Muslim Marginalisation and the Need For State Action:
Findings of a Report
Yoginder Sikand
Almost the only occasions on which the Indian
”mainstream” press cares to mention Muslims is in the
context of some sensational controversy or the other.
Otherwise, the 150 million Muslims appear to merit
scant media attention. Since Muslims are generally
framed in such a way in ”mainstream” media and
policy-making discourses, it is hardly surprising that
the overall pathetic economic, educational and social
conditions of the Indian Muslims are hardly ever
talked about, let alone seriously sought to be
addressed. How, if such a large section of India’s
population is left to wallow in poverty and
deprivation and continues to face various forms of
discrimination and injustice, India as a whole can
prosper is an issue that is rarely seriously thought
about. How inter-community harmony and peace can be
promoted if this worrying situation continues to
remain unaddressed is almost never mentioned in
”mainstream” talk about Muslims.
The overall living conditions of India’s Muslims are
significantly worse than that of Hindus, particularly
‘upper’ caste Hindus, and, indeed, are not
considerably different from that of the Dalits and
Adivasis, the poorest of the Indian poor. This is what
a recently-released report, a joint effort of Action
Aid, the Indian Social Institute and the Jahangirabad
Media Institute, makes clear. Based on a sample of
over 1000 Muslims in seven Indian states (Gujarat,
Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra
Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh), and backed up with
references to the available secondary literature and
qualitative interviews, the ‘National Study on
Socio-Economic Conditions of Muslims in India’ brings
to light the fact of alarming levels of deprivation as
well as state neglect and discrimination that Muslims
in large parts of the country face.
On almost every social index, the report reveals,
Muslims are considerably worse off than most other
communities in India. In the Parliament, state
assemblies and local bodies their representation is
much less than that warranted by their population. The
same holds true in various government services, even
in such jobs as peons, drivers and cleaners, for which
higher educational qualifications are not required.
Government infrastructural investment and spending in
Muslim localities is meager. Government scholarship
schemes and development programs have benefited only
a tiny number of Muslims. Most Indian Muslims belong
to caste groups that are classified as Other Backward
Classes (OBCs), but they have received relatively
little benefit from reservations for the OBCs. Schemes
meant for minorities have, by and large, singularly
failed. All this and more the report shows, backing up
these claims with detailed statistics. The limited
economic progress Muslims in some places have made,
the report says, has been largely independent of the
state, not because of any active assistance on its
part.
In terms of occupation, income levels, education and
access to various services, too, Muslims fare
considerably worse than most other communities. A
large proportion of Muslims are artisans and
daily-wage earners, and the forces of ‘globalization’
and the ‘liberalization’ of the economy are leading to
their rapid marginalization, making their living
conditions even more precarious. In urban areas, the
report indicates, a disproportionately higher
proportion of Muslims work in the informal sectors of
the economy or are self-employed, and enjoy lower
living standards than Hindus as whole, much lower than
the ‘upper’ caste Hindu minority. In villages in much
of India, Muslim landlessness is widespread, and
roughly equal to that of Dalits. In both rural and
urban India their levels of asset ownership are
relatively low. Muslim localities, typically, are
deprived and have few government-funded
infrastructural facilities. On the educational front,
Muslims are much behind Hindus, especially at the
higher levels. Owing to discriminatory attitudes,
Muslims often find it difficult to get jobs in both
public as well as private sector undertakings.
To add to this worrying state of affairs, widespread
discrimination and organized anti-Muslim violence by
Hindu mobs, instigated by Hindutva outfits and often
in league with the state, are driving Muslims into
squalid ghettos, which remain deprived of basic
amenities. This process is further increasing communal
divisions and reducing spaces for cross-community
interaction, besides further fuelling Muslim social,
economic and educational marginalization.
Various factors are responsible for Muslim
marginalization, the report contends. A large
proportion of Indian Muslims are descendants of
converts from various ‘low’ castes, whose social and
economic conditions remained largely unchanged even
after conversion. The lack of a significant Muslim
middle class, particularly in north India, which could
provide the community with suitable leadership, is
another reason. Added to this is the influence
(admittedly often exaggerated) of conservative
sections of the ulema class and the paucity of Muslim
civil society groups working for community
empowerment. Most Muslim organizations, especially in
north India, appear to focus on religious education
and the protection and promotion of Muslim identity,
doing little else for the Muslim poor. Influential
sections of the ‘established’ Muslim leadership,
religious and political, the report says, appear to
have a vested interest in keeping Muslims ‘backward’,
as it shores up their claims to authority and enables
them to deliver the ‘Muslim vote-bank’ to the highest
bidder in return for being treated by the state and
political parties as the ‘representatives’ of the
community.
The dismal living conditions of Muslims, in general,
has also to do with discriminatory practices and
attitudes of the state and the wider society, the
report forcefully argues. In many places where Muslims
have experienced some amount of economic mobility,
organized anti-Muslim pogroms have resulted in much
tragic loss of life and property. In the face of the
Hindutva onslaught and, in some cases, the specific
targeting of Muslims by agencies of the state, a
tremendous fear psychosis now pervades large sections
of the community in several parts of India, the report
reveals. Being constantly put on the defensive and
forced to ‘prove’ their commitment to ‘patriotism’ and
‘non-violence’, Muslims today experience a heightened
sense of Muslim insecurity, leaving them little
breathing space to focus on the work of internal
reform. In a climate of growing Islamophobia, even
basic demands for the state to protect social,
educational and economic rights of Muslims as citizens
and tax-payers are quickly branded as ‘communal’ and
‘anti-national’. This makes it increasingly difficult
for Muslims to have their voices heard and for their
pathetic living conditions to be addressed by the
state and the wider society.
In terms of ‘security’, which, unfortunately, is how
the ‘Muslim question’ is being increasingly addressed,
not just in India but elsewhere too, the continued
marginalization and deprivation of large sections of
the Indian Muslims raises serious questions. Neglect
and discrimination by the state and its failure to
protect Muslim lives and take stern action against
those involved in anti-Muslim violence naturally
seriously impacts on Muslims’ confidence in the
system. This, and the vitriolic Islamophobic rhetoric
of Hindutva forces and the periodic anti-Muslim
pogroms that they unleash, often in league with or
abetted by agencies of the state, is only reinforcing
the influence of insular and conservative religious
forces among many Muslims, making the prospects for
cross-community dialogue increasingly difficult. The
implications this has for communal harmony are too
obvious to need elaboration.
In short, then, as the report argues, the state needs
to urgently wake up to the reality of the
socio-economic marginalization of the Muslim community
as a whole and pervasive anti-Muslim discrimination
and undertake effective measures to address the issue.
As an overall deprived and beleaguered community, the
justification for this, and even for protective
discrimination, as in the case of Adivasis and Dalits,
is even greater. And, even from the narrow ‘security’
point of view, this makes perfect sense, for injustice
and genuine peace never go together.
The 168-page report has been published by the Indian
Social Institute, New Delhi. For copies, contact:
The Publications Department
Indian Social Institute
10 Institutional Area
Lodi Road
New Delhi 110003
India
