Indian Muslims Electoral Choices | Ram Puniyani

Indian Muslims and Electoral Choices | Ram Puniyani 

 

As the 2024 General Elections are looming on the horizon some Muslim elite are appealing to Muslim community to give a relook at BJP They claim that Indian Muslims are not being discriminated against. Such intellectuals also argue that BJP is giving special attention to Pasmanda Muslims and the Sufi Muslims. They also argue that Muslims are beneficiaries of BJP’s schemes for social welfare: food; housing; gas; water among others and lastly that there has been no major communal violence since 2014 and that India has been most peaceful during the last fifty years. 

Such appeals are based on half truths and ignore the core problem which shapes the lives of Muslims in India. True, some elite Muslims may not be facing the problems so severely but overall the central issue of insecurity, marginalization and ghettoization as a whole is not accounted for in such appeals. The point that there is no major violence against Muslims since 2014 is a blatant lie. The horrific Delhi violence in the aftermath of massive Shaheen Baugh movement, instigated by BJP worthies, (Goli Maro, and ‘we will get them removed from the place of Dharna’) led to the death of 51 people, 37 of those being Muslims. Day in and day out bulldozers are on the streets to target the Muslim properties, on one or the other pretexts. In BJP ruled states there seems to be a competition as to who can inflict more damage to Muslim properties. AP Shah, a retired chief justice of the Delhi High Court, affirmed to the news portal Coda, “Mere alleged involvement in criminal activity cannot ever be grounds for demolition of property.” While the cow beef politics has led to stray animals causing accidents on roads and in attacks on the standing crops on one hand on the other it has led to initiation of a new phenomenon of lynching on Indian streets. 

Starting from Mohammad Akhlaq there are many cases where Muslims (and also dalits) have been the target of the incited mobs. The case of Monu Manesar who was part of the crime of Nasir and Junaid is most frightening. Harsh Mander who visited victims’ families wrote “I am profoundly chilled as I scan social media pages of Monu Manesar. He and members of his gang live stream as they openly brandish sophisticated firearms, sound sirens mimicking police jeeps, shoot at vehicles, and brutally thrash the men they catch.” The proper data of bovine related violence is not available as the state wants to hide it, but it has created a fear among large sections of Muslims. In Mewat in particular where Muslims deal with dairy business face a tough time. Just a couple of horrific incidents which give us chills in our spine are when Shambhulal Regar not only killed but videotaped brutal killing of Afrazul in Rajasthan. 

We saw those accused of murdering Kalimuddin Ansari feted by Jayant Sinha, a Union Minister at the time. Such incidents have now become ‘new normal’. We also saw the scare created around Love Jihad and then types of Jihad were tabulated, UPSC, Land Jihad among others. The amusing one was Corona Jihad, where the Tablighi Jamaat meeting was blamed for the spread of Corona, the Muslims hawkers were denied entry into societies. Islamophobia is reaching new heights by the day. 

This intimidatory atmosphere is leading the rise in the process of ghettoisation of Muslims in the cities. Muslims are being denied housing in the mixed localities in most places. This is accompanied by the decline in their educational and economic status. One example of this is the scrapping of Maulana Azad Fellowship, the major beneficiaries of which have been the Muslim students trying to pursue higher education. The economic climb-down of the community continues in recent years. Gallup data shows that, “For both groups, (Hindus and Muslims) perceptions that standards of living were worsening shot up between 2018 and 2019, as the Indian economy entered a deep slowdown. Among Muslim Indians, the percentage jumped to 45% in 2019, up from 25% the previous year. And among Hindu Indians, the percentage saying the same hit 37% in 2019, an increase of 19 percentage points from 2018.” 

The threat of disenfranchising the Muslims through exercise of NRC, CAA is very much there. The Assam exercise showed that among the 19 Lakh people who did not have proper papers the majority were Hindus. For Hindus the safety clause of CAA is in place and for Muslims, detention centers are coming up. The present show of sympathy for Pasmanda Muslims is a mere eye wash. We understand the majority of victims of violence inspired by majoritarian politics are Pasmanda Muslims. The Muslim Ashrafs do need to ensure better treatment of the Pasmandas, but the bigger threat for the community as a whole is the insecurity, which affects them both and makes a fertile ground for orthodox elements to flourish. Reform amongst Muslim community is a must, however the point is reforms remain in the backyard till the community feels the threat to their existence and to their citizenship. 

The BJP Government in different states is now planning things which are further discriminatory against Muslims. With Ram Temple inaugurated the RSS-BJP’s majoritarian politics may become more assertive. Already Muslims have been losing representation in the political institutions. We remember that in this Hindu nationalist party not a single MP is a Muslim. Even earlier governments could not alleviate the suffering of this community. The major obstacle in this direction has been the opposition from RSS-BJP. Sachar Committee has been an example of how any affirmative action for this deprived community is marred. In the aftermath of this report, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated that deprived and marginalized communities have the first right on national resources. That was propagated as if Singh is saying that Muslims have the first right on national resources. And then there was a brake in any initiative to alleviate the miseries of this community. BJP’s claim that its free rations etc. are reaching all sections of society. Such schemes and the very concept of Labharthis is so much against the democratic ‘Rights based approach’. We do need to introspect about electoral choices in general for all the communities, and of course the luring of Muslim community is a hollow drum bereft of any substance.

India: Stop the Targetted Demolitions -of Muslim properties | Amnesty international

 Amnesty International has released two reports today documenting the Indian government's de-facto policy of punitively demolishing Muslim properties and JCB's role in facilitating these demolitions. Please do read it when you have time and also share it further - https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/02/india-authorities-must-immediately-stop-unjust-targeted-demolition-of-muslim-properties/

Podcast: Remaking History - 1948 Police Action and the Muslims of Hyderabad, Deccan, India | Afsar Mohammad

India: 50 panchayats in 3 Haryana districts bar Muslim Traders says a TOI news report..

