mohammed khalid: minority politics in india

MINORITY POLITICS IN INDIA:With A Special Reference To Muslims

Mohammed

Khalid**

The term minority is commonly used for a smaller group of

people who live in the midst of a larger group. United Nations

characterises 'minority' as a non-dominant group of individuals

who share certain national, ethnic, religious and linguistic traits

and who has the will to preserve and protect these traits. The UN

declaration of rights of persons belonging to national, ethnic,

religious and linguistic minorities, adopted by the General

Assembly on 18 December 1992, enjoins upon the UN to protect

the national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities to ensure the

political and social stability of states in which they live.

In the social sciences and by consciousness-raising NGOs and

the human rights observers use the term for the disadvantaged

people or a subordinate group that experiences a narrowing of

opportunities -success, education, wealth, etc.- that are

disproportionately low compared to their numbers in the society.

They do not limit a minority on the basis of their numerical

strength. Minority group is weaker or rendered weaker in the social

and power structure and may be differentiated from others by

race, ethnicity, language, gender and religion. A minority is aware

of its subordination and has a strong sense of group identity and

solidarity.

There is hardly any country which does not have its minority

groups. Article 1 of the UN declaration urges every state to protect

* Department of Evening Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh.

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the existence and promote the group identity of minorities. It urges

the states to legislate to achieve these ends. In this context, India

is a land of minorities having ethnic, racial, linguistic and religious

minorities. However, a discussion on minority in India immediately

denotes to religious minorities and this notion is strong in

academic writings, political debates, power structure and even in

the decision making at the highest level.

Here in this essay, an attempt is made to assess the

situation of Muslims and their place in power politics of the

country.

There are 40 odd countries in the world having entirely or

majority Muslim populations. Entire Middle East, Central Asia, North

Africa, Southeast Asia have sizeable Muslim populations. It is the

second largest religion in the world after Christianity. India, which

is at the periphery of Islamic Heartland of Arabia, has about 16

crore Muslims which is the third largest after Indonesia and

Pakistan. It is largest religious minority constituting about 15%

Indian population.

Despite their numbers, Indian Muslim has suffered from

identity crises, felt threatened by the outbursts of rightist

fundamentalist Hindu orgnisations especially after impendence of

the country. They have faced official apathy, religious intolerance,

social stigmas and have been discriminated in jobs etc. Despite

constitutional guarantees, the Muslims in India feel isolated and

away from the mainstream. These facts are indicated in the Sachar

Commission Report which was tabled in the Parliament on 30th

November 2006. The report says that 95% rural Muslim population

is living below poverty line. About 55% of Muslims in villages and

60% in urban areas have never been to school. Only 0.8% of

Muslims are graduate in rural areas and 3.1% in urban areas only

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1.2% of them are post-graduates. Their presence in central and

state services is 4.9%. Their presence in Public Sector

Undertakings is 7.2%, in IAS, IPS it is 3.2% in railways 4.5%,

judiciary 7.8% and in education 6.5%. However the presence of

Muslims in the prisons is disproportionately high for example,

32.4% of the prison inmates in Maharashtra jails are Muslims while

state has a population of 10.6%. In Delhi they are 12% of the

population but constitute 28% of the jail mates. In Gujarat they are

9% of the population but constitute 25% of the prisoners.

The Report has criticised the political parties in the country

and the community leaders and has called for an affirmative

action. The Sachar Committee has also rejected the myths that

Muslims shun modern education and flock to the Madarsas as only

4% of Muslim children go to Madarsas and explodes the notion that

they are averse to family planning. Report finds faster declining

fertility rates among Muslims as compared to other communities,

so demographically they will not out number the others in future.

Report finds two main factors which characterize Muslim problems

in India -educational backwardness and socio-administrative

mindset. The commission feels that it is the political

marginalisation and lack of empowerment of Muslims which is the

major cause of their problems.

Politically, Muslims have remained on the margins of Indian

politics since 1947. There was no Muslim renaissance in India and

they falsely basked in the glory of 700 years of Muslim rule in India

from Mohammed Ghauri to Bahadur Shah Zafar. First expression of

Muslim political ideas can be attributed to Sir Syed Ahmed Khan

who established Muslim Anglo-Oriental college which later became

Aligarh Muslim University.

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Indian National Congress was established in 1885. It slowly

became the movement of India's independence. Many of the

Muslim leaders who were part of Congress gradually became

concerned about the future of Muslims in the independent India.

Muslim elite regarded Congress as a Hindu organisation. As the

congress did not address properly the Muslim question, a sense of

separate Muslim nationhood gained ground. Dr. Mohammed Iqbal

and political activists like Choudhry Rehmat Ali became the main

ideologues of the idea of Pakistan.

