Cultural Specificity and Islam

It is a well known phenomenon that there is no uniformity among the different people practicing Islam in the world. However the five underlying pillars of Islam remain the same everywhere. They are praying five times, belief in Allah, fasting, paying two percent voluntary tax for the poor if you have resources, and pilgrimage to Mecca, Their faith is one with varying shades of interpretation of the holy book. Even so there is a critical mass of practices which calls for change, improvement and of course redefinition.


There is a plethora of cultural specificity which surrounds the world of Muslims. It is this rather than the faith that is often mistaken for Islam. As India is the second largest concentration of Muslims in the world it is interesting to note that even here there is a wide range of practices which wrongly define Islam. There is a sense of Muslim demographic surge which makes others seriously concerned but to Muslims it is a matter of complacency. The ‘serious concern’ will not be so serious and panicky if the community could maintain a living standard that may not be enviable but praiseworthy in virtues. Is it beyond the capacity of the individuals of the community to maintain acceptable levels of cleanliness and enlightenment?


In Malegaon, Maharashtra, there are many sections of the town where Muslims live in hovels; those hovels may not fit in a description. But even in areas where they have some resources of income and a modicum of education you have culture rather than religion dominating the scene. Look at the open and newly inhabited areas as well as the long established ones. The roads have recently been constructed along with the gutters. But then the gutters will have more pieces of stones and bricks in the muck than anything else. The municipal corporation cleaners and sweepers will be hard pressed to do their job, an onerous task. Bricks and stones indicate a cultural specificity that has nothing to do with religion. On the other hand religion may in fact be very firmly against it. Children use the bricks and stone pieces instead of marbles to play. They draw a line on the roads and strike one stone with another to push it across the line to score a point. Many a time these pieces find their final resting place in the gutters. The result is obvious, the gutters are choked with the muck and often they overflow and the adjoining places become dirty.

Shabbiness is because of this pattern of life where children are tolerated to play in most unhygienic manner. There is no religious sanction for this. But on the other hand you do not find a condom or a discarded wine bottle in the muck that is collected at the street corners. This could be religious specific. Islam does not allow either artificial means of prevention of child birth or boozing. There are many reasons why the former irreversibly prevails in the Muslim centred areas of any town let alone Malegaon. There is lack of means and resources, lack of education, lack of civic sense, ignorance of the overall meaning of religion itself. Complacency about this regrettable station in life calls for change and if Muslims do not realize it they are at fault. They must change, if they have the will it can be possible. If they become dogmatic that god would change them or their lot by himself they are mistaken. Therefore there is a grain of truth in “Muslims have broken faith with the passage that says God does not change a people until they change themselves.”

Among reasons for this sorry pass in life is poor parenting. The kind and quality of family support that must include education and care is missing. They are too much stretched out for getting their livelihood that the thought of security and education become secondary issues. Moreover those who have middle class background of education and employment find their position untenable with the changing policies of the government where reservation and competition and cost are simply forbidding. As if this were not enough whatever scanty amelioration is held out to them is made into a threat to their present situation. What hope for the betterment of future, then? Certain political parties in their extremes predict “riots and chaos”. “There will be bloodshed in the country..Hindu Muslim riots are expected…we are not prepared.”

Now, instead of heeding and addressing the issue of abject decay in the life and surroundings of the Muslims, the above sentiments doom them into justifying their own status quo. The idea of survival at stake and not improvement of life takes hold of their minds and hearts. Whatever the governments tries to achieve in political correctness and balance turns into another stick in the hands of the extremist leaders of right wing parties. A Maharashtrian leader called the Gujarat leader “wakde tikde” or twisted and topsy-turvy and yet his “we are not prepared” sends a chill of apprehension down the spinal chord. If the Gujarati leader scoffs at communalizing budget his counterpart wants to be armed to take on the Muslims.

Therefore having children is dear to every religion and cannot be religious specific of any one denomination. But having or creating a brighter prospect for the children depends upon more resources made available. A government policy based on survey of cultural specificity of Muslims must be made to look at the decay and degeneration that has deepened so much that the well being of our polity is dented and diminished by the nightmare of “us and them”. Good governance, yes. But, of whose? Of the whole or merely a section of society?

Howsoever compartmentalized, we share a broad spectrum culture, much like the South African rainbow culture. Muslim cultural specificity is one such hue in the midst of others. Hence the wonderful mosaic of Indian life warrants not confrontation but adjustment and accommodation. If this latter course is allowed perhaps the stones and bricks that fall into the gutters would one day be collected and would find their place in beautiful edifices for which Islamic contribution is significant not just in India but also in Spain.