Read more at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/102547281.cms

India: New Research Reveals How Public Services Are Restricted, Denied To Muslims, Dalits In Ghettoised Localities

 

Segregated & Unequal: New Research Reveals How Public Services Are Restricted, Denied To Muslims, Dalits In Ghettoised Localities

KAVITHA IYER 04 Aug 2023 9 min read  

Based on evidence from 1.5 million highly localised neighbourhoods of 700 people each in urban and rural India, a paper finds Indian Muslims to be systematically disadvantaged, less likely to have public schools, clinics, sewerage, water supply and closed drains than in non-Muslim areas, a misallocation of government services that is comparable to the current situation of blacks in the United States. 

https://article-14.com/post/segregated-unequal-new-research-reveals-how-public-services-are-restricted-denied-to-muslims-dalits-in-ghettoised-localities--64cc7264b3852

India: Jaffrelot & Kalaiyarasan on falling Muslim enrolment in higher education (Indian Express)

 The Indian Express, May 9, 2023

Muslims in higher education: A sobering tale

Data points to falling Muslim enrolment. This level of absolute decline has not happened in the recent past for any group
 

Written by Christophe Jaffrelot , Kalaiyarasan A

The Sachar Committee Report (SCR) submitted in 2006 showed that the condition of Muslims in education was comparable to, or even worse than, the country’s most backward communities.

The recently released All India Survey on Higher Education 2020–21 shows some contrasting trends. On the one hand, enrollment of Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs in higher education has increased by 4.2 per cent, 11.9 per cent and 4 per cent respectively compared to 2019-20. The upper castes, whose share in enrollment had been declining with the implementation of Mandal II since the late 2000s but who have come back with the highest growth rate of 13.6 per cent. On the other hand, the enrollment of Muslim students dropped by 8 per cent from 2019-20 – that is, by 1,79,147 students. This level of absolute decline has never happened in the recent past for any group.

UP accounts for 36 per cent of that total decline followed by Jammu and Kashmir, which accounts for 26 per cent, then Maharashtra (8.5 per cent), Tamil Nadu (8.1 per cent), Gujarat (6.1 per cent), Bihar (5.7 per cent) and Karnataka (3.7 per cent). Except in Tamil Nadu, Muslims alone witnessed an absolute decline in their enrollment. While the states that have a larger share of the Muslim population account for the higher share of decline, small states too show similar trends. For instance, between 2019-20 — 2020-21, Delhi lost about 20 per cent of its Muslim students while J&K lost about 36 per cent.

If OBCs constitute about 36 per cent of total enrollment in higher education, Dalits 14.2 per cent and Adivasis 5.8 per cent, Muslims stand at the bottom at 4.6 per cent when they represent about 15 per cent of society. 

The Sachar Committee Report (SCR) submitted in 2006 showed that the condition of Muslims in education was comparable to, or even worse than, the country’s most backward communities. Their marginalisation, since then, has deepened. Initially, Muslims were slightly above Dalits. But Dalits overtook Muslims in education in 2017-18 and in 2020-21, it was the turn of the Adivasis.

If we strictly follow the age cohort 18-23, the PLFS data confirms this trend. Muslims do even worse than Dalits and Adivasis. According to this source, only about 19 per cent are currently attending higher education institutions, as against 21 per cent among Adivasis, 26 per cent among Dalits, 34 per cent Hindu OBCs and 45 per cent Hindu upper castes. Among major states, in 2020-21 in no state did Muslims do better than Dalits except in Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Delhi. Advasis do better than Muslims in many states such as Rajasthan, Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

Being the most populated state, UP pulls down the national average. Muslims, who account for about 20 per cent of the state’s population, have just 4.5 per cent of total enrollment. UP alone witnessed the dropout of 58,365 Muslim students from 2019-20 — a decline of 16 per cent. If UP illustrates the story of the deepening deprivation of Muslims, Kerala offers a story of upward mobility. Kerala has not only seen positive growth in enrolment, it also tops in the percentage of Muslim youth (43 per cent) who are currently attending higher education. The century-old positive discrimination in favour of Muslims has helped the community to build educational capital in the state.

Muslims in Kerala enjoy 10 per cent reservation in government jobs and 12 per cent in educational institutions. After Ezhavas (14 per cent), Muslims form the largest population who also claim a large share of quota in the state’s OBC list.

While the sources of marginalisation began much before, what is new is the acceleration of such marginalisation in recent times. How can this be explained? A few factors might have played a key role in the context of rising Hindu majoritarianism.

First, the future is bleak as job opportunities have been shrinking for Muslims even more than for others — they face the highest unemployment rate among socio-religious groups. The percentage of regular/salaried workers who did not report work during the reference week for Muslims rose from 1.6 per cent in 2018-19 to 13.2 per cent in 2019-20. This data is partly a reflection of some discrimination in the job market – an old trend that has been documented by surveys: You send the same CV with Brahmin names, Dalit names and Muslim names, and the percentage of those invited to an interview is the lowest in the case of the latter. 

Second, in such a bleak context, one may not have enough money for studying and may, on the contrary, need to work to make a living. Hence, the high dropout rate among Muslim youth who continue with the kind of manual work and low-paying self-employment the community is known for, such as weaving and car repair.

Third, increased violence against Muslims has restricted their spatial mobility and has forced them to withdraw into their shells, a development evident from the ongoing process of ghettoisation in almost all Indian cities.

In this context, the only reasonable policy for the government, as the Sachar Committee Report and (even more) the Mishra Report recommended, would be to initiate positive discrimination in favour of Muslims — something some southern states have done successfully. On the contrary, the state support for Muslims has come down. Karnataka which had been providing Muslims a sub-quota — 4 per cent within the OBC quota — was scrapped recently by the BJP government. The Ministry of Minority Affairs has stopped the Maulana Azad Fellowship — dedicated to pursuing higher education — for minority students from 2022-23.

