool wearing, patriarchal Su- preme Court called her a child. What about Between, Rahul Eswar, the television debate the thoughts and choices of an adult woman? face for the Sangh visited Hadiya’s house thrice. What about her career? What about her love? Once he sent out a selfie with Hadiya and her fa- What about her body and its physical urgen- ther Ashokan. During a hidden camera operation cies to move, to make love, to travel, to serve Rahul did, while talking with her mother gave an herself to her profession, to live as if she wish? accidental entry and asked Rahul “will I live like this? Is this my life?” Rahul diverts the camera from Free Hadiya from the Hindutva Assault Hadiya. Assault on her body is assault on her mind. Hadiya screamed out for help… It’s been three months and half. A few more Journalists are not allowed to meet Hadiya. Even people started talking about Hadiya and the at the courts she was not allowed to speak. The rights violation she face. Protests arose at Kerala High Court verdict nowhere says media can various central universities like University of not meet Hadiya. But her father Ashokan allows no Hyderabad. Students are coming together in media person inside. I created a whatsapp group Kerala campuses. There are emerging Dalit, organizing journalists from various media organi- Bahujan groups demanding Hadiya’s freedom zations, keeping in mind that justice should be en- in cities like Mumbai. Hadiya is being dis- sured for the alive, not after death. cussed nationally and internationally. The group contained many journalists who are On August 19th, I met Madani at his Kochi already under state surveillance. There was lot of residence. He was getting ready to go back to limitations. Very few turned up. hindrances from Bengaluru. Madani asked why is it difficult their own news organizations checked many. So, I for the state to understand that a woman, her decided to go alone and give a try. body, her rights and her will is so much alive and important. He said, there is nothing to Later, in Malayalee Feminist Reading Group, a wonder about this case while they killed 105 post by Inji Pennu invited women to go meet Had- kids in Utharpradesh. iya. There met the six of us for a mission. Shabna Sumayya, Ammu Thomas, Bhoomi, Sajna Shaz, On August 21 Asaduddin Owaisi, AIMIM Anusha Paul and me met for the first time at Vaik- chief and MP raised concerns about her condi- kom. We had a very vague idea about what is going tion. He urged that let Hadiya speak her mind out. He demanded the appointed judge to en- Gouri Lankesh, to happen. quire her case, to go meet her and talk to her. noted journalist Another chance Hadiya got to communicate with who was shot the outer world was when we went to meet Hadi- Essar Batool, Kashmiri womens’ rights activ- dead by right ya with some gifts. The police, the family and the ist and writer who is one of the women who wing terrorists RSS activists abused us. It was amidst the tussle refiled the Kunan Poshpora case of 1993, ques- on September Hadiya screamed out through the window, seeking tions the state on this case. She asked what 5th in Bengalu- help. “I want to talk. They are beating me. Save if Hadiya commits suicide, in whose name ru had written me.” I could see just two eyes. For a few seconds, will they file a suicide abetment case. Think- and article on we could send some messages. She was pulled ing aloud, Essar shared with me some grave Hadiya in her back from the window, and the window got shut. concerns about how patriarchy works in state machineries. Essar said it is just that men are tabloid Gauri We could send a message to her that, the outer preying upon Hadiya in all possible means. world, a few women are concerned about her en- closed existence, in a world toned with hatred and Gouri Lankesh, noted journalist who was Islamophobic prejudices. shot dead by right wing terrorists on Sep- tember 5th in Bengaluru had written and ar- I was hurt. I was hurt for the fact that, though she ticle on Hadiya in her tabloid Gauri Lankesh

14 The Companion | October 2017 All state institutions are casteist and patriarchal. If savarna women can denounce caste at their best and fight their families and the state, that would end in some good result. The victimization of Hadiya is done by Savarna men and Savarna state institutions. This must be challenged

Patrike. She questioned the courts. But many patriarchs as well. These female patriarchs of those who say “I am Gouri and Shoot me rarely challenge caste. They either succumb too” are reluctant to utter her name, Hadiya. to it or never think a bit about it. Savarna Gouri introduced her perspective to the Kan- women can revolutionize their own castes. nada audience. Those who read her article Confronting once own privilege position is may be having a thought and word about what savarna women can do. Hadiya. Hadiya must be read in many lan- All state institutions are casteist and pa- guages, many Indian languages. T triarchal. If savarna women can denounce Though the left government in Kerala act caste at their best and fight their families like they oppose saffron terror and Sangh and the state, that would end in some good Parivar, they are good allies on another side. result. The victimization of Hadiya is done by The Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who Savarna men and Savarna state institutions. also handles home ministry didn’t spoke a This must be challenged. word about Hadiya till now. Assma Tasreen, But the Savarna feminists in Kerala, from a woman who chose Muslim identity had the very beginning had been silent about sent a letter to the CM, seeking immediate Hadiya. Hadiya case is undigestable even at intervention in Hadiya’s case. The CM’s un- the edges of Savarna Hindu Feminism. The der secretary sent her a mail saying they will lack of intellectual and emotional intimacy take necessary actions. No action was taken. with a woman who denounced Hinduism Comrades are not concerned about Hadi- keep themselves at a distance from Hadiya. ya’s life. Patriarchy feeds this lack of intimacy. This Comrades are concerned about Shafin’s po- lack of intimacy and silence helps family, litical affiliations. state, the left government who rules Kerala, and the RSS. Kerala Police tried to charge Shafin in criminal cases, while the accused is anoth- er Shefin. Kollam Kilikollur Police tried their How long will you keep her under custody? best to make this conspiracy work out, but Custodianship is dangerous. the accused and his father came up with al- Court procedures are long run. legations against the Kerala police. Against victimizing an innocent. Investigations are tiring. Hadiya: First Muslim Woman under RSS’s By continuously torturing bodies until House Arrest they get frozen, like the game they play with Abdul Nasar Madani, I am afraid that they Hadiya’s house arrest in not just physical. would keep Hadiya insides for a long. They It surrounds around her body. A Hindu did this with many fighters. They made Irom household had always been seen victimizing Sharmila to fast for long 14 years. She even its women. The hierarchy inside the fami- lost her menstrual cycle. Bodies are meant to ly is least questioned. Men are not the only move. Let them move. perpetrators of patriarchy. There are female

The Companion | October 2017 15 PERSPECTIVE

Is Religion Opium of The People ?

