Of identity & spirit of nationhood

Vikrant Parmar

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Partition left behind indelible marks, which have not been washed away by the sands of time. The biggest of these relates to identity; of homeland, of roots and above all, the spirit of nationhood. These issues have been understood well, explicated even better by seasoned politician and author Salman Khurshid in his book At Home in India. Aptly subtitled The Muslim Saga, the book is a comprehensive account of the community, its contribution to the India that we live in today and the India we want to build in the future.

Divided neatly into two parts — Part I titled Today and Part II Yesterday — the book is ‘a public statement about personal impressions of a public matter’. Inspired by the likes of HLA Hart (a British legal philosopher), Ronald Dworkin, John Rawls (American philosophers), Amartya Sen (Indian economist) and Peter Singer (Australian moral philosopher), Khurshid shares studied as well as experienced views about the Muslim community. He underlines the contribution of Muslim leaders of yore — Bahadur Shah Zafar, Ashfaqullah Khan, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Dr Zakir Hussain, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and Hafiz Ibrahim. And then mentions three Muslim Presidents, three Vice-Presidents, four Chief Justices, a Muslim Chief Election Commissioner, a Muslim Cabinet Cecretary, several Muslim Chief Ministers and more. Then he comes down to others who have etched a name in the annals of Indian history — Bismillah Khan, MF Husain, SH Raza, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Azim Premji, Shahnaz Husain, AR Rahman, to name a few. As for journalists, he shares a few names — MJ Akbar, Rasheed Al Taib, Fatima Zakaria, Saaed Naqvi, Ayub Syed and Khalid Ansari.

Narrating a touching incident, he reveals how Dr Zakir Husain got the news of the death of ‘his favourite daughter’, Rehana, while he was distributing sweets at a primary school. The great man did not leave the function mid-way and was the last to reach his house.

The book is a veritable storehouse of knowledge and Khurshid’s experience has only made it better. Sachar Committee, Mishra Commission, Indra Sawney’s case (1992), The Equal Opportunities Commission, Srikrishna Commission report, Communal Violence Bill, Muslim Women Bill (Protection of Rights on Divorce, 1986), Shah Bano case, Uniform Civil Code; Aligarh Muslim University and the role of scholars — are all a part of the scheme of things.

Not shying away from laying the blame squarely on terrorists, he believes a lot will depend ‘on our ability to sift the dangerous from the innocent’. He hints at a pluralistic structure of society where higher education for Muslims should be the priority as also equal opportunity; a set-up where they are not just relegated to being ‘vote banks’. Like an expert, which he is without doubt, the author explains the anatomy of communal riots in India as ‘sporadic social insanity’. ‘Some humanist Jekylls turn into communal Hydes when their humanism is put to test’, he states. Khurshid addressed the widespread ‘feeling of restlessness’ in the 18 crore (approximately) Muslims residing in the country. His beliefs are firm, ‘If identity fades away in the natural course of human development, there will be no minority problem. But that does not grant anyone the right to cause or hasten such a fading away.”

In a nice tongue-in-cheek nomenclature, he has divided the Muslim community into certain groups — Sarkari Seth: The steady pro-establishment leader; Maulvi Ghatara: The one firmly rooted in the most archaic interpretations of religious beliefs; Sheru Khan: The militant one; Jhamura Akbari: Progressive intellectual; Gumchup Shah: The fellow with the comfortable job. These five characters lead the common Muslim citizen, whom he calls ‘Shamsher’, in ‘diverse directions’ and to ‘differing conclusions’. As a result, the common Muslim follows each a little bit and blames his condition on destiny!

Couplets from great poets like Dr Muhammad Iqbal and Faiz Ahmed Faiz mark the end of most chapters — a necessary sprinkling of poetry in a rather staid narrative. References at the end of chapters offer fertile material that can be further read up. The point that Khurshid wants to drive home is clear and he re-emphasises it throughout the text — we need national leaders, not community leaders alone.

Intelligence speaks through each line, knowledge oozes from each argument; Salman Khurshid enriches as well as indicates. His conclusion comes out in one potent line among the many embedded in the book … ‘With all the problems that Muslims have faced in India, it is home more dear than anywhere else’.