Where else have we seen a constant policy of discrimination vis-à-vis a vulnerable minority targeting their access to higher education? Only in countries where the intention was to manufacture second-class citizens. And there it worked, but never resulted in harmonious development.

Jaffrelot is senior research fellow at CERI-Sciences Po/CNRS, Paris, professor of Indian Politics and Sociology at King’s India Institute, London. Kalaiyarasan is assistant professor, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai

© The Indian Express (P) Ltd

India: Editorial in The Hindu on Karnataka govt Karnataka govt’s decision to scrap 4% quota for Muslims

 The Hindu

Editorial | Karnataka govt’s decision to scrap 4% quota for #Muslims within the #OBC category and earmark an additional 2% each to the dominant Vokkaliga and Veerashaiva-Lingayat communities is a divisive gamble in the expectation of electoral dividends. https://trib.al/x7IHT2y

Yes Forbidding Muslim women from contesting elections or visiting mosques is bad, doesnt matter if a BJP spokesperson is saying this

Forbidding Muslim women from contesting elections or visiting mosques goes against Quran and Constitution

Muslims must rely on their own conscience, instead of ceding their powers to a regressive clergy or political parties whose raison d’être is a hatred of PM Modi. The truth must be spoken and articulated from within the community.

Written by Shazia Ilmi
Indian Express, December 22, 2022

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/muslim-women-elections-mosques-quran-indian-constitution-8337768/

 

India: Modi's Call to woo Pasmanda Muslims | Ram Puniyani

Modi’s call to woo Pasmanda Muslims: Clever politics or change of stance?

What is needed more is an end to the hate campaigns against the Muslim community and the start of affirmative action for the weaker sections of the Muslim population, writes Dr Ram Puniyani for South Asia Monitor
 

By Dr Ram Puniyani Aug 03, 2022


The BJP’s electoral strength has been rising through various mechanisms. On one hand, the voting percentage in favour of this party is on the upswing; on the other, it has been luring elected representatives from other parties. The process of luring has diverse ways and underlying causes. At the same time, there is some impression in the society that Muslims do not vote for the BJP by and large. This may not be fully true.

At the recently concluded National Executive of the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called upon his party to reach out to those sections of the society which have not been voting for BJP due to the 'BJP phobia' created by the opposition. The BJP blamed the opposition parties even for its own actions due to which there is a fear of the BJP. Hate speech and dog whistles from the top leadership are aplenty due to which many are scared of this party.  

The Muslim community has also faced the might of bulldozers. Political observer Zainab Sikander has neatly summarized it: “A man with amputated hands is accused of stone-throwing in Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone. His only source of income, his shop, is bulldozed. You see his image, perhaps feel bad but move on with your lives. But Muslims? This is their daily reality. What is the future of Muslims in India when they are being psychologically broken by being brandished as conspirators, terrorists, illegal migrants, rioters and stone-throwers?”  

Muslim victimisation

One can safely add that among the victims of communal violence, the majority are Muslims; those in jail are also mostly Muslims. Lately, human rights activists calling for peaceful protests are also being incarcerated. Most of them do not have the luck of Muhammad Zubair, the co-founder of Alt news, to secure bail.

In this light, one recalls the conclusions of the Gopal Singh Commission, the Rangnath Mishra Commission and Sachar committee reports which show us the economic and social status of Muslims sliding down in the social pyramid. Minority appeasement as a phrase runs parallel to worsening socio-economic conditions of Muslim minorities. And now we are made to believe that the phobia against BJP has been created by opposition parties.

This is the backdrop in which the Prime Minister Modi advised his partymen to start “sneh yatras” (outreach campaigns) to woo Pasmanda Muslims. He may have multiple goals in mind. To begin with, it may aim to win over a section of Muslims to the BJP to divide the Muslim community along caste/economic lines. Already, the RSS has floated a Muslim Rashtriya Manch to win over a section of Muslims by propagating common ancestry, and stating that change in your (Muslim) methods of worship has not changed your nationality.  

Pasmanda Muslims

Pasmanda is a Persian word, which stands for ‘left behind’. It is religion and caste neutral. As such, the ST, ST and OBC can broadly be included in this. Among Muslims there is another social gradation: Ashrafs, who claim their ancestry from the Prophet, Ajlaf (the equivalent of OBC) and Arzal, which are the lowest of the lowest castes among Muslims. It is a paradox that the many from low caste in India embraced Islam to escape the tyranny of the traditional caste system. But caste is such a deep phenomenon that it has affected Muslims and Christians and other religions in India.

Overall, Pasmanda is predominantly used for low-caste Muslims who have been left out from the process of affirmative action, especially brought in by the Mandal Commission. The community includes Dalit (Arzals) and backward Muslim (Ajlafs). Based on the Mandal commission report, 27 percent reservation was started for the OBCs. Of this, 79 castes were from Muslim community -- nearly all belonging to the Pasmanda community. The rest of 15 percent Muslims are considered upper class or Ashrafs.

The castes within Pasmanda Muslims are generally decided by their profession. Among the Pasmandas are Malik (Teli), Momin Ansar (weavers), Qureshi (butchers), Salmani (barbers) and Hawari (washer men).

Affirmative action

While the Mandal Commission did give the status of OBC to many Muslim communities, some have not been included in the category to which they belong and so remain deprived from the much-needed affirmative action. It is true that in the Muslim community, most organizations are dominated by Ashrafs.

Pasmanda groups have been trying to organize themselves to press for betterment of their economic-social conditions. Ali Anwar, the founder of one Pasmanda group, says that in 1998 a Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz was formed. “We do not appreciate the patronizing statement from the PM… The Pasmanda Muslims need ‘sneh’ denotes that they are an inferior lot requiring patronage from the ones who are superior… Our fight is not against any caste, creed or community; we are demanding from the government and the political elite our due that is commensurate with our population so that we can stand on an equal footing with non-Pasmanda people.”

