THE REASON

It is not without any reason that we find the situation to be what it is for us today. It is, on the other hand, the desired result of the mischievous maneuverings of some and the natural outcome of the conscious negligence of others. We, too, cannot escape the blame because our own slumberous stagnation also has added to our woes. Let us, therefore, pinpoint the reasons that are responsible for the miserable plight in which we have been put today.

There are some organizations in our country that are making frantic efforts to change our secular democracy into a theocratic autocracy. They are preaching an ideology and raising a militia for this purpose. Their ideology is spreading communal hatred and their militia is being trained in the art of using violence. Flouting secularism and pooh-poohing democracy they are advocating militantness and rousing the passions of the members of one religious community against all the others, of one linguistic group of the country against the rest and of one region of the country against the rest and of one region of the country against the other. They agitate the emotions of the members of their community and exploit them. At present much of this evil excitement and exploitation by the fascist organizations is directed against us. People of all sections of life including Police, Administration, Political leaders and even Ministers are falling victim to their ‘ideology’ and creating havoc for the Muslims of India in their respective field of activity. Our periodical loot and murder is also a result of the counsel and conspiracy of the same fascist forces.

The various State and Central Governments that ruled the country during the last twenty-one years have shirked their duty and responsibility to save us from being looted, murdered and harassed by other means. Though they tirelessly talked of secularism and non-communalism but in practice they proved for us to be worse than the fascists in the country. They never did anything either for the security of our life or to deter our murderers from their evil designs. It is this negligence of duty on the part of the Governments in respect of our security that encouraged the mischief-markers for our most inhuman oppression and persecution. Besides this negligence of duty, in other walks of life such as education, employment etc. they deliberately created situation for our harassment.

On almost all occasions of our loot and murder the Administration and the Police too did not care to protect us from our murderers. They never fixed in unambiguous and categorical terms the responsibility for the organized assassination of our men. Moreover, they always equated the oppressor with the oppressed. And to crown the all, on some occasions they were found guilty of even aiding and abetting our murderers. This lawlessness on the part of the guardians of law, even though it came to the knowledge of the powers that be, was not brought to book. This resulted in the encouragement, on the one hard, of the guardians of law for greater lawlessness on other similar occasions and, on the other hand, of the evildoers for creating other similar occasions.

The Press could have played a vital role in bringing to naught the dissemination by the fascist organizations of communalism and violence but, to our great dismay, some of them have slipped into their fold and the rest have remained only not so vituperative. None among them has any space for am objective and realistic presentation of the problems of the Muslims of India. If the problems of Muslims are ever dealt with on their pages they betray some strong prepossessions on the part of the writer that go against us. There is none among the so-called ‘National Press’ to uphold the cause of communal harmony in all seriousness and to wage war against the evil propaganda of the Fascist Press weakening the very foundations of secularism, democracy and nationhood.

A great source of much of the trouble in our country is our election system. It has proved a barrier in the way of a proper and proportionate representation in the Parliament and the Legislative Assemblies of all the units constituting that multifarious thing called the Indian people. It has consequently given rise to feelings of rivalry among the members of the different castes and communities of the country. This rivalry manifests itself in innumerable forms of ugliness especially during the time of election. The distribution of tickets for electioneering by different political parties to the members of the various castes and communities with an eye on their respective population kept them quiet for some time. But now it is very strongly being felt that this formula does not work to the satisfaction of all. The voice of discontent is being raised from many quarters. Our inadequate representation in the Legislatures of the country has been caused by this election system.

Our own disintegration, mutual bickering and overmuch dependence on others also made us week enough to be preyed upon by our enemies. During the last twenty-one years we did practically nothing to consolidate our position, except, of course, crying for justice, good will and fair play. None of our existing organizations gave us any clear program or determined the course of action for us to face the threats. While some of them preached the philosophy of isolation, some others advocated concentration on ‘religiousness’ and some yet others emphasized the need for taking up "constructive programs". In short, during all these years since independence we have simply debated in academic mood what we ought to do but did never actually do anything worth mentioning except collecting donations for riot affected Muslims.

