A large religious gathering in New Delhi in early March has sparked a raging controversy on the role of religion at a time when the world is battling a severely infectious disease-the COVID-19. The Tablighi Jamaat or the Society for Spreading Faith is an Islamic missionary movement formed 93 years ago to bring about unity to the cause of Islam among the ‘Umma’ (Global Islamic Community), across the social and economic spectra. In India it was chiefly established to combat the cultural and political dominance of the British Raj, under whom they felt their political and religious identities were compromised. However, even after the British left the country, the organisation continued to function.
The followers of this organisation congregate in different cities of the world at different times of the year. The headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat is at Nizamuddin in Delhi, where it operates from the Alami Markaz Banglewali Masjid and a six-storeyed dormitory where it can house around 2,000 people.
The Home Ministry said that about 2,100 foreigners have visited India for Tablighi activities since January 01 and hundreds of members had been staying at the organisation’s Nizamuddin building for a gathering in March. According to the Delhi government, most people who were staying in the headquarters were shifted to hospitals and quarantine facilities after 24 people tested positive for COVID-19 and 447 showed symptoms of virus infection. It led to positive COVID-19 cases in at least six Indian states including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Telangana and Maharashtra, among others. The Ministry of Home Affairs has confirmed that Muslims from across the country as well as abroad visit the religious congregation, while some also move out in groups to different parts of the country for partaking in religious activities. However, just for the sake of clarification, this is not a one-time phenomenon, but a religious process which goes on throughout the year. Devotees from several countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Kyrgyzstan visit the congregation, from where they are assigned jobs across the country.
Many reports are calling this gathering at Nizamuddin a “super-spreader” of the infection leading to deaths in Telangana, Srinagar, and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. In a conversation with India Today, a Delhi Police official said, “During the probe, it came to light that more than 3,000 people were in the Markaz between March 10 and March 15. Among the participants, foreign nationals from Indonesia, Jordan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, China, Ukraine, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh were present. After the lockdown, many of them left the place but around 1,600 were stranded inside the building including 200 foreign nationals.”
India has now launched an operation to track down those who attended the event in order to prevent further spread of the virus. However, it is also true that the Health Ministry had formally declared on March 13 that the coronavirus is not a health emergency and that there is no need to panic. It was more than a week before the Indian government made such an announcement -on March 03- that the Tablighi Jamaat was inaugurated in Delhi. There are no official records of when it was supposed to have ended. In an interview with BBC Hindi, one of its members, Waseem Ahmed said that hundreds of delegates left before the lockdown came into effect on March 24, but more than 1,000 followers, including many foreigners, got stranded, as all modes of transport and international flights were cancelled. The foreign nationals who were forced to stay back have now been quarantined in another location in Delhi. The point to be noted here is the fact that no strict directives were issued by the government before March 24, and the lockdown was a sudden declaration given without adequate time for preparation. There were no provisions for accommodation given to people who were stranded after the event. Maulana Mahmood Madani, a former Member of Parliament and the general secretary of Muslim organisation Jamiat Ulema I Hind, told The Hindu, “Lakhs of people were on the roads after the lockdown. This is one reason why some hundreds of people were stuck in their office. The mismanagement in carrying out the lockdown is also to be blamed for what happened,” However, the jamaat had drawn widespread condemnation from the Muslim community as well.
On March 31, the Delhi Police registered a case against the group for violating ground rules under the Epidemic Disease Act 1897.
What comes as no surprise is that this incident has given rise to another wave of Islamophobia in the country, a toxic sentiment we are no alien to. This time, it has come in the guise of the hashtag #CoronaJihad on Twitter, which is being used to paint the Indian Muslims as “untouchables” carrying the risk of infecting others wherever they go. However, this has been a predictable ramification of the event, adding fuel to an animosity that has become a familiar sentiment in the last few years in India. To add to this, it is also to be noted that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath participated in a religious event at Ayodhya after the national lockdown was declared. The Tirupati Venkateswara Temple, which witnesses a huge footfall on a regular basis was kept open till 20th March, well after the Tablighi Jamaat officially ended. A ‘gaumutra party’ was organised by Swami Chakrapani, the president of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha in mid-March. The abrupt declaration of lockdown also led to the large-scale migration of labourers to their home-states, on foot, leading to an impossible condition for adhering to social distancing protocols. The Quint reports that Telengana’s state cabinet ministers were seen celebrating Ram Navami in a temple in Bhadrachalam town today in a gross violation of the central lockdown.
Even though the Tablighi Jamaat was a dire breach of protocol as well as a grossly insensitive step to take when the world is going through a pandemic, it raises one moot question among many others - How did this congregation get past state and police surveillance at the time when it was convened? Secondly, even though several religious gatherings were being held throughout March, why is the media portraying the two differently through subtle nuances in their reportage? These are the questions we need to ask ourselves and see the situation for what it is, instead of playing a blame game and instilling further communal hatred at a time in which we need each others’ support more than ever. One should keep in mind that we are in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, the like of which the world has not known in a long time. Therefore, as a responsible citizen of the country, one must be vigilant as to how communal bias is reinforced and sustained, so as to nip it in the bud with prompt action. Above all, what we need is a sense of solidarity and goodwill and a willingness to help each other get through the bad times.
If you enjoyed reading this article, we suggest you also read: