By Faizan Bhat
At a time, when Delhi is burning and Muslims are being attacked in India, many liberals are busy drawing illogical comparisons between Jamaat- e- Islami and RSS. I believe at this point, Irfan Ahmad’s seminal book “Islamism and Democracy in India,Transformation Of Jamaat e Islami ” becomes an important intervention .
Jamat’s name almost becomes synonymous with Syed Mawdaudi. Mawdudi is one of the most influential Islamist thinkers on whom a lot has been written with the organisation Jamaat e Islami.
Some of the academic books written on Jamaat and Mawdud include Roy Jackson’s “Mawlana Mawdudi and Political Islam ; Authority And The Islamic State” published by Routledge , Syed Wali Reza Nasr’s “ Mawdudi And The Making Of Islamic Revivalism” published by Oxford University Press, USA and “ The Vanguard Of Islamic Revolution, The Jamaat e Islami Of Pakistan” by the same author published by University Of California Press and Maid Ul Islam’s “ Limits Of Islamism, Jamaat e Islami in contemporary India and Bangladesh” published by Cambridge University Press.
The present book under review “Islamism and Democracy in India, The Transformation Of Jammat e Islami” by anthropologist Irfan Ahmad has been published by Princeton University Press and in Asia by Permanent Black. It was shortlisted for the “International Convention of Asia Scholars Book Prize” for the best study in the field of social science. It is an extensive ethnographic study with the author having done extensive field work with Jamaat and its offshoot members SIO, SIMI in Aligarh, Azamgarh where it had mass base.
The book is written wonderfully in a lucid language on the neglected part of history. The book outstandingly deconstructs that Islam and Muslims oppose secularism, democracy, pluralism. The book discusses in detail Syed Mawdudi’s influences, writings like three volumes “Majooda Musalmaan Aur Siyasi Kashmakash” two parts of which critics Congress and the need to form Jamaat as most of the Muslim organisations like Muslim league, Khaksars, Ahrars etc missed the absence of formation of Islamic State in them and elitism in MuslimLeague.
The book discusses in detail the pre Partition and post Partition Jamaat in British India and India. With the partition Syed Mawdudi moved to Pakistan and Jamaat was formed in India separately. The book discusses in detail the shift in the politics of Jamaat from establishing Islamic State to supporting Secularism and Democracy, the terminology of Jamaat writings from Islamic state, Caliphate to Islamic System. Voting being sin, Kufr and how it was allowed for members to defeat fascism and support secularism and democracy.
The establishment of Caliphate, Islamic State to accept Indian constitution , secularism ( Radiance , Jamaat Paper interview Ameer i Jamaat I Islami Hind Abul Lais Nadvi July 12, 1964). From not sharing dais with non -Muslims to the Jamaat’s formation of “Forum For Democracy And Communal Amity” (FDCA) of which twenty were non -Muslims among thirty five lifetime members to fight communalism and Fascism . The formation of political parties by Jamaat’s national leaders from Mumbai Shams Peerzada in 1977 Muslim Democratic Front and Abdul Hafiz Khan’s Muslim’s Front in Hyderabad for contesting elections. The key role Jamaat played in the formation of Mushawarrat for advocacy and other things related to Muslim politics with being two Amir’s Abul Lais Islahi and Jalaluddin Umri prominent members.
The book discusses Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in detail. How SIMI got radicalized to post-colonial Indian modernity and Hindutva politics especially after Babri Masjid demolition. The rift between SIMI and Jamaat , SIO politics while SIMI people saying Jamaat having deviated from original path of Mawdudi and jamaat and “Maulana Rehmani of Jamaat’s writing in Hayat e Nau calling SIMI’s call for rebuilding Babri un Islamic” Page 151 .
The book has made remarkable contribution and should be widely read by leaders, policy makers, bureaucrat, and journalists.
The subtitle of the book should have been “Transformation of Jamat e Islami Hind” not “Jamaat e Islami” as it doesn’t discuss Jamat e Islami based in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kashmir.
The book is a major work with making remarkable contribution in the literature of Islamism, democracy and secularism.
As the Muslim minority face existential threat and strive for secularism in a Hindu Majoratirian state, parties like Jamaat e Islami who have no power or never been in power can’t be compared with RSS.
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(Faizaan Bhat is a research scholar who has written extensively on Kashmir conflict, South Asian politics, and Islamic literature on various national and international portals)