C.M. Naim is primarily known to us as a scholar of Urdu literature. He has to his credit a number of works written during his stay in the US where he taught at the department of South Asian Languages and Civilisations at the University of Chicago. However, in the book before me, Naim engages in a subject different from literature. He explains to us that “this collection of selected occasional writings highlights my engagement with India and Indian Muslims, the country where I was born and the community I was born into.” The collection has been published under the title The Muslim League in Barabanki. This is also the title of the first article in the collection.

Born in Barabanki, Naim’s first recollection of himself is of a kid marching with other kids “up and down the one main road in Barabanki under the green flag of the Muslim League.” Those were the historic years of 1945, 46, 47 when the Pakistan movement was at its peak and Indian Muslims, overwhelmed with emotions, were in an aggressive mood. This mood breathed its last on August 15, 1947. Naim ends his autobiographical tale by briefly referring to that January day when, with the sad news of Gandhiji’s assassination, his whole family was in the grip of a great fear: “The terror, which that January day had suddenly permeated our bones, and then as quickly seemed to have disappeared, had never actually left us. Months would go by, even years, then suddenly at some odd occasion or during some innocuous conversation, it would let its presence be felt, as deep and certain within us as the sound of our heartbeats and the filling and emptying of our lungs.” This article serves as an introduction to the following articles.

While discussing the behaviour of Indian Muslims, Naim seems to be saying that they were required to review their situation in the light of the conditions which had emerged as a consequence of Partition and make adjustments accordingly. However, they did not do so. Consequently, their ways of thinking and their actions were hardly compatible with the new realities.

In his article, ‘Give Fatwa a Respite, Please,” Naim quotes a question put to the ulema in Deoband. The question is, “Can Muslim women in India do government or private jobs? Shall their salary be halal or haram or prohibited.”

The answer comes as: “It is unlawful for Muslim women to do jobs in government or private institutions where men and women work together and women have to talk with men frankly and without a veil. Allah knows best.”

Naim has discussed in detail this question-answer business which leads to the issuance of fatwas. The fatwa, he says, “is neither ‘regressive’ nor ‘progressive’. It is a statement concerning acts that are beyond the binary habit of the present-day English-language discourse concerning fatwas.” And that exactly is the nature of the majority of recorded fatwas. They are sincerely attempted answers to sincerely asked questions.

But referring to the history of fatwas in South Asia, he says, “Altaf Husain Hali devotes nearly 10 pages of his famous biography to all the fatwas that were given against Sir Syed. … Similar fatwas were issued against several Muslim leading figures.” Add to them the fatwas against women’s education in the beginning of the 20th century. But, he says, that did not stop Muslims from educating their daughters. Nor will fatwas prevent women from seeking professional jobs in every field.

I heaved a sigh of relief seeing that despite his deep involvement in matters related to religion, Mr Naim can spare a few minutes to talk a bit about problems related to language and literature. In one article he discussed the position of Urdu in post-Partition India. He paints a very gloomy picture of Urdu in the present scenario of India and ends by saying, “For writing in Urdu in India is now definitely a political act. It may not empower you much, but it still lets you assert the fact of your existence. In a time of plague, that is enough.”

In the next article he is seen making a few useful comments on a collection of selected Partition stories. The compiler, Sukrita Paul Kumar, has chosen to include, along with Partition stories written in Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi, a few Bangla stories as well that were written in the context of the bloodshed at the fall of East Pakistan.

And here is a suggestion from Mr Naim: “I would be curious to know what some thoughtful writers in Kannada, Malyalam, or Marathi wrote in 1947, not so much in response to what they read was happening elsewhere as about what they actually observed was happening in their own peaceful neighbourhoods.” He also wants such stories included in the collections of selected Partition stories because “we hope to gain a properly nuanced understanding of that massive and nebulous experience we so often abbreviate as the Partition Experience.” This is, of course, a useful suggestion.