A study in fundamentalism

A. G. NOORANI

Political Islam in the Indian Subcontinent: The Jamaat-i-Islami by Frederic Grare; Manohar and Centre de Sciences Humaines; pages 134, Rs.200.

IT became de rigueur to ban the Jamaat-i-Islami whenever the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was banned despite two vital differences between them; which are, the Jamaat has no volunteer corps and has not been indicted by any commission of inquiry for complicity in communal riots. Its forte is sheer religious bigotry. This book provides an ably documented account of its credo and growth in the entire sub-continent. In keeping with its stand on Kashmir, the Jamaat's outfit in the State is independent of the ones in India and Pakistan and is itself a house divided. There is also a separate branch in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). The Amir in Kashmir, G. M. Bhatt, is a pacifist and born conciliator. Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the Jamaat's representative in the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, is known as a hardliner.

Dr. Frederic Grare is Director of the Centre de Sciences Humaines in New Delhi which is part of a network of research centres of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its activities are focussed on four main themes; namely, economic growth and sustainable development, international and regional relations, international structures and political construction of identity and urban dynamics. The author is an alumni of the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. While accomplishing his aim - portrayal of political Islam in the persona of the Jamaat - he reveals to the reader the vast store of learning on the subject in the French language. One wishes one could have English translations of works of authorities; Olivier Roy, for instance.

Set up in 1941 in Pathankot, the Jamaat stridently opposed the demand for Pakistan. Its founder Maulana Abul Ala Maududi won fame for his erudition, originality, skills in polemics and, after Partition, as an astute Pakistani politician. He was highly regarded in Saudi Arabia and Egypt and influenced Hassan el Bauna and Sayyed Qotb, founders of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

"Political Islam, which has now become an important issue in international relations, has assumed, in the eyes of the public, a negative image apparently for two reasons. Its eruption on the international political arena is perceived as a regressive phenomenon, reminiscent of a supposedly outmoded era in which irrationality competed with violence. It is, moreover, almost systematically identified with terrorism, with the media adding to the growing confusion between Islam and Islamism. It is also often identified with extreme religious fervour, with groups claiming affiliation with Islamism becoming concretely involved in some of the conflicts which are the bane of our world today. Their supposed potential for destabilisation, both within the Muslim states of which they are a part, as also within societies where Islam is not predominant, are a cause of worry to governments. These factors combine to strengthen each other with the result that, rightly or wrongly, Islamism is represented as being one of the perils endangering our world at the close of the century."

Tersely, the Jamaat seeks to build an Islamic state which can enforce Islamic law, the Sharia. Its set-up is totalitarian. The Amir inspires blind loyalty. But the Jamaat has failed dismally in successive elections in Pakistan. Yet, "it influences in a significant manner the perception of Pakistan by the outside world, which is very often out of proportion to its real influence."

The scope of the work is best stated in the author's own words. It "aims at analysing the working of the movement and its will and capacity to influence events, both in the Indian sub-continent as well as outside it. It attempts to examine its plan of work, its organisation and its policies, as also to identify its networks in order to highlight its actual sphere of influence. It thus aspires to bring out the regional and international strategies of the Jamaat and to underscore thereby the points of convergence as well as the limits to the cooperation between Islamist movements. It then tries to uncover the mechanisms through which the Pakistani authorities make use of the Jamaat to promote their regional interests, particularly in Kashmir and Afghanistan, as also the way in which Pakistan's rivals, India particularly, make use of these same mechanisms to bring disparagement to Pakistan. By doing so it aims to highlight the links between the state and religious groups as well as the ambiguous relationship forged through reciprocal instrumentalisation prevailing between state authorities and Islamist movements. Through the study of the Jamaat-i-Islami this research hopes to explain how a specific religious group can support the objectives of a political system by acting as a 'torch bearer' of irredentist ambitions."

Such movements present the facade of a monolith but are ever in a state of crisis; torn between the claims of ideology and the imperatives of political expediency. The study traces the Jamaat's progress since its birth, its rise to influence in Pakistan, the travails of the unit in India and Britain. Intolerant of dissent, Jamaatis turn violent on university campuses but become lambs when tempted with power as Zia-ul-Haq discovered. "Fifty years after the creation of Pakistan, the Jamaat remains an eternal opposition party whose singularly limited social base prevents it from hoping to be anything other than a catalyst for dissent and protest." It has a considerable nuisance value - but no more than that.