"Sneh Yatra" is fine. But what is needed more is an end to the hate campaigns against the community and the start of affirmative action for the weaker sections of the Muslim population.

(The writer, a former IIT Bombay professor, is Chairman, Center for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai. Views are personal.)

Read more at: https://www.southasiamonitor.org/spotlight/modis-call-woo-pasmanda-muslims-clever-politics-or-change-stance

Video: Muslims are 2nd Class Citizens - Hasan Suroor interviewed by Karan Thapar

 'Muslims are 2nd Class Citizens But Must Address Hindu Sense of Grievance... 

India: Muslims in India: Appeasement or Discrimination

Communalism Watch - 24 January 2018

 

by Ram Puniyani

A democracy should be judged by the parameter of ‘how safe and secure the religious minorities are’. In India from among the religious minorities Muslims and Christians are singled out for discrimination and physical violence. In addition many misconceptions are spread against them. Muslim minorities have been subject to demonization in a serious way. They are also victims of communal violence and indiscriminate arrests on the pretext of terrorist violence, at the same time the misconception that Muslims have been appeased have been spread on the regular basis.

With the formation of Indian National Congress (INC) in 1885, many Hindu nationalists opposed inclusion of Muslims in INC. Later during the freedom movement, the people belonging to this ideology accused Gandhi of appeasing Muslims. This propaganda about appeasement became very intense after the Shah Bano case, when the Government brought in Muslim Women protection bill to negate the Supreme Court’s Judgment which granted maintenance to Shah Bano, the divorced woman. It is true that the implementation of secular policies of the ruling Government has been weak. One must add that even other parties have also tried to appease fundamentalist Muslim leadership. While the fundamentalist Muslim leadership has been appeased, the Muslims in general have been discriminated against; they are part of lowest socio-economic strata of society, far from being appeased.

Muslim Community in India

Islam came to India first through the Arab traders at Malabar Coast in seventh century. Later through Sufi saints many untouchables took to Islam to escape the caste tyranny. Those taking to Islam came from the sections which belonged to lower socio-economic strata in the society. With the coming of modern education the elite Muslims took to education in large numbers while not much was done for education of the poor sections of Muslims. To add to the problems, with Independence, large number of affluent and salaried-educated Muslims left for Pakistan, leaving the lower sections here in larger numbers. The Muslim society at large remained in the grip of illiteracy and poverty.

Prof. Mushirul Hasan points out “Muslim communities that remained in India, partition were a nightmare. The demographic picture changed drastically in Punjab and Bengal, two provinces that had largest concentration of Muslims in South Asia.” And that “Lawyers, doctors, engineers, teachers and civil servants were comfortably ensconced in Lahore or Karachi either in response to Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s clarion call or to bolster their career prospects. On the other hand, the so-called Islamic community in India, which had no place in Jinnah’s Pakistan, was fragmented, and left vulnerable to right wing Hindu thoughts.” (Hasan, P 7, 2001, p. 7)

After Independence the communal politics started the propaganda that Muslims are responsible for partition. The communal political groups popularized the biases against Muslims. These misconceptions against Muslims related to issues like Muslim Kings destroyed Hindu temples, Muslim kings spreading Islam on the strength of sword etc. Their social conditions related to poverty, like poor hygiene also became butt of misconceptions against them. These misconceptions formed the base of the communal violence. The majority of victims of violence belonged to poor, and majority among them were Muslims. Communal violence in turn led to their ghettotization and Muslim community started becoming inward looking in nature. Due to repeated violence against them, their focus on security took precedence over equity issues. This led to neglect of education. Last couple of decades, particularly after 9/11 2001, in most of the cases of terror attacks, many innocent Muslim youth have been arrested.

There was a trend of the police authorities arresting college/university students on charges of terrorist acts, and then they rot in jails for long time before the courts come to their rescue. The towns like Azamgargh and Bhatkal were propagated to be dens of terrorists. Madarassas have also been looked down as places breeding terrorists. At times, many parents scared of the prospect of their children being implicated by the police recalled them back from colleges. The career of many Muslim youth who were pursuing their studies in professional colleges or were practicing as young professionals, got ruined. This again added on to the tendency of Muslim community to withdraw into their own shells. There is another parallel phenomenon from last four decades; that of Muslim youth seeking and getting jobs preferentially Gulf countries, this section did become slightly more affluent, this again is a small segment if we look from all India perspective.   

Muslim Appeasement

This propaganda is so strong that reality gets lost from popular perception. As per the data the employment of Muslims in Government jobs is abysmally low. For example, the following table shows us Muslim Employment in Central services. Roughly one can say that though their ratio in population is over 14%, in matter of government jobs and in private employment they may not be over 3% on average.

Muslim Employment in Central Government Services: 2000

Group	Estimated Strength	%of total strength	Muslim % in 1992
A	77,680	2.05	1.61
B	1,74,675	4.63	3.00
C	23,87,625	63.22	4.41
D	11,36,686	30.09	5.12
Total	37,76,666	100.00

Source: Omar Khalidi, Muslims in the Indian Economy, Three Essays Collective, P. 45New Delhi, 2006

Muslim Artisans

Large section of Muslims is associated with a number of handicrafts and related trades. Here they tend to be employed as workers, while the retailers and exporters belong to other communities. Khalidi provides the following statistics, quoting from a 1991 survey, that provide information about Muslim employment in various handicrafts in the state of Uttar Pradesh: art metal ware (76%), zari, gold thread/ brocade and zari goods (89%), embroidery (87.5%), cotton rugs (67%), wood wares (72%). In several other states, too, Muslims are engaged in similar artisanal activities. Yet, the state appears to have done little to help Muslim artisan families and communities.

As an example we can see the fate of artisans over a period of time. Earlier over 500,000 weavers lived in and around Varanasi, weaving silk saris mainly for the domestic market. But since the 1990s, these silk handloom weavers have seen their markets vanish. Similar is the fate of other textile centers like Bhivandi, Malegaon etc., where Muslims were employed in large numbers. There are many reasons for this decline, increasing competition from power loom weaving, changes in government protection policies, rising prices in raw silk and shifts in market demand. In the past many years, change in import policies leading to imports of silk fabric from China etc.

