My friend Saeed Naqvi, an eminent Indian journalist, whom I call Saeed bhai, as he is 86, 6 years older than me ( I am 80 ), often says ” There was only one leader of Indian Muslims, Jawaharlal Nehru, who died in 1964, and now there is only one leader of Indian Muslims, Markandey Katju ”.
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But why cannot Indian Muslims have a Muslim as their leader ? Why has this job been thrust on me, when I have no desire for it ?
The reason has been explained by Ibn Khaldun Bharati in his article published in the portal The Print, where he says that Indian Muslims do not have an intellectual class :
He writes :
‘Most Indian Muslims love to brandish the badge of backwardness. It’s a political narrative, aimed at indicting India for pushing them backward. They cite the Sachar Committee report to corroborate their allegations.
Without going into whether this backwardness is real or mythical and whether every class of Muslims is lagging behind the comparable group in the Hindu community, there is one particular area where their backwardness is most visible, but least recognised: intellectual backwardness. The Muslim community doesn’t have an intellectual class. That a community of about 20-25 crore, with a literacy rate of 79.5 per cent, should have no intelligentsia worth the name, and few intellectuals worth their salt, is shocking, to say the least.
The most glaring proof of the absence of an intellectual class among them is that, in public discourse, the Left-liberal Hindus represent them. If they ( Muslims ) could speak for themselves, why would they need attorneys—who, in the process, steal their seat at the table and keep them out of the conversation forever? For the Left-liberals, Muslims are the proverbial “mute millions” who, lacking the ability to speak for themselves, must be represented by them ”.
The plight of Indian Muslims has explained by me below :
Where is the Mustafa Kemal among them who said that Muslims must modernize, and get rid of the feudal customs and practices which shackle them and keep them backward, like burqa, sharia, madarsa, and maulanas ?
It is not that all Muslims are uneducated. Many are highly educated. But there is a difference between being educated in the sense of having a university degree, and being a genuine intellectual.
The former Vice President of India and IFS officer Hamid Ansari, the eminent historian Prof Irfan Habib, the former Lt Governor of Delhi and VC of Jamia Milia Najib Jung, the well known politicians Salman Khursheed and Asaduddin Owaisi, well known educationist, writer and activist Syeda Hamid, journalists Saeed Naqvi, Seema Mustafa, Saba Naqvi, Arfa Khanum Sherwani, poet Waseem Barelvi, lawyer Mehmood Pracha, etc no doubt have university degrees.
But has any of them ever condemned burqa, sharia, madarsas and maulanas, which keep Indian Muslims feudal and backward ? How many of them openly supported the progressive and humanitarian judgment of the Supreme Court in Shahbano’s case ( that a Muslim husband must give maintenance to his divorced wife ) ?
Arfa Khanum Sherwani screams from the rooftops almost every day of atrocities committed on Indian Muslims. But why was she ( and other Indian Muslims ) silent when Kashmiri Pandits were killed and hounded out of Kashmir by religious bigots in the 1990s ? Did anyone place a lock on her lips then ? Or are Hindus not humans but insects, according to Arfa ? Are atrocities on Muslims alone to be condemned, but not atrocities on Hindus ? Secularism is surely a two way traffic, not a one way traffic as Arfa thinks.
https://www.hastakshepnews.com/2026/05/indian-muslims-and-secularism-justice.html
Has Arfa ever called sharia a barbaric law, considering that it prescribes stoning to death for an adultress, cutting off a thieves limbs, nikah halaala, etc, and permits oral divorce by men, etc ? No, Begum Arfa will never do that. So much for her ‘secularism’.
Did Arfa ( and the other so called ‘educated Muslims ) demand banning that bigot Zakir Naik who said that demolition of Bamyan Buddha in Afghanistan was to educate the people, and who praised the terrorist Osama Bin Laden, calling him a martyr ?
I am a real well wisher of Indian Muslims, as I want them to have prosperous lives. But for that they must get rid of these 4 feudal chains and fetters : burqa, sharia, madarsa and maulana, and I have repeatedly said so :
https://www.hastakshepnews.com/2023/11/what-did-justice-katju-say-to-indian.html
I am a strong supporter of religious freedom. But burqa, sharia, madarsas and maulanas, are not part of core Islam ( like offering namaz, observing roza in Ramadan, haj etc ), and they must be forcibly suppressed, just as anti-beef laws in India must be abolished, if the country is to progress.
Some people say there should be freedom to wear burqa or not. I do not agree. Too much liberty is also bad. No liberty should be given to continue feudal and backward practices. They should be forcibly suppressed, as Mustafa Kemal did in Turkey in the 1920s, and burqa should be banned as in France, with heavy fines on women who wear them.
Some people say I will lose my Muslim followers for expressing such views.
My answer is that I am not in politics, I do not have any desire to please Muslims, and do not seek Muslim votes.
I will say what I regard to be in the national interest, and which I regard in the interest of Indian Muslims too, whether that pleases or displeases anyone.
Unless Indian Muslims give up the above 4 things they will remain backward, and a person who is backward is kicked around :
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWbdTgqExVo
But the ‘educated’ Muslims abovementioned will never say that. So much for their education.
Even the Muslims educated in the best English medium schools and colleges e.g. La Martiniere College, Lucknow and Kolkata, or St Stephen’s College, Delhi, Loretta Convent, Lucknow, Miranda House or Lady Shriram College, Delhi will never say it.
A real leader is one who is not a popularity seeker, and who criticises the backward outdated reactionary customs and thinking of his own people, even if that temporarily makes him very unpopular. So no ‘educated’ Indian Muslim is fit to be the leader of Indian Muslims.
Though I have no desire to be the leader of Indian Muslims, it seems there is no Mustafa Kemal presently available for the job, and it has been perforce thrust on me ( hopefully only temporarily )
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