The myth of a monolith
Mumduha Majid Saheba, an executive member of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, had long been a rebel in her community. Daughter of an officer who worked at the Indian embassy in Iraq for 20 years, she never wore a burqa, encouraged other Muslim women to empower themselves through education and skill development, ran an NGO for them in Delhi and a school in Odisha, her home state. The ulema (clergy) would often take offence to her thoughts and actions. Shia mosques were out of bounds for her, a Sunni.
Yet, earlier this year, when she travelled to Hyderabad, she was allowed to enter a Shia mosque. The ulema now give her a patient hearing. She now finds diverse Muslim groups-earlier bitterly opposed to each other-reaching out for dialogue and a unified stand on issues related to Islam. Mumduha is now convinced that Muslims in the country are getting united and the catalyst is an existential fear.
"The past five years under Narendra Modi have been a testing time for Muslims. That's why I keep joking that Modi is the most unifying leader in the country. He has not only got Mulayam and Mayawati together but also brought diverse Muslim groups under one umbrella," she says.
The umbrella Mumduha is referring to is termed the 'Muslim vote bank' in election-speak. It is based on the assumption that Muslims vote en bloc across the country for a particular agenda. In recent
