Religion of cricket, Subcontinental tensions in the UK

Rohit Mahajan

Tribune News Service

Southampton, June 19

Before the India-Pakistan match on June 16, an Indian Muslim was invited to join in as the Pakistan squad gathered for afternoon namaz after practice at the indoor practice facility in Manchester’s Old Trafford ground. He did join them in the neatly ordered rows of men, but he took a nagging worry with himself to the prayer: What if the Imam asked the gathering to pray for Pakistan’s win? 

“I had decided that I would speak up and say that since I’m Indian, I would be praying for India’s win,” said the Indian Muslim later. “But it was good that the Imam spoke very well, and he did not urge us to pray for Pakistan’s win.”

The Imam, Shafiq ur Rehman, actually talked about moral behaviour and kindness, which could make the faith attractive to non-believers; he didn’t touch upon politics or cricket, though he did get a Pakistan team shirt autographed by the players.

Incidentally, a few Pakistani men who were also invited to join in the prayer did not do so as they had ‘work to attend to’. “I’m going away, it’s not right to simply stand around when namaz is being offered,” said one of them.

Religion and cricket

In 2007, after Pakistan lost the first World T20 final to India, Shoaib Malik said: “I want to thank everyone back home in Pakistan and Muslims all over the world. Thank you very much and I’m sorry that we didn’t win, but we did give our 100 per cent.” 

Two Muslims who figured in that final, Irfan Pathan and Yousuf Pathan, were not sorry, for they were part of the victorious Indian team. The joy of the Pathan brothers was shared by Indian Muslims, and a large number of Bangladeshi Muslims who support India. 

When the Bollywood movie Hindi Medium was released in 2017, its lead actress, Saba Qamar from Pakistan, promoted it. In a TV interview in Pakistan, she said she would promote the Bollywood movie in Pakistan also, and invoked the idea of Islamic brotherhood: “Ji woh bhi toh Muslim hain jinhone merey saath kaam kiya hai… Irrfan Khan (Indian actor).”

Indian Muslims are exasperated by such attitudes — Malik’s comments in 2007 had been roundly criticised in India by both sportspersons and community leaders.

Around 650 million Muslims live in the Indian Subcontinent, about two-third of them in India and Bangladesh. Pakistan had added the title “Islamic Republic” to the country’s name in 1956, when the first constitution of the new country was adopted. Bangladesh has secularism as a core principle, but it does have Islam as the state religion.

1971 again

It often irritates the Indian and Bangladeshi Muslims when Pakistani Muslims speak for all Muslims of South Asia.

Amin is a Bangladesh-origin immigrant who works at a Bangladeshi-owned restaurant near Southampton. “My grandparents were killed by Pakistani army in 1971,” he says, tears appearing in the corners of his eyes. He says his parents were lucky to escape because they were in a neighbouring village. “The village of my grandparents was attacked and burned down… Pakistani Punjabis did not treat Bangladeshis as equals, though both were Muslims.”

Amin says he knows many Bangladeshis who support Pakistan during an India-Pakistan contest. “But not me,” he says. “The sadness of what happened in 1971 is still with me.”

Ishwar is a Pakistani Hindu from Sindh, living in London for a few years now. He had been delighted when Pakistan beat India in the final of the Champions Trophy two years ago, when we first met at the Oval ground in London. He said he had been berated by some Indians for supporting Pakistan despite being Hindu. “Of course I support Pakistan, my nation, the country I was born in,” he said.

Incidentally, the forefathers of Imam Rehman of Manchester had migrated from Ferozepur in India to western Punjab in Pakistan. The Subcontinent’s centuries-old connections among its people, the interplay of ideas, philosophies and belief systems, often find expression on the cricket grounds of England and the rest of the world. It’s fascinating.