It is high time for Indian Muslims to feel pride as the representative voice of theirs, Radiance Viewsweekly, has completed 50 years in the service of the community. During the period of 50 years the magazine got worldwide recognition in the field of English journalism. On this festive occasion, the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind should also express its gratitude and thankfulness before Allah as the independent society founded by its leaders, Board of Islamic Publications, which owns the magazine, is yielding fruits now. Its leaders had dreamt big of the Viewsweekly and the weekly is successfully transforming their dreams into reality.
Though these excellent 50 years of Radiance are full of achievements and accomplishments and now it has enough reasons to celebrate the golden jubilee yet there is no end of the journey. The great purpose which this weekly was incepted for is still to be served. Thankfully, the magazine does not seem exhausted and has enough stamina to continue its journey through every odd.
The time when Radiance was launched in 1963 was full of challenges, especially for Muslims in India. They were falsely and unnecessarily being held responsible for Partition of the country albeit then it had past 16 years on the division. There was a battery of communal disharmony aimed at destroying and damaging the properties of the Muslims and attacking their prestige and dignity. A group in and outside the country was hell bent to denigrate the Islamic values and traditions. The countrymen were leaving no stone unturned to keep the Muslims from administrative agencies, ignoring their sacrifices for the sake of the country.
In short, the atmosphere was completely hostile to the Muslims in India. In this venomous situation, the purpose of the inception of Radiance was: (1) To present a clear image of Islam before world, (2) To pour the spirit of patience and courage in the hearts of Muslims, and (3) To fight for the cause of Muslims and other oppressed. And at this stage, every liberal and unprejudiced person will feel a sense of pride while stating that Radiance has been devoting its undisrupted services for the purpose it was incepted for and after completion of 50 years there is no lacklustre in its enthusiasm and devotion. During 50 years journey, Radiance always promoted fair journalism and never polluted its pages with vulgar and cheap stuffs in the manner other fame-hunger English journals do.
Let us have a look on the milestones of Radiance so far:
The magazine, in the very next year of its inception, announced its modus operandi by releasing two Special Issues namely Rally Round the Prophet and Focal Point of Muslims. Since then its interest in the topics related to Islam and Muslims is constantly increasing. Whenever a critic comes forward with a derogatory comment on Islam, Radiance gives him or her fitting reply, removing the so-called stain from the image of Islam.
The weekly has always been on loggerhead with anti-Islam, communal and fascist forces. Its Special Issue Reply to Rushdie was a swift and heavy blow to the anti-Islam attitude of Salman Rushdie. If we collect the writ-ups published in the journal on “protection of Shari’ah and the religion” during these 50 years, it will make several books.
The Muslim Ummah has always been concerned over protection and preservation of its personal laws as well. There are still struggles to replace those with Uniform Civil Code and Muslims are being forced to give up their right to lead a life in accordance with their Shari’ah. At all these challenging times, Radiance alone fought for the Muslim cause through its excellent English journalism and always added a sense of pride to the Muslim community. The frequent genocides of Muslims—which numbers around 30,000 during 65 years of post-Independence era—had left no nook and corner without blood of a Muslim spilled over it. The Team Radiance would approach the riot victims and gave voice to their traumas and grief. It also helped the victims go through legal proceedings to claim their rights and encouraged the community members to pin their trust on Almighty Allah. The magazine exhorted the Muslims to avoid doing such acts as can degrade them from their status of Khair-e-Ummah (the best creation of Allah).
Almost every regular issue of Radiance bears the evidence of how cheap the Muslim blood was those days, but the way it covered the communal riots in Meerut, Maliyana, Bhagalpur, Gujarat and Assam riots rather pogroms and its Special Issue 100 Days of Agony released just before the demolition of Babri Masjid is an asset for the magazine. These issues pulled the curtain off from the ill face of communal and fascist forces and showed the world where peace and communal harmony was standing in the country.
Radiance has always been of the principle that the Indian Muslims should hold fast the string of Allah and be united like a watertight fence. That was the reason why the periodical devoted its strength to the propagation and consolidation of the prestigious All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, which came into existence along with the journal itself. Radiance has also maintained a heartily relationship with another federation of Muslim organisations i.e. All India Muslim Personal Law Board. Since the inception of the Board in 1972, the journal has been working as its self-acclaimed mouthpiece. By doing so, Radiance has its share in every act of the Board to retain the personal laws of the Muslims. Radiance released a Special Issue Islamic Unity in 1993 to promote the importance of unity in Islam.