Zama Shaikh

When we look at the current situation of the world and recent riots in Haryana and nearby areas by followers of terrifying incidents where people are being killed by cer- Gurmeet Ram Rahim is a classic example of how religion tain groups and people, with too much emphasis on their can be used to instigate people against people. religious identity, it raises the question whether Karl Marx was right when he said, “Religion is the opium of the peo- But if above examples are enough to believe that religion ple”? is the actual reason behind such brutal and barbaric act, we should also look at some examples from the so called The inhuman and brutal killings of people by ISIS, Boko followers of Marx. It is believed that around 10 million peo- Haram and Al Qaida in the name of Islam with slogans ple were killed directly or indirectly by Stalin alone. The like Allahu-Akbar, the killings of Muslims in Rohingya policies of Soviet Union where religion had no place were by Buddhist monks, lynching of Muslims in the name of no less barbaric. Thousands were killed during forceful de- gau-rakshak in India, hate crimes by white supremacists portation of Crimean and other people by Soviet regimes. in Europe, subjugation of Palestinians by Israel and Jew- You can not imagine to have a dissenting opinion in China ish arsonists are some common examples where most and most of the communist regimes across the world. barbaric acts are committed in the name of religion. The

16 The Companion | October 2017 Raja Ram Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar and Swami Vivekananda who asked people to return to Vedas. Had they succeeded at larger level, un- doubtedly India would have seen a Re- naissance of its own, but unfortunately people just keep their pictures in their house and forgot their teachings.

Interestingly people are taking excep- tional interest in other religions with- out having the basic knowledge of their own. These people should realise that what they think of knowledge about other religion is mostly the exploita- tion of their existing prejudices. They are committing double mistake of being ignored about their own and other one also. Such prejudices fail people so low The truth lies somewhere else. It is not .and ISIS emerge that they become supporter of criminals the religion but religious ignorance like murders, rapists and terrorists. which leads to such violence. When In contrast to the Arab nations, ma- you attach all of your emotions to your darsas flourished in India and helped The riots in Haryana, and lynching of in- ideological identity, and then have no people belonging to different sections nocents happened not because religion understanding of that ideology, you of society to understand their religion. is the opium of the people, but because are bound to act like a monkey dancing And this is one of the biggest reasons of ignorance of people about their reli- around his master, especially when the why terrorists don’t get any support gion. The only thing they know about knowledge of religion is limited, and from Indian Muslims. When Pakistani themselves is their identity. It is not the interpretation of religious teach- military started the operation against surprising, that none of these groups ings is left to few elite class or special Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan terrorists, across the world are able to give a piece people. people fully backed army to cleanse of undoctored text to support their ac- their nation from such criminals. tivities. Same applies to people fighting Both Iraq and Syria have been ruled on Social Media, who just happen to be by Bathist regimes, which found the When church had the full religious as Hindus or Muslims but are themselves Madarsas and religious teaching the well as political authority to interpret ignorant of their teachings. Case of Iraq biggest hindrance in their promotion Christianity in whatever way they liked, and Syria is in front of our eyes, the his- of Arab nationalism. Political Islam has Europe suffered from Dark Ages. Such tory of Dark Ages can be easily found. been continuously suppressed and re- absolute power leads to corruption by Still if people of this country choose to ligion is just an identity for most of the elites and exploitation of peo- follow the path of ignorance and are Muslims in those regions. Its interpre- ple, especially those who often face blatantly defend crimes which are in tation especially political and social challenges because of the prevailing fact against their own religion, then this interpretation was left to few elites who prejudices in society. Opium of Ignorance will consume all interpreted it as per the wishes of those of us. Instead of following blindly, peo- dictators who were ruling them. This It was unfortunate for India, that due ple will have to bring the Renaissance tactics is still being employed by many to deep rooted casteism the religious which social reformers of nineteenth rulers in that region. But when power texts were accessible to just few people. century tried to bring. Even after more vacuum is created, the different ambi- The religious practices were gradually than a century, it will will not be late. tious people feed on this religious ig- moulded into some cultural form, and Otherwise, people may claim to be Isla- norance to pursue their political goals. people were least bothered about the mist, Nationalist, Feminist, Secularist Well assisted by different blocks and original texts. Nineteenth century saw or what ever they like, they will remain arms suppliers, groups like Al-Qaida some serious attempts by people like monkey of some masters who will use them to satisfy their greed.

The Companion | October 2017 17 VIEW FINDER: ROHINGYAN REFUGEES IN DELHI

Snaps by: g Bilal Veliancode Freelance photojournalist based in New Delhi

18 The Companion | October 2017 VIEW FINDER: ROHINGYAN REFUGEES IN DELHI

The Companion | October 2017 19 OPINION HADIYA’S HOUSE ARREST: QUESTIONING THE PUBLIC AND MEDIA DEMONISATION Dhanak

Dhanak, the queer feminist group of As a queer feminist group, we would like to highlight certain University, extends its full and unconditional solidarity to issues and questions that should be raised in the continuing Hadiya and Shafin Jahan. The case of Hadiya has gained unconstitutional, illegal and strongly condemnable much media attention by now and the facts of the case annulment of their marriage, the house arrest of Hadiya, the are out in the open – the conversion of Hadiya to Islam, NIA probe, and the public and media demonisation of the the annulment and nullification by the Kerala High Court .couple in question of the marriage of Hadiya and Shafin, the enduring house year old woman, the multiple, pathetic-24 ,arrest of an adult Islamophobia and the Indian State utterances in the judgments that infantilise Hadiya and insinuate many unfounded things against her husband, and There is no question at this point and perhaps there never perpetuate the Islamophobic discourse of “love jihad”, and has been – it is undeniable that the Indian state and all its the dangerous and completely unnecessary ongoing NIA apparatuses are extremely Islamophobic in nature. Whether probe into the case that has been ordered by the Supreme it is the Kerala High Court – a high court in the state that Court of India – and do not require to be told and retold each lays claim, almost always, on much progressiveness, even .time radicalism – or the Supreme Court, all are affected, even created on these foundations of Islamophobia and extreme The most recent developments in the case are also perhaps anti-Muslimness. This is not a question of one right-wing the most terrifying. News from the NIA probe has found government, or one aberrant incident. There have been its way in major newspapers, including many, many facets of this Islamophobia, manifested in and media (Asianet). The NIA )2017 30th August( everyday and extraordinary ways, through the very laws and probe – which was ordered perhaps precisely to present the rights that are seen as objective, rational, inclusive and as findings in such a way that would cement the annulment forming the basis for equality in the Indian state. There have of the marriage of Hadiya and Shafin, extend her house not just been many other cases like Hadiya’s, but they have arrest, criminalise Shafin and further the false discourse been easily tagged under categories of “love jihad”, and we of “love jihad” and “radicalisation” – reports its findings do not even know how many lives have been ruined in this predictably: that of Hadiya’s conversion being forced, of fashion. Islamophobia works in so many, numerous ways the marriage being a sham, and the entire conversion and that unless we speak of these interlinked facets, it would later, relationship being part of a larger pattern of forceful be impossible to challenge it. Even in this case, it has been conversions and even links Shafin to ISIS and indicts the deployed in many ways- from the bogey of love jihad, to as a large scale force carrying out the aversion and suspicion on the conversion of a woman such actions. What will come of the probe can be predicted to Islam, to the highlighting of Shafin and the organisation already, but if we are to prevent irreparable harm being he is linked to as irrevocably “criminal” and “terrorist” done to either of the two people in question, and to create – the judiciary and the NIA have left no stone unturned a popular and public resistance against the widespread in displaying the various ways Islamophobia functions discourse of “love jihad”, we must speak out now before it .throughout the arms of the Indian state is too late. Videos have also emerged from outside Hadiya’s house showing her shouting and crying about being hit, On Hadiya’s Conversion, and its threat to Brahminism visible from outside her window. This is beyond the mere question of house arrest – she is forced to live in direct and While there has been solidarity for Hadiya and Shafin to the closed proximity with her parents, surrounded by police, extent that it is seen as a violation of their constitutional and there is no information of the conditions she is being rights to marry, to love, and Hadiya’s right to liberty and .kept in freedom, one question that must be seriously addressed is that of her conversion itself. The courts in question have

