That the skullcap and the burqa are symbols that stereotype Muslims is old hat. Therefore,it did not come as a surprise that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the people working with him caught on to these evergreen and always-at-hand symbols and paraded skullcap-wearing men and burqa-wearing women to highlight Muslim support for his Sadbhavana fast. Then Z.A. Sacha,the former deputy municipal commissioner of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation,turned out at the venue in a traditional Arab dress,the long white thobe,and its accompanying headgear keffiyeh or ghutrah to symbolise Muslim support for Modi.
Many Muslim men,who do not wear a skullcap to college or work,sport it when they go to the mosque for the Friday prayers or on Eid to feel more Muslim or Islamic. Even some Muslim women,who do not observe hijab,cover their heads with dupattas at Muslim social gatherings. But never have I seen an Indian Muslim wear on such occasions the thobe with the keffiyeh.
The keffiyeh has black-and-white checks,while the ghutrah has red-and-white checks. Or,is it the other way round? Maybe they can even be just white? Am I sounding confused? But why would I know or be expected to know about Arab headgear anyway? For,I am not an Arab. But some of our politicians seem to think otherwise. And that Indian Muslims,by virtue of their faith,are slightly Arabified or are Arabophiles who would love what Arabs do,wear and eat. Sacha may have an Arab heritage,but that is beside the point. What matters is that it was meant for public display and consumption and it had a purpose.
If that particular foreign dress was meant to make Gujarati or Indian Muslims happy by offering them an Arab moment,it could only have achieved quite the contrary. We have had enough of topis and burqas to symbolise us. Please dont throw one more symbol and that too completely foreign at the community. Even the madarasa children,barring a few,I had met when I was at the Darul-Uloom in Deoband for work werent wearing keffiyehs.
This is not the first time,though,that a public figure has resorted to the Arab headgear to appease or seemingly appease the Muslims. As if the iftar parties hosted by politicians arent often political gimmicks in themselves,when a certain Lalu Prasad or Mulayam Singh Yadav turn up at such dos with a keffiyeh wrapped around him,it only makes me,the ordinary Indian Muslim,more cynical of his objectives.
In a distasteful instance three years ago,the Delhi Police wrapped keffiyeh around terror suspects,whom they had picked up following the 2008 bomb blasts in the capital,and paraded them before the media. Did that act imply that Indian Muslims are almost-Arabs? Or,perhaps the keffiyeh was thought to represent evil,after Bollywood films of the 1970s and the 80s which often showed Arab sheikhs as corrupt and lustful beings,all in their keffiyehs. Thankfully,Hindi cinemas attitude towards the keffiyeh has changed,what with Akshay Kumar sporting it in a soft,romantic number in Singh is Kinngg. A lot of youngsters too,irrespective of their faith,now wrap the keffiyeh stylishly as a fashion statement in metropolitan India.
I grew up in a Gulf country where a lot of Indians as well as people of other nationalities would occasionally wear the thobe sans the keffiyeh. I would ask my father why he never wore one,even occasionally,for fun or comfort,as it is a loose,flowing garment. My dad would say,I am not going to give up my cultural identity. And he never did,for the three decades that he lived and worked there. If only our politicians understood our cultural identity.
irena.akbar@expressindia.com
