Monthly Journal of Research, Documentation and Reference

commences re-publication

Muslim India is back on stands

By Danish A Khan 

After a short interregnum of seven months, Muslim India again hit the stands this week. Muslim India’s disappearance was a blow to Muslim efforts to carve a niche in the media field. 

Many in the Muslim community cried at the very thought of seeing Muslim India disappear after its courageous and powerful espousal of the community news and views for two decades. Many Urdu newspapers and magazines wrote tearful elegies but none came forward to share the burden. Milli Gazette’s firm belief that such a publication must not be allowed to die saved the day and efforts started right away to pick up the thread where Syed saheb left it. 

"With this [December 2002] issue the Muslim India completes 20 years of regular publication, with an unblemished record of accuracy and authenticity. It has carved a niche for itself in the academic and political circles despite much pressure, has never wavered from its basic mission of recording the interaction of the Muslim Indian community with the larger Indian society, polity and economy, of which it forms an inseparable part, and all its little defeats and victories, joys and sorrows, aspirations and frustrations. And it plodded on hopefully," wrote Syed Shahabuddin in his last edit.

The new Muslim India is all set to carry forward the legacy of its founder-editor, when it made a comeback this month with a bumper issue comprising 628 pages, which is a record of sorts in itself and will be treasured as a memento for many years to come. 
The first issue, combining the months of January-July 2003, chronicles a whole range of subjects which touch upon the lives of Muslim Indians and other minorities and weaker sections in the country. Subjects as varied as Muslim Indians, Other Minorities & Weaker Sections, Communal Harmony, Secularism, Human Rights, Minority Rights, Terrorism, Babri Masjid, Communalism, Hindutva, Communal Riots, Education & Text-Books, Madrasahs, Minorities In Neighbouring Countries, Indo-Pak Relations, Illegal Immigrants, Jammu & Kashmir, Relations with Muslim countries, Muslim Indian organisations, History, Urdu, Media, Interfaith Dialogue, Muslim Minorities, Waqfs, Profiles and Personalities, Book Reviews / New Publications and Documents have been extensively documented from a wide range of national and international sources under convenient headings after constant monitoring of print and electronic media. 

Translated materials from Urdu media, which is the prime source of information on the Muslim Indian but remains largely out of bounds of scholars and researchers, have been especially translated for Muslim India. Material from Hindi publications will be introduced in future issues. Besides documentation, the journal includes an impressive section of original papers and articles on various Muslim Indian issues. A lot of midnight oil has been literally burnt to offer such an extensive and wide coverage of issues and news, some of which never found itself into print earlier. 
Syed Shahabuddin made a heroic effort through Muslim India with limited resources and meagre help from the community.

For Muslims, there are complaints galore. "Others" are always responsible for all their ills and difficulties. But when it comes to paying attention to and following their own Islamic Shari’ah, they thoroughly lag behind. This failure is responsible for their plight today.

Writing his last edit, Syed Shahabuddin had rightly asked: "One question haunts me. Isn’t something wrong with the Community if it cannot support one authentic journal of documentation, reference and research? Yes, the Muslim India received many encomiums, ‘a unique journal’, a ‘journal with unparalleled and historic contribution’, ‘the documentation of our contemporary history’. Yet the number of subscribers diminished, perhaps in keeping with my political fortune, perhaps reflecting the elite’s instinct for self-preservation which instinctively rejects association with a venture seen as anti-establishment and pro-Muslim and, therefore, communal and anti-national! How can persons with a future associate with a subversive venture? To put it bluntly, advancing age, diminishing energy, falling circulation and financial crisis combined to force me to call it a day."

Embarking on a risky venture once again, and that too knowing the uncooperative and ever-complaining attitude of the community, is in itself fraught with dangers. But there should be someone to take charge of even one field in the community’s directionless march towards a new future. 

This is what the new editor, Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan, termed in his first editorial as "a new beginning and a renewed commitment".

Dr Khan brings with him long commitment coupled with high calibre and education (he holds a PhD from Manchester Uni.) and has been associated with academics and media in one way or the other for close to four decades.

A new, brave, beginning has been made with re-launching Muslim India. It is for the community and the country to see that the new editor is not forced to call it a day but will find resources and a team to pass on the burden in due course.

Project:
Muslim India Directory
Indian Muslims’ First Yearbook & Who’s Who