Urdu press roundup
By IndianMuslims.info Staff

The extracts of Justice Sachar Committee findings that have made headlines in the Press have made Muslim writers and journalists as well as leaders and social activists sit up and plan to change the situation for the better. Opinion articles, news analyses and letters appearing in Urdu newspapers last week not only pointed out the various reasons of Muslims’ educational and economic backwardness, their lesser representation in public and private sectors than their presence behind the bars but also turned the searchlight inward.

Analysing the situation prevailing in Muslim society, the Urdu biweekly Dawat (November 1) editorially opines that Muslims have been gradually losing the very sense of backwardness and that this is a very dangerous trend. It further says that it is necessary to enliven this sense in order to march forward.

“Only economic and even educational uplift is not enough. Unless and until Muslims follow the universal principles of success, the much desired advancement of Muslims cannot be achieved,� it concludes.

The same issue of Dawat carries a thought-provoking article on “Educational Preferences of Indian Muslims� by Saiyid Hamid, renowned educationist, former Vice Chancellor Aligarh Muslim University and present Chancellor Jamia Hamdard.

Dr Hamid laments that Indian Muslims did not take education on preferential basis for over half a century. One major cause of it, he says, is that they had to pass through very critical times when their life and property, dignity and honour were all at stake. After Independence and Partition they stood deprived of what you can call either dil-i-zinda or zauq-i-hayat (zeal and enthusiasm to lead life with head held high). But the writer does not seem to accept it as a valid excuse for their near indifference to education, as he says:

“It is unfortunate that we did not take education seriously nor did we adopt the path of competition; no step we took to awake from deep slumber… we shut our eyes from the amazing changes taking place in the world…. As a result, despite the independence, democracy and secularism of India, the largest minority in the country became the centre of deprivations….

“The illiteracy of Muslims got spurred by the attitude the Government adopted towards them. The last census in the pre-independence days was conducted in 1941. Till then the census figures used to be published religion-wise. No sooner India got independence than this source of accountability and progress was abandoned. Muslims fell prey to the census negligence. Publication of religion-wise educational statistics was stopped and Muslims could not know how far backward they went educationally during the last 50 years. The irony is that the desired information was, and is even now, available in the office of Registrar General. This spell was broken in 2001 when religion-wise facts and figures were published. Thus the community was deprived of the golden opportunity of reform with which they would have benefited if the religion-wise information had been published. Who is after all responsible for this great loss?�

Dr. Hamid not only holds certain government policies responsible for the sorry state of Muslim affairs but criticises the Ummatic behaviour of Muslims: General suspension of will to make tireless strivings led Muslim students to abandon difficult subjects. They opted for Arabic, Persian, Urdu and arts subjects instead of science, mathematics and to some extent English as well.

He has drawn the attention of Muslims towards health as well as the various branches of learning, on which depends the progress of a community. He has also warned them against letting education go lopsided. That is, he stands for harmonious fusion of modern and religious education.

Another eye-opener is Seema Chishti’s edit-page article on “Indian Muslims: Fewer in Jobs than behind the Bars� published in the Hindustan Express of November 2. The article carries three tables showing Muslim representation in government jobs and judiciary and their presence in prisons in proportion to their population in the various states. The figures are based on Justice Sachar Committee findings.

One table presents the figures of 12 states: Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Delhi, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Average Muslim population in these states together is 15.4 per cent. And their representation in government jobs is only 6.4 per cent.

Another table presents Muslim representation in judiciary in 15 states. In this table three states viz. Bihar, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu from the previous table are missing, and in their place six states viz. Jammu & Kashmir, Uttaranchal, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Chattisgarh are included. In these 15 states Muslim employees are only 8 per cent while District Sessions judges are only 2.7 per cent.

The third table presents the presence of Muslims in prisons in eight states: Assam, Kerala, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. In these eight states 23.4 per cent jail inmates are Muslims.

“These figures show that political parties entice Muslims only because they need their votes. These parties do talk of providing them with social protection but they stay back while providing them with jobs…

“Biased mentality can be gauged with the fact that in government jobs, public sector and different judicial services the presence of Muslims is very low but in jails their number is very high…. This is a fact that the biggest cause of the alarming number of Muslims in prisons is the biased role of police. Picking Muslim youth from their homes and throwing them behind the bars under false and concocted cases is nothing new.�

5 Muslims in Team India

The Etemaad of October 31 reports that it is first time in the 80-year history of Indian cricket that five Muslim players have been included in Team India. The newly elected Selection Committee of B.C.C.I headed by former test cricketer Dileep Wengsarkar on October 30 named a 16-member team for the scheduled South Africa one-day series. Fast bowlers Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan and Manaf Pathan and batsmen Muhammad Kaif and Waseem Jafar are on this team.

The 5-column report presents the details of the achievements made in the history of Indian cricket as yet by these Muslim bowlers and batsmen.

First Muslim woman judge in Patna HC

This Hyderabad-based Urdu daily on October 29 reports the appointment of first Muslim woman judge in Patna High Court. Nawabzadi Sheema Ali Khan belongs to the well-known Nawab family of Awadh and Patna. She is the granddaughter of Nawab Syed Muhammad Mehdi and daughter of Justice Syed Sarwar Ali, Acting Chief Justice (Retd.) of Patna High Court and Lok Ayukt (Retd.) Bihar. On his maternal side, she is the maternal granddaughter of H.H. Sir Syed Raza Ali Khan, Nawab Rampur, after whose name is running the famous Raza Library of Rampur. She is the wife of Nawabzada Safdar Ali Khan, Advocate, who had been chairman of Bihar Shia Waqf Board, Patna. After doing her M.A. in Psychology, Sheema Ali Khan did her law course from Patna, and later started practising as a lawyer under Tara Kant Jha, Advocate. She was declared Senior Advocate in 2005.

November 3, 2006