India's Muslim women are breaking free
Since December 2019, India has seen countrywide protests against a new citizenship law. The law fast tracks Indian citizenship applications from non-Muslim citizens of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The federal government has stated that this is to help "persecuted minorities" in these countries. Those opposed to it call it discriminatory and in violation of Article 14 of India's Constitution.
But a remarkable feature of the protests is the fact that they are largely being led by women. There is a debate around whether religious symbols should be a part of what are secular protests. Some argue that since Muslims are the targets of such a law, they must assert their identity. In this context, a quotation recently attributed to Hannah Arendt has been doing the rounds. She says that the Jews should have resisted persecution as Jews, not as Germans insofar as the reason for their oppression was religious, not national. It requires some audacity to express an opinion, however tentative or nuanced, that is different from the author of The Origins of Totalitarianism, who drew her insights from the lived experience of a persecuted minority.
The fundamental question of who constitutes a minority needs to be answered in order to make sense of the befuddling complexity at hand. There are myriad definitions, and a slide into reductionism must be avoided at all costs. But, in the context of a nation, members of a minority community do not constitute the upper echelons of the ruling class. They are not disenfranchised. But their group claim is not the same as the majority's. Its members, having all the civic and constitutional rights, may reach supreme heights as individual citizens so long as they don't predicate their claim on group rights, and earn universal acceptance by not flaunting their identity.
The fundamental question of who constitutes a minority needs to be answered in order to make sense of the befuddling complexity at hand A minority's main identity is national, within which it exists as a subset with some historically inherited features which set it apart for the rest, and which need to be protected, preserved and promoted. The majority has no quarrel with these differences, rather the majority rejoices in them as a form of exotica. It is in this framework that we may try to understand the significance of the relative presence and absence of religious idioms and symbolism in the agitations which have been raging for over a month now.
The complete redundancy of the clergy. The ulema (clergy) are nowhere to be seen. Two main reasons can be ascribed to their conspicuous absence. First, this being a non-theological, legal and constitutional issue, they don't have enough understanding of it to make religious pronouncements. The subject remains outside the purview of the Halal-Haraam (pure-impure) binary and sectarian squabbling. Further, irrespective of the outcome, they might have reckoned that their control over the community, through the imposition of what is pure and impure, would remain intact. They are going to be disappointed. This agitation is as much their obituary as it heralds the birth of a nontheological and secular consciousness of Indian Muslims.
Secondly, the vanguard role played by women. This is their moment. This is their movement. Although, apparently, it is against government's policies, its social consequences are going to be far reaching. It is a result of slow but steady modernization of the Indian Muslim society. The inescapable pull of modernity has been very deftly accommodated by the emerging religious-ideological discourses. The popularity of the veil-less burqa and the headscarf named hijab, which without challenging the religious dogma on the subject of veiling the face, exposed it nonetheless. It used the subterfuge of adding a couple of folds of cloth around the head and neck in lieu of covering the face. It has been a great enabler. It enabled women to venture out for education, employment and daily chores; and brought about a silent, pervasive and irreversible change.
That these women, as a collective, are in the lead, has irredeemably dented the Indian Muslim patriarchy. This may be the first time that they have dominated the public space in such a resounding manner.