What Is PM Modi's Gameplan Behind Making Sufism The Antidote?

As the world reels under the onslaught of terror attacks inspired by fundamentalist Islam, the government bats for a kinder, gentler version of the religion.

- Uday Mahurkar with Shadab Nazmi.

Nar-e-Taqbeer Allahu Akbar, Nar-e-Rasalat Ya Rasullulah, Nar-e-Haideri, Ya Ali.” The crowds at Ramlila Maidan roared throatily each time a pir (Sufi leader) ascended the stage. The culmination of the four-day-long World Sufi Forum, a first-of-its-kind event, attracted the largest gathering of Muslims in the capital since the Narendra Modi government came to power.

The four-day forum, organised by the All-India Ulama and Mashaikh Board (AIUMB), the apex body of dargahs, tombs of Sufi saints which orthodox Muslims shun as unIslamic—had the Modi government’s support. Among those who spoke was one of the world’s most influential Sufi preacher, Canada-based Pakistani cleric Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri (see interview). The Centre had made it clear—it saw Indian Sufis, practitioners of a gentler, tole rant version of Islam rooted in the subcontinent’s syncretic culture, as the antidote against fundamentalism.

Prime Minister Modi was effusive in his praise, crediting Sufism with being Islam’s greatest gift, in his inaugural speech at New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan on March 17. “When we think of the 99 names of Allah, none stands for force and violence,” Modi said. “At a time when the dark shadows of violence are becoming longer, you are the noor or the light of hope. When young laughter is silenced by guns on the streets, you are the voice that heals.”

The dark shadows of violence Modi referred to, of course, was the war for the hearts and minds unleashed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and their war against the West, from the battlefields of Syria-Iraq to the streets of Paris, and now, Brussels.