Zakia Jafri died on 01 February in Ahmedabad. I never met her. All I know about her is from the newspapers and the mainstream media. However, I have always been inspired by her fight for justice against brutality. She has been a central figure in my classroom discussions, a protagonist who always encouraged one to believe in the virtue of justice-seeking.
Her story is an exemplar for an ideal Indian Muslim. Against all the caricatures of Muslims being violent, regressive, shoddy and unkempt, she stood as the beacon for positive Muslim imagery – where Muslims constitute good citizenry, engage in the pursuit of justice and fight against all odds to achieve it.
She was from the Muslim elite; her husband was a former MP and a well-known politician from Congress – Ehsaan Jafri. She saw the heinous killing of her husband and 68 others in the infamous Gulbarga Society massacre in 2002, happening in front of her own eyes. She was a witness to the tragedy and yet chose the path of law, like any normal citizen should, above everything else. She knew that she was standing against all odds and yet persevered in the path with the hope that justice would be served.
Zakia Jafri fought the legal battle for 20 years. In 2022 her complaint of ‘incomplete and biased investigations’ into her allegation of a ‘larger conspiracy’ was dismissed by the Supreme Court. Interestingly, the judgement penned by the bench comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar did not even mention the author of the judgment.
What could have pushed her to fight this long, especially when the people she was challenging had gone on to hold the highest official positions in the country? There could not be any other reason but unwavering faith in the cause of justice and the desire to pursue it fully. She is reported to have said, “Till I have breath left in me, I am going to keep fighting,” in an interview two years ago.
I see two intersecting voices in her struggle – one that of an Indian and the other of a Muslim.
Zakia Jafri brought the idea of an Indian citizen to its culmination. She struggled through the entire spectrum of the investigative and judicial process. She must have withstood heavy pressure standing against authorities, and immense emotional turmoil struggling to communicate what she saw happening in front of her own eyes. Yet her unwavering trust in the judicial system and the belief that justice must be sought in all circumstances stood out.
She refused to believe that justice would not be served and that the people in authority could not be questioned. Her path to justice-seeking is an exemplar for any Indian, who has nothing but judiciary as the last hope for redemption. The judiciary might betray those expectations but the virtue of justice-seeking through institutions is something that she could communicate emphatically through her life’s struggles.
As a law teacher, I believe Zakia Jafri’s case must be included in the syllabi of law schools to teach students the virtue of good citizenry. She could be a protagonist to teach young students the value of struggle and the bestowment of faith that institutions demand of any citizen. Her life could also teach students the value of praxis – how legal principles should be translated into the lives of the citizenry – a citizen’s engagement with law.
Zakia Jafri is also the epitome of virtue for an Indian Muslim. Her life and struggle inspire one to believe in the day of judgment. It is true that she lost her battle at every front – the Gulbarga massacre was recorded by the investigative agencies, yet the courts remained unconvinced about who committed the crimes due to shoddy and biased reporting. Nevertheless, she did not lose hope in the virtue of pursuing justice.
Had her struggle been fixed to the worldly dictates of crime and punishment, she would have lost hope much before. She, however, did not. Her hope was tied to both – the institutions at her disposal and the pursuit of justice reaching beyond the end of the world. In her struggle, one could sense justice as an after-world virtue.
This reminds me of a story where a man asked Prophet Mohammed if he should tie his camel and rely upon Allah’s plan or leave it loose and rely upon Allah’s plan. The Prophet is reported to have replied that he should “tie it and rely upon Allah” [Tirmidhi 2517]. Scholars have translated this tradition in support of pursuing worldly affairs while submitting to Allah’s plan and expecting good from Him.
Zakia Jafri pursued the life of an extraordinary citizen and left a legacy for all of us to embrace. In her life, we learn good citizenry and the ideal of an Indian Muslim.
The author is an independent researcher.
