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The Meerut clergy kicks up a furore as destitute Muslim women take Hindu
grooms
Marriages should unite. But these weddings have divided violently. And a
tense Meerut looks on fearfully as the fight between the Muslim clergy and
the district administration here over the marriage of 12 Muslim
women-inmates of government-run homes for destitute women-to Hindu men
threatens to spill into its congested bylanes. Ill-will prevails and
accusations abound in this communally sensitive town. The reason is that
Muslim Elders have flourished a fatwa issued by Nadwatul Uluma, an Islamic
seat of religious learning in Lucknow, pronouncing the marriages illegal.
And the district administration, in turn, refuses to reconsider either the
validity of the wedlock or its own alleged religious insensitivity in
finding Hindu grooms for the girls.
Not that the furious custodians of correctness have bothered to stray from
their ivory towers to see how the girls are actually faring. They'd find
happy brides glad to leave the dark, dingy and depressing homes that were
their fate before their grooms took them out.
Instead, letters of vehement protest have been shot off by the Shahr Qazi
to the prime minister, home minister and the Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
And the National Minorities Commission and the National Human Rights
Commission have begun investigating the wedding that took place on May 12.
Local dailies are recording developments in the matter on a war footing.
The newly-weds-already summoned once from their far-flung homes to be
grilled on their conjugal happiness or the lack of it-may be called again.
The city additional district magistrate's office is in a tizzy trying to
cope with the barrage of enquiries being made by the Qazi, the media and
various governmental agencies now involved in the matter. And the files
listing the matrimonial addresses of the 12 new brides are now
controversial commodity-secure in the safes of the two destitute homes,
Rajkiya Sanrakshan Griha and Rajkiya Uttar Raksha Griha.
"But the matter can't be hidden away in sarkari files any longer!
Government bodies can't wed Muslim girls to Hindu men in blatantly Hindu
ceremonies in a secular country and expect no backlash. We feel intense
grief and shock! It's now become a national issue for the Muslim," says an
irate Rashidud-din Ahmed, Ameer of Meerut's Jamate Islami (Hind). Taking
deep breaths to control his emotion, the aged scholar enlarges the scope of
the community's complaint. All Nari Niketans (destitute homes), he claims,
insist on their inmates performing pooja. "The namaaz is not even
mentioned. Gurujis are called in to lecture and peer pressure makes these
impressionable young girls keep vrats (fasts) and worship idols."
The Naib Sahr Qazi Zainur Rashid corroborates that with a grave nod of his
head. His home near Thana Kotwali, now the meeting place for discussions
on this 'burning religious issue' of the day, is brimming with agitated
community elders thrashing out plans to cope with the crisis.
Any prodding as to whether the girls objected to Hindu grooms irritates the
Elders. "How does it matter? Especially since they have been brainwashed
by a system that has hardly given them the choice of practicing their own
religion,' dismisses Mohammed Haneef Quereshi, secretary of Jamait Ulma.
These feelings are shared by the youths in the community, says Mohammed
Sadir Khan of the Muslim Youth Welfare Society.
"Inter-religion marriages are common in modern India but conversion into
the other's religion is a must by either the bride or the groom," he
insists. "Otherwise these are not marriages in the eyes of society."
The district administration refuses to recognise these claims as valid.
Additional district magistrate (city) Pushpapati Saxena confirms that the
marriages were performed under the Civil Marriages Act. The pheras that
took place later were performed at the behest of some rich townsmen who
wanted to present the newly-weds with gifts for starting a home. "It was a
mass-wedding. Thirty-five Hindu girls from the two homes were also married
off simultaneously. The idea was to rehabilitate these girls, not to hurt
sentiments. We advertised for grooms in local papers-it's just that no
Muslim suitors replied and the girls didn't object," the harassed
bureaucrat says. "In fact, the girls wrote us their consent."
A peek inside one of the homes revealed why a young girl wouldn't think
twice before signing on any document that promised her freedom from its
claustrophobic environs. Dilapidated and dreary, the Rajkiya Sanrakshan
Griha also houses mentally-deranged women with little girls. Huddled
together, they struggle to survive stern officials, musty beds and pathetic
living conditions. Anjul Saxena, the home's deputy superintendent,
observes: "Why are these Qazis kicking up a fuss now? Were these moral
authorities willing to take care of any of these girls as they languished
here in this sad place? They must be so happy to be out."
And that, perhaps, is the only heartening part of the story.
Nineteen-year-old Masiran's face lights up as her 30-plus husband Ramesh
Kumar plays with her daughter from a previous marriage. "He's named her
Payal and he calls me Suman," she says coyly. Lost to her family in
Madhupur, Bihar, when she boarded a wrong train and was then dumped into a
Meerut home, Masiran has at last found a new family. A car mechanic,
Ramesh too is happy with his new-found family: "She doesn't worship any
Hindu god but then neither do 1. We only argue about the fact that she
likes to eat rice while everyone in my family likes rotis. It really has
us fighting."
Jagpal Singh, a vegetable vendor at Baghpath gate, seems to have even less
to argue about with his newlywed wife Razia. "Yes, there are problems in
the marriage. She doesn't talk at all," he says in mock anger. Shrugging
away Hindu-Muslim problems in her marital relationship, Razia says she had
been fasting on Mondays for a while, praying that Lord Shiva grants her a
good groom. "I wish so many people weren't asking us these questions-it
creates problems for us in the family," she whispers. Perhaps that is why
Zaibunissan, married to Rajendra Singh in Muzzafarnagar, has sent in a
written affidavit confirming conjugal bliss. "Just don't harass us anymore.
Leave us alone to be happy."
Just like other Zaibunissans, Razias, Masirans, Sarlas and Sumitas left
alone to languish in the country's various Nari Niketans. Till some other
controversy gets society's 'guardians' to drag them into the limelight. To
be hounded and harassed. And then to be forgotten.
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