The Greeks, the Egyptians, The Persians , the Romans , Sumerians, Mayans, Mesopotamians even the Jews and the Indians lost their political freedom at some point of time in history when they started stagnating and became inward looking . When the idea of superiority creeps in, very aptly described by Alberuni ; There is No King better than ours, there is no maths better than ours, there is no culture better than ours that the stagnation and decline starts.
When these kind of people, who prescribe the above thought process start dominating the society , the common man must wake up and challenge them because it is finally the common man who has to suffer the most.
It is very natural that an old civlisation like ours over a journey of thousands years would have developed a few social evil practices like sati, casteism, untouchability , ill treatment of widows etc.
Hindus Have an Inherent Safety Mechanism
But we had an inherent, built in safe mechanism and as result we threw up our own reformers who stood firm, despite the opposition from Brahmins and brought out the reforms. Sati was abolished, widow remarriage was allowed, and a dent was made in the hierarchical caste system. In ancient times we had Gautam Buddha, Mahavira and in medivel times ; Gurunanakji, Kabir etc who helped immensely in eradicating social evil practices.
Its quite possible that many may still not agree that caste system has disappeared from Indian society but atleast we ourselves to a great extent removed many caste based barriers and We did not have to bring people from outside to do that.
The same goes for Christian world. The church once used to be very powerful and many scientists had to face severe consequences because they took a view contrary to the church.
Thus, when we look at ourselves we find that ours is a society which is open to reforms to a great extent, although, I will not take away the hardships faced by the Reformers, because it was never a cake walk.
Muslims lack this Inbuilt Reformation Process.
However, surprisingly, despite living together for centuries, the Indian Muslims have avoided to develop this mechanism or learn this skill from their Hindu brothers.
The social evil practices ; like triple Talaq , wearing of hijab or purdah system etc of medieval era have done more harm to their own community than anyone else. And surprisingly,very few reformers from their own community have taken up these issues with the seriousness it deserves. There are handful of them who challenged their priestly class ; The Maulanas. Instead, what we see is that they have rather pushed forward those who want these practices to continue.
Priestly Class thrives on Status quo
The Pundits, the Mualanas, the Padris , the Granthis would always love to maintain status quo and preach the people not only to adhere to the old norms and customs but also to never QUESTION those customs , because it suits them. Questioning the norms is an anathema for this class of people.
But, when Hindus and Christians could produce reformers why could n’t the muslims? The educated and influential amongst the muslims need to find an answer to this. And there is no dearth of educated Muslims in India. A democratic and secular India provided them a great opportunity to eradicate the evil practices that have crept into the community over a period of thousand years, its normal.
Eradication of Social Evils is a Diificult task.
Undoubtedly, the eradication of social evils is a wearisome and difficult task, it can therefore not be left to the poor members of the community to bring about the change and eradicate the evil practices. It is the job of those who have reached the top and have acquired a status in the society. They need to become Pioneers of Change.
Therefore, they cannot shirk their responsibilities and blame someone else for bringing about the reforms.
If we view the recent social reforms like making Triple Talaq illegal, dispassionately, we would find that what ought to have been done by their own leaders and influential elites from their own community, the current Govt had to do through legislations, because their own leaders and elites were not forthcoming.
Shahbano and many like her could have lived a better life if their own Leadership and the elites had stood firm, instead of succumbing to Maulanas.
Conclusion .
Do the Muslim elites think that Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar or Dr Raja Ram Mohun Roy or Jyotiba Phule or Dr Ambedkar or Mahatama Gandhi who fought for social reforms in our society did not face the anger of Brahmins. They faced! But they marched on relentlessly.
Have the Muslims forgotten what Galileo had said when threatened by Church, he said “Eppur si muove”(“And yet it moves)”, as if to say that they may have won this battle, but in the end, the truth would win out.
If these above people could rise to the occasion, despite the opposition and brought about the changes why cann’t the Muslim elites stand up and be counted ?
India can progress, only when all its people grow without any discrimination. And it would be much better for the society as a whole, if the social reformation process commences from within. The Govt can only act as a facilitator and not an initiator.