Syed Khalique Ahmed
NEW DELHI—Several assaults on Muslims entering the ‘Garba’ venues in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have occurred in the last few days since the Navaratri festival began on September 29. The nine-day festival, which the Hindus celebrate by observing fasts and holding dances to celebrate the festival, will come to an end on October 7. In Garba, Hindu males and females wearing traditional attires dance around a shrine of Durga, considered a goddess by the Hindu community.
In Gujarat, volunteers belonging to Bajrang Dal and other radical Hindutva organizations assaulted Muslims after identifying them from their identity cards. In Surat, an industrial city with a large population of migrant workers from all over the country, Hindu radicals even assaulted the Muslim security personnel from private companies the Garba organizers had hired.
In MP, the police arrested over a dozen Muslims in Indore and other cities on the charge of entering the Garba venues. These Muslims were caught by Bajrang Dal activists and handed over to the police. Police booked them under Section 151 of the Indian Penal Code for causing disturbance of public peace. However, they were all released on bail. The development in MP occurred after the state culture and the home minister made a statement against Muslims entering the Garba venues. She had stated that Garba venues had become a medium of ‘love jihad’ (Muslim boys eloping with Hindu girls). Following this, home minister Narottam Mishra announced that entry into Garba venues would only be on the production of identity cards.
Minister Usha Thakur gave the reason that Muslims don’t believe in Maa Durga; hence, they should not go to Garba. The entire essence of the Navratri festival is the worship of Maa Durga for three days, followed by worship of goddess Lakshmi for the next three days and goddess Saraswati for the last three days. The Hindus worship the three goddesses by dancing around the makeshift shrine of their idols installed at the centre of the Garba ground.
While the objection of the MP minister may amount to intolerance towards other religions, she is not wrong because whatever is done at the Garba event is nothing but ‘shirk’ (meaning associating somebody or something with Almighty Allah, idolatry and polytheism), which is anti-thesis to everything Islam stands for. Islam rejects ‘shirk’ and polytheism altogether and invites people to worship one and only one God. The Holy Quran commands not to follow anyone other than Almighty God. Will Muslim youths heed and avoid going to the Garba assembly or other such programmes to prevent untoward occurrences and help the administration and police ensure peace and harmony?
However, Muslims don’t have any such issues regarding the presence of non-Muslims in Muslim religious festivals. Muslims have been inviting Hindus and people of all other faiths, as also atheists who don’t believe in any religion, to the mosques and Eidgahs. Several Muslim organizations, including the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) and its affiliates, have been organizing ‘visit the mosque’ programmes in the national capital and other places in the country to educate people of other faiths and atheists about Islam and the Muslim culture.
Muslims of all denominations have always welcomed them to their mosques and even in Eidgahs with open arms. In many places, Muslims invite leaders and workers from various political parties and NGOs to celebrate Eid. The most famous interfaith gatherings all over the country are the fast-breaking programme during the month of Ramzan. But not a single Muslim, even those dubbed radicals by police and government agencies, have objected to it. They, instead, encourage interfaith gatherings.
Interfaith gatherings are essential to understand each other’s culture to remove misunderstandings against people of other religions. It is the misunderstanding about different cultures that creates communal tension and violence. All education commissions set up by the union education ministry in the past have also recommended teaching the basic tenets of all religions to school students all over the country for a better understanding of each other’s religion and culture.
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