The ‘other’ within us

The Living Stream

Among many Muslim communities of Karnataka, it is a matter for celebration when babies turn over on their own and cross the threshold of a doorway. On these occasions, they break a pair of coconuts and distribute pieces of coconut flesh along with sugar among relatives and friends. When babies in Shia families cross the threshold, the threshold is covered with red cloth before seating the babies on them and sprinkling coconut water on their faces. In the Bidar district, the families make the babies wear new clothes as well. In Bellary, they do not observe any ritual when their babies turn over, and only celebrate the occasion when they cross the threshold. They convey the joyous news to the maternal families who then come over with coconuts, mutton curry, kichdi and karjikaayi and other sweets to celebrate the occasion. The Shafis, one of the four Sunni communities, though, do not observe either of the rituals mentioned here.

In Bidar, Kalaburagi and Chitradurga, parents take their expecting daughters from their in-laws’ homes to their homes for delivery during the seventh month of pregnancy. In the Dharwad region, this event occurs during the fifth month of pregnancy. In Bagalkot, Vijayapura and Hubballi, the maternal parents visit their in-laws twice, during the third and seventh month of their daughter’s pregnancy. The feasts offered on these ritual occasions known variously as satvas, godhbharna, choli karna and taulat vary across regions. The pregnant women usually wear green sarees and green bangles at these ceremonies.

Around the regions of Bengaluru, Mysuru, Hassan, Chikkamagaluru and Coorg, on the day the expectant daughter-in-law is to leave for her parents’ home, she dresses up in fine clothes and jewelry at her husband’s home. Her favourite dishes are prepared that day. After her parents and relatives are served the food, a vessel containing the snacks brought over by her parents is covered with red cloth and tied into a one-and-a-half knot and then placed on her lap. She offers a prayer before untying the knot and eating the snacks inside. The guests at the ceremony then line up to rub sandal paste on her cheeks and offer her gifts.

The regional diversity in the rituals of welcoming new life find a discussion in Karnataka Muslim Janapada (‘Muslim Folk Culture in Karnataka’, Kannada Book Authority, 2000), a book by Shahseena Begum that earnestly documents the variety of birth, marriage and funeral rituals and the festivals of the Muslim communities of the state.

Proverbs and riddles found among them, many of which are seen among other communities, also find delightful mention. The book’s uncovering of the dazzling variety of ritual practices – and the variety of imaginations of life behind them -- should leave no one in doubt about the variation in the cultural worlds of Muslims across the districts of Karnataka, and make everyone hesitate to speak of Muslims as one monolith community. More generally, it alerts us to the arena of lived practices and asks that we not stay with official theologies to understand the social and religious lives of communities.

Rahamat Tarikere, the reputed Kannada literary critic, cautions that a term such as “Muslim folklore” is best avoided as that hides the creative confluence of images, metaphors and narratives found across the community cultures. Observing that the mythical story behind the Muharram celebrations is entirely reworked in Mudgal, Raichur district, he points out that the festival is celebrated in many North Karnataka villages without Muslim residents. Tarikere’s caution holds true for a range of lived practices: the cultures of food, clothing, music, architecture, gardening and everyday conversation found among the communities of a region show the many-layered mutual influence between them. An awareness of this confluence lifts the amnesia about the interdependent evolution of “our” culture and “their” culture. It reveals the beautiful intimacies and shrinks the imagined distance that is sought to be enforced by their guardians.

The sadistic calls of the Hindu extremists for banning Muslim traders from religious fairs and boycotting buying meat from their shops, which give play to the basest human instincts, further the illusion of community separateness and erode the moral obligations that communities owe each other. They really have no place in a civilised society.

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