Many of these forces that are responsible for limiting our liberty have, being encouraged by their initial success, begun to widen their scope and include in their list of to be suppressed other minorities political (South Indian States), linguistic and racial. But these newer victims of older villains are prepared to give a tough fight and a cold war is now on which may any daybreak out into a most deadly civil war. The way the so called rashtravadis are, under the plausible cover of rashtryata, setting the ground for the irrevocable subjugation of some regions, castes and languages by others is sure to shatter the unity of the country into pieces because the evil designs of the rashtravadis have been discovered by the leaders of the regions, castes and languages that are to be preyed upon. What more is being realized as the time passes is the fact that the war of malignity and murder carried on by the fascist rashtravadis against the innocent Muslims is nothing more than the hollow strategy of the thief himself crying ‘thief, thief’ which they have adopted to dispel the attention of the various minorities of the country from their (the fascists) mischief-in-making directed against the regional, linguistic and racial minorities.

India is a land of multifarious communities, each of which has its own distinct entity, and as a natural corollary to it, has its own leaders too. The leaders of every community remain always pre-occupied and obsessed with the problems of their own community. They have neither the time nor the eligibility to get a first hand information of the problems of other communities and endeavor for their solution. Moreover, the communal considerations are of such vital importance in the eyes of the Indian people that no leader takes the risk of rising above them. It is due to this fact that at the time of distributing tickets into account the community-wise population of every constituency. However undesirable it may be but it is a fact that in India there does not exist anything like national leadership.

It is in the background of these facts that we have to determine the course of our action to struggle for the amelioration of our lot. As it has sometimes been pointed out to us by some leaders belonging to the majority community of the country, we should turn the searchlight within instead of depending too much on the Government and the majority community for the solution of our problems. The advice is earnest because it is a fact that we have been relying too much on others even though we got in return only deception, disappointment and distress. We must therefore take the advice and learn to stand on our own feet. We should organize ourselves throughout the country under one banner and one leadership and thereby make ourselves an acknowledged political force, Mere unilateral reliance, however promising it may appear, on the supposed or believed goodwill of others for the redressal of one’s grievances does not carry any weight in politics. Politics is the game of power hence in politics it is the reciprocal reliance based soundly on mutual fear of loss or hope of profit that matters. And for an effectual mutual reliance we will first have to bring ourselves in a position from where we may indisputably be in control of sizeable chunk of the electorate the real power in democratic politics. The only thing that can bestow this position on us is a political organization of our own.

In the background of this need it is of course very heartening that we do not quite lack a political party of our own. The Indian Union Muslim League with its branches in Kerala, Madras and Maharashtra is a well-organized Muslim political party with competent leaders at the helm of its affairs. Its only shortcoming is that it is not countrywide. If this drawback of this otherwise an unrivalled political organization is removed and it is spread far and wide in the country, it can give the best lead to the eighty million Muslims of India. Our burning need of the hour is thus to make the Indian union Muslim league country-wide and unite under its one banner and leadership. If we do not (God for fend) do this and in our hurry to give the Indian Muslims a separate political platform go on indiscriminately forming new political parties in different States of India it would be a blunder because it would defeat the very purpose of a separate Muslims political party i.e. unit of the Muslims of India. With diversity in respect of political organization and leadership we cannot hope for the kind of unity we are in need of.

Our separate political party is, however, not and ends in itself but only a means to the ends. With a separate political organization of our own we will have to strive for the solution of our problems. In order that the security of our life in all its comprehensiveness may be ensured we will have to strive for the following ends.

The many thousand Muslim-killing riots that have taken place during the last twenty-one years have brought it to our notice that our murderers use violence against us only in those localities where they find our men in a precarious position. They very rarely (never unless fully backed by the police) date to choose as their target the localities where they find Muslims to be in a safer position. The precarious localities are obviously those where a small number of Muslim inhabitants live surrounded by those who can easily be provoked to use violence against them. The safer places are, again obviously, those here the relatively larger number of closely-knit Muslims keeps the criminally coward rioters away. If we wish to live here with any sense of security it would be our first and foremost duty to remove our men from the precarious places to the safer ones.

But "Safer-settlement" alone would not solve our problems. The rioters may, as their ultimate aim is to annihilate us completely, at any time choose to invade us even in our "safer" places. We will, therefore, have to be able to defend ourselves against all invasions-expected or unexpected. If we ever become unmindful of vigilance and puissance the only safeguards against all invasions it will be at the risk of our great peril.

