Let me start with a disclaimer, I am neither an Islamophobic nor a Hindutvawadi, and I do not sympathise with any toxic religious outfits like AIMPLB, Bajrang Dal, Sriram Sena or their ilk, all of which I strongly advocate should be disbanded and their leaders exiled to one of the many uninhabited islands in the Andamans where they can practice their version of the region and fight each other to death over it if they like, leaving the rest of the country peaceful.
Being not only an atheist but anti-religion, I firmly believe religion has no place in any civilised society in the 21st century and that humanity would be much better off without it. I also feel that all our places of worship ~ temples and mosques and churches and gurdwaras alike ~ should be converted into schools, dispensaries, museums, playgrounds and public places of which there is such a huge scarcity in India ~ where children and adults from all communities can come together to learn something, play together, chat together and feel happy, while the guardians of religions should equip themselves with other skills to seek another vocation. I know most readers will strongly disagree with me and I respect their right to do so, but I also hope that some younger ones whose worldview has not yet had the time to be poisoned by religion may secretly sympathise with my views.
The disclaimer is necessary so that the fanatics of religions who seem to breed now like locusts in our country do not get the opportunity to misconstrue what I am going to say on a particular subject which has become a raging controversy.
It is about the use of loudspeakers in religious places, with governments and rightist outfits calling for their bans. The most conspicuous users of loudspeakers of course are the mosques that call their faithful to prayers five times a day.
To the unbelievers and the elderly and the sick, the most irritating is the morning Azaan when your sleep is broken at what many consider an unearthly hour of around 4 AM.
A youth who often drives me to where I teach is a Muslim and a devout one at that, though he shares my views about religion. I asked him one day whether he gets the time to perform prayers five times; he told me he does only the morning (fajr) namaz regularly because living next to a mosque, the loudspeaker does not allow him to sleep. If he is home early, he usually does the evening (isha) namaz also.
As regards the others, he said, “Sir, Kam dhandha karenge ya namaz parenge?” He admitted that the call for morning namaz often disturbs him, especially when he has to come home late after a gruelling day’s work and then cannot get enough sleep for the next day.
It has now become fashionable to claim that every practice is an essential part of some religion, but that argument cannot apply to loudspeakers which apparently were invented long after any religion came into existence.
The driver told me that the Azaan’s purpose is to remind the faithful to get ready for the prayer, adding that the truly faithful do not actually need a reminder. He is well versed in Quran, keeps his Roza, and informed me that his friends who have to work on fields or construction sites during the hot month of April often cannot keep it, because they need fluids and food for energy. He told me that Islam, like any other religion, permits such deviations on reasonable grounds. The Mullahs perhaps would disagree. More than a decade back, when I lived in a government quarter complex in Central Kolkata, a puja pandal in the neighbourhood was playing loud music ~ not exactly devotional ~ well after midnight. It was the night of Kali Puja (Diwali in North India).
Unable to sleep, I walked over to the pandal and requested the organisers to stop using the loudspeaker, as they are not supposed to disturb public order by using loudspeakers between 10 PM and 6 AM. They booed and shooed me away saying that since Kali Puja is performed during the night, no restrictions apply for that night and that nobody else was protesting.
Unable to reason with them, I called the police station without expecting any action. To my surprise, a sub-inspector arrived on the scene within a few minutes and forced the organisers to stop playing the music. But no sooner had he had left, they start- ed playing it again, forcing me to call him once again ~ this time he came and confiscated the loudspeakers. At least law had worked then.
Now when I am woken up every morning before 4, I am scared to call the police ~ for fear that unknowingly I may precipitate a communal flare-up by provoking people from different communities. I am not a Raj Thackeray ~ in the toxic times that we live, losing sleep daily seems a better option. But the point is, why should it be?
This country is supposed to be governed by the rule of law as per the Constitution, and the courts intervene to clarify when there are conflicting interpretations of the provisions of law. In 2005, the Supreme Court banned the use of loudspeakers and music systems between 10 PM to 6 AM in a tall public places to prevent the serious adverse effects of noise pollution on the health of people. In 2016, the Bombay High Court ruled that the use of loudspeakers could not be construed as a fundamental right conferred by Article 25 of the Constitution dealing with freedom of religion which is a fundamental right.
In 2018, the Karnataka High Court reiterated the Supreme Court order banning the use of loudspeakers after 10 PM. The Court orders were based on the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000, framed under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
The Karnataka High Court followed up its order in 2021 by directing the state government to act against illegal loudspeakers at religious places and to initiate action against their use in the state, in response to several PIL petitions. Data submitted by the city police to the High Court showed that police had issued notices to 125 mosques, 83 temples, 22 churches, 59 commercial establishments including pubs and bars and 12 industries for using loudspeakers beyond permissible limits.
In 2019, the Punjab and Haryana High Court banned the use of loudspeakers in public places, saying: “The States of Punjab, Haryana and Union Territory, Chandigarh is directed to ensure that no loudspeaker or public address system shall be used by any person including religious bodies in temples, mosques and gurdwaras without written permission of the authority even during day time, that too, by getting an undertaking that the noise level shall not exceed more than 10 decibels peripheral noise level”. 10 decibels is indeed a low noise level, almost like the sound of the rustling of the leaves, whereas the usual permissible limit is 60 decibels, equivalent to the sound of normal human conversation.
In 2020, the Allahabad High Court held that azan ~ calling the faithful to prayer ~ could be recited by a muezzin from minarets of the mosques only through the human voice, without using any amplifying device or loudspeaker. The Court observed, “We are of the opinion that Azaan may be an essential and integral part of Islam but its recitation through loudspeakers or other sound-amplifying devices cannot be said to be an integral part of the religion warranting protection of the fundamental right enshrined under Article 25, which is even otherwise subject to public order, morality or health and to other provisions in part III of the Constitution.”
Despite the spate of these judgments, the use of loudspeakers continues unabated. Recently on a visit to Kolkata, I had to face the menace of loudspeakers from the local mosque played at high decibels, not only for the morning Azaan, but also on a Friday evening, enlightening the entire neighbourhood about the virtues of Islam for more than an hour, distracting a student who was preparing for her examination to the extent that she had to close her books for as long as the rant went on. I was told that complaints lodged had produced no effects as the police took no cognisance of such complaints.
It will perhaps outrage the West Bengal government to take a cue from UP on anything, but it may be instructive to see what they have done to eliminate the loudspeaker menace. After the UP government’s order directed all police stations to remove illegally installed loudspeakers from religious establishments, the establishments themselves responded positively. More than 29,000 mosques and temples reduced their loudspeaker volumes within permissible limits, and more than 6,000 illegally installed loudspeakers were removed by them voluntarily.
The Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi temple complex in Math- ura turned off its loudspeakers used to broadcast the morning mangal arati, and so did many other mosques and temples ac- ross UP. Can we expect the West Bengal Government, judiciary and police to please act to make the state a little more liveable and agreeable place?