It’s appalling that a Culture Minister should say a Muslim is humanist, nationalist only ‘despite’ their religious identity.
But I have to remind myself and everyone that this stuff isn’t unique to BJP alone. NCERT Hindi textbooks I researched in my MPhil, all Congress era books, had several stories with this kind of ‘good Muslim/bad Muslim’ subtext. Other forces beyond the BJP too have contributed to creating this noxious communal common sense. And thereby created fertile ground for the Sangh Parivar poison and hate speech.
Here is an excerpt from from a relevant chapter of my MPhil. Instances cited there go to show how our textbooks for decades have taught Indians to think of Hindu upper caste men as normative ‘patriotic citizens,’ restrictive gender norms, mass sati and upper caste diet taboos as perfectly compatible with ‘nationalism,’ Muslims as always-suspect citizens who must prove they’re patriots rather than traitors, and Sanskritized Hindi as ‘Indian’ but Hindustani words as ‘foreign.’
Patriotism and the Category of the “National” Indian Citizen
(Excerpt from ‘Educating a Nation: NCERT Hindi textbooks and the Construction of ‘Indianness’, my MPhil Dissertation submitted in JNU in 1997)
This section will examine how ideologies of caste, community and language combine to create representations of citizenship and patriotism. One chapter from the NCERT Hindi textbook for class VIII is particularly revealing about what constitutes normative Indianness within secular ideology. Mahadevi Verma’s essay on Rajendra Prasad, recalls her personal memories of “Rajendra Babu”. his compact and stocky build, complexion, clothes, his cap, his “Dehati” or “Gramin” (Villager) appearance, and especially his “Dehati” Moustache. (Mahadevi Yenna. ‘Rajendra Babu’, Kishore Bharti 11, pp. 141-149) The author comments that people often experienced a feeling of deja-vu when they met Rajendra Prasad for the first time and ventures an explanation. His whole body, she says, epitomised a “common Indian person” (‘Samanya Bhartiya Jan’) – and in his temperament and lifestyle too he represented the common Indian farmer. This representation of Rajendra Prasad as a “typical” Indian citizen effaces the fact that he can typify, at best, a Hindu upper caste male member of the landed class of North India. This essay describes Rajendra Prasad’s wife also as a “genuine daughter of the soil, ascetic, simple and motherly …..threading together innumerable relationships.” She is also described as a representative of the “Common Indian housewife” (Samanya Bhartiya Grihani) who eats only after having served her husband and family.
An uneasy moment in the narrative is when Rajendra Babu hesitantly tells the writer that his wife, in keeping with upper caste taboos, will not eat food touched by others, with the exception of the Brahman cook. Verma mentions that Prasad’s wife was married as a child into a zamindar family of Bihar. This indication of Rajendra Prasad’s class and caste background comes just a few hundred words after Rajendra Babu is described as a “typical Indian farmer”.