Muslim politics became separated from the Congress when

Muslim League was founded at Dacca in 1906 with the sole aim to

protect the Muslim interests in India and give them an independent

political voice. In the beginning the British welcomed its formation

as a country weight to the Indian National Congress. However the

annulment of partition of Bengal in 1911, abolition of khilafat in

Turkey in 1918, dragged the league away from the British and

Lucknow Pact and Khilafat movement brought the Congress and

Muslim League closer. This cordial relationship lasted until the

elections of 1937, when both the parties jointly contested the

elections in central province. After the elections Congress got a

majority of its own in the provincial legislature and refused to give

the league agreed number of ministerial berths. Discontented,

Muslim League parted ways with Congress.

From 1940 onwards league began to insist that the Muslims

were not a minority but a nation, and that India was a binational

country. Between 1942 and 1945 when most of the Congress

leaders were in jails, the hitherto weak Muslim League Mobilised

and acquired enormous hold over the Muslims. Mohammed Ali

Jinnah propagated the two nation theory. From the end of 1930s till

1946 Muslim League successfully spread its ideology of Pakistan

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among the Indian Muslims and adopted Pakistan Resolution at

Lahore in 1940.

As demand for Pakistan grew intense, political loyalties in

India were also shaped on religious lines. To press for its demand

for a separate state for the Muslims, the Muslim League called for a

Direct Action Day on 16 August 1946. It also refused to

compromise anything less than creation of Pakistan.

Muslim politics in India before partition had three faces:

1. Dr. Iqbal and Mohammed Ali Jinnah supported by Liaqat Ali

Khan and A.K. Fazal-ul-Haq who originally fought for and

were concerned about the protection of rights of Muslims in

India. Later they felt a separate homeland must be obtained

for India's Muslims in order to achieve prosperity for them.

They felt that in Pakistan Muslims will be free to decide the

course of their future themselves. They argued that Hindus

and Muslims are distinct in every respect and can not live

together. They said that once the British withdrew, the power

will be transferred to a Hindu Congress. In independent India

decisions will be taken on the basis of majority. Muslims,

being less in number will be permanently subjected to the

decisions of the majority i.e. subjugation to the whims of

Hindu majority.

2. There were nationalist Muslim leaders like Maulana

Abul Kalam Azad, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Dr. Mukhtar

Ahmed Ansari, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Saifuddin Kitchlu etc. Most

of these leaders rejected the idea of Pakistan and the two

nation theory. They strongly felt that every Muslim must

participate in the freedom Movement and join Indian National

Congress. They felt it as the patriotic duty of all the Muslims

of India.

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3. There was a third dimension to the Muslim politics. The

religious leaders like Maulana Syed Abul Ala Moududi, the

founder of Jammat-e-Islami at Pathankot and a prolific writer

who sought to propagate the Islamic religion and create an

islamic state in India.

Transfer of power and Muslim politics

Inspite of the best efforts to avoid the partition of the

country, Pakistan was created on 14 August 1947. On the principal

the Muslim majority states of Bengal and Punjab were divided. East

part of Bengal was made East Pakistan which is now called

Bangladesh. West Bengal is part of India. Similarly, Western part of

Punjab was made West Pakistan and Eastern Punjab became part

of India. The 600 odd princely states were free to join India or

Pakistan subject to the contiguity principle. For example North

West Frontier province (NWFP) wanted to join India but could not

because it fell within the Pakistani territory. The three princely

states whose transfer to any of the two nations could not occur

was the Muslim ruled princely state of Junagarh in Gujrat, the

largest state in India having a Muslim ruler, Hydrabad and Muslim

majority state of Jammu and Kashmir which had a Hindu ruler.

During the transitional period the Muslim politics was primarily

concerned with the future of remaining Muslims in India and

annexation of these three princely states.

Muslim politics in independent India

Creation of Pakistan did not put an end to Muslim question in

India. Millions of Muslims were left back in India. An overwhelming

majority of them chose to remain in India. Interestingly, the

Muslims from Uttar Pradesh, where demand for Pakistan nurtured

and got full support, did not migrate in large numbers. Punjab

witnessed a bloody and violent migration in which over a million

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people on both sides were brutally killed in religious frenzy.

Muslims who constituted about 60 per cent of combined Punjab

population were reduced to less than 1 percent after partition

which further came down after the creation of Haryana and

Himachal Pradesh in 1966.

Muslims constitute about 15 percent of Indian population and

about 160 millions in number, are spread across UP, Bihar, West

Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Gujrat and Andhra Pradesh etc.

