Indian Muslims and Marginalization
India’s Muslims have been suffering from marginalization, especially after the rise of the Hindu Right.
Despite the fact that the Indian constitution guarantees equality between all of India’s citizens, a feeling of discrimination is prevalent amongst Indian Muslims, something which was reported by the Sachar committee in 2005 to the Indian government.
The Sachar committee, created by the government to study the social and economic conditions of the Muslim community, pointed to a very low Muslim socio-economic condition, with their development indices being the lowest across India, compared to other minorities (e.g. literacy, school enrollment, employment in the bureaucracy, police, banks and public sector, etc.), and a level of poverty that is the highest.
One of the important findings of the committee was the fact that the percentage of Indian Muslims employed in the bureaucracy is much less than their percentage of India’s population and that Muslims are increasingly feeling threatened by a Hindu-dominated society.
“Without doubt Muslims have paid the price of Partition. They could have been significantly stronger in a united India. Of course, Pakistan and Bangladesh won’t like what I am saying” India’s former Minister of External Affairs said.
Besides, Muslims often feel they are looked at as agents for Pakistan and conspirators against their own country, especially when it comes to Jammu and Kashmir, one of the most important places where Muslims are suffering, and where some Muslims identify with Pakistan.
BBC’s Jill McGivering reported in Delhi in 2002: “Many Muslims see they are being criminalized, as well as feeling isolated in India’s society.”
Indian Muslims feel pressure to always prove they are loyal to India not to Pakistan, and as Aftab Taiyab, a cricket fan, says: “Whenever there is a cricket match between India and Pakistan – they always think we’re supporting Pakistan and not India. Why so? We’re as much Indian as they are.”
Dr. Mukarram Ahmed Mufti, Imam at Fatehpuri mosque, says: “When the tension escalates, then this type of question comes more frequently – such as ‘Do you support Pakistan?’… ‘You’re going to have a war, what’s your opinion about this?’… I will always support India, why will I support Pakistan? This is our motherland.”[1]
Finally, “India-Partition-Independence”, an important book written by India’s former minister for external affairs Jaswant Singh, who broke away from the BJP, describes the conditions of Muslims as “neglected” and “deprived”.
“Look into the eyes of the Muslims who live in India and if you truly see the pain with which they live, to which land do they belong? We treat them as aliens…without doubt Muslims have paid the price of Partition. They could have been significantly stronger in a united India…of course Pakistan and Bangladesh won’t like what I am saying,” Jaswant Singh said ahead of the release of his book in 2009.
This article is from our archive, originally published on an earlier date, and highlighted now for its importance
[1] Jill McGivering. “India’s Muslims Feel Backlash.” BBC News 6 June 2002. Web. 16 April 2014
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