Title Daily Vocab Capsule 22nd April 2020 - wifistudy

TitleCapsule
Daily Vocab
        Title 2020
  22nd April

Caught in the Heightened arc of Communal Polemics

In the Tablighi Jamaat issue and its messages, it is important not to lose focus of the core subject
— the pandemic fight.
Communal politics around the Tablighi Jamaat has been intensifying ever since this little known
organisation was in the spotlight after dozens of people who attended a religious congregation
the group held at its headquarters in Delhi in March tested positive for COVID-19. For a nuanced
perspective on this polarising issue it is imperative to make a conscious attempt to read the history
of this particular trend within Islam.
The attacks on the group by the right wing have gone as far as equating it to a case of ‘health
terror’, and even urging the government to proscribe it. This impassioned suggestion is quite
misplaced while at the same time dangerous as it is likely to instil fear among a section of those
who follow Tablighi Islam.
This peripatetic group of preachers look at faith renewal and bringing back non-practising
Muslims to the fold of ‘true’ Islam. Looking at their conduct suggests that while the rest of the
world was getting to know about the novel coronavirus outbreak in December 2019, the
‘apolitical’ Tablighis, who consciously distance themselves from ‘worldly affairs’, had already
acquired and spread the virus among fellow travellers who were returning home after days and
months of global spiritual patrolling.
While the Tabligh is responsible for not taking timely action in dispersing the gathering at the
Nizamuddin Markaz, which is the global headquarters of the movement, the lack of care by the
state in underplaying the threat of the novel coronavirus and the delay in initiating testing cannot
be ignored. By this time, the Tablighis had travelled across the world becoming one of the major
carriers of the virus in India.

The reaction of hate is both reductive and demagogic. The polemical narrative that is infused
with Islamophobia is based on unfounded fears and deep-seated prejudices.
History as subtext
The political lexicon that has evolved around the Muslim minority within a right-wing stream
operates on the presumption of their otherness, which includes stereotypical attitudes towards
their eating habits. As the spread of the virus turns communal it is important to take a cursory
glance at history.
History has lessons for all. The Tablighi Jamaat, a transnational Islamic revivalist movement, was
founded in early 1926 British India by Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi and spread by
Ashraf Ali Thanawi, the two patriarchs of the movement. The political vicissitudes of 19th and
20th century India had a tremendous social, political and psychological impact on Muslims of the
country, which led to vigorous religious expressions facilitated by the British. The 19th century
was the period when a variety of new influential as well as controversial religious reform
movements, both Hindu and Muslim, were emerging within India with a desire to rediscover their
‘lost glory’.
In the search for this ‘lost glory’ and a sense of belonging and identity, the Tabligh emerged as a
response to the Christian missionary and the Shuddhi Sangathan. There exist interconnected
social and political patterns that led to the formation of the Tabligh with its original focus on
‘detracted Muslims’, and, later, evolving into a proselytising group. Though it emerged in an
intensively political context, the Tabligh maintained an ‘apolitical’ demeanour, specifically in
India.
The message for all players
There are lessons for the paranoid mind. Tabligh lays emphasis on individual social ‘reform’ and
revocation of the political. This clearly means that the Tabligh does not directly hanker after
state power; it has adopted a “bottom-up approach” to Islamise society and claimed a complete
disengagement on issues that involve politics. Since the Tabligh is about a withdrawal from the
political it does not emerge as a ‘security threat’.
Despite its claimed distancing from politics, the movement exists, operates and travels through
political boundaries and among political communities. The persistence of being apolitical has
serious political implications; the price of political ignorance or apathy is quite high, as seen today
in the Tabligh being implicated in the spread of the pandemic and a demonisation of the larger
community.
While there are lessons for the different sets of people embroiled in the current controversy, it is
important to identify the problem at the moment — the ‘common enemy’, which is the SARS-
CoV-2 virus. In the hierarchy of priorities, any action other than this would amount to inaction

against the overarching threat that looms over us. Life in the steps being taken to flatten the curve
as far as the virus is concerned is difficult. The politics of hate around the Tabligh only heightens
this condition of national and global anxiety with isolation taking its toll on mental health.
Is it a coincidence that the novel coronavirus, much like the cow issue, has intensified communal
tensions between Hindus and Muslims? Clearly, it is not a coincidence. It is a pattern; a political
design to caricature, frame and endanger one part of the nation.
                                                                         Courtesy: The Hindu (National)
1. Congregation (noun): Meaning- A gathering or collection of people, animals, or things. (एकत्रीकरण)
Synonyms- Gathering, Mass, Mob, Bevy, Crowd, Swarm
Antonyms- Segregation, Split, Disunion, Parting
Example- The congregation stood to sing the hymn.

2. Peripatetic (adj.): Meaning- Travelling from place to place, in particular working or based in various places
for relatively short periods. (स्थान स्थान पर जानेवाला)
Synonyms- Nomadic, Itinerant, Roving, Vagrant, Wandering, Unsettled
Antonyms- Settled, Established, Resolved
Example- More funding needs to be given to the peripatetic outreach services.

3. Patrol (verb): Meaning- To go around an area or a building at regular times to check that it is safe and that
there is no trouble. (पहरा देना)
Synonyms- Keep guard on, Keep watch on, Look out, Inspect, Audit
Antonyms- Overlook, Neglect, Ignore, Avoid
Example- Guards can be seen patrolling everywhere.

4. Polemical (adj.): Meaning- Of or involving strongly critical or disputatious writing or speech. (वववादात्मक)
Synonyms- Disputatious, Eristic, Acerbic, Venomous, Contentious, Controversial
Antonyms- Undisputed, Uncontroversial, Peaceful, Irrefutable
Example- The polemical evolutionists are right about the truth of evolution.

5. Cursory (adj.): Meaning- Done quickly and without giving enough attention to details. (शीघ्रता या असावधानी
से ककया हुआ)
Synonyms- Perfunctory, Desultory, Casual, Hasty, Offhand, Brief
Antonyms- Meticulous, Unrushed, Detailed, Painstaking, Thorough
Example- He gave the report a rather cursory look.

6. Vicissitude (noun): Meaning- One of the many changes and problems in a situation or in your life, that you
have to deal with. (पररवततन)
Synonyms- Change, Fluctuation, Alteration, Variation, Ups and downs
Antonyms- Stability, Stagnation, Uniformity
Example- Governments cannot protect citizens from all the circumstances and vicissitudes of life.

7. Proselytising (noun): Meaning - The action of attempting to convert someone from one religion, belief, or
opinion to another. (धमत पररवततन)
Synonyms- Conversion, Evangelism, Indoctrination
Example - No amount of proselytizing was going to change their minds.

8. Demeanour (noun): Meaning- The way that somebody looks or behaves. (बतातव चाल-ढाल)
Synonyms- Manner, Attitude, Behavior, Conduct, Mien, Air, Appearance
Example- He maintained a professional demeanour throughout.

9. Embroil (verb): Meaning- To involve somebody/yourself in an argument or a difficult situation. (आपवि में
डालना)
Synonyms- Involve, Entangle, Implicate, Bog down, Enmesh, Mire
Antonyms- Untangle, Exclude, Liberate
Example- The film's about a journalist who becomes embroiled with a nightclub owner.

10. Hanker (verb): Meaning- To have a strong desire for something. (चाहना तरसना)
Synonyms- Yearn, Crave, Covet, Desire, Long, Want
Antonyms- Dislike, Despise, Abhor, Abominate
Example- She still hankered for her homeland.