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From
Tehelka Magazine, Vol 9, Issue 51, Dated 22 Dec 2012 |
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Q&A Saba Naqvi, Journalist And Author
‘Little things contest grand civilisations’
RELIGIOUS POLARISATION scars the Indian landscape. Still, syncretic religious practices continue to thrive. Nyaya village in West Bengal is home to Muslims who wear the sindoor and celebrate Dussehra. The Meo community from Alwar, Rajasthan, professes Islam yet sings ballads recalling the Mahabharata. Saba Naqvi, 48, political editor of Outlook, talks to Shazia Nigar about her first book, In Good Faith, an exploration of marginal, heterodox, less divisive cultures.
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Saba Naqvi
Photo: Vijay Pandey |
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EDITED EXCERPTS
What motivated you to write this book?
The primary thing that motivates me is my journalism, my political views, my sense of curiosity and not a religious identity. I am privileged and am not a victim of anything. But I can see it happening to others. I travelled for two years for my fieldwork (1993-94) and wrote the book this year. What I would have written at that time would have been little reports. Now I have been able to give it some shape and perspective.
You grew up in a Christian-Muslim family, yet the Muslim identity seems to have played a stronger role. Why?
I was always identified by others as a Muslim because of my name. When I saw the kind of polarisation that was happening around Muslim issues and identity, I became as Muslim as it was possible for someone like me. It happened along the journey. The book has been a fascinating journey of how identities come to be formulated, imposed by others and the politics of the country.
Your portrayal of Indian Muslims in Bollywood has ignored the obsession with Islamic terrorist films and the apologetic Muslim.
I agree with you. I have missed that, but I was trying to make another point here that is relevant to the book. However, that is not a general trend. There are movies titled My Name is Khan. The Khans today are unapologetic about their names unlike the past when they had to change it to Dilip Kumar and Madhubala.
What is the relevance of the syncretism that you have documented in the book?
I have an intellectual problem with the words ‘composite culture’, ‘syncretism’ and ‘pluralism’. Short of having any other vocabulary, I have been forced to use them. I see the book as an account of little traditions, little things and little people. It is about very ordinary people who are not even conscious of being secular and who actually resist these things. This is just an account of things recorded as vignettes and anecdotes. The idea was to find these little things that contest the idea of a Hindu civilisation as opposed to a grand Muslim civilisation. This book is not something that is personal, it is political.
Then why did you feel the need to explain your background?
The publishers wanted it done that way. I think it’s worked out well. I think my life as a journalist is insignificant. My job is to tell the stories of other people.
There is an emphasis on the cultural aspect of religious intermingling. Did you consciously stay away from commenting on the political aspects of the issue?
I start the book with Bengal, which wasn’t touched by the Mandal and Mandir movement. It was relatively untouched by the communal question. Maharashtra was different. There are accounts of the mazar becoming a mandir, how the Shivaji story is being told and how the Shirdi tradition is now primarily a Hindu tradition. I am telling you about the changing politics of Maharashtra through these stories. It is not just the Hindus who are complicit. Muslims are also abandoning these traditions. I don’t think I have stayed away from commenting. I didn’t wish to make a grand speech about it. I wanted to tell the story of traditions as they change, as they merge and come under political pressure. This is my way of illustrating what life really is in religious traditions.
Shazia Nigar is a Correspondent with Tehelka.
shazia@tehelka.com
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