Growing up in a deeply religious
family, I never once heard the word Ramadan used to refer to the holy
Islamic month of fasting and penance.
These were God-fearing
people well versed in the ways of Islam and the Quran. But for them it
was always Ramzan, or Romjan among many of the Bengali and
Assamese-speaking members of our family. (Both languages don’t have a
letter that approximates the sound of the English ‘z’.)In travels to different parts of India, till a few years ago, I found very few people who referred to the month of fasting as Ramadan.
Which is why I find this sudden shift from the very familiar Ramzan to Ramadan all the more perplexing. Thus, it was heartening to see Prime Minister Narendra Modi referring to the month as Ramzan.
And I’m aware of all the folks
who talk of the Arabic spelling of Ramzan, with the ‘d’ sound, but may I
humbly submit that we don’t live in an Arab-speaking country.
And
if you’re really keen on switching over to Arabic names, there’s a lot
of stuff that you’ll have to change – beginning from ‘sawm’ (Arabic for
‘roza’ or the daily fast) and ‘suhoor’ (Arabic for ‘sehri’ or the
pre-dawn meal) and going on to ‘salah’ (Arabic for the ‘namaaz’ or daily
prayers), ‘adhan’ (Arabic for ‘azaan’ or the call to prayer) and
‘abaya’ (Arabic for burqa). Well, this list could be endless.
There are numerous instances of
Islam adapting to the conditions in the countries to which it has
spread. In India, Islam grew with healthy doses of Sufism and syncretism
and with a strong linkage to the Persian language.
This
resulted in terms such as “Khuda Hafiz”, a popular way of saying
goodbye. But even here, those with a strong love for what they claim is a
truer (read Arab-dominated) form of Islam, insist that it should be
“Allah Hafiz”.
It’s difficult
to say when the change from Ramzan to Ramadan and Khuda Hafiz to Allah
Hafiz began creeping into India but the shift has been more pronounced
in the past decade. I still get shocked when I hear some of my relatives
using these terms but they sound alien to me.
In
some ways, it is possibly a way to reinforce their Islamic identity in
the face of a perceived growth of intolerance. Some of the blame must
also go to televangelists from Pakistan and India who insist that the
use of Arabic words is a mark of the true faithful.
But for me, it will always be Ramzan. And on that note, I bid you Khuda Hafiz so that I can focus on my roza.
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