Can the Muslims of India only hope to have normal days when the Hindus around them stand up to Hindutva excesses?
This question struck me after I read about the demonstration and agitation by Hindu students of a higher secondary school in the Khajuri village in Rajasthan’s Kota, protesting against the suspension of their Muslim teachers.
Three Muslim teachers of the school were accused of making students offer namaz and putting pressure on them for religious conversion. In a memorandum given to the state’s controversial education minister Madan Dilawar, the Sarva Hindu Samaj – a joint platform of Hindutva organisations – alleged that these teachers were engaged in ‘Islamic jihadi activities’, ‘religious conversion’ and ‘love jihad‘.
It was said that these teachers had conspired to convert a Hindu girl of the village and get her married to a Muslim boy. The girl’s family, along with this forum, had already issued threats to these teachers. The clinching basis for this allegation turned out to be the fact that ‘Islam’ was written in the school register in the religion column next to the girl’s name. This, they alleged, proves that she was converted into Islam in the school.
The girl issued a statement saying that she was an adult and that she married a Muslim man of her own free will. She also said that she has not become a Muslim and continues to be a Hindu. But the allegation kept being repeated. Minister Dilawar then jumped in and made allegations against the Muslim teachers. Soon, the teachers were suspended. A video statement, allegedly made by a school student, started circulating in which he said that these teachers forced him to offer namaz in the school and were engaged in religious conversion efforts.
All this does not surprise us and has become very normal in the India of our times. But what happened next was unexpected and unprecedented in many ways. The students of the school demonstrated in front of the authorities against the punishment given to their teachers. They said that the allegations levelled against their teachers were baseless and absurd. Even the boy who had said on camera that he was forced to offer namaz came forward and said that his statement was false and that he was forced to do make it.
The principal and other teachers of the school have also supported their fellow teachers. They also called these allegations baseless. The young woman marriage had nothing to do with the school and these teachers, they said. Writing ‘Islam’ against her name in the school register was a mistake.
One must note that the majority of students in the school are Hindus and the remaining teachers are all Hindus. This fact makes their stand very significant. That a Hindu should speak up for a Muslim is an exception and a surprise in today’s India. But the ordinary Hindu students and teachers of Khajuri showed that this is very easy to do. To do this all you need to have the sense of right and wrong.
But this is now an anomaly. Are there such Hindus still left in India who not only find injustice towards Muslims bad but are also ready to take the trouble of fighting against it?
It is not easy to stand in front of the above-mentioned Sarva Hindu Samaj, the Bajrang Dal, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or the Bharatiya Janata Party because there significant power in and behind them. Very often we have seen that the police and administration are also with them.
We know that good people cannot always stand before goons. They may disagree with their injustice, it might pain them, but the cost of protesting against it is very high. That is why, after Muslim teachers were punished, what their students and colleagues did in their solidarity is a remarkable yet difficult thing to want to see repeated.
This raises the question as to whether, in order for Muslims to live a normal life, their neighbours will have to be exceptionally righteous and courageous.
A few months ago, a Muslim teacher narrated to me the story of his search for a house in Delhi. He told me how difficult it was for him to get a house because he was a Muslim. The house where he lived earlier belonged to a Hindu. Pressure was put on his landlord to evict him from the house and he was threatened that if he did not do so, a police report would be filed against him, saying that he had given his house to a terrorist. But the Hindu landlord remained firm.
Can every Hindu landlord be like him?
When organisations are always looking for some pretext to make the life of Muslims difficult and some new method to harass them, then it will become more and more difficult for them to live their daily lives normally on their own. Muslims also know that they should not expect protection from the government bodies since such organisations are now part of the state structure. In many cases we have seen state agencies themselves turning into oppressors of Muslims.
Just after this incident in Khajuri village, an incident in Alwar in Rajasthan came to light. A girl alleged that two girls were pressurising her to convert to Islam and marry a Muslim. The police immediately arrested all three of them. The police officer said that it is a matter of investigation whether this allegation was made due to a personal rivalry but it is noteworthy that they felt it necessary to arrest the Muslim girls and boys even before the investigation.
Like in Khajuri, Muslim teachers were suspended as soon as allegations were made. Will these three Muslims be able to get the support of Hindus in Alwar the way the Muslims got in Khajuri? We know the answer. But can this answer not be changed? The young students of Khajuri have demonstrated that it is possible.
Apoorvanand is an academic and an author.
