Sumedha Raikar-Mhatre: The fearless Muslim

Hamid Dalwai right shares a light moment with Islamic scholar A A A Fyzee Left below Mehrunnisa Dalwai PicSayyed Sameer AbediSocial reformerwriter and Samyutka Socialist Party activist Hamid Umar Dalwai 19321977 was cleanshaven on principle He felt beards were community emblems for Muslims much like the castemarkers flaunted by some Hindus in a secular society At one of his public rallies in Solapur he shared his aversion for token Muslim beards and added in jest that if he were in power he would compel all Muslims to shave off their beardsDalwais humour was not appreciated by the audience and a senior cleric retorted We had been told that our friend Hamid Dalwai was a learned man from Bombay but we discovered that he was a selfchampioning barber Dalwai roared with his trademark laughter as he narrated the instance to late poetcritic Dilip Chitre in an interview that became the epilogue titled Angry Young Secularist in an anthology of essays Muslim Politics in India 1968 whose Marathi version Bharatatil Muslim Rajkaran Sadhana Prakashan hit the stands recently coinciding with Dalwais 40th death anniversary yearThe essays complement Punebased Sadhana Prakashans revival of Dalwais literary and political works just as they form the backdrop for wife Mehrunnisa Dalwais 89 memoir which etches a liberal whose candid views on the Koran Ulema and all matters Muslim put him and his family at risk I am happy that my husbands views are being revisited in an India where Muslims are either misunderstood or appeased It is refreshing to listen to someone who spoke on all taboos without the fear of a backlash she feelsHamid Dalwai seen at the forefront of the iconic 1966 march to Mantralaya which demanded secular laws for a secular countryThe first four essays in Bharatatil Muslim Rajkaran were penned immediately after Dalwais iconic march of April 18 1966 to the Mantralaya In the memorandum presented to then Chief Minister Vasantrao Naik Dalwai and seven Muslim women Mehrunnisa included had demanded a ban on polygamy and Triple Talaq along with the creation of a common civil code by abolishing personal laws based on scriptures Dalwais march is still remembered as a defining espousal of gender justice in Maharashtras secular history in which few but firm progressive Muslims attempted to revise a divisive social order Separating religion from the obligations of citizenship of a modern state they told the establishment not to encourage outdated norms in the name of minority politicsDalwais essays first appeared in English but it was more because of Dilip Chitres diligent editing and translation skills that accurately captured his critique of Muslim attitudes Chitre felt Dalwais forthrightness set an example for those who either remained silent on Muslim issues or those who spoke with an agenda Dalwais concern is with making people around him sane sober modern and democratic citizens He is one of those few young Indians who are actionoriented in a selfless way Chitre writes in the anthology which he put together by recalling his notations of Dalwais key speechesMehrunnisa DalwaiLittle did Chitre know that Dalwai would die untimely nine years later at the age of 44 and Bharatatil Muslim Rajkaran would go down in history as an exceptionally razorsharp assessment of why things are the way they are with Indian Muslims Incidentally Chitre translated most of Dalwais literary works including the 1965 novel Indhan Fuel which focused on the relationship between a Brahmin woman and a Muslim protagonist Indhan sparked a clash between the orthodox Muslims and Hindus of Dalwais own village Mirjoli Ratnagiri district When Dalwais writings were trying to underline the crazy notions of religious purity his hometown displayed the failed integration of communities in the India of the sixties It is also unfortunate that a crusader who gave a lifetime to transform the Muslim belief system established the Muslim Satyashodhak MandalMuslim Truth Seeking Society Pune 1970 pioneered the All India Forward looking Muslims Conference New Delhi1971 was termed a kafir by fanaticsThere is a reason why Muslim Politics in India the 1972 second edition had four new essays deals with unpalatable truths mdash it is because Dalwai references an eventful quarter century starting from Indias Independence and Partition 1947 to Pakistans partition and formation of Bangladesh 1971 Placing Indias national interests in prime focus he wages a frontal attack on all forces not ready for true integration on a nonparty nonpolitical basis Dalwai blames not just the common Muslims but also the intelligentsia for not giving up its postulate of a parallel society which he labels as the prime reason for tension after Independence He feels Muslims started on a wrong note by keeping themselves away from British education because they believed that the British snatched away the Muslim empire from their predecessors Resultantly the Muslims as compared to Hindus who were relatively ready for reform became religionbound revivalists The Muslim vanity of the Mughal past contributed to the formation of a separatist Muslim nationalism and the idea of Pakistan argues DalwaiIt is interesting to note that Hamid Dalwais bluntness over Muslim appeasement done by the Congress party and the communists his postmortem of Muslim factions and their unreasonable fatwas comes in handy for several Hindu fundamentalists Sadhanas editorpublisher Vinod Shirsath is aware of the volatility of the revived publication Dalwai was against all types of narrowness He was too open in his examination of medieval Islamic practices but felt it was time to discard all scriptures Also he was equally cognizant of how his rationale could be misconstrued or selectively quoted out of context But that didnt stop him from analysing He wrote for a compassionate Indian reader not a Hindu or a MuslimHamid Dalwai hated Muslim stereotypes all his life And even in death he embraced a secular ideal by choosing to be cremated and not buried as per Islamic rites Daughter Ila Kambli says Baba never categorised himself as a Muslim he didnt raise his daughters with any religious doctrine and his wife was an equal partner in all initiatives As I look back at the way he articulated Muslim prejudices I feel his perspective was difficult to swallow at that time We have to see if the times have changedSumedha RaikarMhatre is a culture columnist in search of the subtext You can reach her at sumedharaikargmailcom