20 The Companion | October 2017 consistently displayed doubt and disbelief record many historical pamphlets and writings towards not only the fact that she could choose that have laid claim to the same – and this to marry Shafin of her own accord, but more continues in new and unprecedented ways well importantly, complete disbelief and even anger including a clutch of Hindu nationalist ,2017 into at her conversion. What is it about conversion websites that make similar claims about love to Islam – and away from Hinduism – that .jihad and conversion threatens the very foundations of the Indian year-24 ,state itself? If she is truly a powerless The fact that the Brahminical imagination can old girl who doesn’t know what is ‘good’ for her, extend to fantasies of the inevitability of the what is it about her decision to convert that has potential Muslim patriarch, but cannot imagine shaken everything and everyone around her? a world where one may love freely, across caste, Her choice of doing so – if one cares to listen religious and class lines, is a testament to the – has been an extraordinary one, and also impossibility of love in this ‘nation’ which is not one that so many other men and women have just based on the rotten foundations of caste, as .suffered for choosing in this nation’s past Dr. Ambedkar had written, but also one where the Muslim is the eternal other, one whose loyalties Hadiya has complete legal and constitutional are always questioned, and one upon whom the rights to make the decision she did – but of labels of patriarchal (potential or actualised), course, legality and technicality is not what is ‘regressive’, ‘homophobic’, ‘terrorist’, ‘extremist’, even being considered here. If it was genuinely ‘fundamentalist’ are always available to be used. a question of legality, all of Hadiya and Shafin’s This case, and the impunity with which the actions were in the legal frame of things. highest bodies involved in it are able to use these But when it comes to a question of a women discourses in order to completely snatch away the transgressing the boundaries that Brahminism most basic rights of Hadiya, is perhaps the best has set down for her, deciding to embrace – or the worst – example of how Muslimness is Islam, and marry a Muslim man of her choice, criminalised and discursively produced to an all legality goes out of the window. If we must extent that seems almost impossible to counter, speak of choice, agency and freedom – we but absolutely needs to be countered in any way must also speak of why this decision, why this .possible conversion has sparked so much outrage and Islamophobia .trigger such events works in so Can any imagination – feminist, radical, liberal, queer, leftist, Ambedkarite – truly respect and many, numerous Of “Potential Patriarchs” and “Extremists”: recognise the possibility of Hadiya – or any Saving Women from Muslim Men ways that unless other woman in her position – desiring, loving, we speak of wanting, and forming a companionship with a Recently in an article in , ‘prominent’ these interlinked Muslim man, without casting aspersions, doubts feminist activist and writer J. Devika facets, it would or turning the full gaze of suspicion on them? Can perpetuated familiar stereotypes where she be impossible ?our imagination even extend that far called Shafin a “potential patriarch” and tried to challenge to create a binary between the RSS and outfits Beyond Liberal Politics of Choice and Agency of the Sangh on one side and the SDPI/PFI on it. Even in this the other, even as she admitted there was a case, it has It is not merely the question of “choosing” – the significant power imbalance between these been deployed right to convert, the right to marry, the right to forces. The fact that in a piece that was meant to in many ways- marry across religious bounds, the right to be part be a feminist defense of Hadiya, the writer chose from the bogey of an organisation such as the PFI, the right to be to focus on the (inevitable) potential patriarchy free and not under house arrest. These rights, of of love jihad, to endowed in the (Muslim) male body is actually course, in theory, exist for all people belonging to entirely unsurprising, but nevertheless deeply the aversion and this nation-state. A language of choice and rights problematic. The eternal project of saving suspicion on the will merely inform us that all that Hadiya and women from Muslim men, Islam, and their own conversion of a Shafin did was legal and it is judicial overreach desires to either enter into more egalitarian woman to Islam, .that is at fault here faiths than the ones they were born in, or to to the highlight- love those seen as the eternal other has a long The truth remains that not all people, and not ing of Shafin and and wretched history in this country. It is not a all communities have access to these ‘choices’ as new project. All through the twentieth century, the organisation easily as others; that not all communities in this for example, there have been organisations he is linked to country are even seen as deserving of citizenship that have created the bogey of love jihad – in as irrevocably and all that citizenship brings with it; that the different forms and with different names – with criminal language of liberal rights, freedoms and choices absolutely unverified and unfounded claims and terrorist are not even an avenue that would ever be offered of hundreds, even thousands of Hindu women to two people so marked in their difference, in who were ‘seduced’, ‘tempted’ or otherwise their Muslimness, in their deviance, and in their attracted towards Muslim men. There exists on .rejection of Hinduism in the case of Hadiya