As far as the representation of Muslims in private sector is concerned, it is no better. An earlier study showed that in the private sector, including the two top business and industrial houses of the Tatas and Birlas, it was found that the Muslim employment came to 8.16%, while for the Scheduled Castes it was 11.5%. In the executive cadre Muslims were only 1.5% while in the clerical class it was 8.28%.

Muslims: Socio Economic Condition

Muslims have also not been able to take advantage of various government schemes for such groups as small farmers, marginal farmers, agricultural laborers, landless laborers, etc.. This owes to discrimination and indifference on the part of planning and implementation authorities as well as lack of awareness and knowledge of such schemes among Muslims. Consequently, the limited progress that some sections of Muslims have been able to make in recent years owes almost wholly to their own efforts. Overall the economic conditions of most Indian Muslims are unenviable, to say the least. Most of them eke out a hand-to-mouth existence either by way of self-employment in petty trade or by working in the unorganized sector. They are engaged mostly as construction labourers, rickshaw, taxi and truck drivers, handcart pullers, coolies, barbers, tailors, carpenters, pavement hawkers, or at best as mechanics, fitters, plumbers, electricians or welders.

Gopal Singh, Rangnath Mishra and Sachar Committee Reports:

In the light of worsening economic condition of Muslims the earlier the Congress and later UPA Governments appointed various commissions. The Gopal Singh Commission was the first one (1982). All these reports pointed out that far from appeasement the condition of Muslim community is worsening.

Let us see for example what Sachar Committee says (November 2006). The committee after extensive home work found that the Muslim minority is way behind the national averages in most of the parameters of social development, its economic status has been sliding seriously, its representation in jobs, bank loans is abysmal, and its representation in the political process has been very poor and worsening on the top of that. In sum and substance, Muslim community is under-represented in most of the arenas of society barring the jails. Gopal Singh committee had also affirmed the poor status of this minority. Gopal Singh committee report kept lying in the deep freezer while the issues like Ram Temple kept hogging the national attention. To add up one can say this community’s representation as riot victim is way above its percentage in population. Sachar Committee has recommended that an Equal Opportunity Commission should be set up, a national data bank should be started, a nomination procedure should be started to ensure their participation in public bodies, in order to promote religious tolerance by a procedure to evaluate text books for appropriate social values among other.

The Muslim ghettoes which have come to be formed in the aftermath of violence are islands of deprivation, generally cut off from the civic, economic provisions, good schooling etc. The Banks, the major companies are reluctant to open their offices in these areas. These areas are generally used looked up by Muslims as an arrangement for protection.

State Response

While Gopal Singh committee was not implemented, over two decades later in response to Sachar Committee report Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s stated in the National Development Council that we need “to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development, these must have first claim on resources.” This statement was backed up by the statement in Parliament by the minister of minorities affairs that Government will implement the recommendations of Sachar Committee. This was just a mirage. BJP came down heavily on this statement demolishing any hope that state will pick up courage to take up proactive affirmative action for Muslim minorities. RSS combine started crying foul; BJP started asserting that Prime minister’s statement is it is rank communalism.

The pressure of communal propaganda and opposition from Hindu nationalists killed any chances of recommendations of these reports being implemented. The Government did try to contemplate steps short of reservations to improve the lot of the Muslim minorities. As it turned out the Government could not muster enough courage to implement any of the steps to alleviate the lot of Muslim community. One of the important steps which was contemplated but never implemented was the idea of Equal Opportunity Commission to improve the lot of these sections, needless to say such ideas were done away, and with Modi sarkar coming to power in 2014, such steps have been ruled out for the time being.

Last Three Years

During last three years, since Modi has come to power; despite the talk of Sabka Saath Sabka vikas (with all, for development of all), policies have been undertaken to break the back of Muslim community. One of the examples of the this has been the policies related to beef ban and closure of meat shops, on the ground of their being illegal. The already existing laws on cow slaughter and beef ban have been tightened. A social atmosphere has been created around Holy Mother Cow. The implementation of this seems to be guided more by hatred of Muslims than love for Cows. An atmosphere of terror has been created by lynching of innocent Muslims by Cow Rakhashaks (Protectors), who are Hindu nationalist, ideologically inspired by the RSS-BJP. The atmosphere has been so created that those transporting cattle and dealing with meat/beef have been intimidated out of their wits to be able to do anything to do gainful economic activities. Muslims are feeling further intimidated and are being relegated to second class citizenship is going on at great speed.

(Writer a communal harmony activist can be contacted on ram.puniyani[at]gmail.com)

India: A minority like no other - Partition didn't do to the Muslims what 'secular' India has done Asad Zaidi (Catchnews)

Catchnews.com - 14 August 2017

In the small Rajput state of Karauli (in eastern Rajasthan), ruled from the Sultanate era by largely non-literate Jadon rulers claiming direct descent from Lord Krishna, freedom and partition both arrived late.
The freedom came as the news of India's declaration of Independence, causing serious anxiety among the sections of the population associated with or dependent on the durbar. The general populace felt some excitement for a few days and settled back in their old ways, waiting to see how things would pan out.

