Deoband school
Sir,
This refers to
Prof. Mohan Lal Koul’s letter (Excelsior
October 19).
My article did not
intend an evaluation of the philosophy of
Deoband. I, of course, pleaded that it should do
some serious rethinking on its pivotal role in
saving Islam from the ignonimity to which it is
being dragged by Taliban.
I simply raised
the question why Deoband, patronised by Gandhi
and Azad, has been isolated from the national
mainstream and why Pushtoons, who revered Gandhi
and Ghaffar Khan turned Taliban.
I am aware of the
fatwas and criticism of the Deoband school
against liberal Muslims. In fact one can discern
two broad streams of Muslim public life. One
represented by the Ulema, mostly influenced by
Deoband, and the other of modernised and
westernised leadership influenced by Aligarh
Muslim University. Prof. Koul has mentioned names
of Sayyad Amir Ali and Nawab Abdul Latif Khan. To
them may be added Sir Ayed Amad Khan, Chirag Ali,
Agha Khan, Dr. Iqbal and Jinnah.
It is no place to
discuss merits and demerits of the two Muslim
schools except to note the fact that Jinnah, who
was least religious Muslim, and Gandhi, a
thoroughly religious person could not communicate
in a common idiom whereas the religious idiom of
the latter helped him to establish an excellent
rapport with religious Muslim leaders like Azad
and Deoband Ulema. But the fact remains that
modernised westernised Muslim leadership
succeeded in mobilising Muslim masses better and
isolating the Islamic scholars.
Not only during
the British rule, even earlier Ulema have not
been leaders of the Indian Muslims who followed
either the hedonist kings or non-conformist
Sufis.Why Hindu-Muslim dialogue and understanding
could not succeed and prevent the partition is,
again, a much wider question and was beyond the
scope of my article. But Prof. Koul tends to be
oversimplistic when he implies that modernism is
equivalent of secularism or religious orthodoxy
is equivalent of communalism. For none of the
Ulema ever supported the demand of Pakistan.
As far as Kashmir
is concerned the most outstanding Deobandi was
Maulana Mussoodi, a statesman-saint-scholar of
whose calibre there were not many in the country.
Neither his legacy nor the Kashmiri tradition can
be held responsible for hounding out of Kashmiri
Pandits from the Valley.
Yours etc...
(Balraj Puri)
Jammu.
|