The Companion | October 2017 21 these identities and axes – and if we are to truly speak of a Criminalisation and Demonisation of Muslim “queer” politics, we must “queer” our own understandings and Agency formations of why we love who we love, and we why reject who we reject, and whom we consider worthy of solidarity and whom The demonization of Shafin Jahan – and we consider to be beyond the domain of queerness and feminist the organisation he belongs to, the Social .politics Democratic Party of India, which is the political arm of the Popular Front of India – absolutely If we are to truly see queerness as sticky, as something that must has to be interrogated when we speak of inform all our politics and our everyday lives, then we must look Hadiya and this case. This kind of production at our own failures as well. In our search for decriminalisation, of stigma is not exclusively the domain of the in our search for privacy, in our celebration of “our” histories Supreme Court or the NIA – the involvement and “our” historic events, whom do we leave by the wayside? of an anti-terror agency is a highly dangerous Where has the gaze of the Indian state turned (and where has it development in this, as we historically know always, always remained) while we were seeking acceptance and from the demonization and stigmatisation of our positions as rightful, legitimate citizens? While we celebrate Muslim organisations such as SIMI or Campus whose lives ,377 the implications of the privacy judgement on Front of India and PFI itself. The Supreme were falling apart? How has the rampant Islamophobia and Court has pointed to Shafin’s participation in casteism within our own queer politics produced and played SDPI and connected it to larger discourses – part in these familiar discourses that can easily and comfortably unfounded bogeys – of radicalisation and love enact endless violence on the Muslim body? We cannot count .jihad .ourselves out, and erase our complicities

The erasure, demonisation and criminalisation The queer movement’s history has been intertwined with legal of agency is a running thread throughout this battles.These battles have never been easy, and while some have case. Whether it was the agency of Hadiya to yielded partial results, the domain of law is always a deeply convert, or the agency of Shafin’s politics, or contested one. In this case as well, the court has invoked parens of their decision to marry, there is a complete patriae – which can only be legally invoked in the case of a denial of any possible Muslim agency. The minor who is unable to take decisions for herself, which Hadiya involvement of the NIA will only spark off an is not. The court has consistently raised questions on Hadiya’s even greater impetus to criminalise any form of mind, on her decision-making, on her independence, and has Muslim political agency as terrorist, deviant, completely invalidated and erased her status as a subject with anti-national, violent or extremist. As history constitutional rights. One cannot imagine kind of violence she tells us, it has required the most innocuous must be facing in the conditions of her house arrest, guarded of things as “evidence” to demonise Muslim policemen and her parents – who 20 as she is by more than organisations and Muslims associated with the court still sees as having her best interests at heart, despite such organisations – whether it is innocent displaying everything to the contrary. When all these actions children’s books as in the case of SIMI – and and normalised and sanctioned under the law – what legal in turn, these discourses are used to feed into ?progress are we chasing other discourses of love jihad, of mentioning and dropping random, but very careful words An Appeal such as ISIS, Syria, radicalisation, etc. that ensure that the needle of doubt and suspicion We cannot claim to know or understand how it would feel to will never be fully revoked, even if this case be in the position that Hadiya or Shafin are in today. But our falls through and all the rights of Hadiya and solidarity as queer activists is firmly with the two of them, and .Shafin are restored to them .with the countless others who have been vilified in this way

Why We Speak as Queer Activists We also appeal to the organisations on this campus who claim to be progressive and democratic to call for some form of As a queer feminist group, we are aware demonstration to mark the injustice that is being perpetuated of the faultlines in what often forms our in this case, and to vocally stand in solidarity with Hadiya and understanding of queer or feminist politics. Shafin. We may be very far away from the situation in question Cases like Hadiya and Shafin’s, or the many but it cannot be an excuse for silence or inaction. We are aware cases in the past of alleged “love jihad”, that elections are around the corner and this issue may be of and even cases in other parts of the country little interest in this moment, but these questions cannot be that involve people loving across caste and suspended forever. As a campus, we must also introspect and paying heavily for it – have often not formed examine our own participation in the discourses that make part of what we deem queer politics, and such horrifying developments possible, not see it as something our solidarities have mostly been tokenistic that happens beyond the ‘progressive’ politics that we claim to and/or absent. The defense we must hold up .pursue cannot be an abstract defense of “love” or “choice” removed from its axes of caste, class, religion, dis/ability, etc. Love is never beyond

22 The Companion | October 2017 REFLECTIONS

MY JOURNEY INTO ISLAM

Chalukyan G

Thanks to lovers and haters alike. The slum as well. As I mentioned earlier I found it shameful to have caste identity decision to become a Muslim is not but always took pride in attaching myself to be a fisherman. Because they and the legality 2012 new. I did this in were the people who were discriminated in my society and they are till date. was done only a few days back. I’m This is were I got introduced to see the life of Dalits who were discriminated a Tamil whose lineage and pride lies for hundreds of years because they were born into an Avarna caste (outcaste) in Thiruvalluvar’s teachings where according to the Brahminical Hindu order. They were not just considered social justice and oneness of God is lower but completely outside the system, hence the word Untouchable. This years back which is older 2000 taught pain of being a part of an oppression never felt good for me. My father and few than Islam. Any faith, be it Christianity of his friends introduced me to this caste bigotry and discrimination towards or Buddhism or Islam that has such Parayar community and religious discrimination especially on Muslims in qualities is appropriate for us Tamils as their casual talks. They weren’t serious but they had it in them. One such my friend Joshua says. Due to Brahmanic person is an Assistant commissioner in DGP office of Tamil Nadu. Once I had infiltration a lot of our culture and a chat with him where I felt like I was sitting in an RSS office. Yeah, it was that tradition were corrupted and Hindus bad. The communal hatred. I’m never against people of any faith personally. of Tamil Nadu had fallen into the caste I’m only against systems of oppression. I still live in a Brahmin dominated system which I’m against hardcore. Our colony and have good friendship with people on personal level. But I’m a deities were hijacked to suit Brahmanic hardcore rebel against structural system of Brahminism which shattered and supremacy designs. This seeped down corrupted Tamil society. Does this mean Islam or any other religion is highest? to the present dominant oppressive No. I don’t say anything as the highest. They are just faiths and everything classes and castes as well. I was born has people in them. We all don’t even know about thousands of native faiths to a father who comes from a non- worldwide like the ones of tribal faiths. Everyone are people and everyone Brahmin Poonul wearing community are equal. Every faith has its own problems and I took up Islam knowing and to a mother who comes from a the most of its problems and fallacies as well. As I said, whichever faith that backward community which oppresses ensures social justice and equality to its followers works for my society and schedule caste people till date. I till I found Islam to fit my ideas. This is not the case with Hinduism as a person date felt ashamed for this stain of is segregated into a lower caste or a higher caste merely by birth where one oppressive caste identity on my birth. cannot chose to switch between. As one of my leaders Ambedkar said “Though Humans being discriminated based on I was born a Hindu, I solemnly assure you that I will not die as a Hindu.”, birth is an injustice and in whole world now I have come out of the Brahmanical Hindu faith to embrace Islam that it happens only in Hindu faith. My gives me one umbrella of one Almighty, one community at least in a prayer father was a caste supremacist and my hall and by basic tenets of the faith. I’m also aware Ambedkar converted to relatives as well though he came from a Buddhism but I did not choose it for reasons of rebelling against the prevalent poor background. This happened on my Islamophobia. All said, I shall stand by my leaders and visionaries like mother’s side as well, but thankfully Thiruvalluvar, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Periyar, Ambedkar and other my mother was a Periyarist who never contemporaries to remain a rationalist all my life and be a Muslim as well believed in this caste system and stood who shall question any injustice if it’s done in the name of Islam too, like how against it all means. She worked hard I always stood against Wahabist ideologies within Islam. I’m happy for the to bring us up – my brother and myself. change of my religious and political identity where I’m entering the door of She introduced us to books which is the Sufi Islam. I wanted to wait for my Nikah day to inform this to everyone, which biggest gift. In her busy work schedule I is why I did now. God bless! Freedom was brought up by a fisher woman in a

