JOIN USA farce with a core of anguish
Embers of partition continue to simmer. With the rise of the Hindu Right, Islamophobia, hate and intolerance have coloured the socio-political discourse, fostering people who thrive on disharmony and conflict. The ‘othering’ of Muslims is being actively promoted in every possible way. Relentless hate campaigns by fringe groups have created an atmosphere of fear. All symbols of Muslim excesses — imagined and real — are targets to be demolished. Stirring the communal cauldron is not enough to sustain Hindu consolidation; hence the recourse to hyper-nationalism. There is little room for dialogue as rivals fiercely hold on to their stand.
In this milieu what will happen to the nation if all the 200 million Indian Muslims disappear overnight? Veteran journalist Saeed Naqvi tries to answer this surreal question through his play The Muslim Vanishes. This hard-hitting, provocative tragi-comedy, bordering on the farce, is a reflection of Muslim angst, alienation, sense of betrayal and hurt. Naqvi takes the reader on a journey through a millennium of syncretic culture and fantasy. Peppered with wry humour, it is a scathing critique of contemporary India.
The play begins in a well-lit TV studio, where the breaking news is about the sudden disappearance of 200 million Muslims. They have also taken with them their cultural heritage, language, literature, songs, cuisine, Qutub Minar and even their dead from the graves. The narrative gets complicated as many of them seem to have moved to Kashmir. The astounded anchors as well as politicians trying to grapple with the new situation realise that the outcome is not something they have bargained for. A Muslim-free India turns out to be a nightmare for the ruling class.
New dominations
Dalits and others at the lower rungs of society are the first to occupy the properties left behind by Muslims. Anita, the politician’s daughter-in-law, finds a shortcut to socialism through the distribution of these assets. It dawns on the powerful that in the new situation they will have to fight the numerically superior lower castes at elections. Dreading the inevitable domination by lower castes, they contemplate the postponement of elections.
Anti-Muslim politicians suddenly want Muslims back. The Hindutva project needs Muslims. Caste supremacists need the ‘other’ to manage the caste triangle. They realise that Muslims are needed for Hindu consolidation. ‘’You want them back so that you can communalise the elections. You do not seem to have another issue. They were the issue, and they are now gone,’’ a character says. “Our politicians have taught us to hate Muslims. Now that the Muslims have disappeared, there is no one left to hate,’’ says another.
‘You lynched the Muslims, you confined them to ghettos with no jobs, you filled the jails with them, accused them of being terrorists or of siding with Pakistan,’ a character in the play states.
An imaginary special court with an 11-member jury is asked to examine why Muslims have vanished. This trial draws heavily on Naqvi’s adulation of the composite culture of India. Jury members are all proponents of multiculturalism from medieval times including Kabir, Tulsidas and Mahatma Phule. The jury spokesperson is Amir Khusrau. There are Hindu and Muslim representatives. The cross-examiner intervenes “...The simplest trick to consolidate Hindus was to find an enemy — and the enemy was the Muslim community. The Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi movement offered just the opportunity.’’
Amir Khusrau refers to “the disruption of a thousand years of cultural commerce, civilisational sharing and a way of life in which all communities have participated. We, who have come from another world, find the current situation seeped in hate quite incomprehensible.’’
Harsh reality
While wading through history we are reminded of the contemporary reality; there are references to the Sachar Committee report on the social, economic and educational status of Muslims, the lynchings of Mohammad Akhlaq and Pehlu Khan by cow vigilantes, the hounding of M F Husain, the flogging of Dalit men in Una and the hanging of Afzal Guru.
Naqvi draws the reader’s attention to two interlocking triangles that need to be addressed if the climate of hate has to subside. One is composed of three sides: India–Pakistan ties, Kashmir issue and Hindu–Muslim relations.
The other is the deep-rooted caste pyramid. The disturbing play is an outpouring of anguish over the spreading poison of communal hatred that has created an atmosphere of fear and insecurity among the minorities. With a humane worldview, Naqvi pleads for a return of sanity.
The Muslim Vanishes is a play in three acts with 13 scenes. In view of the complexities of the topic, Naqvi has consciously chosen the play structure. But as a play, it falls flat. With its logic rather convoluted, certain sections are long-drawn, with political narrations, cultural history and fulminations. There is little room for the evolution of any character as too many of them come on stage to make some point and well, vanish.