| March 08, 2007 | Thursday | Safar 18, 1428 |
One language, two scripts; one religion, diverse civilizations
On two different occasions last fortnight, I had to suppress with great difficulty my typical journalistic cynicism to hear out two highly unconventional ideas from two different sources on long-standing commonly held beliefs linked one way or the other to religion. One idea is seemingly still in an experimental stage. But the other is out in the market in the form of a book.
MEERWALA: Mukhtaran Mai’s efforts to build more schools, a health clinic and complete the construction of a trauma centre for women in this dusty, backwater village are being stonewalled by a combine of bureaucracy and landlords even though the projects would benefit all.
But, far from giving up, she is determined to build on the good work she has already done in promoting education among children and instilling confidence among the oppressed women here. A little frustrated, she says she will fight the heavy odds stacked against her and complete her dream of improving the quality of life of down-trodden people of this area. Such is the stuff this shy little woman is made of.
The question is why must she face hurdles and even harassment at the hands of the authorities for doing the right thing? Is it because some people believe she is bringing a bad name to the country by projecting her gruesome rape story abroad? Or is it out of jealously for the enormous respect she has earned internationally as a courageous champion of women’s rights?
I have met Mukhtaran several times during her travels to the United States. Despite her lack of education, she comes across as a very intelligent person. A patriot, she tries to ensure that the honour of her country and its leaders is protected. This, despite the attitude of some of our top leaders that was less than dignified.
The hostility towards her was very much in evidence when this past week I came out of the van carrying Mukhtaran, her consort Naseem and three others in the village of Jatoi near Meerwala. Agents of her mumbling detractors surrounded the van and gave her bad looks.
Our United Nations correspondent Masood Haider has often reported on women’s rights campaigner Mukhtaran Mai’s visits to New York. On a recent trip to Pakistan, Masood took up Mukhtaran Mai’s offer and toured Meerawala. This is how the victim of multiple rape who, through her campaign against injustices, has become an international figure, has tried to rebuild her life and change the environment for many women in her rather backward area.
“This Mukhtaran, she should be killed, she is defaming Pakistan,” one of them said, with others nodding in agreement.
Mukhtaran’s village is surrounded by her sworn enemies and the pro-government media is part of the campaign against her. Powerful landlords use their workers to spread vicious lies about her, she says. But she has taken the abuse in her stride.
Mukhtaran did not protest even when the United Nations, under pressure from the Pakistan Mission, put off her speaking engagement at the world body last year. The Mission apparently thought that since Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was coming to the UN the same day, her presence would take the attention away from Mr Aziz.
The reverse happened: the cancellation of Mukhtaran’s event at the last minute became a major story in the US media! The very first question put to the prime minister at his press conference was about the reason for barring the UN Headquarters’ doors on Mukhtaran.
Mr Aziz handled it rather well with an expression of surprise on his face and apparently pretending that he did not know anything about it. In fact, he expressed his empathy and support for her, saying: “I have no idea. I don’t know how the place functions. I have supported her and her efforts. She is a great proponent and champion of women rights.”
Initially, Mukhtaran concedes, the prime minister tried to help her whenever she requested it, but people at the lower level create bottlenecks, with the result that his orders are not carried out. But now things have changed. The prime minister, apparently influenced by rich landowners some of whom are in parliament, seems to have stepped back. I have it on good authority that Mr Aziz now believes that Mukhtaran, who blames local landlords and police bigwigs for maligning her and obstructing her mission, wants to run the government. “She does not run the government, I do,” he says when he hears her complaints about interfering officials.
On her part, Mukhtaran has always blamed the antiquated jagirdari system for her rape and ordeal, not the government. At a number of meetings across the United States, a certain group had tried to goad her to blame President Gen Pervez Musharraf and his government for her plight.
But she refused. At one point, someone brought to her attention a statement made by President Musharraf about women lining up for rape in order to get a visa and lots of money, she simply said: “I did not hear him make that statement.”
To turn to Meerwala, I found young girls thrilled with the school. Although incomplete, the crisis centre was functioning. Mukhtaran and Naseem give comfort to scores to women who travel long distances with harrowing stories of battering at the hands of their husbands, families and villagers. Some have had acid thrown on their faces, others with severed fingers. Mukhtaran helps them – some are given temporary shelter.
Mukhtaran is seeking the help of local authorities to complete the trauma centre so that more women in need could stay till their problems are resolved, but her appeals fall on deaf ears. She is also pushing for the implementation of other government-sanctioned projects to set up two more schools and a health clinic.
Her pleas still seem to be falling on deaf ears. It is strange and ironical that the government doesn’t support her more robustly. Given how Pakistan is perceived abroad, the government could use her celebrity status at the international level to its advantage, instead of hounding her. The sooner it does, the better for the country.
First a word about the book, The Politics of Language: Urdu/Hindi — An Artificial Divide. Abdul Jamil Khan, the author, is an Indian and a medical doctor by profession whose permanent residence is in New York. He delivered an hour-long passionate lecture the other day at the Indian YMCA here explaining his thesis. The book is a 400-page treatise on the origin of languages with the central theme that Urdu and Hindi are but one language. And this so-called one language as opposed to the commonly held belief that it is an offshoot of Sanskrit goes back thousands of years in history evolving through ages from two foreign languages — Munda and Dravidian — long before Sanskrit became a formal language.
