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A SUITABLE HINDUTVAVADI
A SUITABLE HINDUTVAVADI
by Radha Rajadhyaksha
There might not be much about Sabir Shaikh that elevates him above the
commonplace except for his uncommon political loyalties -- the latter,
however, are aberrant enough to make him stand out both in his party
and the current cabinet. For Maharashtra's newest minister for labour,
employment and Wakf happens to be that consummate curiousity -- a Muslim
Shiv Sainik.
What a man of his religious persuasion is doing in a party known for its
anti Muslim stance -- the recent public turnarounds notwithstanding -- is
a question that must intrigue people, but it does not faze Shaikh. The
loyal foot soldier of Bal Thackeray's battalion trots out the party pitch:
the Sena is much misunderstood, it is not against Muslims, merely against
those who are "anti national" -- and holds himself up as the unassailable
example of the party's secular credentials. Presenting as a clincher
the fact that he is not alone -- there are many coreligionists in the
brood as well.
The temptation to compare Shaikh to Sikander Bakht, another Muslim in the
top echelons of a Hindu party, is vast. However, unlike Bakht, who began
his career with the Congress and eventually moved to the Bharatiya Janata
Party, Shaikh has never belonged to any political outfit apart from the
Sena -- he was, in fact, one of its earliest members, along with the likes
of Dattaji Salvi and Manohar Joshi, way back in 1966.
Born into a Maharashtrian Muslim family in Narayangaon village near
Shivneri Fort (the birthplace of Shivaji, an icon close to his heart),
Shaikh claims to have been attracted to the Shiv Sena by Thackeray's
writings in Marmik on the wrongs being perpetrated against `sons of the
soil.'
"At that time, I was working in a factory in Ambarnath, and I could see
the injustice being done to the Maharashtrians there," he says. "Being a
son of the soil myself, Thackeray's theories touched a chord in me. And
subsequently I decided to join his party."
Did he perceive himself as a Maharashtrian rather than a Muslim -- in
which the conflict would not appear quite so pronounced? "I am an Indian
first, Maharashtrian next, and Muslim last," Shaikh declares loftily.
"But make no doubt about it, I am a devout Muslim. I do namaaz whenever I
can, I keep the roza fast in the month of Ramzan."
Not surprisingly, therefore, there were misgivings galore among his
family members when Shaikh decided to join the Sena. "My elder brother
asked me, `What will you do if Thackeray asks you to renounce your
religion?'" he reminisces. "A few days later at a public meeting I
declared, `If Thackeray asks me to leave Islam, I'll leave the Sena
instead. But why should anyone equate Islam with rashtradroha
(treachery), I will renounce Islam rather than betray my country.'
Thackeray appreciated my sentiments. And, as you can see, after 29 years
I'm still in the Sena, still Muslim and proud of my religion."
How can a Muslim who takes pride in his religion live with the
virulence being directed at it by his own party members?
"What virulence?" asks Shaikh, with a deadpan visage.
His party's infamous speeches, for instance, or the writings in Saamna?
"Those," explains Shaikh patiently, "are not against Muslims; they are
against anti national Muslims."
And what is his definition of an anti national Muslim?
"One who bursts crackers when Pakistan wins against India in a cricket
match," he says.
Even if one were to accept that definition as valid, how many actually do
this?
"See, the point is not how many people do it," he says. "It may be less
than one per cent. The point is, do the other 99 per cent come out in
opposition of this practice? Our Muslim leaders should be condemning such
activities in newspapers. Nationalist Muslims must come forward and speak
out; it is because they don't that the misunderstandings arise."
Again, even accepting his party's classifications, what does he feel
about the post Babri Masjid riots? By what criteria were the thousands of
Muslims who were killed and terrorized then classified as "anti national"?
Shaikh's face turns serious. "I agree the riots should never have
happened," he says. "I agree that thousands of innocents lives -- Muslims
as well as Hindus -- were lost then. But what happened could have been
avoided if the Muslims had handed over the Babri structure gracefully to
the Hindus in the first place. I'm not saying that the breaking of the
structure was right, but it was the duty of Muslims to let go of it, given
the fact that Hindus hold the site so dear."
Given such views which would do any Hindu hardliner proud (Shaikh is, in
fact, described by one Sena watcher as "more of a Hindu zealot than
Hindus"), does he consider himself a representative of Muslim interests at
all? Will he, for instance, take up the volatile issue of namaaz being
performed in the streets? "Yes," he says. Ever since his party, after
coming to power, made the surprising discovery that Muslims were forced to
do namaaz on the streets because of a lack of space in the mosques, it has
changed its outlook -- thus what was once fiercely countered with the maha
aarti is now being sought to bhe amicably resolved with extra floor space
index to the city's mosques. "We are looking into the matter," says Shaikh.
The new minister, however, does have more going for him than his
unanswering loyalty to Thackeray and the Shiv Sena. Back in his Ambarnath
constituency, for instance, he is known to be an ardent admirer of Shivaji
who has read all there is on the Hindu king, and an ardent mountaineer who
has organized umpteen treks among the locals. It is also averred that he
is among those with a cleaner image in the party and has worked towards
bettering his constituents.
Not surprisingly, there are Muslims who regard Shaikh as something of a
renegade.
"I am a Hindustani and therefore a Hindutvavadi," he declares. "Hindutva
has nothing to do with religion; it is the culture of India. And one can
change one's religion but never one's culture."
--from the CANADIAN TIMES OF INDIA NEWSMAGAZINE, vol 11, No. 1, April 1-15,
1995. p. 13
--reproduced in electronic form for the Hindu newsgroup by permission of the
editor and publisher of the CANADIAN TIMES OF INDIA NEWSMAGAZINE, Umesh
Vijaya.
