London's choice - A deep dent in the 'clash of civilizations' thesis

The French statesman, Talleyrand, once advised his countrymen to "above all, avoid an excess of zeal". I have always felt that it is the British, not the French, who have followed this advice most diligently. Political and intellectual life in France is dominated by polemic, prejudice, and ideology, whereas the British have avoided extreme and partisan positions in favour of the middle road. Some 15 years ago, Talleyrand's countrymen outlawed the headscarf in schools, colleges and offices, since they were determined to make immigrant Muslims conform in every way to the 'republican' idea of what it meant to be French. Meanwhile, the British, who also had a large and growing community of Muslims, declined to impose any sort of dress code. So, at Heathrow airport, one often had one's passport stamped by a lady dressed in black, her head covered, or, by way of variation, by a Sikh wearing a turban.

The recent victory of Sadiq Khan in the London mayoral election is an emphatic vindication of the British tradition of political moderation. It could never have happened in France, or in Germany or the United States of America for that matter. I will not see a Muslim mayor of Paris, Berlin, or New York in my lifetime. But I was in London the day a working-class Muslim whose family was originally from Pakistan was elected mayor of the city.

As I said, while London now has a Muslim mayor, it is hard to see when Paris or New York will have one. But, long before the British capital, the greatest and most cosmpolitan of Indian cities had one. Although the vast majority of Mumbai's mayors have been Hindu, there have been several Muslim mayors, as well as some Parsi and Christian occupants of that office.

A mayor of Bombay who is a long-time hero of mine was named Yusuf Meherally. Meherally was one of a group of remarkable Indian socialists, whose other members included Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya, Jayaprakash Narayan, and Rammanohar Lohia. Unlike the communists, these socialists loved their country far more than the Soviet Union (indeed, they detested the Soviet Union, recognizing in the 1930s itself that Lenin and Stalin had put in place a murderous and brutal regime). Unlike conventional Congressmen, these socialists were deeply allergic to inherited privilege; they campaigned zealously for land reforms, for proper housing for industrial workers, and for the emancipation of women.

Wikipedia (not always a reliable source) claims that Yusuf Meherally coined the slogan, "Simon, Go Back" (to oppose the all-white constitutional commission led by John Simon which visited India in 1928), as well as the even more famous slogan "Quit India". Be that as it may, Meherally was a great patriot, who faced police lathis, went to jail many times, opposed the Pakistan movement, and was incidentally a well-loved mayor of Bombay.