Fatwa against ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ is unfortunate
The Darul Uloom Deoband's directive that Muslims should not chant ‘Bharat Mata ki jai' because the slogan violates the basic tenets of Islam is both silly and unfortunate. The seminary's fatwa claims that the slogan calls for worship of the nation, and Muslims cannot worship anyone other than their god. ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ is not a form of worship but a clarion cry for victory to the nation Mother India. And while the country may have been depicted as a goddess in some places, and a few temples too have come up in parts of the country in ‘Mother India's’ name, the slogan itself makes no mention of ‘god' or religion. It is, therefore, wrong of the Deoband seminary to say that Bharat has been made equivalent to a goddess in the slogan. The‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ cry had been used during the freedom-struggle and continues to be used by a wide variety of Indians, including those in the Armed Forces. And this cuts across all castes and religious denominations. There had never been a ‘religion' angle to the slogan until now, that is, when Muslim clerics have waded into the controversy that erupted soon after Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat sensibly opined that the younger generations of Indians must be taught the values of nationalist slogans such as ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen supremo Asaduddin Owaisi dramatically declined to raise the call “even if a knife was put to my throat”. The need for the seminary to issue a fatwa came in Darul Uloom Deoband's explanation after several Muslims from across the country reached out to it for an opinion on the issue. The seminary later said that the “oneness of Allah” forms the core of Islam, and that this core was seen as being violated in the slogan. Instead of seeing religious angles in the slogan, Muslim clerics and like-minded politicians must realise that it is they who are giving a religious colour to what has essentially been, and considered, a secular phrase in praise of the country. Neither Bhagwat nor any of those others who have backed the slogan (and they belong to parties other than the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies) were guided by any motive to compel the minority community to adopt that which is against its religious belief. The RSS chief has clarified that there is no question of forcing anyone to raise the nationalist cry. It is sad indeed that the unifying call of “Bharat Mata ki jai”, in use for decades, is being today exploited as a divisive tool by parochial minds
But then, the over-zealousness of such elements is understandable. They have always done business on the premise of religion and need issues to sustain their relevance in an age when the younger generation of Indians is less inclined to align with their dated concepts and more tuned in to the agenda of development. By now and then crying wolf over supposed assaults on their religion, they hope to exploit what they know is sensitive enough to arouse deep passions among the community. The more these self-appointed leaders of the minority community take hardline and illogical positions, the more they invite similarly extreme responses from other, conflicting sections of society. The end result is a bitter and often dangerous verbal duel that leaves society further fragmented.