The category of “Indian” which is in fact moored in highly specific and restrictive identities is nevertheless meant to be metonymic for all Indians. (Somnath Zutshi discusses how a category of ‘Indian’ comes to be created, “which is to be metonymic for all Indians despite being based on narrowly restrictive categories”, in his article ‘Women, Nation and Outsider in Hindi Cinema’ in Interrogating Modernity: Culture and Colonialism in India. eds .. Tejaswini Niranjana, P Sudhir and Vivek Dhareshwar. Seagull. Calcutta. 1993)
Sudhir Chandra has examined the tensions of late 19th century nationalism as articulated in Hindi literature In the works of the pioneers of modem Hindi like Bhartendu Harishchandra, Balkrishna Bhatt and Pratapnarayan Mishra, he finds the simultaneous advocacy of a pragmatic Hindu- Muslim unity and tolerance towards Muslims alongside a virulent depiction of the Muslim as the archetypal foreigner and the other of the Indian citizen. In the phrase “Hindi. Hindu. Hindustan” which took on the popularity of a nationalist slogan and was coined in a poem by Pratapnarayan Mishra, the Hindi language is identified with the nation “Hindustan” and the religion “Hindu”. Several nationalist plays and poems, Chandra finds ascribed patriotism to Hindu characters while the invader or foreign oppressor is represented as Muslim or part-Muslim, part-Christian. (Sudhir Chandra, The Oppressive Present: Literature and Social Consciousness in Colonia/India, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1994, p 125)
The patriotic literature within the Kishore Bharti textbooks often replicates this pattern of representation but a significant exception is the story of Ibrahim Gardi who represents a patriotic Muslim. (Vrindavanlal Vanna, “Ibrahim Gardi”, Kishore Bharti -Ill, pp. 67-72)
The story is set in 1761 after the third battle of Panipat when the Afghan Ahmad Shah Abdali defeated the Marathas and captured one of their generals – Ibrahim Gardi. Abdali, playing upon Gardi’s Muslim identity, invites him to join his army and tempts him with high posts. Gardi however remains loyal to his king and Abdali eventually tortures and kills him. The story begins significantly with Shuja-ud-daulah the Nawab of Awadh who fought for the victorious Abdali against the Marathas. This battle was therefore. clearly not an Indian nationalist struggle against an Afghan assault. But, by retrospectively recognizing an ‘Indian nation’, the story ascribes the identities of “patriot” to Gardi, “invader” to Abdali and “traitor” to Shuja-ud-daulah. The NCERT teacher’s guide instructs teachers to direct the students’ attention towards the traits of the various characters. Abdali is described as “cruel, heartless, fanatic, intolerant, inhuman and violent”. In contrast Gardi is “fearless, with an unbreakable loyalty to the country, master, respectful of all religions while being truly faithful to his own, free of linguistic bias and dutiful”. The teacher’s guide also describes Shuja as a “coward” and a “traitor,” quoting Ibrahim Gardi’s own statement as being apt for Shuja: “He who betrays his nation, who aids the foreigners who destroy his nation, cannot be a Muslim.” (Shikshan Sandarshika- ill, pp.83-89)
Muslim figures in such narratives must prove their citizenship and commitment to secularism. Shuja is a Muslim who is insufficiently secularised, and it is implied that he supports Abdali out of religious solidarity. Abdali is represented as a fanatic Muslim, while Gardi is secular and nationalist inspite of his Muslim identity. It is significant that these textbooks do not at any point represent Hindu fanaticism or casteism. In other chapters an overwhelming number of Indian patriots are represented as Hindu male protectors of the nation which is often depicted as a mother. The primary idiom of patriotism or “Desh-Prem” is that of martial courage. Ranjit Guha locates the construction of lndianness in terms of Hindu martial valour, in the attempts of 19th century nationalists to challenge as well as appropriate the Orientalist categories of ‘martial’ and ·non-martial races’. Nationalist historiography constructed a history of Kshatriyal Hindu valour, exemplified by the Rajputs in order to wipe out the “kalanka” or black mark that foreign historians had smeared on the reputation of Hindus. (Ranajit Guha. An Indian Historiography of India: A 19th Century Agenda and its Implications, S.G. Deuskar Lectures on Indian History.l987, Published for the Center for Studies in Social Sciences by K.P. Bagchi & Co. Calcutta, New Delhi, 1988. P58)
Even non-violent nationalism is cast in the vocabulary of martial valour, with a chapter on Gandhi titled “Ahimsak Senapati” (Non-violent commander). (Anu Bandopadhyaya, ‘Ahimsak Senapati’, Kishore Bharti- II, pp.53-63) The only female patriot to figure in these textbooks is the Rani of Jhansi celebrated as
“Mardani” (manly) in Subhadrakumari Chauhan’s famous poem, ‘Jhansi ki Rani’. (Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, ‘Jhansi ki Rani’, Kishore Bharti- I, pp. 74:.84) Chandrashekhar Azad is represented as a revolutionary and a “great warrior” who laid down his life for “Mother India” while a poem on Subhash Bose is titled “Khooni Hastakshar” (Bloody Signature). (Manmathnath Gupta, ‘Chandrashekhar Azad’, Kishore Bharti – I, pp. 34-41) As the title suggests, Bose demands that blood be sacrificed for ‘Mother India’ in return for independence.