The Companion | October 2017 23 OPINION

ISLAMOPHOBIA OF THE LEFT AND WHY MUSLIM SOLIDARITY POLITICS MATTERS

Waseem RS Research Scholar Centre for Law and Governance, JNU At the JNU Campus, there is an unwritten law imposed This is indeed a new argument for the left politics. They by the ‘paternalist Indian left’ in relation to Muslims. It is are suffering from short term memory loss in terms of the argument that the solidarity from the Muslim student the political history of the JNU campus. There are many organizations must be rejected because of the reason instances where Muslim student and political movements they are not Dalits, nor feminists, nor leftists. There is supported the left in campus politics or in the general no such thing as Muslims student politics in the leftist election. At that time, there was no worry about the imagination. You cannot speak as a Muslim. You can impurity of the Muslim solidarity politics. AISA and SFI only speak as a Muslim woman or lower caste Muslim. were the benefactors of the Muslim vote bank for decades The moment you utter the word Islam or Muslim, you are .in the JNU union elections .finished The emergence of the autonomous student politics in

24 The Companion | October 2017 the JNU campus is a recent act of developing a complex yet firm development. The critical .solidarity language of caste, gender, community, and religion made As Muslims, we foreground the ethical possible a new imagination and political principles of Islam in around the autonomy of order to understand the issues of the oppressed. The radical society and politics. It is Islam that democratic political vision makes us stand for social justice in developed by the oppressed the Indian context. We respect those unity is non- hierarchical, plural who opt out for other solutions to the and inclusive. It rejects the top- issues of marginality – those who are down approach of the leftist keen to develop the conversation away parties and the brahminical from the paternal Indian left – yet, .vanguardism of the left leaders that does not mean we will accept the uncritical imposition of categories on After the development of the our approach – whether it is the class, idea of oppressed unity and gender, caste, religion etc.- without after the rise of BAPSA as developing an understanding of the an electoral force, there is a role Islam plays in determining our break in the radical consensus .political categories at JNU campus. One of the consensuses was that the only It is important to stress the role assigned to Muslims in JNU difference of Islam in the context is to vote for the left and live in of the unacknowledged privilege a self-isolated space without that Hinduism enjoys in the Indian organizing politically. It was the imagination, and that informs most same project that RSS assigned of the alternative politics that we are to Muslims. You live the life of a familiar with the JNU campus. Just ‘good Muslim’ as long you don’t think for a moment about the Holi interact and act together with celebration, the food culture, the dress other oppressed communities. codes or the academic ceremonies in Similarly, the paternalist Indian the JNU! They are Brahminist inside left seems to suggest that and out. For that simple yet profound Muslims should isolate from the reason, simply being a Muslim in India rest of the JNU students and stop is a disturbance to the social fabric of supporting social movements imagined nationalist unity – whether fighting for justice. This .leftist or rightist argument comes precisely at the moment Muslims reject the As Muslims, we refuse to live in the rhetoric of the left and join with cocoon assigned to us by the left. As other oppressed peoples for the Muslims, we refuse the isolationist sake of acting together against politics of the left. As Muslims, we injustice and violence that is are not safe as long other oppressed experienced by non-Muslims as communities are not safe. We are .well as Muslims aware that the problem faced by the Indian society cannot be solved by Muslim student movements one party or faith in isolation. There believe that as Muslims we must is a need of the coming together of the build solidarity with people marginalized peoples in a horizontal from other faiths, social visions and non-hierarchical manner so as to and ideologies as long there challenge the existing form of political is no paternalism involved in .hegemony and social domination the process. Muslims should develop a solidarity politics !Jhai Bhim! Jhai Meem not by erasing the difference of the other oppressed groups, but by respecting difference while remaining Muslims in the

The Companion | October 2017 25 IN DEPTH MULLA SADRA AND POST PHILOSOPHY; AN ISLAMIC CRITIQUE TO LOUIS ALTHUSSER AND THE ‘END OF ’PHILOSOPHY Anwar Haneefa Student, Shafi’ite Islamic Jurisprudence and Ash’arite Theology Madeenathunnoor College of Islamic Science, Calicut

Louis Althusser (1918-1990) was one highly inaccessible to multitude. All his works and thoughts of the ever influential post-war French were fundamentally dedicated to Trans-locate Marxism be- Marxian philosophers, who had influ- yond all its limitations and tensions for changing spatio-tem- enced his contemporaries like Gilles poral necessities. For that he critically engaged with Marx, Deleuze (1925-1995), Jacques Derrida Engels and their alleged philosophical predecessors Hegel, (1930-2004), Jacques Ranciere (1940-) .Feuerbach and Spinoza and too scholars like Etienne Balibar (1942-), Pierre Macherey (1938-) and For him, it was Marxism a new philosophy which gained its Terry Eagleton (1943-)which later spear- philosophical existence from the historical void which was left headed the re-configuration of French by the sequential philosophers starting from the Peripatetic philosophy if not Western philosophy in theoretical premise. He admits the theory of Jean Paul Sartre its totality. All was this of his theoretical (1905-1980) in this particular space, which is according to him solemnity, intensive and hyper-radical only there were (and are) three possibilities for philosophy – philosophical insights which engaged Idealism, Materialism and Marxism – and the history of phi- in violence with the history of philoso- losophy till Marx was circuiting the first two, and only by the phy from its inception, even all it was manifestation of Marx the final possibility got revealed in the history. Therefore, it is Marxism the last and ultimate possibili-

26 The Companion | October 2017 ty of philosophy and is not there a philosophy after Marxism and by its entire culmination it is Marxism the philosophy of this time. As for all others, too for him, it was Hegel an utter failure in laying foundation to a histor- ically un-parallel philosophy. From this philosophical veloci- ty, he argues following Michael Foucault (1926-1984) that Marx- ism was at a time historical and .anti-historical phenomenon

