The Faith Journey of Chand Muhammad

Why do people convert and what are the foul motivations of those who do is a question that comes up for frequent speculation. So while people are still frothing at the mouth at the recent conversion to Islam of former Deputy Chief Minister of Haryana, Chander Mohan, the answer is worth investigating. It has all the ingredients of a pot boiler. Bhajan Lal, the wily former chief minister has perhaps done the smart and politically correct thing by distancing himself from his son and his conversion by disowning him from the family.

But jokes apart, the story of Chander Mohan, the eldest son of former Haryana Chief Minister, Bhajan Lal is worth recounting for a reason. Chander Mohan was already married and had two children when he got to know a lady by the name of Anuradha Bali, a former Deputy Advocate General in Punjab. After an acquaintance of about five years, they landed up at a TV station on December 7th to announce that they had both converted to Islam and had subsequently got married according to Islamic law. Chander Mohan had become Chand Muhammad and Anuradha Bali had become Mrs. Fiza.

The story of Chand Muhammad and Fiza who have developed faith in Allah in rather odd circumstances explain the more common and earthy reasons for conversion that most people have…..the inducements and enticements are there for all to see and examine….. reasons that are beyond control and regulation by any Freedom of Religion Act enacted any where in the country.

If only we would get politics out of the way, we would soon recognize that just as few conversions are for spiritual reasons, few are also at the other extreme for crass political reasons. There was of course a time when all or most conversions happened because of purely pious reasons. There was also a time when a lot of conversions happened because of purely political reasons – possibly in the middle ages. But today the reasons for an apparent change in one’s faith and belief are far simpler and therefore paradoxically more complex to interpret. The journey from Mohan to Muhammad has got shorter; even more brazen but not much simpler to understand.

The sad thing about conversions today is that the individual story behind each conversion – with all its motives, drama, pain, anguish as well as ecstasy are completely concealed. It is presented as a conspiracy full of social and political intrigue, funded exclusively by American dollars or Middle Eastern petro dollars. Well this is not to say that these kind of monetary incentives and tools do not exist or have no influence at all. But in every conversion of every individual, genuine or not, driven by love of lucre or not, caused by inducement or fraud or not, there is a human element, which is no longer considered of any value; for we are so busy chasing the foreign hand – or is it the hidden hand?

Whether the reasons for a conversion are the most sublime or the crassest, it is, was and will bean individual phenomena. Whether it is to gain a new wife, a new job or a new identity, who is to define an inducement? And for those interested, we can now follow the faith journey of Fiza and Chand Muhammad to observe if they become the new pillars of Islamic piety.

A Bahu from Bengal

Kerala has been a pioneer in man power export in many areas and for long. But a new manifestation of this export should be causing all of disquiet. The state has largely been known for its export of man power as NRIs but of late it has begun exporting women as brides in girl starved North Indian states like Haryana. On the face of it, cross cultural marriages in an ethnically fragile country ought to be encouraged as a cementing factor – except for two things – The “ export” of brides and their relatively easy availability would mean that there is even lesser incentive for communities in many of these North Indian States to abort female fetuses. Demographic threats have often been held out as a potential deterrent that might work to retard the increasingly wide spread malaise of female feticide.

The other thing that is happening is that human trafficking, particularly trafficking in women and minor girls is shifting shapes and is often enough now coming disguised as marriages. Trafficked women are no longer clandestinely bought and sold as used to mostly happen, it is possible now to “marry’ such women and then “divorce’ such women who then go on to “ marry” other men.

With marriage – whatever be its colors enjoying social sanction, it becomes difficult to prosecute any one and with birth certificates and mirage registrations largely non existent in rural hinterlands, it is next to impossible prove that a particular girl was a minor or that a particular woman was not married but trafficked. In India in any case, the Prevention of Immoral Traffic Act despite its name, covers only offences occurring in brothels and non brothel based trafficking as occurs in these kind of sham marriages are not covered. So effectively India lacks current ant trafficking laws.

Of course the issue of trafficking and women being trafficked is not restricted to Kerala and is perhaps more rampant with more dire consequences in other impoverished states. “Trafficking can be disguised as migration, commercial sex or marriage. But what begins as a voluntary decision often ends up as trafficking as victims find themselves in unfamiliar destinations, subjected to unexpected work,” A BBC report for instance quoting the Assam police informs that since 1996 3,184 women and 3,840 female children have gone missing in the state and many have ended up working as call-girls around Delhi or used as “sex slaves” by wealthy landlords in states like Punjab and Haryana. That piece of statistic means that we are talking of about two women a day.