The news of the partition, however, had a far more immediate impact.
There were violent attacks on the Muslim populations, rural and urban, in the adjoining Jat state of Bharatpur, clearly initiated by the state forces. Many families came looking for shelter with their relatives living in Karauli.
The events in Bharatpur, that were reaching a level of ethnic cleansing, were strongly disliked by the people in Karauli as well as the Raj durbar. The Karauli durbar strictly forbade any action by word or deed against the Muslims living in the realm.
Many Muslim families from the areas of Bharatpur, who survived the violence, some of them relatives on my father’s side, eventually migrated to Pakistan. Within a few years, they lost touch with us. They all were too preoccupied with survival issues in the small towns and rural locations in the interiors of west Punjab and Sindh.
By the time I was born they were half forgotten. When I grew up a bit, I found that only my grandmother would speak of these forgotten relatives – no one else knew or remembered.
Bharatpur and Karauli, Alwar and Jaipur presented a stark contrast to the rest of India at the critical juncture of 1947-48. The clear lesson that Muslims in these areas learnt was that the personal, political and ideological predilections of a ruler, or ruling group, can determine the fate of large populations in the event of inter-religious strife and contestation.
They reached the firm conclusion – “If the rulers are secular, secularism shall prevail”. Nothing would shake this belief.

Talking politics & politicians

As a teenager, I often heard my father, maternal uncle and their friends talk of Nehru, Maulana Azad and Sardar Patel (Jawaharlal, Abulkalam and Patel in their conversation).
They considered Nehru as an icon of secularism, a guarantor of social peace and justice – “Jab tak Nehru hai, Musalman ke sath na-insafi nahin hogi (As long as Nehru is there, there will be no injustice against the Muslims)”. Maulana Azad was seen as a noble scholar but an ineffectual politician, unable to take on his rivals, letting Jinnah take the lead.
Nehru’s performance on national and international stage was favourably commented upon. They saw Nehru as the saviour and the real visionary. They trusted him. They admired Patel as a tough administrator, a great enforcer with a single flaw – that he was rabidly anti-Muslim. My uncle would often say: “Bahut qabil tha, ek hi kami thi ki Musalman ke khoon ka pyasa tha. (He was very capable, but the only shortcoming he had was that he bayed for Muslim blood).”
Life went on. Muslims in my town were not wrong in their belief in the secular guarantee implied in the new constitutional order. They saw themselves roughly at the same location as most other people. They managed as well as anybody from a similar socio-economic profile from other communities.
By 1970s, however, this guarantee was no longer there and the Muslims seemed to sense it. Now there was no distinction between areas where Partition had seen violence and where it hadn't. This was true across the country. The Nehruvian order had given way.
The competitiveness over resources, over jobs, and political assertiveness of OBCs, Dalits, regional blocks, and the activism around reservation left the Muslims out as bystanders with no claim.
For Muslims to demand or claim anything as a community was simply seen as dangerous communalism, it could remind everybody of Partition and divisiveness. The dramatic decline in their socio-economic profile and systematic discrimination against them in all walks of life did not register with the Indian state or the political parties across the spectrum.
It is another matter that the Hindutva forces had started asserting the religious identity precisely during these decades.

Divide, rule and blame game

Two kinds of Muslim politicians found acceptance within the system – the ones who would prove their ‘secularism’ by pandering to the existing biases about Muslims and keeping aloof from their plight; and the ones who appear to be rabble rousers and 'identitarians' but are primarily middlemen seeking favour with the system.

There has been an unspoken consensus among liberals that Muslims as people do not need politics or political representation. They should be kept out.

Sachar Committee Report did document the state of the Muslims in India. Yet things remained the same – in fact, they even worsened under the new economic dispensation. The systematic communal killings that have dotted the map of post-Independence India, the collusion of the state machinery in the genocidal violence, the comprehensive attack on their culture, food, dress, appearance, small means of livelihood have gradually pushed them to the wall.
The anti-Muslim hate campaigns and the bogey of ‘terrorism’ is a thriving joint enterprise by the state institutions, political groups and media. Hatred and prejudice against them had not triumphed so much in the history of India before this, not even during the worst times of Partition which involved hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced. The complicity of media, liberal intelligentsia and large parts of the populace had never been so enormous.
This is not just a consequence or the legacy of history – Partition and the barbarity that accompanied it, or the after-effects of ‘divide and rule’. It is the rise of the anti-secular state.
All the symptoms of fascism and Nazism are on display, and Muslims are the natural 'other' that fascism requires. Our intelligentsia, including some faces on the Parliamentary Left, do recognise the symptoms but deny the disease.
If you talk about the state of terrible siege Muslims face all over northern and western India, they will say it is not just about Muslims. Sure, but they are its worst victims. But what about...Whataboutery is the simplest escape route.
In many areas, it has become impossible for Muslims to venture out without apprehension, free from a sense of danger. Public spaces, avenues of public expression have shrunk like never before. This is where the Muslims stand today, with India at 70, at a very different location from the Hindu majority, and a place very different from the other minorities.
Edited by Jhinuk Sen
First published: 14 August 2017, 13:59 IST

India: 34 years of Left in Bengal failed to improve the status and representation of muslims of in Bengal (Sharjeel Imam and Saquib Salim)

Firstpost.com - Apr, 18 2017

Left parties' secular ideology, posturing has done nothing for development of Muslims In Bengal

Sharjeel Imam and Saquib Salim

In common perception, Left parties in India have been seen as "secular" at best and "pro-Muslim" at worst. This perception was part of the phenomena that brought the Left parties to power, and resulted in the defeat of Congress in two out of three states (West Bengal and Kerala) with the highest percentage of Muslim voters in post-partition India. Muslims constitute over a quarter of voters in both Bengal and Kerala.
Specifically in West Bengal, where they came to power in 1977, the Left front enjoyed consistent and overwhelming support from Muslims; it was one of the primary reasons that they enjoyed uninterrupted power for over 34 years there. It would be expected that with all their secular rhetoric, Left governments would have helped Muslims enjoy a significant share of power and equal opportunities in the economic and social spheres. However, when we take a closer look, a different picture emerges.

Let us take CPM, the largest party of this bloc, for example. Although Muslim support has been crucial for their ascension to power, till 2008, there were no Muslim members in the politburo, the highest executive body of the party. This is highly surprising for a "secular" party ruling over states with large Muslim populations. Even in 2015, only two of 17 politburo members are Muslim, and even this seems like a forced gesture made necessary by their defeat in West Bengal.