As to framework all his like kind arguments, by his later period, developing Friedrich Engels, he re-constructed the ‘End of Philosophy’. To abridge, it is, following Marx’s revolution- ary proclamation “The philos- ophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it” he argued that all those inter- pretations were the repetitions and re-presentations and were not innovations or re-configura- tions. Adding to it the hyper con- ception of Sartre, that is of the Marxism’s being of the ultimate philosophy, he stated that the philosophy did inevitably not had a history till Marxism and from Peripatetic school. As it is, Mulla Sadra delved into all Marxism was a post-philosophy which keeps a high the limitations of Aristotle’s Peripatetic, to which Althuss- proximity to the classical philosophical phenomenal er is highly adhered to even of his unconsciousness and history with extreme rebellion to theoretical premise Suhrawardi’s Illumination philosophy and re-configured of the philosophical history. For, the history for him all it with high potential philosophical grammars. So, with was the material change and alteration of an object the two-fold legal theories of Mulla Sadra it is possible to or a philosophical idea and was not related to time develop a counter argument to Althusser’s ‘End of Philos- and existential fluctuation. That is, to short, his phil- ophy’ and expose its fundamental limitations. Those are osophical premise was centered on pre-Sadrian phil- trans-substantial motion and gradation and de-gradation of osophical school which argues the changes can only .existence .be occurred in effects and not causes Trans-substantial motion is the motion of substance or But Mulla Sadra or Sadr-ul-Din Shirazi (1571-1635), cause rather than accident or effect, which was previously the greatest of all the Islamic philosophical schol- rejected by philosophers. Philosophers admitted only the ars from the post Golden Age of Islam, exposed the possibility of presence and chance of motion in four fold limitation of all its totality and introduced ‘trans-sub- accidents- those are quantity, quality, position and place- stantial motion’ in beings. To cite here the movement and considered substance of objects which was the nucleus history, particularly of philosophy, is all in time and of all those as being fixed and motionless. But Mulla Sadra existential fluctuation. According to Mulla Sadra demonstrated that if the substance of an object is free and does the philosophy have history in contrast to the impossible of motion, too its accidents would be impossible post-philosophical conceptions of Louise Althusser. of motion. Because the relation between substance and acci- In counter to the post-philosophical cognitive map dents is the same of what it is between cause and effect. And of Althusser, Mulla Sadra’s philosophical history in- it is impossible to detach the effect from the cause. There- cept from Prophets who taught along with the divine fore it is impossible for the accidents to have a manifestation revelations the philosophy which was known as Illu- which its cause does not have. In Peripatetic philosophy it mination philosophy, which was later re-introduced was impossible to demonstrate such an event. And Ibn Sina by Sheikh al Ishraq Shihab-ul Din al Suhrawardi (980-1037), one of the most renowned Islamic philosophers (1154-1191) after its once diminishing, and was not even argued that if the substance of an object changes it be-

The Companion | October 2017 27 In Mulla Sadra’s existential philosophy, developed from later Illumination philosophy, the existence is principal than form and all the creatures have same existence. In all .forms, whether homo or heterogeneous, that existence manifests

comes another object and with the being of another the change of time. And then arises the possible object it loses its history, since it is not the previous question that if the motion and change happens in being. Such problems arise in the sophist philoso- substance, according to Mulla Sadra, the change is phy proposed by Muslims like Abu Hasan al Ash’ari surely happening in the existence time. So, when the (874-936) and other Ash’arite theo-philosophers in time changes it will, surely, change the substance their ideas of ‘continuous creation’, ‘renewal of sim- of philosophy itself. That is, the existence of philos- ilars’ and ‘moment existence’. But too it does not in- ophy is at every time anti-historical or free of histo- validate Mulla Sadra’s philosophy, as to resolute this ricity. But this philosophical crisis only arises in the crisis Mulla Sadra introduces his next philosophical Sophist theo-philosophical school, which argues the .’theory the ‘gradation of existence infinite and continuous replacement of beings. And according to Mulla Sadra, it is true that existence of In Mulla Sadra’s existential philosophy, developed time is changing, but is not in a sense of total replace- from later Illumination philosophy, the existence ment with another existence but with the fluctuation is principal than form and all the creatures have of intensity within the existence. In a perspective, same existence. In all forms, whether homo or het- even when the cause, that is time, changes itself and erogeneous, that existence manifests. Even with thereby the changes in philosophy occur, the history the difference of forms there exists variety of exist- is not replaced anti-historically but transformed his- ence, those existence are common for all. But the torically. So, a dichotomous correlation does not oc- difference, in Mulla Sadra’s and other Illumination cur in between the transformation, if not alteration, philosopher’s position, happens due to the strength of time the cause and the historical continuity of its and weakness of the same and single existence. If to .effect, that is the philosophy short, what unites and differentiates the existents is the same being. So, the existence is at a time plural To conclude, the ‘End of Philosophy’ and the stig- and unique. To make into a formula, it can be as- matization of Marxism as the post-philosophy are sessed that ‘form or difference refers to the fluctua- absurd concepts within the paradigmatic matrix .tion of existence of Mulla Sadra’s Transcendent philosophy, which is the most developed, dynamic and critical stream In solving the concept of ‘End of Philosophy’ with of Islamic philosophy to the present as it circles the Transcendent philosophy of Mulla Sadra it could limitations which disturbed the Islamized Peripatetic be assessed that the philosophy does have history. philosophy and idealized Illumination philosophy Because, according to Louis Althusser, as he consid- and put forth the most philosophical arguments ers material change and alteration as his ontologi- with the unification of intuition and intellect with cal scale, philosophy has a historical continuity in logical demonstration, which did not had a pre mod- its phenomenal sense and lacks history in its pure el in the history of philosophy. And the rejection of philosophical history. But in Mulla Sadra’s phi- history to philosophy by Althusser to single out the losophy as time is, in act, the principal or cause of trans-historical role and presence of Marxism which history, without its change the history can’t, at any too stands as some methodological apparatus to his way, change and will change at any minor change or in general, to post-Althusserian Marxists are high- happens to time. Because, philosophically the ef- ly vague. And as a culmination of its foundational fect, that is the history of an object, can’t have an limitation, it can no more produce or re-produce any existence independent from the cause. So if the phe- new changes in the world as Marx intends with his nomenal history of an object or a philosophical idea .’‘Universal Marxism changes, inevitably its philosophical history also changes. So, even if the philosophy, in Althusser’s concept, from Peripatetic philosophy to Hegel does not undergone a paradigm shift, if to adopt the lexi- con of Thomas Kuhn, which is the mere repetition or re-presentation of existing philosophies, the ‘Plato to Hegel philosophy’ deserves a history as it is locat- .ed inside its cause, that is time

