IN SEARCH OF AN ALTERNATIVE

Running hard we got into the train. Kamal and Sunil grabbed the upper seats while Rohit, Shyam and I started sharing a light banter. Train departed. The plan to celebrate a daylong picnic in Agra was mine, very next day

Written by

Khan Yasir

Published on

August 16, 2022

Running hard we got into the train. Kamal and Sunil grabbed the upper seats while Rohit, Shyam and I started sharing a light banter. Train departed. The plan to celebrate a daylong picnic in Agra was mine, very next day after getting rid of exams we set off for Agra. The sixth man in the compartment was sitting exactly opposite to me on the window seat. Without blinking, he was gazing outside the window. He wore a starched white pathani and white cap and had a flowing black beard. No sooner, the train caught speed; Mr. Shyam – the ever studious and book-newspaper-magazine-worm – took out the Da’vinci Code to read. Rohit and I’ve pledged before leaving; that during journey we’ll not let Shyam read anything except nature. He hardly had opened the book when I snatched it and threw it to Kamal from where it went flying to Sunil then to Rohit and so on. Exasperated; he confronted me when the book was in my hand, “do not annoy this Bin Laden or else the fanatic will take out his AK-47 and will shoot all of us here – point blank!”. I was bewildered; Shyam too realised that I did not like the language he used. “Excuse me! I object to the usage of such terms”. “How can you utter anything; that too in a different voice without even opening your mouth”, Shyam grabbed my collar. “I swear, I said nothing”, I was equally perplexed. Fortuitously we turned to meet the smiling face of the Maulana in front of us who was directly staring in our eyes. “Oh! I’m sorry… I thought…” Shyam mumbled. “You thought that how can an idiot like me with kurta, payjama, beard and chappal would understand English?” Maulana said. “Truly…. I was just….”, Shyam was still aghast. “Leave all that I’m Abdur Raheem Minhaj, (a Faadhil or graduate in your parlance) from Azamgarh”. We all introduced ourselves. “A pass-out from Madrassa!!! Right? Then how could you speak in such fluent English?” Sunil could not hide his astonishment. “We learn English, algebra, geometry, physics, biology, history, political science, and economics etc. with Quran and Hadith as main subjects in Madrassas”. “But we get totally different pictures of Madrassas from media”, Shyam said. “I know that is the problem of generalisation of exceptions or handiwork of some vested interests”, Maulana replied. “What are you doing now?” Rohit asked. “Higher studies. I aspire to complete my PhD on the theme of environmental reforms that prophet suggested 1400 years ago, principles that were applied then, are relevant now, but modern world is menacingly avoiding them”. “Do forgive me but prophet and environment??? What’s the connection?”, Shyam was confused. “This thing I know!” Rohit recalled, “He [i.e. I, the narrator] gave me a book on the sayings of the prophet on Eid last year; by reading that book I realised the wide arena that he dealt with, he was not an ordinary religious reformer”. “Truly! He guided humanity in the light of divine guidance regarding politics, economics, social behaviour, personal relationships, human rights with special reference to women, children and weaker sections of the society, animal rights and what not… the list is never ending”, I took the discussion further.

