A Political Reading of Saeed Naqvi’s play The Muslim Vanishes

Jaydrata, Research Scholar

Department of PG Studies And Research in English

Kuvempu University Shankarghatta 577451

Abstract 

The Muslim Vanishes” is a play by veteran Indian journalist and writer Saeed Naqvi that offers a stark reflection of today’s deeply polarized society. Set in a dystopian world, the play exposes the manipulative tactics of power-hungry politicians who fuel hatred and division for their own benefit. Serving as a sharp political allegory, it mirrors the growing religious fragmentation in the nation. This paper seeks to explore the central themes of the play, emphasizing the importance and urgency of preserving ‘Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb’—India’s syncretic cultural heritage—which is rapidly fading. It also aims to shed light on the swiftly evolving social and political landscape of contemporary India.

Key Words: Muslim-less India, Hindu-Muslim Polarization, Savarna-Avarna Politics, Caste    Pyramid.  

Introduction.

Imagine a day when suddenly two hundred million Muslims of India vanishes! How would people react, what would happen if they take their art, language and literature with them? What would be the social and political scenario of India without Muslims? These are some very serious questions that Saeed Naqvi raises through his hilarious play, The Muslim Vanishes. Naqvi is wellknown for his outspoken, hard-hitting and ground breaking writings including Reflections of an Indian Muslim (1993), The Last Brahmin Prime Minister (1996), and Being the Other: Muslim in India (2016). He has produced thirty-five short films on India's composite culture, which are considered a landmark. He has long been a vocal advocate of India’s composite culture, which refers to the unique blend of various cultural traditions and influences that have shaped Indian society over the centuries. Through his play Naqvi has argued that India’s composite culture is one of its greatest strengths and is rooted in its long history of diversity and pluralism, which has allowed different communities to coexist with one another in a spirit of mutual respect and tolerance. He has criticized the narrow and exclusivist visions of culture and identity that have emerged in recent years, particularly those that seek to erase or marginalize minority communities and their cultural practices. Naqvi has also argued that India’s composite culture is under threat from various sources, including communalism and homogenization. He has emphasized the importance of preserving and promoting India's rich cultural diversity, and has called on Indians to embrace a more inclusive and pluralistic vision of culture and identity. Naqvi’s views on India’s composite culture reflect his deep commitment to secularism, pluralism, and social justice, and his belief that India’s diversity and richness are among its greatest strengths. The play selected for this study is powerful expression of Naqvi’s deep understanding of fast changing social and political scenario of contemporary India. It is a tragicomedy published in 2022 “to provoke, as much as to protest against the current state of affairs in the country... It can leave the reader both amused as well as upset” (Triveni).

Since the early 1990s, when the Babri Masjid was demolished, India’s secular fabric has been continuously fabricated. Many authors, activists and social reformers have written on such topics; “former Maharashtra Police I.G. S.M. Mushrif, Prof. Shamsul Islam, and seasoned journalist A.G. Noorani have written various books exposing the upper caste Hindu oppressing the Muslims and Dalits. However, all those books are gruesome accounts of real-life incidents, making them emotionally challenging to read” (Shaikh) but Naqvi has showcased the problem in a very entertaining and unique manner. The play hilariously uncovers the multilayered prejudices and hatred that have penetrated into our social consciousness, infiltrated not just in religion-based ideological politics but also in caste-based politics. Naqvi states, “I was frustrated at the unwillingness of people, Hindus and Muslims, to comprehend that a relationship of hate was not natural. There is too much of shared culture, music, poetry, cuisine, architecture, dress, customs of marriage and so much more, over the centuries, for hatred to define relations. This deterioration of relations was a function of ugly politics of power-grab” (Verma).

The play opens in the well-lit studio of a channel ‘Insight Today TV’, where the breaking news of the moment is the disappearance of two hundred million Muslims from the nation, along with their cultural legacies, including their language, songs, foods, monuments, and even their dead, who have been dug up from graves. “I don’t know how to explain . . . It’s just . . . so unbelievable. Sir, there is no one left! I mean the Muslims. Muslims have gone. Some say they have taken the Qutub Minar with them… I don’t know what is happening. The Muslims and everything Muslim seem to have disappeared…This is too much, how can an entire population just disappear? This is a dream” (Naqvi 2,4). The rumours of the country’s Muslim population disappearing spread like wildfire. After the first shock wears off, the upper caste, or Savarnas, want to reclaim the homes and businesses that the Muslims abandoned. However, the Avaranas, or the lower caste, have already taken over many of the buildings and businesses, starting a terrifying conflict between the two factions. “Think of it: 200 million have left behind their homes, farms, land, businesses, cow sheds, buffalo sheds, all of which will be worth zillions of rupees. All of this wealth will be the dividend from a Muslim-mukt Bharat, a Muslim-free India. This is the dividend that we must divide among ourselves. It remains to be seen who gets what” (Naqvi 6). The likelihood of the Dalits assuming influential roles has alarmed the Savarnas. Soon the higher caste, who divided people for their political gain and power status, now desired the return of the disappeared Muslims. While the Avarnas want an immediate election, Savarnas want it put off until the Muslims return. The tussle reaches to Supreme Court where jury tries to solve the unique problem.  

