For the last week or so, the country appears riveted to the drama being played out in an Islamic seminary deep in India?s Hindi heartland, near Saharanpur?the Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband?which is the second biggest centre for Islamic learning in the world.
The drama started off innocuously enough when the new rector of Deoband, Maulana Vastanvi, said in an interview that Muslims in India needed to look beyond the events of 2002, the reference, of course, was to the anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat.
The uproar that followed and the calls for Vastanvi?s resignation following that particular statement quite obscured the fact that he had also, in the same interview, said that Gujarat?s chief minister Narendra Modi could in no way be let off the hook. It also quite conveniently recalibrated the power struggle within the seminary and the Muslim community as a whole into that of a ?true? Muslim and a collaborator to the Sangh cause.
What is really happening in Deoband, had Vastanvi resigned as rector or not, and who are the people who are poised to take his place in case he is edged out on February 23?
The seminary of Deoband was founded in 1886 and has had a major role in shaping Muslim politics in India. In wielding this power, it has also spawned a political wing of its own, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind. It saw an uninterrupted headship during 1935-1983 under Qari Tayyeb, a learned scholar of Islam and who steered the seminary as best he could. In 1983, politics-savvy Asad Madani entered the picture and in a coup of sorts, his uncle Marghoobur Rahman was appointed rector of Deoband. The Madani family, well respected across the community, has held sway over the seminary since then.
The death of Marghoobur Rahman in December last year necessitated the appointment of a new rector, and this was duly done through the Majlis-e-Shoora, a 17-member board of learned maulvis, 14 of whom were present when the meeting to elect Vastanvi took place on January 10, 2011.
His election, with eight out of those 14 votes, stunned the establishment in Deoband, not least because he was a non-Qasmi (a Qasmi is a graduate from Deoband itself) but also that he would be bringing an entirely new sensibility to community at large. Plans for a medical college attached to Deoband and specialised courses of study were part of his appeal to many members of the Shoora.
The controversy over Vastanvi and the people who have come down on both sides of the argument reflect the debate that is raging at the heart of the Muslim community in India. The Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid judgement, and the way it was received by the Muslim community at large, has stunned many, especially those political parties that claim to receive support from the community.
The victory of Nitish Kumar in Bihar and the BJP?s spectacular performance in the state has also nailed the lie on just how Muslims vote or are prepared to vote in the future. Vastanvi brings with him a modernising project through specialised education, away from the strictly theological imperatives, and many in the community are demanding that this project be given full rein.
The only recent instance of an en bloc Muslim vote was in the 2004 General Elections, fresh after the 2002 Gujarat riots, the heinous nature of which united the community against the BJP. It is not surprising, therefore, that a modernisation project, which threatens established power structures and age old ?safe? ways of engaging the Muslim community, is being debunked by the bogey of 2002.
Vastanvi, who offered to quit in the aftermath of his remarks, has now decided to stand his ground?quite obviously he has been assured of some support. For Indian Muslims, it is a debate that will settle many questions and hopefully chart a clear way to the future.
nistula.hebbar@expressindia.com