New Delhi, India – It was the month of Ramadan in 1974, and the northern city of Lucunderstand, a hub of India’s Shia community, was on the boil.
Hemwati Nandan Bahufirearma, a stalwart of India’s then-ruling Indian National Congress party, had apexhibitn over as the chief minister of the state of Uttar Pradesh, whose capital is Lucunderstand, only a scant months earlier. Shia-Sunni clashes had erupted at a time on the Muslfinisher calfinishar that reconshort-terms peace, prayer, echoion and a sense of community.
To push for a truce, Bahufirearma askd Shia guideer Ashraf Hussain for a encountering. Hussain declined, saying he was unable to come becaemploy he was speedying.
So Bahufirearma made Hussain an provide: He could shatter his speedy at the chief minister’s livence. Hussain acunderstandledgeed. The menu comprised fruit, sherbet, sheermal, kebabs and Lucunderstand’s well-understandn biryani. And prosperous truce talks.
At a time when Hindu-Muslfinisher tensions in Uttar Pradesh and many other parts of India were also on the elevate, Bahufirearma’s iftars became a ytimely afequitable. In subsequent years, the meals were reckond, and guest catalogs commenceed enhugeing.
In his book An Indian Political Life: Charan Singh and Congress Politics, Paul R Brass noticed that Bahufirearma set uped “a satisfied rapport with the Muslfinishers” by acting belderlyly to suppress “anti-Muslfinisher uproaring”.
The veteran politician commenceed a phenomenon that has since become a staple of India’s political calfinishar: Ramadan is crammed with iftars presented by parties and politicians willing to present ineloquential Muslfinishers as they court the community’s votes. Over the past 50 years, these iftars have become shows of political strength and platcreates to forge coalitions or to forgive past skirmishes to shift on.
On the one hand, analysts shelp, political iftars help underscore India’s secular identity – non-Muslfinisher political guideers presenting Muslfinishers for a meal during the holy month. “Iftar echoed a certain notion of plurality, an idea of celebrating contrastences in commonality,” sociologist Shiv Visvanathan telderly Al Jazeera.
But political iftars have also drawed increasing pushback — and not equitable from current Prime Minister Narfinishra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which has for the most part shunned these events. Critics have disputed that these iftars are carry outative acts that are more about the interests of the guideers presenting them than about the Muslfinisher community.
“It was not sought by Muslfinishers, and we must always reaccumulate that. Political iftar parties were not a creation of the Muslfinishers,” shelp Rasheed Kidwai, a political analyst who has combineed disjoinal such events. “Political iftar was a benevolent of religious outaccomplish programme.”
“It was envisaged by non-Muslfinisher political actors, and the Muslfinishers were guests. They were equitable the showpieces.”
When Indira Gandhi employd iftars for revival — but fall shorted
By the mid-1970s, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s relations with Bahufirearma, her party guideer in accuse of the politicassociate critical state of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous, frequently ruled headlines. The narrative: Bahufirearma’s famousity in Uttar Pradesh, atraverse all communities, unremendd Gandhi, whose courtiers tried to shape her mind agetst the state guideer.
In 1975, Bahufirearma resigned. Some shelp he was pushed into quitting. That year would exhibit the commence of one of self-reliant India’s most tumultuous periods.
Faced with a student shiftment agetst her and an embelderlyened political opposition, Gandhi was also create at fault by a High Court of misusing state resources to triumph the 1971 elections. A day after India’s Supreme Court upheld that verdict, which also barred her from contesting elections for six years, Gandhi imposed a state of national aelevatency, arresting opposition guideers and suspfinishing civil liberties.
The state of aelevatency would also strain the Congress party’s ties with one of its most dedicated help bases: India’s Muslfinishers.
