Indian Muslims in Taliban mirror

Some say the Taliban, largely comprising the Pashtuns, express the majority will. This is statistically dubious as Pashtuns are just about 40 per cent of Afghanistan’s population

It is extraordinary that a segment of Indian Muslims should forget their experiences of the last seven years and adopt an ambivalent position on the Taliban sweeping into Kabul, with some barely able to conceal their glee in social media posts. In these seven years, Hindutva's ingenious techniques to demonise Muslims stoked their anxiety and fear. Outraged at the threat of being deprived of their citizenship, they took to the streets and organised public readings of the Preamble to demonstrate their allegiance to the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity.

Their own experiences should have had Indian Muslims express empathy for the terror stalking the Afghans, particularly women, as the Taliban amassed outside Kabul. In their earlier reign, between 1996 and 2001, they had enforced a rigid version of Islamic law, meted brutal public punishments, and banished women from the public arena, including disallowing them to attend school.

Yet it was not empathy Indian Muslims offered to the Afghans. Instead, they claimed the Taliban appeared reformed - and must therefore be given yet another chance to govern. Before proffering this gratuitous advice, they should have remembered their own foreboding at Narendra Modi becoming prime minister in 2014. They had then feared that the 2002 Gujarat riots would become a model for polarising all of India.

There are some who say the Taliban express the majority will. This is a statistically dubious claim. Afghanistan is a rich mosaic of ethnic groups, of which the Pashtuns are just about 40 per cent of the country's population. The remaining 60 per cent are mostly made of 13 out of the 14 ethnic groups referred to in Afghanistan's national anthem. The Taliban largely comprise the Pashtuns, and they have taken the reins of power through victories in battlefields, not through a democratic process. It is hypocritical to mistake the will of the victorious for the majority will.

Indian Muslims are among those who have consistently argued that an electoral majority does not bestow the right on the victorious to frame laws in violation of democratic ethos. A yardstick for judging the health of any democracy or, for that matter, any society is the protection granted to the minorities. Afghanistan suffers from the double whammy of the Taliban ruling out democracy and establishing Pashtun dominance that, judging from the past, was horrific for ethnic minorities. There is nothing to suggest, apart from their rhetoric, that the Taliban have undergone a metamorphosis.

Sure, every country enjoys the right to decide on its model of governance. We in India can only hope a country's choices are not less than the privileges and rights we enjoy. The Indian Constitution may have come under stress in recent years, but for Indian Muslims to invoke the majority will for justifying or equivocating on the Taliban is to also accept, subliminally, the imposition of the Hindu will, as articulated by Hindutva, on India. And to think, Indian Muslims shudder at the thought of living in a Hindu Rashtra!

A segment of Indian Muslims have been in a tearing hurry to welcome the Taliban for saying their governance will be inclusive, and that they will not pursue a policy of vendetta against their opponents. They also took at face value the Taliban's assurances that they would not discriminate against women. They glossed over the codicil in the Taliban spokesperson's press conference: "Our women are Muslim. They will also be happy to be living within our framework of Sharia."

It is presumptuous of the Taliban to believe Afghan women would be happy to live within the framework of Sharia. After all, will women be involved in the process of defining the "framework of Sharia"? What will the Taliban's response be to those who do not want to don either the burqa or the head-scarf? Before answering these questions, Indian Muslims must ask: Will they accept a law proscribing them from doing hijab, as is the case in France?

Islam did give women property and inheritance rights all the way back in the 7th century, apart from granting them the autonomy to decide whether or not to enter in a marriage contract. The Talibani version of Islam does not inspire confidence in Afghan women, evident from videos showing them demanding the right to work, be educated and allowed to participate in politics. Yet some Indian Muslims, from their safe perch in India, assert that Islam will save Afghan women. They forget that all religions are anchored in patriarchy.

Indian Muslims have been rightly skeptical of slogans such as Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas. It is, therefore, bewildering that they should take at face value the Taliban's promise of building a safer, more secure future. Their confidence is not shared by Afghans, who have been protesting and taking down the Taliban flag. The Tajik-dominated Panjshir Valley seems set to mount resistance, as it had between 1996 and 2001, to the Taliban rule.

The perturbing reactions of some Indian Muslims have been in response to the Hindu Right's taunts that they must condemn the Taliban. Indian Muslims do not have to take the test of patriotism. Their task is to bolster the moral foundation of their democratic struggle for equality.

The writer is a senior journalist. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.