Islam, India and the Jamaat December 19, 2020, 10:07 AM IST
A worker of the Welfare Party of India, who was helping some nuns reach a polling booth in Kizhuparamba in Malappuram during the just-concluded local body elections, was baffled by a question they asked him. ‘Who is Maududi’, isn’t he often referred to as a ‘dangerous person’, they asked.
This may sound ludicrous, but Abul A’la-Maududi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami, and his ideas on democracy, secularism and pluralism were hotly debated topics in the poll campaign in Malabar. All other issues, including local development, were side-lined, with Maududism hitting centre stage.