It is the change or motion of history justified by

28 The Companion | October 2017 OPINION TRIPLE TALAQ: RE READING THE SC JUDGEMENT

Avantika Tiwari (LL.M) With everyone, the government, the tion of equality must also be informed Assistant Professor, IP University Muslim Personal Law Board, and the by the difference in experiences of the Muslim women’s movement claiming women. It has to be understood that victory with the recent case of Shayara neither human rights are universal nor Bano v. Union of India[1], the question apolitical. In fact they can sometime, that still remains is whether declaring though unconsciously, become the the practice of triple talaq unconstitu- political tool of oppression. Therefore tional would ameliorate the condition the idea of equality which pitches the of Muslim women more than what the two identities which she is made from, invalidation has done. The Supreme against each other can never be a femi- Court of India back in 2002 in the case .nist achievement of Shamim Ara v. Union of India inval- idated the practice of instantaneous The best example of confrontational triple talaq on the ground that in order politics leading to actual victimization to pronounce an effective talaq, recon- of the woman in question was the Shah ciliation is a sine qua non. The same Bano Case. The case pertained to main- was cited in the apex court’s judgment tenance to the Muslim wife after talaq It is important to under- on 22nd August when it declared the had been pronounced. The court resort- stand that the “Muslim practice of triple talaq unconstitutional ed to Section 125 CrPc to grant her main- women subject” is formed .with a majority of 3:2 tenance of a paltry sum of Rs.179.20 per from the very community Though the rationale given by the ma- month. It was seen by them as an attack jority judges differed, with Kurien Jo- on their cultural believes and faith and which allegedly subju- seph, J. declaring it unconstitutional on was perceived as a means to impose gates her the basis of Article 25 and Rohintan Na- the hegemonic idea of uniformity and riman and U.U. Lalit, JJ. declared it vio- universality on them. During this pe- lative of Article 14, Article 15 and Article riod the Muslim woman was situated 21. What they seemed to have missed is within these sharply drawn binaries the understanding of intersectionality. and was called upon to choose between The judgment is being seen as ‘historic’ her religious beliefs and community because it has allowed constitutional affiliations at one end and her gender and liberal rights within the domain claims at the other, which was indeed a of personal laws. In my opinion such a difficult choice her. Shah Bano declared discourse creates an image that rights that she would instead be a devout of the Muslim women can be only guar- .Muslim rather than claim maintenance anteed by confrontation with the Mus- lim identity. Such a divide has always Such a statement warrants introspec- proved to be detrimental to women as tion from both the side of the contro- somewhere in this meta truth of good versy. The woman who was presented and evil, oppressive and civilized, the as the face of oppression of the Mus- experiential realities of women are lim community declined the relief giv- obliterated. It is important to under- en to her. It is important to appreciate stand that the “Muslim women subject” her subject position of not just being is formed from the very community a woman but a Muslim woman. Let us which allegedly subjugates her. Basi- hope that this judgment also does not cally in case of Muslim women Article create many other Shah Bano’s by feed- 14, 15 or 21 cannot be understood to give ing to the rhetoric of culture vs. moder- a universal definition of equality or life .nity debate applicable to all women. The concep-

The Companion | October 2017 29 REVIEW

OF CONTEXT AND SEMANTICS

Musab Khalid our familial gatherings. And it was a refreshing take on it Grad Student. Blogger/Writer as well, especially considering the recent and doubtfully prominent rise of progressive Muslims, with the millen- As a general rule, I shy away from taking book recommen- nial generation accepting more of alternate worldviews. dations, mostly owing to the fact that my existing to-read The third and last reason was a bit more personal. My list has an irksome quality of expanding in a ridiculous reading list was recommending any book banned in the manner, and books on theology often stop short of even country I reside, and considering I live in a Muslim major- making it to the shortlist. However, there were several ity country, it was predictable that the government would distinct reasons that made this book sound like an inter- feel threatened by a book which was not perfectly align- esting read. ing with their version of Islam. First and foremost was the personality of the author her- The first impression I had was a disappointing one, as it self, her bold stance against the status quo embroiling looked no different than those books wherein they keep her in several controversies, most notably for challenging extrapolating the Quranic verses till they have literally the existing patriarchal structures by leading a congrega- wrenched out the meaning they wanted for their par- tional prayer which comprised a mixed-gender audience, ticular argument (Of course, the degree of extrapolation and most notoriously for calling the Prophet Abraham a would differ according to the meaning they wanted), and ‘dead-beat-dad’[1]. Second was the subject itself, a sub- most of the introductory chapters do seem like that. It is ject alien compared to the familiar tropes and regular when you hit the middle of the book that that you realize tirades that we’re so accustomed to listening, be it our cli- the author wanted to leave no stone unturned to establish ché-ridden Friday sermons, or the oft-repeated droning in the prerequisites for her arguments, more so that no ref-

30 The Companion | October 2017 utation would be possible on distinction between man and It also brings to light the point those grounds later. woman in creation is made that even though the Quran in the sacred text. Following states the primary characteris- The author begins by describ- that, some light is thrown on tics of both the sexes, it never ing the existing methods that the mentions of the female sex actually appoints roles, rather the Quran is critiqued in, and in the Quran as an individual encouraging different individ- proceeds to define the process and the distinction between ual contexts to determine the she would be using in her anal- all living creatures being based functional distinction between ysis. She neither conforms to on taqwa. Before addressing its members. The traditional the more traditionalistic meth- the controversial verses which interpretation of that verse (re- od of exegesis, which stems often form the crux of feminist garding the darajah) is often from certain objectives in mind, debates, the equality of wom- at odds with all the preceding and which have been the exclu- en is further established in the and succeeding values estab- sive domain of men, thereby context of the hereafter and the lished by the text, which is why either neglecting the female recompense for their services. it needs to be first restricted to experiences or looking at them The last section regarding the the subject at hand, and with through a male perspective. roles and rights of women is the proper linguistic analysis, Nor does she side with the sec- perhaps the most interesting that interpretation loses its re- ond category, which uses the one. maining credibility as well. handicap of women in Muslim societies to oppose the Quranic The verses brought into the Even the cause behind re- text. limelight during debates con- quired number of witnesses is cerning the superiority of the attributed to the existing pa- Instead, a hermeneutical meth- male sex over its counterpart triarchal structure of that situ- od is adopted, which considers are addressed in detail in this ation, wherein a woman would the local context in which it section. The issues regarding be easily coerced or forced by was written, the grammatical the rank (darajah) is first ana- a male member and another composition, order of revela- lyzed within the context of the woman and the inclusion of tion, and the language. verses that had the same word, another woman would be a but were chronologically is- support towards her, therefore The book is structured in the sued before the disputed vers- not only signifying the individ- following manner: The duali- es. This analysis establishes the ual worth, but also calling for a ty of creation and the origins ranking of the individual or a united support against the oth- of humankind are discussed group over the basis of deeds or er witnesses. to establish the fact that no a specific endowment by God.