Protection and propagation of Urdu in post-Independence era was another mission Radiance stood for. In fact, Urdu was the commercial language of united India but people, in independent India, turned out to associate it with the Muslims as their religious language. Consequently, it was nearly strangulated to death along with Muslims. But the Muslims, given to their several traumas, decided not to leave the language to its fate and Radiance actively promoted the movement to bring back the glamour of Urdu. And –Alhamdulillah—the language survived at the end of the day.
Aligarh Muslim University was established by Muslims themselves. When the Minority status of the university was challenged, the community assembled at one platform and vowed to fight until the status is restored. The then Editor of Radiance, S.M. Yousuf Siddiqui was among top leaders of the movement and Radiance building in Delhi was literally the camp office of the restoration movement. All the office bearers of Students Union and Old Boys Association considered the magazine a member of their family. Thankfully, they still maintain the same relationship with the journal. Radiance has also played a pivotal role to restore and retain the minority character of Jamia Millia Islamia as well.
The magazine has always kept its eyes on the target and presented the pathetic condition of Muslims before them, compelling them to think of their renaissance. The revelation of Sachar Committee about Muslims being more deprived than the Dalits came in 2006 while Radiance had said the same thing a pretty 16 years ago in its Special Issue Muslim Problems in India which was released in 1990. Copies of the Special Issue had been sent to then President of India, Prime Minister and all Ministers and Members of Parliament. But, to our utter sorrow and grief, none of them cared to pay heed to it.
Radiance even today keeps vigil on every proceeding in the Parliament and in other state Assemblies and whenever even a word is uttered there which may have negative impact on the community, Radiance takes notice of it and warns the Muslims about it. The Special Issue Conversion released in 1999 is the best instance of it.
Kashmir imbroglio has been the most sensitive and complicated issue of both India and Pakistan since Independence. Reportedly 50,000 people have been killed there in the last 20 years. Some years ago, a delegation comprising 5 or 6 respected persons of the valley visited Radiance office. The delegation shared its heart-wrenching stories and urged the journal to request the Union Government to release a report on the whereabouts of the Kashmiri youngsters who have been abducted allegedly either by army personnel or by local police. The pain and agony suffered by Kashmiri people have been specially covered by the journal in one of its Eid al-Adha specials.
During the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971, the Indian Government used everything it had in its capacity to aid and abet the movement and it was up to the citizens of India to choose between a rather unjustified attitude and an accurate move to promote democratic values. Radiance rightly preferred the latter stand. As fallout of it, the magazine was banned during the days of Emergency and its Editor-in-chief, S.M. Yousuf Siddiqui, was booked in a far flung area in Ambala jail while its Editor, Syed Aminul Hasan Rizvi, Deputy Editor, Syed Ausaf Saied Vasfi and Manager Abdul Waheed Khan were in Tihar Jail of Delhi. The Congress-led administration is still to explain as to why they had been jailed. Anyway, Radiance completed 25 years in the service of the community facing all ebbs and tides in January 1989. It is pertaining to note here that the title page of the Silver Jubilee Special carried an image of a necklace with caption “Her Only Asset That a Widower Donated For the ‘Muslim Paper in English Language’ 25 Years Ago.” In fact, the necklace belonged to a poor widower in Patna who out of her ultimate affection with the “Muslim paper in India” donated her only asset.
Radiance, by releasing its Special Issue on Babri Masjid in 1990, had presented a heavy case based on available facts and evidences in favour of Babri Masjid. But, some days later, the bloody rath yatra of LK Advani which resulted in the demolition of the historic mosque just under the nose of PV Narasimha Rao government, a number of communal riots started throughout the country. The largest organisation of Muslims i.e. Jamaat-e-Islami Hind was slapped a ban order. Radiance, at that time, expressed its pain and agony and released a Special Issue Babri Masjid Demolished, Muslims Killed, Jamaat Banned.
Radiance has also to its credit several Special Issues on the life and mission of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) during these 50 years. But the Special Issues, Mercy to Mankind, Prophet Muhammad in the Indian Context and Prophet Who Changed the World are special among all. The magazine has also released a special issue to pay tribute to one of the most eminent personalities of the 20th century and leader of the Islamic Movement, Maulana Syed Abul Ala Maududi. The Special Issues, Women Today and Rights of Women in Islam show the concern of the journal over women affairs. In 1987, when a widower in Rajasthan namely, Roop Kawar, was forced to set herself ablaze with the dead body of her husband as per the tradition those days, the world chewed fingers under teeth. Radiance en-cashed the scenario in its favour and presented before the world the dignity and respect given by Islam to women in different forms say as a mother, a daughter, a sister and a wife through its Special Issue For What Sin She Was Killed?
The issue of untouchables has always been there to haunt the Indian civilization. There were several attempts in post-Independence India on both constitutional and social levels to connect them with mainstream, but it seems no visible change has taken place on ground so far except some changes in terminologies. Radiance, by releasing a Special Issue Dalit Agony and Islam, not only felt the ordeal Dalits have been facing in different forms of exploitation but also made its readers feel the same. There are as many as 132 Special Issues to the credit of Radiance during these 50 years. Its special issues will suffice a vast thesis for PhD. There are several special issues on different contemporary problems as well. Among those are (1) Fascism and Muslims (2) Saffronite past its major problems today (3) Female Foeticide (4) Ecological Imbalance (5) Islamic Banking (6) Islam the Alternative (7) Terrorism and Islam (8) Indian Muslims in Politics (9) Human Rights in Islam (10) Corruption – How to Defeat this Menace (11) Palestine.
Among so many issues at international level, Radiance has especially taken interest in the matters related to humanity and Islam. The journal always raised its voice to make the first Qibla of Muslims viz. Al Quds free from the hands of Israelis. It also loudly spoke against the tyrannous behaviour of Israel against the Palestinians and warned the Muslim countries of Zionist conspiracies. Besides covering the Middle East, Radiance never turned a blind eye to the traumatising condition of Muslims in Chechnya, Bosnia, Kosovo, Myanmar, Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt and Tunisia. Radiance has frankly criticised the autocratic behaviour of Muslim rulers as well and openly pointed fingers to the anti-Islam and unjustified conducts of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Jeeb Bouraqia, Hafiz Al Assad, Anwar Sadat, Hosni Mubarak and Bashar Al Assad.
Also, it exhorted the governments of Pakistan and Bangladesh to act in accordance with guidelines given by Islam. The magazine, condemning the open ended war between Iraq and Iran, urged the two countries to abstain from war as it brings nothing but wreckage. This representative voice of the community also expressed its concern over the brutality of Iraq on Kuwait and, sharing the grief of Kuwaiti people, it released an Issue “Listen Mr. Saddam, Listen.” This just stand of the journal earned a worldwide appraisal for it. When the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) tried to grab power in Afghanistan and India extended its support to the USSR, Radiance was one that opposed the Indian stand and reminded the country of how Afghans had supported our struggle for freedom.
Upon USSR’s return from Afghanistan as a defeated nation, it was the turn of the United States of America which, in the name of cleaning the country from the terrorist of 9/11, raided the country that was already facing the ravages of a long war. But it was Radiance once again that translated the feelings of Afghan people into words. The echo of those issues of Radiance is still audible.
When the cold-blooded American forces raided Iraq in the name of WMDs — in fact their sole aim, through this raid, was to establish a complete control on the wells of petrol in the area—Radiance gave voice to the agony and pain of Iraqi people and exposed the dirty purpose behind this attack.
Not long ago, Sheikh Hasina-led government of Bangladesh inappropriately framed the Islamists out of its political vendetta. It was Radiance that stood firm with the oppressed. The world has seen the Arab Spring last year, but Radiance visualised it decades ago in a Special Issue Islamic Resurgence in August 1979 and other Special Issues namely Islam Hope of the Future and Islam Road to Peace. And, finally, when the phenomenon happened in 2012, Radiance welcomed it by releasing a Special Issue Arab Spring: Promises and Challenges.
When there was change of guard in Egypt through fair and impartial election, the magazine was all praise for the countrymen. But sorrowfully, the Arab monarchs and some Zionist leaders hated the democratically elected government of Egypt for one reason and another and sponsored a military coup against it. The ill-fated and rebel military never knew that this act of theirs has allowed the anti-Islam forces to sketch the fate of the country. Also, Radiance always kept vigil on every development in Egypt and it is asking the world now as to what source the Islamists should adopt to come to power if they would not been given entry through the democratic way.
The special issues Jamaat – 5th A-I Session Special in 1974, Ijtima ’81 Special and 50 Years of JIH released in 1991 are asset of Radiance. Now on the occasion of Golden Jubilee of the magazine, the Board of Islamic Publications and Radiance itself should pay tribute to the former presidents of JIH and members of Central Advisory Council that the dreams they had seen about the journal have come true now. Radiance, on this festive occasion, should also express its special gratitude to each and every Member of BIP, former editors, staff members, columnists and authors, well-wishers in and outside the country, advisors and field workers.
After going through the history of Radiance, one may find out how the journal smiled away all the calamities while serving the community. Since its inception it never compromised with its principles and never took an initiative which might harm the credibility of the community and of the magazine itself. It looked very sensitive and responsible while publishing a news item, an article and even an advertisement. May the magazine continue its journey with more luminosity and radiance and achieve a new height with every sunrise.
[The writer is Former Director of Radiance Viewsweekly. This article is translation from Urdu by Zaid Arif]