A Muslim supporter of the CPM offers prayers during a rally in Kolkata. Reuters file image

In contrast, even the most supposedly "anti-Muslim" party, BJP, has had at least one Muslim in its highest executive circle from the time of its inception in 1980. Sikandar Bakht was general secretary, and later vice-president, while Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi is still serving as vice-president.
In terms of ministry distribution, the performance is equally poor. When at its electoral peak in the 2001-2006 period, the Left government had three Muslim ministers in a 33-member Cabinet in West Bengal, around 9 percent. Interestingly, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya held the minorities development portfolio himself.
Even BJP does not show such confidence: In the Centre, where it has no Muslim in the Lok Sabha, Najma Heptullah was brought in through Rajya Sabha to take charge of minorities affairs; and in Uttar Pradesh, where it has no Muslim MLA, Mohsin Raza was made minorities development minister through the legislative council.
It becomes clear that Muslims have been kept out of the important decision making offices and posts in the Left parties' governments.
If we look at the socio-economic indicators in West Bengal, it paints an even worse picture. Since Kerala has been ruled by the Congress-led UDF alliance as well, and has a significant regional party, Muslim League, which caters to local Muslim demands, Bengal provides the only example of uninterrupted Left rule. And 34 years of a stable government should have led to decreasing disparity between Hindus and Muslims. However, this did not happen.
In fact, the disparity has worsened in many fields. The Sachhar Committee report from 2006 is an illuminating document in this respect. West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam and Kerala are the states with largest Muslim populations. Barring the more prosperous Kerala, the other four states have significant disparity between indicators for Muslims and Hindus. However, it is West Bengal that shows maximum disparity and deterioration in many crucial fields, such as employment, education and poverty.
Let's begin with state employment. Muslims comprised around 3.4% of all state employees in West Bengal in 2006, following around three-and-a-half decades of Left rule. In contrast, in 2016, following five years of Trinamool Congress (TMC) governance, the figure now stands at 5.7%, which is a significant increase. This figure alone is enough for indicting the Left regime and for describing them "anti-Muslim".
The TMC government partially achieved it by including a large number of backward communities in the OBC fold, something which had been denied to the backward Muslims by successive Left front governments.
In terms of education, the mean year of schooling (MYS) for West Bengal was 3.58, while for Muslims it is far lower at 2.58. SC/STs have fared better with 3.12 years of schooling on average. In literacy, the figure for Hindus was 72.4, while for Muslims it was 57.5. In contrast, Bihar had 47.9 percent Hindu literacy and Muslims had 42 percent literacy. Although Bihar was generally more illiterate, the gap between Hindus and Muslims was definitely lower than West Bengal.
More surprising is the percentage of matriculates. Around 24 percent of all Muslims had completed matriculation in India. However in West Bengal, only 12 percent Muslims were matriculates, while the figure of SC/STs and caste Hindus was 13 and 38 respectively. Even in Bihar, a poorer state, 16 percent Muslims had passed the matriculation exam. In terms of graduates, the scene is equally poor: Around 5 percent of Muslims were graduate in India, while caste Hindus had around 13 percent graduates. In West Bengal, the percentage of graduates among caste Hindu was around 14 percent, while the figure for Muslims was around 3 percent. Even in this case, Bihar can be used as a contrast: Caste Hindus had around 10 percent graduates, while around 5 percent Muslims were graduates in Bihar.
On all the three levels of education — literacy, matriculation and graduation — Muslims in West Bengal lag behind the national Muslim average. In addition to that, the disparity between Hindus and Muslims is greater than the disparity in poorer states like Bihar. And as far as matriculation and graduation is concerned, Bihar's Muslims have a higher percentage than Bengal's Muslims, even though Bihar is far more illiterate.
Another important economic indicator is the poverty index. In urban Bengal, 10 percent of Hindus were below the poverty line, while the figure for Muslims is 27 percent. In rural Bengal, 21 percent of Hindus were poor, as against 33 percent of Muslims. Much of West Bengal's Muslims are rural. In Bihar, 34 percent of rural Hindus and 38 percent of rural Muslims were poor. Hence, although it is a poorer state, the disparity is definitely less than West Bengal.
Another important dimension is over Waqf property. The Waqf property are the assets of Muslim communities which are used for the welfare of the community. West Bengal, according to the Sachhar Committe report, has the highest concentration of Waqf properties. The damage done by the Left government to the Waqf properties has been noted by the committee. We quote the report directly:

The West Bengal Assembly in 1981 enacted a Thika and Other Tenancies and Lands (Acquisition and Regulations) Act, popularly known as Thika Act, which was amended in 2001. By virtue of this Act, the tenants of a large number of properties across the state became their owners. While the Act exempts the application of Thika Act to the government and municipal properties, the same benefit was not extended to cover the Wakf properties. Consequently the Wakf Board lost a large number of properties and income there from. Efforts have been made by the Wakf Board and NGOs to seek exemption of Wakf land from the Thika Act. The West Bengal Government may be advised to accord the solicited exemption.

West Bengal is probably the only state with a significant Muslim population where the Muslims, who started with better condition at Independence, have fallen behind SC/STs in almost all major indicators of socio-economic development. Successive Left front governments are also responsible for this stunted growth as well as deterioration among Muslims in West Bengal.
To conclude, if anyone talks about the mainstream Left parties' struggle for liberation of minorities, especially of Muslims, please ask them to cast a cursory glance at the Sachhar Committe report; it would become evident that the Left flag is coloured red with Muslim blood.

Published Date: Apr 18, 2017

India to deport 40,000 Rohingya Muslims - If Afghans Are Good Refugees in India, Why Not Rohingya Muslims? (Chandan Nandy)

The Quint - 4 April 2017

If Afghans Are Good Refugees in India, Why Not Rohingya Muslims?

