Insight

From the plane window, the post-monsoon Bengal appears to be an endless sheet of greenery. We were headed for Berhampore, some 200 kms from Calcutta on the invitation of a clutch of young Muslim professionals who are striving to set up modern educational institutions among the somnolent community. Once into humid, humming Kolkata, we took a passenger train from Sealdah station. It ran packed, but ran seriously. Greenery did not desert us anywhere.

Murshidabad, once the seat of nawabs of Bengal, is today a forlorn City inasmuch as it does not retain even the district administrative headquarters. Few would imagine that the nawabs ruled from here over Bihar (including Jharkhand), Bengal (including today’s Bangladesh) and Orissa, all then jointly known as Suba Bangla. Nawab Sirajud Daula’s defeat at the hands of Lord Clive at the battle of Plassey in 1757 laid the foundation of the British empire in India. Mir Jaffer’s betrayal ensured an unfought victory for the British. Rest is history. Clive’s account bear it that Murshidabad was then ‘Wider, more gorgeous and prosperous than the city of London. The Nawab’s stable was better appointed than Britain’s royal palace’.

Today Murshidabad is a sleepy, shabby town. Its generously potholed roads belie its past glory. Monuments of the past stand sheathed under thick layers of green moss. Over 50 per cent of cycle rickshaw pullers in capital Delhi come from among Muslims of Murshidabad and Malda districts of West Bengal. The district has earned notoriety for organised gangs who indulge in child trafficking. Dubai’s camel races import kids from here. There are also gangs which take little Muslim girls to holy places in Saudi Arabia for begging and marry them off to Arabs.

My advocate friend Sufiur Rahman from the district has sent me a reference from Musalmans of Bengal by W. W. Hunter. It says: When they were thrown out of political power in 1757, none of the Musalmans of Bengal was poor or illiterate, but by the time of the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857, a lapse of only 100 years, a rich and educated Musalman in the province was in fact a rarity. What a steep fall, one wonders.

My study ‘Electoral Demography of Indian Muslims’ (Journal of Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, London, July 1986) had revealed that Muslims make up about two-thirds of the voting population in three Lok Sabha constituencies of Mushidabad, Berhampore and Jangipura. Today Muslim constitute 56 per cent of Murshidabad’s 58 lakh people. They are only 6 per cent among the State employees and 5 per cent students in the three degree level engineering colleges in the district are Muslims. Only about 800 of the 5,500 secondary school teachers and 1,000 among 10,500 primary school teachers are Muslims. Professionals (doctors, engineers, lawyers) number 10 per one lakh population. This chunk of population shares among itself just about 10 per cent wealth of the district. More than 70 per cent of them live below poverty level. I brought a copy of the Murshidabad district telephone directory with me. Since a telephone connection is an index of the socio-economic status of a family, I got the subscribers counted by their communal identity. While the directory lists 19,148 Hindu telephone subscribers, those Muslims who own a telephone connection are around 6,000.

Ruling Marxists, we were told, do not allow riots to happen, something very creditable. But they have not made any serious effort to lift the Muslims from the morass either. They wouldn’t agree to extending the reservation to religious minorities. Plea is the old one: The Indian Constitution does not allow reservation for Muslims or Christians. As for the Marxist party, it is still the rule of Manu within.

But there are stirrings of awakening. The group of youth headed by Harunur Rasheed has set up Al-Falah Residential School in Berhampore and is casting its net wide for experience and wise consul from wherever it comes. They inspire hope.

I have begun fancying dates for some time. This wonderful fruit is a perfect confectionary. But what is more wondrous about it is that this nutrition-packed fruit grows out of arid deserts. What to speak of delicious dates, the very fact that this tree can withstand the desert conditions is no small divine miracle.

During my recent trip to Madinah Munawwarah, I found time to take a long stroll towards the south of the Masjid e Nabawi. The area has been marble floored as far as the eyes can travel. Beyond this, an old market has been replaced with a new, burgundy coloured, baroque Market building. Most shops in this air-conditioned complex are yet to be let out for businesses. Two furlongs from this new market is located Madinah’s Date Market or Suq-ut-Tamoor.

My last visit to this market had come about in 1997. Till then it bore the looks of a traditional Indian mandi with dates heaped in all direction, sending out thick and greasy streams of juices. Now it stood there metamorphosed into a brash, new building with dozens of shops all neatly stacking dates in cans, packs and cartons.

The Suq had tempting looks and I was amazed to find that most shopkeepers were Baluchis or Punjabis from Pakistan, though clad in Arabic jalabiya. I am told that dates have hundreds of varieties such as ‘safawi’, ‘ajwah’, ‘qalami’, ‘ambar’, ‘shilbi’, ‘burney’, ‘labanah’, ‘sikhal’, ‘khalas’, ‘suweidah’, ‘maktumi’, ‘kiffah’, ‘halawah’ et al. Annual yield from a typical date tree is 100 to 150 kgs. And if constantly watered, it bears fruit for almost 60 years. Madinah’s famed orchards produce as many as 80 different varieties. Among Madinah’s notable varieties is ‘ajwah’ dates which are said to be cholestrol-busters and recommended for those who have blockages in heart arteries. It is also said to have properties of antidote against poison. It sells for nearly Rs. 700 a kg which means a singe piece comes for nearly a Saudi Riyal. But shopkeepers do not mind those who happily munch away a couple of them. (In fact Saudi grocers never object to casual munching of dry fruits.). May and June are months for harvesting dates. Stoneless dates are called ‘Sikhal’. Another variety ‘Sukkariya’ has the appearance of stone and are a challenge for those weak of teeth. They can be eaten only after dipping into milk for a considerable period of time. Dates can be preserved for several months.
Now a lot of date packaging units have sprouted around Madinah. Abdul Aziz Hydari is most reputed among them. But shopkeepers would recommend purchasing of loose dates, for they are cleaner. These units even prepare honey from dates.