A newspaper vendor arrived at Ghaziabad, shouting at the highest pitch of his voice, “bharat ke itihas ka sab se bada ghotala! satyam ghotala; aaj ki taza khabar”. “This corruption is breaking the backbone of India!” I paid the vendor two rupees and glanced through the paper, it was a seven thousand crore rupees fraud, “my goodness!” Sunil did not seem to believe. “ab to bhagwan hi raksha kare, is desh ki” Kamal sighed. “You are students of political science then suggest something to takeout our country from this quagmire of corruption! Maybe you are the future Prime Minister of India; who knows?” Maulana demanded. We all smiled, in fact the topic on which maulana demanded us to ponder and discuss was a common topic of our debate and discussion. We always used to talk on merits/demerits of democracy, success/failure of political institutions, partiality/impartiality of judiciary; but not once we could agree on a single alternative, despite agreement on the fact that the word is badly in need of one. Kamal took the initiative, “I’ll make stringent laws to curb corruption, terrorism and communalism…”, “rubbish!” Rohit rebutted, “We’ve only made stringent laws since independence” he ridiculed, with special and derogative emphasis on ‘only’ and ‘stringent’. “I think public awakening is required”, Sunil recommended. “It’s too normative, too vague”, Shyam contended. “I think in the colonial period these problems were not there because we had a specified enemy then; an enemy is essential for development, like US had Soviet Union and vice versa. Existence of such enemy will keep the public, bureaucrats and leaders on their toes and they could perform better under perpetual fear”, I appreciated though not agreed with the analytical reasoning of Shyam. Maulana argued, “My dear Machiavelli! Since independence we declared poverty and illiteracy our enemy, even Pakistan is out there then it seems that your theory too would not work”. Rohit tried to give some ‘Rang De Basanti’ type solutions but we laughed that away. After much contemplation I proposed that there must be an independent anti-corruption commission just on the style of election commission to curb corruption, but Maulana refuted this on the grounds, “‘who’ll guard the guardians?’ what happened if this department itself got corrupted?”. We had no answers. After a moment of silence, Sunil asked, “Then guys! Is there no solution?”. “Certainly there is…” Maulana was sharp, “even at the risk of being repetitively regarded as fundamentalist, fanatic and Bin Laden by you people I assert that a true belief in God and adherence to a system of life based on the divine guidance is the only way-out”. “How can you so confidently say that?” Rohit was polite but it was clear that he ruthlessly disagreed with the suggestion. “Why not?” Maulana chewed his words, “you’ll establish a police, a special corruption cell or whatever but the question is – there are lacunas in manmade laws – that cannot be perfect so justice is delayed sometimes bribed and so on. And look from this angle, if one is sure that he is intelligent enough not to leave behind any evidence what force would stop him from massacring innocents for petty political gains, recall Gujarat pogrom! or taking bribes for asking questions in the parliament… My dear! external pressure won’t work – at least won’t work always; it is internal pressure, moral pressure, the fear that whatever you do you’ll be answerable to God on the day of judgement that can ensure peace and true development. With such a belief even if you find yourself lonely in the darkest of the corners of the earth where you’ve no fear of police and government you’ll abstain from committing a crime thinking that your God is watching you”. “It seems convincing but at least I have not analysed religion from this perspective, still you’ve every right to believe and preach what you say! I appreciate your thoughts”, Kamal seriously expressed himself. “Yes! Freedom of speech, expression and conscience is fundamental right but everybody is not open-minded like you people, even in the pluralistic society like India”. “Now here you seem to be a little biased”, Shyam argued. “I appreciate you said what you felt like, this is the essence of democracy, we argue our case cogently and we give others opportunity to argue theirs and so a true democratic environment evolves. To prove my point I’ll give just two examples from recent developments; Agra is now nearer”, Maulana paused and then continued “SIMI is banned for six years now but still not a single charge against any of its members or leaders had substantially been proved; instead they’ve been vindicated from many cases by court of law. Still a common Indian regard them as terrorists, Isn’t the principle that ‘accused is innocent until proved guilty’ apply to them. Some bar-association I think Allahabad’s declared that it’ll not take-up cases of SIMI members because they are anti-national; isn’t this against the spirit of democracy and fundamental rights. The ‘injustice too is not justifiably distributed’ no such bar association is vowing like that now, regarding the cases of Sadhvi Pragya Singh and other terror accused that are not Muslims. In my view both have equal rights to defend themselves”, Maulana breathed. “I accept there are some harsh realities…” Shyam nodded. “And you need to alter those”, he replied. “My second example is A.R Antulay’s remarks regarding the death of Mr. Hemant Karkare. I again reiterate; you may disagree with Antulay but you cannot shut his mouth or brand him anti-national for speaking what you don’t want to hear. The behaviour of media and politicians was so childish then”. “Yes!” I recalled, “I wrote a letter to editor in a reputed daily over Antulay’s remarks; I wrote he had every right to demand a probe if he is not satisfied by the governmental version of events and guess what happened? A letter next day came highlighted ‘in the box’ that was a reply to mine one and it demanded from me, ‘decide first you are an Indian or a Muslim?’”. “Really?” Shyam thought that I was joking. “It’s ludicrous!” Rohit said lamenting. “Shameful as well!” Kamal complied. “And as young political scientist you all need to change these harsh realities of your society; after entering into the practical life do not forget principles and never compromise your ideals. Inshallah! You’ll prove to be good leaders or policy formulators that would be remembered for ages”, Maulana prayed. Train entered the Agra station, we de-boarded the train, Maulana came to the door to say us goodbye and wished us a good picnic. Soon the train started to crawl, we waved our hands and flied kisses, which Maulana acknowledged with a gentle bow and then vanished from our sight. A couple of years have passed since then but the incident is fresh in pour minds. Truly, we’ll never forget those three hours that gave an entire new dimension to our thought pattern. Maulana’s talk convinced us that panacea for all our grievances, is true belief in God and in the principle that we will be accountable to Him on the day of judgement. I dare say our search for alternatives halted the very day and in our heart all of us were convinced of the ultimate solution or the humanity suggested by him.