prasad1
Active member
[h=2]It is strange that the BJP which denounces Muslims for their distinctive religious identity should now insist on their sartorial separation[/h]
What if the Muslims of Rajasthan who attended Narendra Modi’s Jaipur rally had turned up in normal attire, indistinguishable from their fellow Hindu Rajasthanis? What if wearing their traditional attire as they were told to, they had chosen to sit wherever they wanted, perhaps with the Hindus from their districts?
That would’ve been no good. To show the world that the prime ministerial candidate is loved by the community he has shown no love for, the community had to sport the markers of its religious identity. It also had to sit together as one huge bloc — a sea of beards, skullcaps and burqas.
Daadi, topi, burqa: these three words lost their original meaning years ago — at least for Mumbaikars. Thanks to Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, they were transformed into symbols heavy with meaning, their very mention evoking hatred. These were the words on which the original Hindu Hriday Samrat used to pour acid in his newspaper Saamna. Vivid word-pictures used to be drawn of “traitorous” Muslims in “mini-Pakistans” wagging their beards. Ranting against Congress leaders, he would castigate them for wearing green caps metaphorically. When they actually wore them at iftaar parties, his rage would know no bounds.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been no different. Last month, when Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan wore a skullcap at an iftaar, Uma Bharti called the gesture “cheap.” Why, Mr. Modi himself recently used the word burqa to connote a negative meaning — a veil behind which the cowardly Congress chose to hide.
For the Jaipur rally, the BJP distributed 5,000 caps and burqas free. Women who normally don’t wearburqas turned up wearing them. It’s been an article of faith for the RSS to denounce Muslims who stress their distinct religious identity instead of accepting what the RSS wants them to: their “Hindu ancestry and cultural heritage.” Muslims in a Maharashtra village were forced to shave off their beards when the RSS conducted one of their many Ram Mandir campaigns in the State in 2001.
In Godhra, for five days before coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express was burnt on February 27, 2002, the police, expecting VHP hordes back from Ayodhya at night, ensured that no bearded Muslim remained inside the station after 3 a.m. A burqa-clad woman was advised to remove it before she got on to the Sabarmati in Faizabad, soon after the train started.
It’s this symbol of religious identity that Mr. Modi recoiled from in front of everyone just two years back, when a maulana offered him a skullcap at a so-called sadbhavna rally.
Yet, to drum up support for this man, the order given to the Muslims of Rajasthan was: ``Make sure you look like a Muslim, not like a Hindu.’’ Ironically, many Rajasthani Muslim groups are known for being culturally indistinguishable from Hindus; strange, then, that the BJP, which normally sees separatism behind every expression of cultural difference, should now be insisting on sartorial separation.
What if the Muslims of Rajasthan who attended Narendra Modi’s Jaipur rally had turned up in normal attire, indistinguishable from their fellow Hindu Rajasthanis? What if wearing their traditional attire as they were told to, they had chosen to sit wherever they wanted, perhaps with the Hindus from their districts?
That would’ve been no good. To show the world that the prime ministerial candidate is loved by the community he has shown no love for, the community had to sport the markers of its religious identity. It also had to sit together as one huge bloc — a sea of beards, skullcaps and burqas.
Daadi, topi, burqa: these three words lost their original meaning years ago — at least for Mumbaikars. Thanks to Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, they were transformed into symbols heavy with meaning, their very mention evoking hatred. These were the words on which the original Hindu Hriday Samrat used to pour acid in his newspaper Saamna. Vivid word-pictures used to be drawn of “traitorous” Muslims in “mini-Pakistans” wagging their beards. Ranting against Congress leaders, he would castigate them for wearing green caps metaphorically. When they actually wore them at iftaar parties, his rage would know no bounds.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been no different. Last month, when Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan wore a skullcap at an iftaar, Uma Bharti called the gesture “cheap.” Why, Mr. Modi himself recently used the word burqa to connote a negative meaning — a veil behind which the cowardly Congress chose to hide.
For the Jaipur rally, the BJP distributed 5,000 caps and burqas free. Women who normally don’t wearburqas turned up wearing them. It’s been an article of faith for the RSS to denounce Muslims who stress their distinct religious identity instead of accepting what the RSS wants them to: their “Hindu ancestry and cultural heritage.” Muslims in a Maharashtra village were forced to shave off their beards when the RSS conducted one of their many Ram Mandir campaigns in the State in 2001.
In Godhra, for five days before coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express was burnt on February 27, 2002, the police, expecting VHP hordes back from Ayodhya at night, ensured that no bearded Muslim remained inside the station after 3 a.m. A burqa-clad woman was advised to remove it before she got on to the Sabarmati in Faizabad, soon after the train started.
It’s this symbol of religious identity that Mr. Modi recoiled from in front of everyone just two years back, when a maulana offered him a skullcap at a so-called sadbhavna rally.
Yet, to drum up support for this man, the order given to the Muslims of Rajasthan was: ``Make sure you look like a Muslim, not like a Hindu.’’ Ironically, many Rajasthani Muslim groups are known for being culturally indistinguishable from Hindus; strange, then, that the BJP, which normally sees separatism behind every expression of cultural difference, should now be insisting on sartorial separation.