After country's independence, the Muslim did not try to

evolve their separate political identity. At that time country was

boiling with religious intolerance and the aftermath of the creation

of Pakistan had put the entire Indian Muslims in an unenviable

situation. The Hindu extremist organisations like Hindu Maha sabha

and Jan Sangha, RSS etc. advocated that India should be declared

a Hindu state on the ground that the Muslims of the country have

carved out their separate home land. However, Pt. Jawaharlal

Nehru and the Congress did not heed this to. India was declared a

Sovereign Democratic Republic with no state religion. Religious

freedoms were granted to all its citizens and the minorities were

given rights to protect promote and propagate their religion and

culture.

In the electoral politics of the country, Muslims in India stood

by the secular Indian National congress helping it to reject the

militant Hindu stance. Unstinted Muslims support to the Congress

continued from 1952 till about 1976.

Muslims, however remained in deep identity crises. They

became alienated in their own land, they were accused of

partitioning the country. Their loyalty to India was a suspect and

their patriotism was questioned. Muslim were in a predicament.

Doors remained closed for the Muslims in certain government

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services inspite of the fact that they unstinted supported congress,

which ruled the country for most of the time after independence.

They got back a false sense of security. During the post-

independence period Muslims were rioted against, their

monuments were claimed to be temples of yesteryears and the

center or state governments for their economic and educational

advancement made no special efforts.

Muslims started thinking that congress was only paying lip

service to their problems and nothing concrete is being done for

the improvement of their physical quality of life etc. They started

alienating from the congress. The process started with forced

sterlisation and demolition of Muslim area in Turkeman Gate in old

Delhi during emergency and it completed with the demolition of

Babri Masjid on 6th Dec. 1992. Muslims accused congress, who

was in power at the centre, for complicity and inaction in the

demolition of Babri Masjid. They started looking for alternative

political parties preferring Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD to Congress in

Bihar, Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party in U.P. As UP and

Bihar slipped out of the congress fold, it became difficult for

congress to come to power on its own and ultimately had to settle

for a coalition at the centre. To appose the BJP, Muslims in UP and

elsewhere, in the past few elections resorted to tactical voting that

is, voting for the candidate who can defeat the BJP whichever

political party he/she may belong.

On the other hand, Muslims knowing fully well that they will

remain on the margins of powers politics and can not get their due

share in power, their politics became more protectionist. Their

main concern being to protect their religion and culture. This is

evident from the fact that apart from Jammu and Kashmir where

Muslims constitute 67% of the population, rest of India had only

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two Chief Ministers Abdul Ghafoor of Congress in Bihar from 1973-

75 and A.R. Antuley of congress in Maharashtra from June 1980 to

Jan. 1982, during the last 60 years.

The country has seen three Muslim Presidents. Muslim may

boast of Azim Premji of Wipro, they may feel happy about the

visible Muslim presence in Ballywood or feel proud of Aligarh

Muslim University or Jamia Millia Islamia. But their presence in Lok

Sabha is only 6.7% (36/534) and in Rajya Sabha 10.3% (25/242).

The Muslim politics in India hovers around their masjids,

dargahs, traditional Islamic institutes like Darul Aloom Deoband,

Darul Aloom Nadwa etc. Their politics is confined to get

gubernatorial positions, nominations to the Haj Committees,

Minority commission and various other government bodies. Their

politics is to ensure the sacroscence of Muslim Personal Law,

protection of Art 370, get back the Babri Masjid or promotion and

protection of Urdu language. Their politics is more on emotive

issues rather than consolidation of their strength and become a

political force. Many of them fear that Muslim consolidation can be

counter productive.

The rise of terrorism in the recent years has further

increased the Muslim dilemma. In the aftermath of demolition of

Babri Masjid anti-Muslim riots took place at many places including

Bombay and after some time the whole Bombay was rocked by

bombs killing hundreds of people. The attack on Indian Parliament,

Red Fort, Varanasi temple bombing, Delhi and Hydrabad bomb

blasts, Akshardham temple attacks have placed Muslims in an

awkward situation as most of the terrorists alledgly involved in

these cases have been Muslims. Due to misdeeds of few people

the whole of the community is viewed being in league with

terrorists the institution of religious education, Madarasas, are in

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the line of fire by Hindu rightist organisations as garneries to

produce militants.

While the Bajrang Dal, Vishav Hindu Parishad, BJP and other

members of Sangh Privar continue accusing Muslims of

Islamisation of India, and want to put them at the mercy of the

majority, other political parties use them merely as a vote bank.

Their presence on political scene is abysmally marginalised. They

are slowly developing a gheto mentality especially after the Gujrat

Riots.

Today, Indian Muslims have important organisations like

Tablighi Jamaat, Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamiatul ulema-e-Hind, All

India Milli Council etc. who can bring political awakening in them.

But they are more concerned with religious work. India has only

two Muslim political parties, All India Union Muslim League in

Kerala and Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat in Hydrabad but they have

local influence only.

It can therefore be safely concluded that the Muslims in India

are at the cross-road, like a rudderless boat, on the political scene

of the country.

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