the Pioneer, Jan 13, 2005

The savage persecution of 20 families of Bauls in Murshidabad district's Naoda block once again underlines the alarming extent to which fundamentalist Islam has established its stranglehold on West Bengal's Muslim-majority border districts with Bangladesh. Bauls, wandering minstrels who sing of the common humanity that transcends religious boundaries and the virtues of tolerance and compassion, and preach that what matters is not the religious label one wears but one's love for God, have been an integral part of West Bengal's life for several centuries.

They constitute an important element of the syncretic culture that has grown up in the State through interaction between Hinduism and Islam and, in many ways, constitute a devotional stream running parallel to that of Hinduism's Bhakti cult. Unfortunately, their liberal Humanism has earned them the wrath of fundamentalist Islamist religious leaders. According to a report, they have organised religious courts that have proclaimed people with the ektara-the single-string musical instruments which Bauls play while singing-as Muslim renegades and issued fatwas ordering their social boycott.

As a result, shops in local markets refuse to sell to them, big farmers who own shallow or deep tubewells deny them water to irrigate their fields, their children are debarred from coaching classes, a Baul caught talking to a Muslim co-religionist has to pay a fine of Rs 501 to the local Majlis or religious court. In one case, a father had taken back the plot of farm land he had given to his Baul son.

The fatwas against Bauls constitute a direct and flagrant attack on the Constitution of India which enshrines the right of every Indian citizen to pursue his or her own religious belief. Equally, they represent a parallel system of ecclesiastical legality that makes a mockery of country's established judicial system. Unfortunately, Islamist fundamentalists in West Bengal and other parts of India have been, from time to time, issuing fatwas affecting not only their co-religionists but also national policies like family planning. In West Bengal, for example, they have been conducting a relentless campaign against the administration of polio drops to children on the specious ground that these contained anti-reproductory agents.

The State Government, which has a responsibility to govern according to the provisions of the Constitution, must act immediately to end this dangerous trend which, if unchecked, can have disastrous consequences including the carving out of what can only be called fundamentalist Islamist enclaves in the border areas where the writ of the State does not run. Given the salience of pathologically anti-India terrorist outfits like the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami in Bangladesh which continues to harbour India's secessionist insurgents on its soil, this has a serious security dimension the country cannot ignore. The time to act is now, and the process must start with stern action against those who have issued the fatwas against the Bauls.