According to the author, bifurcation of one language (let us call it Hindustani for convenience sake) into Hindu’s Hindi and Muslim’s Urdu through the use of two different scripts — Nagri for Hindi and Arabic for Urdu — served the politics of Great Britain. This he says was a part of a divisive, racist ploy to partition India. The book shows that the two languages —Sanskrit and Hindustani — have entirely different grammar and syntax. It also documents the link between Hindustani and other languages to a common African language.
The author holds that the Hindi versus Urdu issue, pushed by the British and Bengali intellectuals snowballed into Hindu versus Muslim politics. He further holds that Gandhi’s support for Urdu’s cause viewed as ‘anti-Hindu’ in partitioned India cost him his life. He has linked the failure of Hindi in West Bengal and that of Urdu in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to natural regional politics of the sub-continent. In the concluding chapters of the book the author says that Muslims of India have not only accepted Hindi but have now turned it into third most relevant Islamic language. The author appears to be bending backwards throughout the book to rebut the concept of a religion-based civilisation, Hindu, Islamic, Christian etc with emphasis on the independence of language and culture from religions.
The book needs a lot of editing to tighten the copy and remove the plethora of abbreviations which makes reading very difficult. As for the thesis of the book, only a linguist would be able to pass judgment. But I could understand and appreciate his underlying passion for his ideas. What else could one expect from a person who introduces himself as follows: my formative years were shaped by the Hindu/Muslim mutual slaughter that accompanied the partition of India….As a Muslim boy in a Vedic-Hindu school I spent five years (grade 3-7) in this volatile atmosphere under the stigma of being a ‘traitor Muslim’, divider of mother India. Thus stems the intensity of my passion in ferreting out history and tracing the roots of the divide. Vedic schooling was certainly priceless, as I memorised Vedic hymns and noticed similarities in Islam and Hinduism, and enjoyed celebrating Hindu festivals and learning to be a ‘good Muslim’ and a Vedic Indian.”
Are there a common Muslim civilisation and a single Muslim culture reflecting the limits and scope of Islam? According to Doctor Jamil Khan’s thesis civilisations and cultures are independent from religions. The Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (ISMC) at the UK campus of Aga Khan University where a two-year MA degree course in Muslim Cultures is offered seems to think there is no single Muslim civilisation or culture as the name of the institute and the topic of the postgraduate degree suggest.
I had a two-hour long leisurely meeting with three of the staff of the ISMC the other day. Both Professor Moncef Ben Abdeljelil of Tunisia and Senior Instructor Farid Panjwani of Pakistan articulated the whole concept of the main course being offered at the ISMC in a manner which even for a cynic like me was very difficult to punch holes into. And the Resource Development Officer, Ms Charlotte Rayani of Sweden who arranged the meeting also gave me a tour of the Campus and accompanied the two teachers, filled me in on the administrative matters.
Plurality: The MA course is said to offer a distinctive way of understanding the plurality and complexity of past and present Muslim cultures. The goal of the Institute is to strengthen research and teaching on the heritage of Muslim societies as they have evolved over time, and on the challenges these societies face in today’s globalised world. It also seeks to create opportunities for interaction among academics, traditionally trained scholars and other professionals in an effort to deepen the understanding by Muslims and non-Muslims alike of issues affecting Muslim societies today.
The staff and faculty members of AKU-ISMC total 26 individuals, excluding visiting lecturers. The team represents numerous countries (Bangladesh, Britain, Canada, Germany, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Mauritius, Morocco, Pakistan, Sweden and Tunisia) and speaks eight languages.
The aim of the ISMC is to strengthen institutions that are able to adopt the norms and techniques of modern scholarship without losing sight of the lived and historical experiences of Muslims struggling to resolve contemporary challenges. An endeavour is to be made to create a language of scholarship that would avoid two faults: first, the transmission of knowledge about Islam in ways that are oblivious to the deep changes brought about by modernisation, and second, a reductionist approach to religious traditions found in some Western institutions.
The ISMC believes it can make a distinct contribution to the understanding of Muslim societies and the emergence of new attitudes among Muslims and non-Muslims toward the concerns of contemporary societies. The ISMC aims to study and raise awareness of the most serious issues faced by Muslim societies today. In doing so, it says, it is aware of the difficulties.
This approach is expected to entail studying the context of cultural and intellectual history within which religious ideas and practices have meaning. Cultural manifestations such as art, poetry and architecture will be examined alongside doctrine, law and religious practice. The Institute aims to understand the character of Muslim civilisations as they have evolved over time, and also to focus on the complex social, cultural and historical processes that they are undergoing in the contemporary world.
It would, indeed, be interesting to see how the students from different countries including Iran, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, the US, Canada etc who would graduate from the ISMC in two years’ time would position themselves in the on going debate within the Muslim Ummah and outside on Islam’s role in the modern world and its relations with the people of other faiths.