Book Review | Missed chance to bring nuance to the conversation on Islam

This is a book for our times. It principally seeks to present ideas around the notions of citizenship and identity, in particular group identity in the context of minority groups within the framework of a nation-state — as distinct from empire — which is endeavouring to work a democracy.  
These are indeed vital issues to be concerned with for an ancient society which stepped into the age of half-baked and dependent modernism through the viaduct of colonialism, and then substantially broke free from this after succeeding in the struggle for sovereignty.
The struggle was long-drawn but peaceful. Its success depended crucially on getting right three distinct ideas — that India is a layered and diverse society in every sense of the word and was fed through migrations over the millennia; that the nationalism engendered through the anti-colonial struggle could only be of a civic variety and not one based on language, race, or religion; and three, that a state structure arising from this background — if it had to be durable — could only be of a secular variety if the newly emerged modern state were to succeed on the road to democracy.
In practice, in the Modi era, these facets of India are under severe stress. Were that not so, a book such as this may not have been entirely necessary although the country’s post-Independence story is peppered with communal discord engineered by political elements.
We had not quite been able to establish a “liberal polity” — which is in the title of this volume — in the proper sense, but that indeed was the focus of our efforts for seven decades. Whether that focus survives is the question today. As such, the title seems over-stated. It is not “liberal polity” that is under stress in India. The challenge, in fact, is far deeper and way more fundamental.
The very ideas that emerged from sharp as well as nuanced debate in the Constituent Assembly, and set us on the road to sovereign capitalist and democratic development, can be said to be under challenge. In a basic sense, the challenge India faces is to the very notion of citizenship as we have understood it so far.
Vigorous efforts are under way at the level of the executive as well as recently empowered sections of the civil society to overrun the idea of civic nationalism that emerged from the Independence movement and supplant it with creed-based narrow nationalism of the country’s religious majority. This rising crescendo of majoritarian outlook has principally brought up the Muslim Question in India using unhistorical and blatantly false arguments that need rebuttal.
The author, a retired top-tier diplomat and Vice-President of the country for 10 years, could have brought greater vigour to posing the issues raised here. Perhaps he was constrained by the high constitutional position he held. Perhaps the presentation seems less forceful than it could have been because this book is a collection of his lectures and speeches given at various points of time from forums of varied character.
Indeed, the lectures are well-annotated with well-sourced information and academically grounded interpretations as might be found in the tool kit of a diligent researcher. One wishes Ansari had devoted a section of the book to a general essay on the issues raised here, relying on his insights and experience in light of the current context, rather than being esoteric.
In one of the end chapters “India and Islamic Civilisation”, the author makes the valid point that while the state system in India was for seven centuries headed by persons who professed to be Muslim, at no stage in this period was the state theocratic. Nor was Islam declared to be the state religion. This aspect does form a continuity of sorts from ancient times to our own day and was in need of emphasis.
Such questions as regards the running of the state system are in need of wider dissemination in order to have an informed discussion on the Muslim Question in the Indian and South Asian context. In fact, this volume could with profit have been differently arranged too in order to reflect this.
The section dealing with Islam in India could have been foregrounded and embellished with greater detail. This could have helped in shortening distances in the communication gap as between communities in India. At the social level, reflections on the diurnal interplay as between communities in different regions could also have enriched the book. The volume may have benefited from merging the contents of different lectures into one if the subject was not dissimilar, especially on the question of citizenship, identity and human rights. That could have helped avoid repetition. But all things considered, this is a brave attempt to project matters of crucial significance in the development of India’s society, community relations and state structure.

Challenges to a Liberal Polity
M. Hamid Ansari
Penguin
pp. 277, Rs 799