Muslim Marathis speak up
At the fifth Akhil Bhartiya Muslim Marathi Sahitya Sammelan held in Bombay, writers, poets and artistes asserted their composite identity as Muslim Marathis, says ABDUL KADER MUKADAM
The
fifth All-India Muslim Marathi Literacy Conference was held at Alma Latifi
Hall, Sabu Siddick Engineering College, Bombay, on 3rd, 4th and 5th of
November. The venue was rightly named after Hutatma Kurban Husein who was
killed by the British at a very young age. The conference organised jointly
by the Anjuman-e-Islam, Bombay and a Marathi weekly, Shodhan, was
well-attended with delegates coming from various parts of Maharashtra and
elsewhere.
The main object of the conference was to bridge the gap between the two major communities � Hindus and Muslims � which has grown considerably during the last few years due to aggressive communalism. The conference also was an attempt to highlight the fact that Marathi-speaking Muslims in the state consider themselves as part and parcel of the wider culture of Maharashtra. This was evident from the fact that many of the participants at the conference were creative people for whom Marathi is the lanugage through which they always express themselves whether that means novels, poetry, drama or journalism.
Dr. Ishaq Jamkhanawala, president, Anjuman-e-Islam while welcoming the delegates, emphasised the need of learning Marathi by all Muslims who come and settle in various parts of Maharashtra. He also expressed his intention to establish a Marathi literary society and to have a good collection of Marathi books in all the institutions connected with Anjuman-e-Islam.
In her presidential address, Dr. Kadira Zulfi Shaikh, a professor of Marathi from Nagpur University and a scholar of ancient Marathi literature, said that writings in Marathi by Muslims is not a recent phenomena. It goes as far back as the 12th century and was inspired by the writings of the saint poets of Marathi such as Dyaneshwar, Tukaram etc.
She quoted extensively from the writings of saint poets Shaha Mrityunjay Bahamans and Sheikh Mohammed to bring home her point that their poetry was inspired and influenced by Dyaneshwari. Dr. Shaikh also referred to a sixteenth century Muslim poet, Amber Husein, who has written a poetic commentary on the Gita which is known as Amber Huseini. K
Kumar Ketkar editor, Maharashtra Times, who inaugurated the confe-rence, delved into the various aspects of globalisation and refuted the apprehension that Indian culture is under threat of being overwhelmed by the impact of globalisation. He also said that every religious, linguistic or social group has its own cultural identity which needs to be preserved as it gives a multi-coloured dimension to society.
He saw the conference as an effort in this direction and cautioned against it being treated as a separate or separatist enterprise. On the contrary, its like a tributary which ultimately merges in to the main current of regional or national culture.
Apart from the katha-kathan (story-telling) and poetry session, three major subjects were taken up for deliberations at the conference: �Contribution of Muslims in the development of Mumbai and Maharashtra�, �Portrayal of Muslims in Marathi literature� and �Muslims in the freedom struggle�. Abdul Kader Mukadam, Ms. Faiyaz Sheikh and Dr. Abdul Karim Naik led the discussion on the first subject. Mukadam focussed his talk on Konkani Muslims in the Middle East and Muslims in maritime activities on the country�s western coast.
He pointed out that on an average Rs. 400 to Rs. 500 crore are repatriated to India by these migrant Muslim Konkini workers every year. Their hard-earned money is sent back to their motherland through legitimate banking channels, he added. The fact that the number of banks in Ratnagiri district have gone up from 78 to 149, each with the facility of foreign exchange service is sufficient evidence of this. As regards the maritime activities of Muslims on the western coast, he said that it started in the 7th century when Islam first came to India. It was the Islam of traders, not invaders, who came to the west coat by the sea route. Since then, Konkan Muslims have been engaged in the mercantile naval profession. The towns of Kasba, Saitawada and Kadwai in Ratnagiri District are the major centres of these maritime activities. For generations, the family of Bhambals from Kadwai were engaged in carrying goods by sea route to various parts of Gujarat, Kathiawar, Karwar and even to ports in the Bay of Bengal. Captain Fakir-Mohammed Javle was the pioneer of the maritime activities in Maha-rashtra, Mukadam pointed out. He started his carrier in 1906 as a lashkar boy, the lowest in the cadre, and rose to the highest post of captain. Javle was also the founder of the first nautical engineering institution which he started in 1993 at Dongri, Bombay.
