Cutchi Memon Digest
Kerala
ﮐﮁﻲ ﻤﻴﻤﻦ ﮢ ﺍﯿﺠﺴﭧ - ﮐﻴﺮﻻ
ﺒﺴﻢ ﷲ ﺍﻠﺮﺤﻣݧ ﺍﻠﺮﺤﻴﻢ
Dear Brethren
ﺁﻠﺴﻶﻡ ﻋﻠﻳﻜﻡ ﺮﺤﻣﺔ ﷲ ﻭ ﺒﺮﮐﺁﺗﮥ
At the very outset let me thank all those readers who responded to the inaugural issue of the Memon Digest, Kerala with positive comments and sugges-tions. They will be implemented in this and future issues as far as relevant and feasible. I would like to raise an issue which has not received the attention of our people so far or at least has not been given serious thought.
Cutchi Memons are treated as a distinct community by all including the Government of India. As far as Kerala is concerned there is no distinction between various categories of Muslims and all of them are eligible for specified percentage of reservation in the educational institutions and the state government service. But when it comes to the central government services and national educational institutions the State categorization of Muslims is accepted with a rider that Cutchi Memons are not eligible for the reservation benefits, the reason being this commu-nity is rich and educationally advanced. Though it was considered so in pre-independence days, it had never been so for decades. Records of any Jamath will show the education level of the majority of the members of the community— illiterate and poor. A large cross section of the community constituted street vendors and petty commodity brokers. Once upon a time the rich and philanthropic members took care of the poorer population.
The members of the community were least interes-ted in education, leave alone professional and higher education, as their avocation as merchants and vendors did not call for any educational qualification. The condition has drastically changed now at least for the last five or six decades. We are no longer a business community nor an illiterate stock. Yet our children do not get the opportunity for central gover-nment jobs or admission to professional institutions as our counterpart Muslims. The first question that arises is how this issue escaped by our community leaders, especially those high in the political arena. It is for the serious consideration of the community now how to bring this issue to the notice of the Central authorities in order that Cutchi Memons are treated at least at par with other Muslims.
EDITORIAL
Cutchi Memons are defined as an exclusive community of Muslims whose members migrated from Cutch. They do not intermingle with the local Muslims, marry only among their tribes and speak only the Cutchi language. This situation of the so called tribal purity has never existed in respect of those who married from the local Muslim communiti-es even as early as 1910. Of course such cases were far and few to begin with. But today except for a handful of families in Bengaluru, Chennai and Ooty, no other Jamat can boast of having more than one or two families which can claim such purity. Except for a few families in Kerala, including Kerala migrants to other states, none can even speak or understand the Cutchi language as they have adopted the local language, be it Malayalam, Urdu, Gujarati or other. Thus we have already lost the qualities by which we are distinguish-ed as an exclusive tribe : the language and marital exclusivity!!
Can we now rightfully claim to be Cutchi Memons conforming to the old definition ? Or should we hang on to it and continue to be deprived of our rightful place as a significant part of the Muslim community? This may be thought of by some community leaders as “High Treason” , but the fact remains that in another few years even our status as Bessar or Asudh Memons will disappear with the ever increas-ing rate of our girls being married off to other comm-unities, which is a natural phenomenon.
According to me there are only two courses of action open to us: First, recognizing the fact that we have completely lost the purity factors due to local assimil-ation, we should seek to be treated at par with other Muslims, yet maintaining our cultural identity, for which a collective approach at the Federation level is needed. Second, stop calling ourselves Cutchi Memons and adopt some other nomenclature to suit our current cultural status so that the exclusion does not affect us. I do not foresee this to be an easy exercise as it involves a lot of serious thinking and unlearning of our extant pride and dogmas. May be it will take another decade or two before a concrete action is initiated.
I shall be much grateful for reader’s responses—concurrences as well as brickbats and above all proposals for concrete action.
ﻮﺍﻠﺴﻼﻡ
J.M.I. Sait
Editor