Musings of an Arab scholar — Regaining lost ground

“The very premises of Islamic studies are radically and thoroughly unsound; their very foundation, the identification and the construal of relevant facts, is based upon a political and cultural imagination…Any proper writing of Islamic history has to rest on the dissolution of Islam as an orientalist category…It has to liberate itself from Islam…Only then will Islam be disassociated and reconstituted as historical categories amenable to historical study.”

Professor Azmeh, who was invited to India a year ago by the Indian Council for Historical Research and will travel to Delhi again next February, agreed to discuss some contemporary issues with me at the Institute of Advanced Study in Berlin, where he runs a major project on Islam. He began by telling me how he admired India’s liberation struggle and how, as a graduate at Oxford, he was inspired to read about the secular and democratic institutions of the Nehruvian era. He is both surprised and impressed that those structures, especially those regulating the management of culture, survive and continue to flourish. “What an achievement! India is one of the very few third-world countries that has produced an indigenous high culture, including academic culture, of a very high order. Indian economists, historians and sociologists are widely respected in the international community of scholars. Sadly, the Arab world has not managed to crystallise processes of the same kind”.

Some Arab countries have, moreover, not succeeded in preserving their secular values and traditions. Today, secularism is endangered not in Algeria but in Egypt, where “Islamic phraseology is taking over almost the entirety of public life. Even secular figures are seeking ratification from Quranic verses.” The Egyptian government plays a double game, projecting itself as secular to the western world but making concessions to Islamicists who have a strong presence in the state machinery. Elsewhere, there are ascendant Islamicist ideological/political forces; some are indigenous but most are inspired by, or act at the behest of, Saudi Arabia.

The Islamicists have developed a sophisticated organisational, information and educational infrastructure in the last three decades. The impetus to their activities was provided by the `cultural section’ of the Truman doctrine, and by the Americans and the Saudis who were jointly pitted against Syria and Egypt in the 1960s. Still the “fundamentalists” remained dormant until the Salman Rushdie affair. “The controversy over The Satanic Verses gave them a concrete and tangible sense of purpose; indeed, they became effective and influential thereafter.”

Asked if the unresolved Palestinian issue offered a raison d’etre to fundamentalists, he opined: “Remember, Hamas is an effective and sophisticated political movement with a coherent anti-colonial agenda. At the same time, it endeavours to revolutionise and resocialise the entire Muslim world from within. The Hizbullah in Lebanon has the same project, though much less interested in imposing its agenda on the entire population. Having said this, I must emphasise that the Palestinian question no longer plays such a pivotal role. Today, its role is one of lamentation and not encouragement.”

I went on to discuss the “crisis” in the Arab world: the repudiation of Gamal Abdul Nasser’s secular legacy, the reasons for the collapse of the left and democratic front and cynicism among the educated classes. Professor Azmeh underlined how the western powers, led by the United States, had aligned themselves with despotic and authoritarian governments to suppress liberation movements, how the collapse of socialism and communism weakened the Arab cause and strengthened Israel’s position, and how the acute socio-economic crisis facing the Arab world may prove to be the last straw. With people trying to make ends meet, where is the time for revolution or meaningful political engagement? “The disappearance of the middle classes, lazy habits of quietism and compromise instituted by despotic regimes, and the lack of internal class structuration (except in Morocco) have changed the course and direction of Arab society and politics.”

As our discussion came to a close, I noticed an element of despair and despondency in many of his formulations. He seemed visibly moved when talking about the uncertain future of Arab states in the comity of nations. I asked if my impression was right. He picked up his umbrella, looked at the dark clouds hovering above the Institute, and stood silent. When I pressed, he said: “I take the view that we should accept the existing regimes in the Arab World, create areas of political opening and avoid engaging the state directly or frontally. Engaging the state has two drawbacks. First, it is bound to lead to the persecution and repression of the activities. Second, it would strengthen the hands of the Islamicists who, with the active backing and patronage of the NGOs, have latched on to the international civil rights agenda in order to undermine the state. The Arab state is a positive historical acquisition; we must not let it be undermined.”

Is the future grim? “Not necessarily. The Arab regimes, having learnt a few lessons from their mistakes in the past, are opening up culturally and economically.” Do we in India need to learn from the Arab experience after Abdul Nasser? “Not at all. It is us that must benefit from the Indian experience rather than the other way round.”

I stepped out of the Institute, secure in the conviction that India’s image in the Arab world, tarnished by Pakistan’s propaganda during the Mandir-Masjid controversy, can be vastly improved if we renew our intellectual and cultural links with the intelligentsia. Instead of looking to the West all the time, let us try and understand the fears and aspirations of the democratic and secular elements in many Arab societies and strengthen our ties with them. Our future lies in closer co-operation with them and our neighbours.