Islam afflicted with feudal language codes

I need to relate a story I heard from a Muslim man in a nearby town. He was speaking of a Muslim feudal lord in a nearby village/small town, some fifty years back. This man was in possession of thousands of acres of land. In fact, the plucking of coconuts in his land was a continuous and around the year process. For, by the time the coconut plucking in a particular stretch of land was over, it would be time to start again from the beginning of that stretch of land. Lots of serfs lived on his land. He was the uncrowned king of the area. The time period was around the 1960s.

He was feared and respected by everyone in the areas nearby. He was addressed by the people with a Sahib suffixed to his name. To persons who were willing to show their obeisance to him, he was the benevolent divinity. However, to persons who dared to question his divine pose, he was a dangerous beast. When he came into the presence of others, they all would get up from their seats to bestow their ‘respect’ to him.

One day morning the Sahib came to the local small-town street. At that time, there were only a few shops there. Everyone got up on seeing him and stood in a pose of respectful homage. He would be nice to them, speak to them and move on. However, on that particular day, there was a new person who did not rise up. He was also obviously a Muslim. That man’s attitude was obviously Islamic. As per pristine Islam, all men are equal. Even Prophet Muhammad admonished the people who rose up when he entered the mosque in Medina.

Now, just as ‘respect’ is contagious, non-respect is also an infectious social habit. The Sahib noticed the man who had remained seated. After doing a cursory talk with others, he moved to the seated man and talked to him. It was seen that he was quite affable to the man who had done the misdemeanour. The people were quite surprised that he was taking the affront in the stride. The two of them then spoke for some time and then started moving away from the town in a pose of comradeship. The people were obviously quite surprised.

Later it was heard that this man had become a close companion of the lord and was actually seen travelling with him in his car. It was really an unbelievable thing to happen. They heard that this man was now a regular visitor to the Sahib’s house and was eating with him. Then came the grandiose news that the two of them had become business partners in timber trade. The new man had invested his whole savings in the business. The Sahib had also invested a lot of money. The people spoke of these things with a tinge of disbelief. For they knew that the Sahib really had a side which was similar to the strike of the rattlesnake after it had lured a deluded prey to its proximity.

Then came the more stunning news. All the timber had washed away in the torrential waters in the river (at Kallai) in Calicut. The other man had become penniless. The man who told me this story simply said thus: ‘From that day onwards, when the Sahib came to the town, this was the man who would stand up first. And that too in a pose of unmitigated servitude. He was penniless. His pose and words of equality would be pulled down by others who would bring him to their lower station levels’.

In many ways, this story is an unravelling of the feudal language mindset. It is an insight on the way persons in power would plan meticulously to pull down people who do not show adequate ‘respect’ to them. They would be made to lick the dirt. However, the technique used can be quite long drawn like this, or can even be quite quick and powerful physical disablement. As to the people who saw the way the Sahib crushed a person who had not shown adequate ‘respect’, it was a very effective lesson and a pointer of what would happen to those who stood outside the routes of the flow of ‘respect’ and command.

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