Chandan Nandy

The Union Home Ministry’s effort to identify, arrest and finally deport 40,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled appallingly violent conditions in Myanmar to seek refuge in some Indian states, including Jammu region, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, UP, Kerala, West Bengal and Delhi, is reminiscent of government initiatives in the early and mid-1990s to “detect, delete, deport” Bangladeshi Muslim illegal immigrants.

In the past, deportations and physical “push backs” were carried out by the Border Security Force with little or no success before a few detention camps were set up in Assam to warehouse Bangladeshi immigrants, mostly Muslims. Bangladeshi Hindu immigrants, who claimed to be persecuted, could settle in Assam, West Bengal and elsewhere across the country. They remained largely untouched.
Also Read: Govt Exploring Ways to Deport 10,000 Rohingya Muslims from J&K

Rohingya Muslim refugees shout slogans during a protest against the crackdown on ethnic Rohingyas in Myanmar, in New Delhi, 19 December 2016. (Photo: Reuters)

Differential Grant of Refugee Status

Clearly, the Centre’s vision in dealing with Rohingya Muslim ‘refugees’, who have suffered extreme levels of violence and other privations in Myanmar, is not sufficiently based on classifying who should or should not be granted refugee/asylum status. After all, India has granted the same status to Afghans who fled the civil war in Afghanistan through the 1980s and 1990s, ethnic Kachins from Myanmar, Buddhist Chakmas and Sri Lankan Tamils.
What is worrisome is a 4 April report in The Times of India which used “statist” language to describe the Rohingyas as “illegal” migrants and that they followed “infiltration” routes to enter India. Forced migrants anywhere across the globe take to flight from their countries of origin when faced with dire situations of life and death.
They often cross borders after travelling great distances, not to seek a “better life” but to escape degradation or certain death. Surely, the governments of countries to which the forced migrants escape to have a duty towards protecting lives regardless of religious persuasions. The migrants are trying to piece together their lives in appalling conditions – a denial of human rights in itself.
Also Read: Hoardings in Jammu Ask Rohingyas, Bangladeshi Muslims to Leave

The 1971 Refugee Inflow

As far back as 1971, when India was burdened by about 10 million “refugees” fleeing the fire and steel of a marauding Pakistan army, the Indira Gandhi regime of the time took a political decision to shelter the hapless humans – Muslims and Hindus – before the 1972 Mujib-Indira Pact was operationalised to “send” them back to an independent Bangladesh.
Even then, while the fleeing East Bengalis were granted the nominal status of refugees, India was not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol. It still isn’t. Besides, India is among very few countries in the world which neither has a national refugee protection framework nor an immigration policy. But it has, from time to time, allowed nationalities such as Afghans, ethnic Kachins, Sri Lankan Tamils and Buddhist Chakmas asylum purely on a selective basis.
Also Read: No Stake in Resources for B’deshi Illegal Migrants: Hazarika Panel

Border Failure

Neither the Indira-Mujib treaty nor subsequent efforts by successive Indian governments to fence the 4,096-km-long India-Bangladesh border failed to stem the inflow of immigrants. While on paper and on the ground India’s border with neighbouring countries are highly militarised and restrictive, the absence of an immigration/refugee policy causes its security forces and the political parties in different border states to look the other way when dealing with the phenomenon of illegal or unauthorised migration, especially of Hindus and Muslims from Bangladesh.
There is, of course, a political dimension to the selective entry of immigrants – depending on their religious affiliations, they serve an electoral interest for vote-maximising parties.
Also Read: Amendments to Citizenship Act in Assam is BJP’s Political Ploy

Acting Selectively

One reason why India has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention is that it does not make it an obligation on the part of the receiving State to protect and safeguard the lives of refugees, leaving it enough room to act selectively. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has, from time to time and from group to group, intervened with the government of the day to “modify” and “increase” its registration activities and conduct “refugee status determination for asylum seekers”. Besides, it also works to identify and map stateless groups whose precise numbers are not known.
Originally living in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, the Rohingya Muslims, one of the worst persecuted minorities in the world, were forced to leave after the then Burmese military junta subjected them to mass expulsions in 1977 and 1992. They were “threatened by the State’s antagonistic policies towards their religion, their language and their culture.” This created a chronic refugee crisis in Bangladesh which subsequently tried to push back the Rohingya refugees from its soil.

A man from the Burmese Rohingya community ties a tarpaulin to a tree to erect a makeshift shelter for his family at a camp in New Delhi, 14 May 2012. (Photo: Reuters)

Official Statelessness

The Rohingyas who returned to Myanmar were given limited rights to movement and employment, but thousands were faced with mass conscription to forced labour, arbitrary detention and other forms of maltreatment.
This was followed by their official statelessness (because the government then described them as having “nonindigenous ancestry”) in which the Myanmar State codified their legal exclusion.
Clearly, the Rohingyas qualified to be defined as refugees who have “well-founded fear of persecution due to his/her race, religion, nationality, member of a particular social group or political opinion and are unable or unwilling to return” to their home countries. The UNHCR emphasises that refugees “must not be expelled or returned to situations where their life and freedom are at risk.”

Not a Security Threat

And yet the Modi government has embarked on a controversial course to deport the hapless Rohingyas and push them across the border to likely depredation and violence.

It will be unwise for India to view the Rohingya Muslims on its territory as a security threat or even as a threat to its major societal values. Likewise, an explanation that the Rohingyas are an economic burden does not hold water because their numbers are minuscule.

An attempt to classify types of threats from immigrant or refugee groups runs into potentially dangerous distinctions between “real” and “perceived” threats or into “absurdly paranoid notions” of threats and anxieties.
It is therefore an imperative on the part of the Modi government to take a stand that while not dismissing fears, does not regard all anxieties over immigration and refugees as a justification for exclusion.
The Indian government cannot have two different yardsticks to measure – and find solutions to – the vexed issue of immigrants/refugees living on its territory. It will do good for the administration to realise that while conflicts create refugees, refugees can also potentially create conflicts.