Named the Konkan Nautical Engineering School, it gave free training to students. Later, he was also instrumental in starting a comprehensive government training centre at T.S. Dufferin. His third generation descendent, Captain Zainul Abedin Javle is presently engaged in the same profession contributing his might to the family tradition. During Iraq�s aggression on Kuwait, a large number of Indians were stranded in Kuwait. When Captain Javle�s cargo ship SAFEER reached Kuwait to deliver the cargo, he came to know about the precarious situation of Indians there and became involved in efforts to bring them back to India. He safely brought back 722 Indians of which 265 were women and children. When this ship reached Dubai, hundreds had gathered there for a warm wel-come. Some of them carried banners making SAFEER into an acronym � Safe and Free, Each and Every Refugee.
This is not an isolated example. Apart from the Javale family, there are many families even today who are engaged in the traditional profession of maritime activities. Captain Moazzam Gholay, Captain Husein Kapadi, Captain Ali Pawaskar, Captain Murad Patankar are some examples. Ms. Faiyaz, herself an acknowledged singer and artist from the Marathi stage, talked of the contribution of Muslim artistes in the field of the performing arts. She proudly referred to some of the famous artistes�Jabbar Patel, Sulochana, Shafaat Khan.
Dr. Bhalchandra Moongekar who chaired the session said Muslims should never be apologetic for anything as they are equal citizens of this country and have a history and culture which they could rightly be proved of.
The discussion on �Portrayal of Muslims in Marathi literature� was chaired by Dr. Aziz Nadaf of Sholapur while Dr. Shaikh Hashim of Wardha, Syed Allauddin (Ashti, Beed) and Ms. Shaila Satpule (Mumbai) led the discussions.
The central point highlighted throughout the discussion was that right from the time of the pioneer of the modem Marathi novel, Hari Narayan Apte, to Nath Madhav, P.B. Bhave, B. Raghunath, G.N. Dandekar , S. N. Pendse and many others, Muslim characters portrayed in a biased and distorted manner. The stereo-type of the Muslim in most of their writing is that of someone who is fana-tical, mad, murderous. This was not the case with earlier literature in Marathi.
Almost every par-ticipant in the discussion highlighted the fact that the plight of Maharashtra Brahmins during the anti-Brahmin riots following the assa-ssination of Mahatma Gandhi was taken up as a subject matter by many Marathi writers but no writer has taken note of the atrocities against and the killing of Muslims during communal riots in recent years.
Professor Syed Alauddin pointed out that Ibrahim Adil Shah, a Muslim, was the first to make Marathi the state language but no cognisance is taken of this fact. Professor Hashim said literature is a mirror of society; Marathi literature, unfortunately, presents a distorted picture of Muslims which obviously vitiates the atmosphere and ultimately legitimise the killing of poor and innocent Muslims during communal riots. He cited several several cases of negative portrayal of Muslims in the novels of some well-known writers to make his point.
In the concluding session, Professor Nagnath Kotapalle pointed out that medieval history of Maharashtra has been written with a definite communal touch. The projection of Shivaji�s period in a communal manner and of the freedom struggle as if only Hindus took part in it were identified by him as two aspects of the same malady. E
Earlier, while on the same subject, professor Y.D. Phadke had said he was so appalled by the Marathi-rendering of the national freedom movement that he personally felt compelled to write two books on the role of Muslims and Sikhs in the freedom movement.
The Sammelan passed four resolutions:
A single theme underpinned the presentations and discuss-ions throughout the deliberations on the subjects taken up at the conference: The participants repeatedly asserted their Muslim identity but simultaneously laid claim to being a part and parcel of Marathi ethos and culture; in other words, they were asserting that to take away either the Muslim or the Marathi part of their self would be to deny to them their composite self-identity.
The conference also seemed to provide a fresh dose of hope and confidence for Marathi-speaking Muslims, many of whom had become quite demoralised by the vitiated communal atmosphere of the last few years to regain their self-confidence.
(The writer contributes regular columns to Marathi dailies)