Identity-related issues do raise heat. But the community hardly ever spares a thought towards planning a future.
Bizarre are the ways of Mr. Anwar Manipady, the chairman of the Karnataka State Minority Commission.
The man entrusted with the task of safeguarding the rights of the minorities is singing in tune with the saffron parivar. His refusal to defend the right to wear the headscarf by Hadiya Iqbal, a student of Jain PU College, Moodbidri, has caused resentment among the Muslim leaders. Manipady, in his statement on September 13 advised parents to study the college prospectus and follow the rules formulated by the college. He advised Hadiya to take transfer certificate from the College and seek admission elsewhere.
Hadiya alias Mumtaz, a second year Pre-University student of College, had been disallowed from attending the classes while wearing headscarf. It is only after Mr. Keshav Bhat took over as Principal of the college that headscarf became a contentious issue. Muslim girls had passed out of the college in their hundreds while observing the norms of dressing and Hijab prior to it. She had approached the deputy commissioner of the district a few days ago for not being permitted to wear headscarf (Hijab). She later challenged the college authorities that she would take her complaint even to the governor and if required, to the President as well. Her mother Hina Iqbal told the media persons that she would approach the courts to assert her daughter’s fundamental rights. She asked whether the college authorities would similarly bar students from sporting bindi, cross, manglasutra and turban. Speaking to Islamic Voice from Moodbidri on phone, Hina Iqbal said there were nearly 60 Muslim girls among the 900 and odd students in the college and the issue would have been resolved had all the parents asserted the cultural right of the community. She said currently her daughter was not attending the college.
Though Manipady denied the statement the next day following protest and stiff resistance from the Muslim leaders, the man is known for his ingratiating attitude towards the BJP and the Sangh parivar. He has often been seen with kumkum on his forehead in meetings even though no BJP leader would be doing the same. Hailing from Mangalore, Manipady was earlier a vice president of the State BJP.
It may be recalled that Moodbidri is the only town in the coastal belt that has always been successful in resisting the communal frenzy. Major credit for this achievement should go to the Jain community in the town. They wield great influence in this region, although they do not constitute the majority here. Fortunately Muslims of the area have not allowed the issue to gather political or communal overtone. Muslims set a lot of store with the leaders of the Jain Community and hope that they will prevail over the college management to resolve the issue amicably.
During the last Assembly elections Moodbidri had elected a Congress candidate Abhayachandra Jain. Jain is yet to speak a word on the subject. Being a prominent member of the Jain Community he can play a role in resolving the issue.
However, in the heat of the situation, few have bothered to coolly analyse the issue. The coastal area of Karnataka comprising three districts of Dakshina Kannada (DK), Udupi and Uttara Kannada, has though sizeable Muslim population, has few Muslim managed high schools and college. Though it boasts of a medical university namely Yenepoya University in Mangalore with colleges for medicine, dentistry and nursing, feeder institutions are few and far between. The Gulf earners in the region have hardly ever invested their charity in setting up quality schools in the area. The existing government Urdu primary schools have largely been rendered irrelevant. It is mainly owing to three reasons, 1- Majority of the district’s Muslim population does not speak Urdu. A sizeable section speaks Beary languages, an amalgam of a language. 2- Urdu is far removed from the practical realities of their life and, 3- primary education in Urdu medium disables the students from pursing higher education due to poor quality of their foundational coaching. While the Gulf earners have built palatial marriage halls, beautiful mosques and orphanages, quality schools are conspicuous by their absence. Consequently, the bulk of the students from affluent families have to be sent to schools run by other communities where such identity related issues crop up with sickening frequency. The Hindutva outfits use the issues to whip up emotions to polarize the votes.
Of late, however, a few institutions have been set up by the community where undue emphasis on Islamic identity keeps the non-Muslims from sending their wards to them. This too is unhealthy as students from such institutions are likely to remain strangers to plural ethos of the society which they have to perforce share with others all through the remainder of their lives. Such students after coming out of the portals of such colleges are all likely to get cultural shocks hitherto unheard of. The right strategy would be to run schools and colleges where people from all communities are welcome and secular ethos are nurtured with modesty remaining the overall norm in matters of dressing. Alas! Few have time to go into issues with such insight. What remains then is either to submit meekly to norms set by others, or to blatantly flaunt one’s own identity ad nauseum. Both remain unworkable.
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October 2011 |