The Companion | October 2017 31 In a similar manner, the arguments regard- sole functions of women for the rest of time, ing the preferential status, as well as the re- which implies the need to look after the par- sponse to the disruption of marital harmony ticular reason behind the ruling, and which, are subject to a scrutininy, and in turn pre- notwithstanding, calls for adapting the rul- sented with an alternate, more acceptable ings in the spirit of its original reasoning. interpretation. However, in one specific case, it raises another critical question in The very fact that it takes a woman to write its place. Since the stance of religious apol- a hundred-page analysis of the Quran to ogists on the verse regarding the striking is reiterate her equal worth in the society, a that it was to be taken as a restriction on the truth that is self-evident in its own regard, existing practices, in this case the excessive reinforces the sheer magnitude of the pa- violence towards women, the restriction it- triarchal hegemony that is prevalent in the self serves to condemn the violence as an Muslim communities, and it is already con- evil practice. The establishment of that the- spicuous in the reactions that the book re- ory begs the question as to why then, wasn’t ceived. the practice abolished in its entirety? Would it be deemed impractical to do so because of The landscape of Islamic rhetoric is slowly its sheer impossibility? The ruling regarding changing, and with the emerging coverage the prohibition of alcohol nullifies that par- of Queer Muslims to the liberal and feminist ticular argument. Then again, arguments on populace, the very foundations of tradition- religious scriptures often end in such para- alist values are being questioned. It would doxes. be highly remiss of me to not recommend this book, which created the benchmark in At least Ms. Wadud accepts the fact that in Islamic feminist literature. matters of gender, 7th century Arabia was far from ideal and even the Quranic reforms, References the ones revealed during the Madinan peri- od, of which most were introduced for ben- https://feminismandreligion. efitting the females, were never fully imple- com/2013/10/17/hajar-of-the-desert-by-ami- mented. /na-wadud

Perhaps the best thing about this book is that it reevaluates certain rulings according to the current local context, as it establish- es again and again the fact that the Quran had given a generic view of the females’ position, in accordance with the context of that region and time period, and in no way had it assigned those characteristics as the

32 The Companion | October 2017 REPORT SIO organised Shiksha Samvad on Madarsa Education: Issues and Challenges

Madrasas were the cradle of new in- tion, there also are some signs are awarded 60 marks, those ventions nay new civilization during the of heartening. The survey found Madrasas providing a semblance middle ages. In our country too the con- many Madrasas in relatively of general and religious educa- tribution of Madrasa towards education- good status maintaining quality, tion are awarded 70 marks, apart al and political revival cannot be denied. diversity and creativity in educa- from which if there are sports It was the springboard of freedom move- tion with holistic approaches. equipments, library, computer ment. It was the abode of intellectuals, education and first aid facilities poets, writers and revolutionaries. 80 marks are awarded and those In this survey based on the having innovative activities, ex- infrastructure and community pert faculty, language training, While the Madrasas were places of new participation, teaching environ- physical education and well initiatives and harbingers of inventions ment, innovative activities, fac- ordained campus 90 marks are it is regrettable for having secluded the ulty, integration of general and awarded. institutions today as the mere provider religious education those secur- of few religious teachings. It wouldn’t be ing 90% and above are graded The report also recommends an exaggeration if we say that it has lost as A+, those securing 80% and few action points for the commu- its pristine glory and its true status! above as A, those securing 70% nity leaders, Madrasa manage- and above as B+, those securing ments as well as State & Central 60% and above as B and those Government. In this direction, Students Islam- scoring below 60% is graded as ic Organisation of India (SIO), having ‘C’. Further those Madrasas pos- conducted a survey of 500 Madarasas Recommendations: sessing infrastructure like water, covering diverse schools of thought in To establish a non-governmen- good food, playing ground, res- different states. What came out of these tal Madrasa regulating body con- idential facility, the availability study/survey reports should be a matter stituting all schools thought. of teaching and non-teaching of discussion. While there are number faculty, clean environment, etc A committee to study the infra- of issues which needs urgent atten- structure requirements of Madra-

The Companion | October 2017 33 sas has to be established. To appoint physical education teach- ers, providing sports equipments and to ensure sufficient play grounds has to be given prominence. Inter madrasa sports SIO Organized must be encouraged. Arabic learning must be encouraged. Students must be encouraged to speak Debate On Education and converse in Arabic within the cam- pus. As Arabic attains prominence even in In Mother Tongue terms of the geo-political situation of Middle Eastern and African countries At Osmania including all Muslim countries, the Gov- ernment must make provision to include Arabic in second and third slots of lan- University guage selections.

Arabic & Islamic studies chair has to Education is the core subject for any movement striving for development of be opened in all the Universities. All the the Nation and the means and medium of imparting this education is one criti- Universities should commence BA in Ar- cal aspect which needs serious debate and discussion. With this intention, the abic & Islamic Studies courses. Madrasa ‘Education Research Group’ of SIO Telangana organized a debate on education students must be made eligible to join in mother tongue with 5 pairs of debaters speaking for and against the motion these courses. MA courses must be com- “Is education in mother tongue compatible and relevant in the times of globali- menced as a follow up for these courses. zation?”. The teaching of mathematics, science, The debate was chaired by Mr. Mohammed Rafat Ali (IAS, Chief Vigilance social studies and computer education Consultant, Dept. of Youth Advancement, Tourism, Culture, Archaeology and must be made compulsory in Madrasas. Museums) and Mr. Thouseef Madikeri (National Education Secretary SIO India). There must be provision to hold social The debate was very healthy with varied dimensions of the subject being cov- and cultural functions at Madrasas. ered by multilingual debaters of different academic, cultural and geographical Teaching of and English lan- (National and International) backgrounds. With an intense head to head clash, guage to be made compulsory. the debate concluded with the audience poll which resulted in the public in big majority voting in affirmation of the motion. Graduate trained teachers who are hav- ing Religious degrees may be appointed as faculty. Time duration has to be fixed for the graduation course (aleemiyath), like all other educational institutions. To fix a basic salary of minimum Rs. 25000 for the teachers.

34 The Companion | October 2017