The month of Ramzan or Ramadan has begun. Every year this month brings joy, the feeling of brotherhood and love for others, a sense of responsibility towards our less privileged brothers and sisters. We help them by offering them food and help. But from a few years one unique thing that this month brings is the debate around the pronunciation of the word ‘zuad’, should it be pronounced ‘Ramzan’ Or ‘Ramdan’?
The Indian Tradition
The advocates of pronouncing it as Ramzan call against the romance of Muslim elites with the Arab version of Islam i.e. Wahabism and their desire to shift from Indian culture and align themselves with the Saudi version of Islam.
The reason the elite Muslims in India give is that Islam originated in Saudi Arabia, so they are kind of ‘originals’ and they try to shun their Indian identity and look and behave like what Saudis do. Be it wearing Saudi style clothes or pronouncing words like ‘Shukran’ for ‘Shukriya’ (Although it is very rarely seen).
This shallow understanding of the Indian Muslims and the terms like ‘Globalization’ is ineffable. We proudly ask for ‘Mohito'(actual spelling Mojito) while sitting in a cafe and makes tweet criticizing ‘Ramadan’ because of our little understanding of languages and cultures.
The Linguistic Shift
The word zuad was lost its pronunciation from z to d with time, it was borrowed to the Persian and Urdu languages centuries ago and could not retain its original sound which happens with a lot of words of different languages. This shift has happened because of Globalization and an increase in communication technology.
We have the largest Indian population working in Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia or Qatar today. They naturally bring pronunciation with them. Many Indians even have kids born and brought up in these countries, for them saying Ramadan instead of Ramzan is very natural. Not just the Middle East, it has happened from Western countries also. Almost all the English newspapers of the UK or USA, I have read, have spelt Ramzan as Ramadan. We knowingly or unknowingly follow them too.
This whole debate around Ramzan-Ramadan evolutionary trend evident among Indian Muslims. A lot of commentators call shift from ‘z’ to ‘d’ as shifting from Indian to the Saudi version of Islam. The Muslims in India shy away from asserting their Muslim identity, because of the fear of getting stereotyped. They keep on drawing lines between radical Muslim and liberal Muslim and live in a state of internal struggle. They always try to distance themselves from some Muslims and portray that we are not like them.
Ramazan or Ramadan, whichever word you choose this month gives time to all devotees to look within. In a month when all scriptures were revealed, it certainly motivates us to follow the path shown by the Messenger and lead a pious life.