By 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 programmes 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 ‘globalisation’ and the ‘liberalisation’ 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 marginalisation.

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.
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• 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

email id: publication@isidelhi.org.in
website: http://www.isidelhi.org.in

The report is priced at Rs. 80. For orders from outside India it is priced at 8.95 US dollars