Good faith or bad politics? Women in Hijab chant Hanuman Chalisa

On Tuesday morning, amidst the blowing of conches and ringing of bells, a gathering of nearly 50 women from the Muslim community in Hijab chanted couplets from the Hanuman Chalisa at the famous Jhandewalan temple in Delhi. Was it about breaking the insularity of religions and bringing about inter-religion bonhomie or a stunt choreographed by invisible players to gain political mileage? Well, in our complex times, we shall never get a clear answer. But the chanting of the couplets and offering of prayers by Muslim women from Varanasi and Delhi, who had also put red or green brocade chunni over their veils, was a sight that drew a lot of attention from the devotees and visitors present in the temple of Maa Aadi Shakti at Jhandewalan. [caption id=“attachment_1565219” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Pictured here are Muslim women who have been offering prayers at Hindu temples to promote communal harmony. Firstpost[/caption] “We’ve been doing this since 2006, after the bomb blasts in Varanasi, to bring communal harmony and inculcate a sense of mutual respect between Hindus and Muslims. If Hindus visit Mazaars and pay obeisance by offering Chadars, why can’t Muslims visit a temple and offer prayer?” Nazneen Ansari who has taken the initiative, told Firstpost. Nazneen, also president of the Muslim Mahila Foundation that works for Muslim women, had come from the holy city of Varanasi with a team of 15 women including Najma Parveen, president of the Bhartiya Awam Party, an all-women’s political outfit that works towards creating political awareness among Muslim women. “We’re here not for any political stunt but to create awareness among both Muslims and Hindus to live peacefully together and respect each others’ religious sentiments. Despite receiving threats from hardliners and fundamentalists, we’ve continued chanting the Chalisa,” remarked Parveen, who stood out in a military green cap akin to the one that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose used to wear. “Netaji is our ideal and we try to work on the path showed by the great leader,” she added. However, there are people with whom the chanting of the Chalisa by Muslim women has not found favour and they consider it a drama to gain political mileage. “It’s a kind of cheap politics and the BJP doesn’t subscribe to such acts as it is nationalistic in character. Such acts may send wrong signals among Muslims. Many in the community might feel that one has to visit a temple or chant Hanuman Chalisa to get associated with the BJP or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),” Dr Iftikhar Ahmed Javed, member of national executive, BJP Minority Morcha, told Firstpost. However, the participants don’t agree. “Through this kind of action, both the communities would be able to come closer through mutual respect and living would be easier and better, especially when our prime minister talks of development, which is possible only when communal harmony thrives,” defended Shehnaz Afzal, from Kashmere Gate, who had joined the group at the temple. The beginning of this culture is not new. According to a senior RSS member, it began in the early nineties. “It was an initiative taken up by the RSS chief KS Sudershan to promote inter-religious dialogue and the Muslim Rashtriya Manch was founded subsequently. Later, Indresh Kumar took it forward among the Muslim community.” This initiative of chanting the Chalisa started after the series of bomb blasts at Sankat Mochan Temple, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and Varanasi Cantonment railway station in 2006, when a group of Muslim women led by Nazneen defied social and family pressure, and chanted Hanuman Chalisa at Sanka Mochan Temple in Varanasi to ward-off growing communal tension. And, over the years more than 35,000 women have joined the group. The women’s group, after offering prayer and chanting the Chalisa, took a parikrama (circumambulation) of the Jhandewala temple. They also sang a prayer in Urdu scripted by Nazneen Ansari. “It’s a welcome gesture if the exercise was aimed at bringing communal harmony and national integration. Otherwise, it would appear more as an appeasement to gain attention from the BJP under Modi’s leadership,” said noted Urdu shayar (poet), Manzar Bhopali. “This is a practical approach to end social differences based on religion. If we respect Ram, we should also respect Paigambar and vice versa,” added Dr Rajeev Kumar Srivastav, assistant professor of History at BHU.