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Where Muslims have an ID crisis
Published on Thu, Apr 26, 2007 at 10:38, Updated at Fri, Apr 27, 2007 in 
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AFRAID TO BE A MUSLIM: In Karamgarh, it's fear mingled with confusion, not a harmony of two religions.
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Karamgarh (Haryana): Haseena and Mohammad Razack are Sunni Muslims, but they worship Hindu Gods and Goddesses and Hindu bhajans (hymns) stream out effortlessly from their mouths.
They are Muslims living as Hindus and the villagers know them as Ramesh and Suman.
"We don't observe Ramzan fasts, we don't do the namaaz (pray five times a day). We are Muslims, but we can't live life as Muslims," says Suman.
Living life as a Muslim is difficult in this village. The wounds of partition have never healed.
When the Bari Masjid was demolished in Ayodhya, when serial bombs ripped through Mumbai, when terror strikes in distant lands, tremors are felt in this village. The insecurity of being a Muslim is all pervasive
When the Babri Masjid was demolished in Ayodhya, when serial bombs ripped through Mumbai, when terror strikes in distant lands, tremors are felt in Karamgarh.
Ramesh, Suman's husband says whenever anything happens anywhere people say " 'you must be thrown away from here, you spread communal violence, you spread Islam, you want to divide the country'.
So, passing off as Hindus is their best chance for survival.
"If I keep the name Ramesh, I have many advantages," adds he.
Many Muslim families in Karamgarh have completely shed the visible symbols of their religious identity in an attempt to survive. Externally, they live their lives as Hindus, but internally, they are Muslims.
However now, some families want to reclaim their faith and are sending their children to the Kazi to pick up the threads of their religion.
When these children return home, they teach the basics of Islam to the elders in the family - how to do the Namaaz, how to pray, the 'a b c' of Islam.
The process of hiding and suppressing religious identity resulted in collective amnesia. Today, this reclamation of a crucial part of the self that was lost is painful and fraught with contradictions both within and outside.
"If I lived my life as a true Muslim I would have faced a lot of discrimination. I have no doubts that life would have been very tough," admits Ramesh candidly.
In Karmgarh today, villagers say, Ajmeri is the only person who has the Holy Quran. Ajmeri migrated from Pakistan during partition and says he has no reason to hide his Muslim identity.
"We will name our children according to our religion. We will not change our names," says he defiantly.
In Karamgarh, it's fear mingled with confusion, not a harmony of two religions in the same consciousness.
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