The Hindu-Muslim debate has been one of the oldest in our country and life has been made further difficult for Indian Muslims by questioning their love for the country. Somehow, there seems to be an assumption that simply by the virtue of being a Muslim one does not love India as much as the Hindus do. Even among the Muslims, there exist divides and this can make life fairly difficult for someone who is trying to unravel these mysteries and attempting to be more inclusive.
Hussain Hadry has brought to light these dilemmas with his poetry at the Kommune India platform which brings together several storytellers who raise issues alongside expressing their feelings. The platform founded by Roshan Abbas, Gaurav Kapur and Ankit Tiwari, it has a massive fan following and Hadry has made them go viral with this thought-provoking work.
Hussain Hadry has titled his poem ‘Hindustani Musalmaan’ and raises the issue of how even being a Musalmaan is not enough to establish one’s space in society. He asks pertinent questions with his ‘Mai kaisa Musalmaan hun bhai, mai Hindustaani Musalmaan hun’ line which repeats itself till the time we realize he puts his nationality way above his religious identity. What’s to be noticed is that he is not the only Muslim who loves his country this dearly.
His poem strongly resonates the idea that Islamophobia has taken over to such an extent that we do not blink even once before taking a dig at a Muslim’s love for the nationa. It’s apalling that a nation like India which had equal number of Muslims freedom fighters as the Hindu ones propagates ideas like Muslims belong to Pakistan. Hussain Hadry’s poem is equal parts powerful and heartfelt and is surely worth a listen.