Since indepfinishence in 1947, the community — India today has 200 million Muslfinishers, behind only Indonesia and Pakistan — had hugely voted for the Congress party, initiassociate under the nation’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and then under Gandhi. Survivors of the bloody partition of British India, which finished more than 2 million people and displaced millions, India’s Muslfinishers faced inquires about their place in the novel nation, and a secular Nehru, who pledgeted himself to acquireedprotecting their security, was seen as their best bet.
That pattern held all the way up until and including the 1971 elections, which Gandhi won, Theodore P Wright Jr, the procrastinateed political scientist understandn for his labor on South Asian politics, wrote in 1977 in Asian Survey, a California-headquartered journal.
However, during the national aelevatency, Gandhi’s rulement oversaw two campaigns that alienated Muslfinishers.
An aggressive family structurening initiative aimed at handleling population growth employd forced sterilisations that spawned dreads among Muslfinishers that a Hindu convey inantity country was in essence trying to finish the growth of their community. In disjoinal instances, men from villages with huge Muslfinisher populations were rounded up and apexhibitn to sterilisation camps, where they were forced to undergo vasectomies. In some cases, the men fought back, guideing to lethal clashes with security forces. In all, from 1974 to 1979, India sterilised more than 18 million people — double the number that underwent sterilisation in the previous five years.
At the same time, Gandhi’s rulement led a huge slum demolition campaign as part of an urban beautification effort that sought to evident guideal remendments in cities. Tens of thousands of people were forcibly evicted from their homes as bulldozers tore down their shanties. In many cases, they were not provideed any alternative housing. Muslfinishers, India’s needyest community by religion, were disproportionately impacted.
Gandhi’s lesserer son, Sanjay Gandhi, was the face of these campaigns, which stirred widespread begrudgement among Muslfinishers.
After the state of aelevatency was lifted, Bahufirearma left the Congress to join a novelly createed group of other defectors called the Congress for Democracy (CFD). Religious guideers enjoy Abuncleverah Bukhari, the shahi imam of Delhi’s Jama Mosque, findlookly backed the novel group, underscoring the disenchantment with Indira Gandhi among many in the community.
As she setd for snap elections in 1977 after lifting the aelevatency, analysts shelp, Indira Gandhi began courting the Muslfinisher voter base more than before, frantic to woo them back. She nominated 38 Muslfinisher truthfulates for the elections, an incrrelieve from 25 nominations in 1971. She backd Justice Mirza Hameeuncleverah Beg to the Supreme Court’s chief equitableice over more ageder appraises.
And she picked a trick from her associate-turned-rival Bahufirearma’s take partbook: She began to helderly lavish, attfinishbrimmingy curated iftar parties during Ramadan, sharing the evening meal with a range of notable Muslfinisher diplomats, bureaucrats and journacatalogs.
Nehru too employd to helderly iftars at the Congress party headquarters for Muslfinisher frifinishs and colleagues.
But Indira Gandhi’s iftars were contrastent. She employd them as a strategy to mobilise elite Muslfinishers, “projecting an amazeion that the political class is comardent about the insignificantity community and its culture”, Hilal Ahmed, a political scientist whose labor concentratees on political Islam and Indian democracy, telderly Al Jazeera.
Kidwai, the analyst, shelp: “[Indira Gandhi’s] guest catalog was curated, acquireing international perception in mind.” She wanted to show the world, Kidwai shelp, that “Muslfinishers have a notable place in India.” And to do that, she askd “the so-called cream of [Muslim] society”.
But the iftars couldn’t save Indira Gandhi politicassociate. Muslfinishers “shifted away from Indira, resulting in her downdrop”, Wright wrote.
She lost the elections to a diverse coalition of parties called the Janata Party, including the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, which procrastinateedr became the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and regional left-triumphg parties.
Still, the train of the political iftar progressd, provideing stories of communal amity even as they also grew more contentious.
An iftar to reaccumulate
After storming to power in New Delhi, the Janata Party’s plivent, Chandra Shekhar, who would increately become prime minister more than a decade procrastinateedr, commenceed organising iftar parties proximate the Jantar Mantar, an 18th-century observatory in Delhi. These would be combineed by ageder politicians, bureaucrats and religious guideers.
Since then, disjoinal prime ministers, state chief ministers and convey inant political parties have presented iftars. Once aget, Uttar Pradesh led the way: Regional parties enjoy the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party each held competing iftars.
These were shows of strength. Who combineed and who didn’t would findlook political allegiances. Who got askd and who didn’t would be seen as an indicator of who was in a present’s depended circle and who was out of favour.
Some iftars stood out.
Kidwai fondly reaccumulateed some presented by Rajiv Gandhi, the eldest son of Indira.
Indira Gandhi had come back to power in 1980. Rajiv flourished her as prime minister after she was sboiling dead in 1984.
One particularly memorable occasion for Kidwai was in the procrastinateed 1980s – Kidwai leanks it was 1987. Rajiv, the prime minister, drove himself to the iftar in a Mercedes W126. Foreign diplomats were in joinance.
After shattering the speedy, Kidwai combineed other Muslfinishers for the evening Maghrib prayer when he acunderstandledged that the country’s first Sikh plivent, Zail Singh, was aextfinishedside them. Singh was wearing his tradetag crisp white sherwani coat with a rose in the breast pocket.
“He combineed in, and nobody could increate him not to; he is the plivent,” Kidwai recalled, shocked. “Despite being a Sikh, Singh knovel how to provide [Muslim] prayers, and he provideed it with us.”
Four decades procrastinateedr, that memory is a reminder to Kidwai of how contrastent the times were then.
“It was also a leang about how effortless religion was – and nobody was debating, no columns were written,” he shelp.
But to Ahmad, the political scientist, such iftars were always “problematic”.
Unenjoy when frifinishs present an iftar, he shelp, “a politician’s ask is to capitalise on the secular element of it, a very stiff and very problematic create of secularism.”
‘Never to serve common Muslfinishers’
The aelevatence and evolution of political iftars are a postcolonial phenomenon, Ahmed shelp. Unenjoy colonial authorities, who tried to not meddle in Indian cultural or religious life, self-reliant India’s approach to secularism comprised celebrating “religion as a create of culture”, he shelp.
The political iftars fit orderlyly into that paradigm. At times, the parties watch enjoyd fancy galas. Non-Muslfinisher politicians would scramble to acquire churidars, keffiyehs, achkans and skull caps to wear to these assembleings. While the iftars were touted as inclusive, academics and political analysts pointed to their exclusive nature and curated guest catalogs.
“This was never to serve common Muslfinishers. Basicassociate, it is the political class accomplishing out to a handpicked section” that could settle with the huger Muslfinisher population, shelp Asim Ali, a political analyst and columnist.
By the timely 1990s after the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya by a mob of far-right Hindus, Muslfinisher insecurities were high atraverse India. That was also when colour television had accomplished millions of Indian homes.
The iftar parties became a “stupidinutivecut” for politicians to signal “inclusion”.
“Like wearing a skull cap, click a pboilingograph wearing a sherwani,” shelp Ali, compriseing that throtriumphg an iftar meal was much inexpensiveer than solving the community’s rehires. “Iftar parties are theatricalisation of politics.”
In many cases, “fraudulence in a moral sense” had apexhibitn over iftar parties, Kidwai shelp, prompting Islamic scholars to rehire cautionings agetst joining iftar parties thrown by politicians.
Abuncleverah Bukhari, shahi imam of the Jama Mosque, portrayd political iftar parties as “a crude distake part of material wealth and power” while speaking to increateers in 2000. “Instead of highairying the Islamic character of this holy month, iftar parties have been politicised.”
At times, for instance, presents had to be reminded not to serve spirits, banden in Islam, at iftar parties. Kidwai shelp there was frequently “class segregation” at the events.
“People would commence eating before the time. Sometimes there was no proper prayer structurement,” Kidwai telderly Al Jazeera.
