Not everything is Right with the Bohra Community

By Arshad Alam, New Age Islam 11 February 2023 The Prime Minister Has Chosen To Ignore Internal Criticisms Aimed At the Syedna Main Points: 1. Time and again, the prime minister has graced the religious functions of the Dawoodi Bohras, showering praises on the leadership. 2. They are perhaps considered good Muslims, who engage in trade and commerce but are consciously invisible, politically. 3. Reformist Bohras have argued that behind this veneer of goodness lies a mafia-like structure, controlled at the top by the Syedna. 4. They point out that the heinous practice of female circumcision, which has no Quranic basis, has the sanction of the Syedna. 5. In ignoring such reformist voices, especially coming from women, the prime minister is legitimizing such regressive practices within the community. ------ PM Modi during Ashara Mubaraka at Indore in 2018. | Twitter ----- The prime minister’s inauguration of the Dawoodi Bohra community’s Arabic institution, the Saifee Academy, has once again put the spotlight on the tiny but influential community. During his speech at the inauguration, the prime minister recalled the close ties which he had with this community since decades. This is not the first time that the prime minister has spoken from the platform of the Bohras. Even when he was the CM of Gujarat, he had attended their program, and showered praises on the community for their enthusiastic support of governmental projects like conservation of water and bringing down malnutrition in the state. A few years ago, he had attended a Bohra religious congregation in Indore. How should we understand this closeness of the prime minister with the Dawoodi Bohra community? The prime minister is accused of maintaining distance with Muslims, so why should he advertise his closeness with this small community of Muslims? It might appear contradictory but the prime minister’s approach towards Muslims seems to be clear: that the party will align only with Muslims that it considers as good. The prime minister is overtly political, hence every message that he sends out should be understood within that context. Those who think that it is the start of something like the Muslim outreach misread the symbolism involved. This is certainly not the start of the engagement with Muslims but simply a reiteration of the stated position that only certain Muslim groups will be entertained at the podium. The motivating factor behind this symbolism does not seem to be electoral as the Bohras are an insignificant minority in terms of numbers. While the financial clout of the community may have something to do with it, the more plausible reason is to highlight the difference between ‘good Muslims’ and ‘bad Muslims’. Perhaps, for this government, the foremost quality of a good Muslim is that they should have no political aspirations. In one of his speeches when he was the chief minister of Gujarat, the prime minister said that Bohras are natural leaders in terms of trade and trust, while underlining that he was not talking about contesting elections. The good Muslim is, therefore, not supposed to have any political aspirations, but should be content with trade and commerce. The good Muslim is also defined by the contribution that they make towards national life: creating jobs, making money and working for the public good. More importantly, the good Muslim is defined through self-obliteration of any political aspiration that they might have. For the ruling party, the Bohras fit this expectation; ‘mainstream Muslims’ like those in North India do not. That’s why the latter should be shunned and any talk of their political participation should be stigmatized as irrelevant to national concerns. But not everything is good about this good Muslim community. Estimates vary but the Dawoodi Bohra community totals about 1.2 million, located mostly in Mumbai and a few cities in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Members of the community are extremely prosperous; their women are highly educated and have an influential diaspora spread throughout the world. The community, though, is in a vice-like grip of its religious-cum-temporal leader called the Syedna. The prime minister in his speech called the Syedna as the spiritual head of the community, but this characterization hides the true picture. The Syedna has a say in each and everything that a community member does or wants to do. The consent of the Syedna is required even to go for Hajj, the obligatory Muslim pilgrimage, or to travel abroad. Through his representatives, he is present in marriages, births and deaths of community members. But this presence is not just for showering his blessings, it is also because he gets a fee for ‘allowing’ the members of the community to do these activities. In the process, the Syedna has created a financial empire which some estimate to be at Rs 4,000 Crore. His representatives called the Amil keep track of every member of the community, thereby creating what can only be called a surveillance state. Much before Aadhaar became popular, the Syedna had introduced biometric cards for its members. Any member wanting to use the mosque, Jamat Khana or other services were obliged to use the card, making the activities of each quantifiable as well as trackable. Amils would visit the homes of those who did not swipe their cards daily at the mosque. It is not as if this mafia-like structure has not been known to the outside world. The progressives within the Bohra community have been calling out the Syedna and his Amils for decades now, at great risk to their lives and careers. Those who do not follow the dictats of the Dear Leader are simply ostracized from the community. They cannot use any of the services associated with the community. They have even been denied burial spaces in graveyards. It is public knowledge that the henchmen of the previous Syedna brutally assaulted a group of reformist Bohras in Udaipur when the latter requested an audience with him. These reformists have been calling for accountability from the Syedna and the council that acts on his behalf. Of late, they have been calling for an end to the heinous practice of female circumcision within the Bohra community. They have petitioned the government and the courts to intervene so that this practice, which has no Quranic sanction, is stopped. But so far, there has been no resolution of the issue. One can be relatively sure that the government is in the know of what is happening inside the Bohra community but then it is not something which apparently bothers the prime minister. By gracing such religious meetings, the prime minister has conferred further legitimacy on the Syedna; the reformists within the community be damned. One of the favourite slogans of the present government is Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao, but the prime minister seems to have no regard for the plight of the daughters of the Bohra community who have to undergo genital mutilation under the dictates of the Syedna. This government has also come down heavily on what it calls dynastic politics. But it does not have a problem is legitimizing the Bohra leadership which is nothing but a family fiefdom. Does this government have a heart to listen to the grievances of the dissenters within the Bohra community? Or is that the Syedna’s closeness to the ruling dispensation would keep erasing his nearly lethal effects forever? ------ A regular contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Arshad Alam is a writer and researcher on Islam and Muslims in South Asia. URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-politics/bohra-community-syedna-modi-saifee/d/129077 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism