Progressive Dawoodi Bohras

Udaipur Camp-2002 was, in no uncertain terms, a grand success. It has opened up new vistas of strengthening the movement. Views and opinions were exchanged and this exchange has, in its wake, raised a number of issues for which answers have to be found by us. Participants from UK, Canada, Kuwait, Malaysia, Hyderabad and Malegaon came center stage to discuss and thrash out issues pertaining to our movement and the Udaipuris were not the ones to be left behind. Such a varied mix of views and opinions was certainly an eye-opener for all of us.

The Central Board of Dawoodi Bohra Community (CBDBC) was represented by Dr Asghar Ali Engineer, who gave this meeting more importance by cancelling his scheduled lecture tour of Iran. Since no minutes were recorded and no concrete decisions arrived at, it is important to refresh our memory on some of these issues (before they fade from memory) and also bring them to the notice of those of us who were not present.

In a hierarchical approach let us begin at the top with the CBDBC. The CBDBC must have a more meaningful and constructive role in coordinating and strengthening the movement even at the cost of a bit of reorganization, if required. The Central Executive Committee (CEC) may be our parliament where representation is based on population of each constituency. In doing so, the number of members on the CEC should be limited so that positive work is feasible. These members may be nominated or elected by the local jamaats based on the number of seats allotted.

This Central Executive Committee may then be subdivided into small teams each in charge of one portfolio of our development. We need the best of our brains on these committees. A blueprint of progress charted out and approved by this committee may then be taken up for implementation by the local jamaats with minor changes if required. In short, one major role of CBDBC is to work as a think tank of the movement. The other important role of CBDBC, that comes to mind, is to take charge of an aggressive public relations exercise on a large scale to counter the moves designed to weaken the movement.

Here it is implied that our PR exercise should aim at highlighting the virtues and achievements of our movement rather than always finding faults with the other side. And lastly, funds have always been the root cause for a fight for the chair. We must guard against this. Funds managed by the CBDBC should be limited to a budgeted finance necessary for its role and should be met only through contributions from the local jamaats.

While autonomy is essential to our cause, it should be limited to the local jamaats only and not to splinter units within the geographic location of a local jamaat. This is very important from the point of view of an integrated and coordinated approach towards development. The local jamaat should lay down priorities for development projects and all funds received from donors should be utilized as such. This would require simultaneous action on two fronts. Firstly the jamaat committees will have to understand the requirements of the community and take a pragmatic approach towards development (a think tank here too will help) and secondly the donors will have to refrain from giving funds to splinter bodies directly.

Continuity in the management of the affairs of the community and the movement as such was a major issue debated during the camp and rightly so. As one speaker pointed out, our movement has almost come to a stand still. There were two different dimensions to this issue. One view was to limit the tenure of office bearers. This will infuse fresh blood into the movement and will certainly help the movement to gain momentum with new ideas and new strategies.

The UK Jamaat has already incorporated this clause in their constitution and others may follow. The other aspect related to our younger generations. Our youth must be involved in the decision- and policy-making bodies so as to maintain continuity. At the same time our youth have to realise that rights and responsibilities go hand in hand in a democracy and our youth organisations such as the Students Welfare Society of Udaipur have to play a key role in mobilising the youth and exercising their minds towards the future agenda of the movement. The followers of today have to produce the leaders of tomorrow.

The issue of empowerment of women in our movement is in consonance with the worldwide movement on the issue. There is no denying the fact that women have been the backbone of our movement. Social reforms in our movement cannot be implemented without the active support of our women folk and that alone justifies the importance of their presence on our policy- and decision-making bodies. So why not give them a better representation and listen to their voice. There is no harm even if we reserve a few seats for women on all our elective bodies.

" Why are we called reformists?" was a question raised by a young girl during the workshop in Udaipur Camp -2002. Such a question raised by one of those who are going to inherit and take this movement forward reflects our failure to educate and enlighten our youth on the values we all cherish so much and for which our people have sacrificed so much. A question like this has shaken the very foundation of our movement. Reformist teenagers of today think we are against the Syedna Saheb and his followers, which is not true. We are only fighting for human dignity, justice, equality and freedom of expression or, simply put, democratic form of governance.

Here I would refer to two articles published in the Bohra Chronicle dated 1st Dec 2002, one written by Dr Asghar Ali Engineer and the other by Shaukat Ajmeri. Together these two articles clear all the myths and misconceptions about the reform movement. The other remedy is to organise lectures, seminars and workshops on a regular basis at local jamaat level and improve the content of our print media with thought-provoking articles.

Let's move forward with these issues to begin with and keep looking for other issues that need out attention and in the end truth will prevail and so shall we.