In the play “Vijay Parv” (Festival of Victory), a boy Balkaran bravely challenges Timur who attacks and loots his village. (Ramkumar Varma, ‘Vijay Parv’, Kishore Bharti -II, pp.95-115) The teachers’ guide suggests that teachers should refer to “Vijay Parv” while teaching “Ibrahim Gardi”. The Hindu male patriot Balkaran, uses a nationalist idiom derived from both Sanskrit and Hindu imagery as he asks his mother to anoint his head with “Raktchandan” (red sandalwood, connoting blood) to symbolise his readiness to die for his nation. The play distinguishes between the Hindu gramin’ (Hindu villager) and a solitary ‘Mussalman gramin’ (Muslim villager) who addresses Balkaran’s mother as bahen (sister) as he helps her escape.
Another story “Lal Angaron Ki Muskan” (The Smile of Red Embers) in the same volume is also recommended as a reference while teaching “Ibrahim Gardi. (Kanhaiyalal Mishra, ‘Prabhakar’, ‘Lal Angaron ki Muskan’) A Muslim soldier from the court of Allauddin Khilji, the 14th century ruler of Delhi, seeks asylum in the Court of the Rajput King Hamir of Ranthambore. Khilji has ordered his death for some minor offence and all other kings have refused him asylum for fear of incurring the wrath of the powerful king. To protect the refugee, Hamir fights Khilji, and the people of Rantharnbore who are defeated, happily sacrifice themselves for a principle.
In this story, the antagonist Khilji is not an outsider but the king of Delhi. The qualities and principles extolled by the story are articulated in a Hindu idiom. Hamir, tolerant towards the Muslim victim of Khilji’s tyranny, promises him asylum, asserting that to give asylum is the “dharma” of his “jati” (which connotes race as well as caste). The rite of “jauhar” to which the title of this story refers is described ceremoniously: “The men prepare a huge pyre. The women perform puja. They sing songs of worship and meet their husbands and touch their feet”. The description ascribes bridal anticipation to the women rather than any hint of impending pain: “Today they decked themselves up in the best manner, since they had to go on their life’s most important journey and they walked so eagerly towards their pyre, as though they were brides walking to their chariots after choosing a groom”. “Jauhar” here becomes the feminine counterpart of masculine valour in battle, as a voluntary act which is the most glorious index of the martial tradition of the Rajputs. The fact that it is performed in the face of Khilji’s aggression, reinforces stereotypes of brave and chaste Hindu women, principled Rajput men and cruel and irrational Muslim rulers.
The Kishore Bharti textbooks are primarily intended to teach the Hindi language and reinforce the identification of language with community. ln Vijav Parv it is pointed out that Timur’s soldiers use Arabic and Persian words and ‘Hindi translations’ are provided for these. The preface to the teaching guides repeatedly stresses the need to enforce the use of standardized Khari Boli Hindi while words of Persian or Arabic derivation are referred to as “videshi” or foreign, and these include commonly used words such as “shikari” (hunter), “khoon” (blood) and “zindagi” (life). (Shikshan Sandarshika II, p.35) Students are instructed to find ‘Hindi’ synonyms for such words, while none are provided for difficult Sanskrit words, implying that standard Hindi is the equivalent of Sanskritised Hindi.
In the cultural nationalism articulated by secular ideology of the textbooks, normative citizenship and patriotism are the prerogative of Hindu male members of upper castes and classes.
commonly used words such as “shikari” (hunter), “khoon” (blood) and “zindagi” (life). (Shikshan Sandarshika II, p.35) Students are instructed to find ‘Hindi’ synonyms for such words, while none are provided for difficult Sanskrit words, implying that standard Hindi is the equivalent of Sanskritised Hindi.
In the cultural nationalism articulated by secular ideology of the textbooks, normative citizenship and patriotism are the prerogative of Hindu male members of upper castes and classes.