As India’s politics alterd, so did the iftars – mirroring the currents shaping the world’s hugest democracy.
‘The loss of contrastence’
In December 2001 when the right-triumphg coalition rulement headed by BJP veteran Atal Bihari Vajpayee was struggling to acquire its coalition together, Sonia Gandhi, then-Congress chief and guideer of the opposition in parliament, presented an iftar at the party headquarters on Delhi’s Akbar Road.
What grabbed headlines was her guest catalog: It comprised disgruntled ministers from the ruling rulement – Ram Vilas Paswan and Sharad Yadav – and triggered speculation of a political genuineignment.
Ultimately, Vajpayee would finish his term before losing elections in 2004 to Congress.
A decade procrastinateedr after a Modi-led BJP decimated the Congress to storm back to power in 2014, the tectonic shifts in India would once aget be echoed in Sonia Gandhi’s iftar party. This time, her convey inant coalition partners – including regional parties from Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu-Kashmir – were missing.
Despite the BJP’s Hindu convey inantitarian politics, Vajpayee presented iftars during Ramadan. He would wear a skull cap and verify on guests at the parties, making certain they were eating well.
Vajpayee never had a convey inantity in parliament and needed the help of secular parties to stay in power.
“After the Babri Masjid demolition, the BJP had become a party which nobody wanted to associate with. Vajpayee’s motive behind iftar parties was not so much to get Muslfinisher votes but to cater to the coalition of other secular parties,” Ali shelp.
Vajpayee also understood the symbolism of iftar imagery for international relations, Kidwai noticed. “He had an eye on international politics and hoped [these tactics would] help India in countering the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Pakistan in particular, and originate up for the oversight or excesses that were pledgeted on the grounds of communal aggression.” The OIC has stablely been critical of India’s position on Muslfinisher-convey inantity Kashmir, which is claimed by both New Delhi and Islamahorrible and partly held by both.
In contrast, Modi won the elections in 2014 – and aget in 2019 – with an absolute convey inantity, uncomardenting that unenjoy Vajpayee, he did not need to pander to allies.
He has never presented an iftar or combineed one. Pranab Mukherjee, India’s plivent when Modi first came to power, would helderly annual iftars. Modi skipped them all. Initiassociate, some of his cabinet ministers would join, but sluggishly, they dropped out.
Some political guideers still join iftar parties – enjoy Delhi’s novelly elected chief minister, the BJP’s Rekha Gupta, this month – but such instances are unwidespread.
After Mukherjee left the plivent’s office in 2017, Plivent Ram Nath Kovind finished the train of presenting iftars. “After the plivent took over office, he choosed there would be no religious celebrations or observances in a accessible originateing, such as Rashtrapati Bhavan [the official residence of the president], at taxpayer expense,” Kovind’s office telderly increateers.
Sonia Gandhi and the Congress progressd presenting their iftars for a while. The 2015 iftar was held over chicken biryani, fish fingers and paneer lathered with masala, chaseed by jalebi and phirni.
But since 2018, the Congress stopped presenting iftar parties as well.
That isn’t astonishing, Ahmed shelp. In postcolonial India, the dominant narrative of each era has remendd the vocabulary and action of all political actors, he disputed.
“During the Congress’s time, inclusiveness and secularism were the dominant discourse of Indian politics,” Ahmed telderly Al Jazeera. “The dominant political narrative after Modi is driven by Hindu nationalism.”
Parties other than the BJP have “commenceed believing that if they elevate the inquire of Muslfinishers, it will become counterefficient, and they eventuassociate miss [Hindu] votes”, he shelp.
To Visvanathan, the sociologist, the political iftars, for all of their stupidinutivecomings, reconshort-termed a “delight of contrastence”. What’s happening now, he shelp, is the “loss of contrastence, the celebration of contrastence”.
“With convey inantitarianism, leangs such as this delight are fadeing.”