These precautionary measures adopted by the victims will not in themselves solve their problems unless something is also done to deter the villains from their murdermania. We will, therefore, have to impress it upon the Government that judicial probe be ordered in the case of each and every case of Muslim-killing riots and the culprits whether common citizens or politicians or members of the Administration and the Police be awarded deserving punishment so that it might work as deterrent for others.

As it has been pointed out in the fore going chapter that the Police that are sent to the riot-affected areas to control the situation begin, instead of restoring normalcy, to aid and abet the rioters. They indulge in this misfeasance because almost all of them belong to the same community, which they find to be aggressive, and in their loyalty to the communal ties they have with them they forget the call of their duty. In order, therefore, to make the Police effective in combating and controlling the riot a special Police force will have to be maintained for the purpose which will consist of personnel belonging to all the communities of the country but the strength of no community will be more than forty percent (40%) in it.

To ensure the employment of Muslims in the various Government and semi Government services without any discrimination, reservation of seats on the basis of the population will have to be obtained. So long as our share in the services are not fixed and reserved mere promise of justice and fairplay cannot satisfy us because we have sufficient experience of what promise means. In other opportunities of economic development also we will have to get our share fixed.

In order that the books that are prepared and prescribed for the students of the various academic stages be free from everything that might wound the feelings of any section of this multi-religious society that India is it is necessary that the text-book committees should have on them members belonging to all shades of religious beliefs found in the country. But if, on any account, the composition of such text book committees may not be feasible, the books prepared by any text book committee must, before being prescribed for the students, be got approved by the generally acceptable scholars of the various beliefs existing in the country. But if, no any account, the composition of such text book committees may not be feasible, the books prepared by any text book committee must, before being prescribed for the students, be got approved by the generally acceptable scholars of the various beliefs existing in the country.

Urdu must be got declared as the second official language of the States where it deserve that status. Whatever price we may have to pay for it we must not allow Urdu to be smothered and stifled under however fair-seeming cover it may be attempted. In this multi-lingual country. Urdu, like all other languages, must be given its due and deserved place.

Our personal law is not man-made but has divine origin. Any interference with our personal law will, therefore, be treated as interference with our religious affairs. We will have to resist by all means any attempt at amending our personal law.

To have our own educational institution is a right that has been conferred on us by the constitution of the country. We cannot let anyone deprive us of this right either by practicing discrimination against us or by changing the character of our institutions. We will have to get the Muslim character of the AMU preserved.

Joint Electorate - based on the false belief that the Indian citizenry is one unit must needs be changed if the election has to be fair and free from causing any genuine grievance to any section of the Indian people. There is no denying the fact that to the mind of the Indian people caste, creed and clime are more important than any political ideology like democracy and socialism or any national issues like national integration and secularism. An Indian is first a Brahmin, a Harijan or a Bengali, a Madrasi and only then a Congressman, a Socialist. It is a result of this that the reorganization of the political forces that is fast in progress in the country for a decisive battle for power in near future is all on the basis of caste, creed and clime. The tendency to violate party affiliation to vote for the candidate with caste affinity so glaringly manifested by the gulf of the difference between the votes pulled in the same constituency by the two candidates one for the Parliamentary and the other for the Assembly seat belonging to the same political party but to different castes is also a result of that. The spur to all these currents and crosscurrents in the body politic of India is the fear of the various castes and communities of the country that their loyalty to a party or an ideology may not cause loss to their caste or community. To alloy the fears of all the castes and communities of the country that in the name of some seemingly propitious political palladium they would not be deprived of their just share in the governance of the country it is necessary to replace the present joint electorate by separate electorate a system of election that must prove congenial to the disposition of our countrymen. Sooner or later the need for this change has to be reckoned with. But any procrastination in the process of this replacement or any attempt at suppressing this growing feeling among the minorities of the country would only lead to greater trouble in not very remote future.

Our history during the last twenty-one years in our independent country is marked by the difference between the lot that we have talked and written about what we should do and the little that we have actually done to ameliorate our lot. But we must know that no amount of speech and writing can help us solve our problems unless that is followed by a dedicated action. If we wish to keep ourselves alive with all that belongs to us and for which every guarantee has been given to us in the constitution of our country we will have to organize ourselves in a body and strive for our rights and against the forces that are out to trample us. The freedom that we attained for our country has meant only worse subjection for us. We have, therefore, to struggle with a martyr's zeal to attain freedom for us in our free country. Of course, there are dangers and distresses in the way but, after all, this is the way that leads to a safe and secure future.