This is What They Look Like
Stereotypes of Muslim Piety in Calendar Art and Hindi Cinema

A popular poster illustrating the miracles of saint Abdul Qadir Jeelani shows his mausoleum in Iraq visited by a beautiful female devotee wearing a distinct Punjabi dress and facial features. It would not be surprising if the artists who drew the roadside hoardings for Hindi movies were also the original painters of some of the religious posters. Many printing presses that churn out movie posters, no doubt, also produce the inexpensive religious images. The big chunk of moviegoers, the crowd that likes to see a blockbuster several times, and revels in its images and music, has also been the client for the devotional posters. Of course, in many “noble” Muslim households it is a taboo to display a portrait of even a family member, leave aside a movie poster. But some (among Muslims) who may have hesitated putting up the image of a film actress on their wall due to family or social pressure, find legitimacy in a picture that combined the Kaaba or the Qur’an with an attractive, pious lady who looked like the film actress Madhubala or Waheeda Rehman. This twin purpose of providing the religious devotion with the sensuous pleasure seems to be a selling point of most successful popular and bazaar art.

Another fascination for poster artists as well as the Muslim community has been the colour green. Some Indian shopkeepers dealing in clothes, paints, refrigerators and washing machines reveal that many of their Muslim clients prefer to buy goods of green or somewhat greener colour (although educated and elite Muslims may shirk from such a stereotype). There may be several historical explanations for the apparent Muslim fascination with green. Besides the desert dwellers of Arabia finding comfort in green, the Prophet himself is said to have liked this colour as signifying peace. The use of green flags in the holy wars was common, and many of the Prophet’s followers wore green turbans. Today, a patch of green is present in the national flags of almost all Muslim countries. In India and elsewhere, devotees like to offer green chadars on the graves of the saints, and green shrouds are used in many Muslim funerals. The most popular devotional icon is, of course, Gumbad-e Khizra, the green dome of the holy mosque in Medina, beneath which the Prophet is buried (although it wasn’t painted green until about 1837 AD). Khizr (green) is also the name of an immortal prophet with whom many myths and legends are associated, especially in the realm of the Sufi narratives.Hence, popular devotional posters are also full of green in various forms, although it would be interesting to explore how much of this fascination with the green colour is actually manufactured.

Indian cinema and television continue to strengthen the community stereotypes that prevail in popular culture. Many film producers wait for Eid or Diwali to release their blockbusters, not so much for the auspicious day, but for the holiday and the savings the working class would spend on cinema.On last Eid in a Muslim locality in Delhi, one found a surprise at a poster shop – a colour photograph of the film star Salman Khan in typical Muslim attire, doing a courteous aadab (Muslim salutation) with his naughty smile. This obviously poster of a movie star was selling briskly among religious ones. But besides the movie stars, many other heroic icons have been tried as the subject of popular posters for Muslim nitche market. While the cricketer M.Azharuddin remained a popular poster boy in the 1980-90s, today's heartthroab for young Muslims is of course the tennis star Sania Mirza. One could also not ignore the posters of international muslim figures such as Saddam Husain, Yasser Arafat or Osama bin Ladin being sold in India, especially during the first Gulf war (1990s).

But the exploitation of the community stereotype goes to even higher levels when one finds on a wall in Mumbai’s busy Colaba area, a brand new poster showing the film actor Shah Rukh Khan wearing a Muslim skullcap and something written in Arabic! On a closer inspection it turns out to be not a religious poster, but an advertisement for the mobile company Airtel, asking the Arab tourists (who flock Mumbai during the monsoon) to feel at home by using the company’s mobile roaming connection! The same company comes out with Urdu banners in the Muslim localities of Delhi at the start of the holy month of Ramadan (fasting) this year offering a mobile recharge plan for Rs.786!* Need one explain how many kinds of petty stereotyping do these commercial exploitations represent?

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