Religion and Caste Based Politics 

Naqvi has beautifully built the tension of Hindu-Muslim politics and argues that regardless of Muslim dehumanization and presenting them as an enemy, Muslims are required for political gain. Without Muslims the social and political scenario will be completely changed. The disappearance symbolically represents the Muslim contribution in building India’s culture and heritage. As the story develops, the characters discuss “What else did, or can, the Muslims take back? Writings of great poets Mir, Ghalib, Josh. But what about Hindu poets of the ghazal Brij Narain Chakbast, Raghupati Sahai Firaq? Can they take them back, too? And those exquisite terms used in our courts munsif, farraash will they also disappear? And what about our great musical repertoire, the gharanas? And food? Can they also reclaim nihari and kabab and the rista and gushtaba? Perhaps Hussain’s paintings will also magically vanish” (Mahmood). Naqvi has touched all the sensitive and controversial political issues of the present day such as partition, communal riots, social and economic ghettoization, renaming of places, conversion of religion and lynching in the name of cow etc. as a character mentions, “This is because in what is known as the cow belt, cow meat is not sold, only buffalo meat. On the question of the cow, we are a divided country. Not far from Delhi, in Dadri, near Noida, a man called Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched because it was alleged that he kept beef in his refrigerator. More important than sending Mohammad Akhlaq’s body for postmortem was pulling out meat from his refrigerator and sending it to a forensic laboratory to confirm whether it was cow’s meat or not” (Naqvi 16-17). The play is a beautiful blend of reality and fiction. The characters are portrayed in a realistic manner. When questioned about why some of the characters in his play appeared to be imitations of real-life individuals, Naqvi acknowledged that his play’s goal was to provoke, but that the names had been slightly changed since he was “willing to wound yet afraid to strike” (Triveni).  

Exposing the caste conflict; the tension between savarna and avarna is another significant underlying theme of the play, though the play voices the caste conflicts of Hindu community, it remains silent on Muslim caste dynamics. It presents Muslims as a monolith whole. In the play Dalits and people from lower social classes capture the properties left behind by Muslims. By distributing these assets, Anita, the politician’s daughter-in-law, discovers a quick route to socialism. A dalit who had never dared to enter the main gate of a Hindu Brahmin leader’s home without being called in, not only enters without permission but also sits on the sofa. A Prime time anchor says, “Today, without the Muslims, the battlelines have been redrawn. It is Savarnas versus Avarnas, upper castes versus lower castes. You know, numerically, there are many more of them than the upper castes” (Naqvi 27). The Savarnas realise that they would now have to compete in elections against lower castes that are numerically larger. They think about delaying elections because they fear the inevitable dominance by lower castes.

Caste supremacists realize that they need Muslims; ‘the other’ to manage caste conflicts. A woman reporter says, “You want them back so that you can communalize the elections. You do not seem to have another issue. They were the issue; and they are now gone” (Naqvi 31) another says, “There will be no more communal politics. No more reasons for hating anybody. Our politicians had taught us to hate Muslims. Now that the Muslims have disappeared, there is no one left to hate” (Naqvi, 34). The disappearance creates an existential challenge for caste supremacists/politicians, they realize that they can no longer amass Hindu votes by invoking the fear of the Muslim and they start praying for Muslims return. 

