Kanaga Varathan
Members of BCP “Bachelor’s club of Parthasarathipuram” have assembled in their society hall for a monthly review meeting on a second Saturday as usual. Today’s agenda was to discuss the statement the club intended to release as part of their golden jubilee celebration.
Members of the club were deeply concerned by various violent clashes happening recently between Hindus and Muslims and want to do something about it. They debated for the last two months on counter-actions and decided to come-up with a statement to solve “The muslim problem.” They want to appeal to the muslim community on how they can counter the on-going tensions with liberal ideas and suggestions. Mr. Sriram, treasurer of BCP had spoken to the editor of “Mylapore times”, a local newspaper popular in the area, to publish the club’s statement on the second page. We should definitely condemn mob violence against religious places of worship. That should set the tone for our statement.
Parthasarathipuram was a housing society formed in central Madras in the 1970s on government land. The land parcels were mostly bought by govt employees of various public sector banks in the city. The club was formed in 1975, by four young brahmin men immediately after the first families settled. BCP was a space to discuss new ideas, progressive thoughts and eventually became a guiding beacon for the housing society. Originally founded by young men, BCP now had men and women mostly from middle-age and elderly groups. There was also a pending resolution to change the name and make it gender-neutral owing to the female members of the club. Mrs. Sharmila Raman, women’s wing president was instrumental in getting the name changed and is expected to announce the new name on the golden jubilee day.
Mr. Sridharan, President of BCP opened the discussion. “We do not support any form of violence. We should call for both Hindu and Muslim communities to not engage in violence and know that there are peaceful ways to solve the differences and attacking religious places of worship cannot be tolerated.”
“But Sir, no temples have been attacked, it is only the mosques that are under attack, so can we say this?” asked Sanjay, a college student and one of the youngest members of BCP.
“No, son, we cannot take sides and we cannot blame just one side without having full data so we have to keep it neutral,” the president responded calmly.
Rangarajan, a retired auditor and a senior member of the club, surprised everyone with his suggestion. “When I worked in Japan the police used to play the National anthem to stop protests and bring mobs to order, we should advise mosques to play our national anthem and bring crowds to order. Mosques should in fact play the national anthem once a day especially since they have loud speakers for their Adhans. This will bring nationalistic values to muslim children and also give a sense of assurance to Hindu communities.” The national anthem idea received few approving nods.
In a recent judgement, Ms. Janaki, a NGO activist raised a valid point. “I think muslims living in ghettos are stopping them from associating with other communities, they have to mingle and not confine themselves to particular areas, sometimes even police are afraid to go into their neighborhood. I hope you all read the Hindu article about this remark.”
“I agree we can call for muslims to look at alternate neighborhoods and govt to ban all housing societies from restricting occupants based on religion, even if we do not have any muslims in our society.” said Sundhar, a young IT employee, and looked really excited about this idea.
“But Sundhar, we cannot take away the rights of housing societies, that will be fascist. We should just appeal to muslims to look at other neighborhoods and landlords and societies to consider their tenancy. Ofcourse, we should stand for muslims tenancy in our society from BCP. I am sure we will have our first muslim family soon.” Janaki made her point clear.
“One of the main reason muslims are feared by common people is because they wear religious markers everywhere. Their skull cap, long beard, burkha are all new to many of us. Why don’t they shave even when they come for interviews, it is not professional. I believe this is one of the main reasons we have less muslims in the corporate sector, they are not assimilating into corporate culture. We want the young generation to strip their religious markers and be proud. I know sometimes we Hindus also display some cultural symbols but it is never on the face like Muslims. We only wear poonools inside our shirts. Does any of our women wear madissar to offices?” said Narashiman uncle, senior vice president in a multi national bank and a well respected member of the club.
“Sorry, I don’t think there is anything wrong with Hindu women wearing madisaar to office, Narashu. It is our culture and we are proud of it. It is the religious oppression and dogma that we are discussing here and there is nothing religious about madisaar.” Mrs.Sharmila was quick to counter.
“Because you mentioned burkha I will say something that’s been bothering me for a while. We talk so much about muslim men but rarely about muslim women. What we lack is the feminist voice from them. Why are they not speaking up against oppression? Even during triple talaq talk they didn’t come out in masses and celebrate. We blame the government all the time but did the muslim women ever come to the streets to protest against burkha? No. Do they ever raise their voices against their husbands using them as child bearing machines? No. We should ask the muslim women to come out of their houses, to voice their sufferings, to stand-up against islamic patriarchy. We shall support them to speak up and provide them with platforms. We should assert our support to muslim women in our statement.” Sharmila’s bold ideas even received applause from all twelve members in the room.
“One thing that deeply hurts me is the muslim community’s lack of trust with our security forces. The recent clash with paramilitary during elections in UP was really painful and it only alienates them from law abiding citizens.” Parasuraman’s voice sounded worried.
“We need good muslims to stand with our government and police to show they respect the law. After all they are here to protect us, can you think of not respecting our military? What message does it send to society? I think we should ask the good muslims to welcome uniformed forces to their community in the future. Think of a muslim family garlanding the military when they enter as a cover picture in Outlook or Frontline. That’s the image that will build trust for the muslims. Parasu has a valid point,” added Narashiman uncle.
“I think society needs a modern muslim to associate with. There are educated intellectuals in their community, why don’t they come-up with works of art and literature to project a modern image of a muslim who is not bound by islam.” Manikandan, a recent saibaba devotee shared his thoughts, his father was the first non-brahmin member of BCP and his family, the first in the society. “Maybe someone should write a book called “Why I am not a Muslim?”, we should ask for young liberal muslims to come forward and present an alternative view in our statement,” he concluded.
“Ah, that would really be an interesting POV. Isn’t the one from our very own Sashi called “Why I am a Hindu”. Yes, Janaki, but that’s different you know?” Sharmila and Janaki both nodded in agreement.
President Mr. Sridharan rang the bell to mark the end of time for the topic after confirming minutes were captured. The dignified members took a much deserved coffee break before proceeding to the next topic: gender-neutral name for BCP.
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Kanaga Varathan is a periyarist and a trans woman who wants to acknowledge this is not an original piece, ideas and suggestions are heavily plagiarized from kind people of social media.