The market rate for a bride currently it seems is between 4,000 and 30,000 rupees ($88 to $660) and the custom of buying brides has not just infected the states of Haryana and Punjab only, it is spreading. In a district where the urban sex ratio is the lowest in the country at 678/1,000 and where the largest tehsil has a sex ratio of 535/1,000, the system of bride buying has become quite rampant in the last five years. Shahjahanpur’s block Bhawaal Kheda has several villages where, due to the low sex ratio, men have been buying brides from states like West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand and Bihar.

Coming back to the case of the brides out sourced , even if a woman is not bought and sold in the slave market, the racial memory of polyandry as in Draupadi it seems still persists. As the Hindu reports “ In some villages in Punjab, however, all the men in a household have access to the bought bride. She has no choice. Even if she is married to one brother, she must be available to all the other brothers in the house. Thus, polyandry exists, particularly in poor households where only one man can “buy” a wife. Sex selection has ensured that there are too few local women available. And poverty has dictated that only those with money can “buy” a woman. And with sex ratios touching 535 girls per 1000 boys in parts of the country, it may be that soon in places there may be no women to celebrate or observe the annual International Women’s’ Day that just went by.

Road Rage: A Fast Track to Death

Delhi ’s ex chief minister, Sahib Singh Verma is the latest in a fairly long line politicians who have died in road accidents in recent years. Off hand, I can recall Madhav Rao Scindia, Rajesh Pilot, Lok Sabha Speaker Balayogi, Haryana Minister, O.P.Jindal and former President Giani Zail Singh. Then of course there are many, many more who sustain injuries and there names are too numerous to recount. However Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee is a name one can recall from very recent times.

It makes me wonder why is it that politicians are so vulnerable to accidents and collisions. Do they have some particular kind of death wish that bewitches them? Or is it that they are happening all the time and to every body – it is just that we get to hear about them only when a celebrity, particularly a politician passes away this way. Or is that their lives and tragically their deaths represent the collective wish of the times – wanting to be every where and all at once at the very same time and because that elusive quality called omniscience is reserved only to deity, the closest one can grasp that impossible gift is by revving up faster, faster and even more faster --- a morbid distortion of the Olympic motto -Citius, Altius, Fortius" (faster, higher, stronger).

Except that Baron Pierre de Coubertin , the Father of the Olympic Movement had a different scenario in mind as he wrote up this immortal motto. His creed was” "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well." That final bit – that participating in life – be it in an election or in a sport or in any thing else at all is not necessarily about winning but about having taken part and fought well has been all but forgotten. While the Baron’s creed was certainly a call to leave unnecessary mediocrity far behind and pursue excellence, the cut throat dog eat dog chase of speed and achievement was not what he had in mind.

But by no means am I saying that it is the politicians alone who have the ambition and the hurry and the desire to be omniscient. There is always a Salman Khan or an Alistair Pereira or the trucker on the other side on the other side of the road, also in a tearing hurry to get some where. He too has his ambitions, plans and dreams and visions of omnificence. The politician and his convoy. The trucker and his tired bones, coming from difference sides of the fence clash, collide and self destruct.

The road rage phenomena which is increasing in India is a fast track to death and destruction. Road rage is scary. Why do seemingly normal people succumb to such antisocial hostile behavior? Hostile behavior like screaming abuse, fist shaking, making obscene gestures, flashing lights, tailgating, getting out of one’s vehicle to another person's vehicle and banging, knocking on the windows and yelling insults. Such hostility only invokes more terrible hostility. And violence always begets violence.

In India, the main causes of road rage are drivers who drive in the wrong direction (64%), drivers who jump queues (61%), people who honk too much (57%) and aggressive driving (57%). Another significant cause of annoyance for Indian drivers is “traffic light jumpers” (51%). And in a dubious distinction for the national capital, Delhi was ranked highest for having the most number of ‘worst drivers’. “Indians who have driven in other cities were asked which city they think has the worst drivers. Top of the list is Delhi, selected by 32%. Bangalore comes in second place with 16% and in third place is Kolkata (12%),”

How do we remain gentle amidst this kind of hostility and violence? By reminding ourselves that we live in a world that still needs civil and courteous behavior. A wave, a smile, a bit of generosity and chivalry on your part, will bond good drivers together and create role models. There are of course other means too. Leaving homes twenty minutes earlier makes all the difference to our nerves when we are caught in heavy traffic. If we are being tailgated, we can change lanes and allow the person to pass. If someone wants to pass, slow down and let them do so. If someone makes obscene gestured, don't return them. Stay behind the person who is angry at all costs (they can do less damage if we are behind them) If necessary, we can always pull off the road or take an exit and let them go on by. Some one has to give in and allow life to flow. Or else, today’s death will be tonight’s breaking news and tomorrow’s headline as Sahib Singh Verma’s unfortunate accident was.