Theory of Two Interlocking Triangles

The core of the play is Naqvi’s theory of two interlocking triangles that is the focal point of the Indian politics. He explains this in the preface of his book, “One triangle is the caste pyramid. And the other one is composed of three sides—India–Pakistan, New Delhi– Srinagar, Hindu– Muslim—all contributing to one complex of issues. Touch any one side of this triangle and the other two are instantly affected” (Naqvi i). He further elaborates this as, the caste system is structured like a triangle, with Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaishya, known as Savarna or the upper castes, at the top. The majority of the triangle is made up of Avarna, the lower castes, arranged in an endless hierarchy. This system is designed to provide everyone with the satisfaction of having a few groups below them, creating a complex hierarchy. “If the word hierarchy was not in the dictionary, we would have to discover it by studying the caste structure” (Verma). The second complex triangle of conflict in India involves three lines: Delhi-Srinagar, India-Pakistan, and Hindu-Muslim tensions. As long as there is tension with Pakistan, the issue of Kashmir will not be resolved and the Hindu-Muslim tensions will persist. However, it is important to recognize this dynamic in order to improve relations with Pakistan, “because no country can live with an enemy as a neighbor eternally” (Sariya).   

He formed this theory with his nearly four decades of experience as a journalist. According to him this complex triangle can only be solved with a holistic approach but it will disturb the project of Hindu consolidation and no politician would take this risk. The problem itself is a political construct to polarize people and gain power.  

Communalism is not helping caste, but rather aggravating it, keeping the current government in power. “Without the ‘other’, the ruling class fears it may not be able to manage the caste triangle. This is the catch. Communalism has political support; caste has a social sanction from ancient times. In a kinetic situation, they feed on each other” (Naqvi, iii). The entire play revolves around this idea and the Muslim disappearance ruins this complex triangle. It forces us to think “if the Muslim vanishes, as Naqvi attempts to boldly and creatively show, will that signal the end of India’s problems? (Bilal) And the answer is clearly, no.

Conclusion.

The play is a brilliant example of Naqvi’s imagination that reflects his pain and frustration for fast disappearing composite culture and everyday growing hate and divide on religious lines. There is a growing trend in India that seeks to marginalize and exclude Muslims from public and economic spheres. There is an aggressive attempt to make them less visible and subordinate. This is evident through various actions such as banning the hijab, proposing measures against Azaan (call for prayer) and the namaz (worship) in public spaces, calling for a prohibition on the sale of halal meat, boycotting Muslim vendors, and removing Muslim food stalls from Hindu festivals(Bilal). 

The play tries to uncover the hidden political agenda of the greedy politician who continuously try to disturb and fracture the idea of united India to gain power. It is a universal plea for compassion and empathy (Khurana).  It explores the anxieties and uncertainties experienced by Muslims in present-day India, as well as their feelings of being perceived as the ‘other’ or different from the rest of society and the ongoing sense of feeling disconnected and isolated (Hasan). The separation along religious lines that has crept into our society severely disturbs the author. This drama is enlightening to read and compels us to think deeply about the sociopolitical and cultural developments in India. It makes one feel sad and helpless at how public life has degraded in the name of religion. Even though the play has a satirical and hilarious tone, every patriotic Indian will undoubtedly be shocked and experience a wide range of emotions (Soman). 

It is an attempt to remind Indian people that the idea of India is built together by both Hindus and Muslims. It is high time that every Indian should ponder over the issues of growing hate and divide. What would the effect of this growing intolerance be on Indian society and democracy? (Teller) What kind of country we are leaving for our next generation? We should look beyond the religions and think for the progress and peace of our country. 

References. 

Bilal, M. B. (2022). ‘The Muslim Vanishes’: A play imagines the implications of a social and economic boycott of Muslims. The Scroll.

Hasan, L. R. (2022). The Muslim Vanishes: A play by Saeed Naqvi. Hindustan Times.

Khurana, A. (2022). ‘The Muslim Vanishes’ is a universal plea for empathy in times of apathy.

The Wire.

Mahmood, S. (2022, February 13). Take the Muslim out of India and what’s left is this heady daydream. Deccan Chronicle.

Naqvi, S. (2022). The Muslim Vanishes. Penguin Books.

Sariya, T. (2022). Saeed Naqvi’s ‘The Muslim Vanishes’ urges to unlearn the politicized history and see India afresh. Indian Women Blog.

Shaikh, N. A. (2022). The Muslim Vanishes by Saeed Naqvi – Book review. Bombay Reads.

Soman, Z. (2022, April). Tragicomedy times. Open The Magazine.

Teller, N. (2022). The Muslim Vanishes. The Jerusalem Post.

Triveni, D. (2022). Saeed Naqvi’s play ‘The Muslim Vanishes’ is a fable for our time. The Hindu.

Verma, N. (2022). Saeed Naqvi. Platform Creative Lifestyle.