The reality that is still not adequately recognised in government and bureaucratic circles, is that India's 110 million Muslims lag far behind other communities in literacy, government and private employment, business and industry. They have low levels of income in urban areas, especially when measured in per capita terms.
More than half of the population live. below the poverty line: fewer urban Muslims work for a regular wage or salary than members of other religious groups. Widespread illiteracy and a higher dropout rate at the elementary stage are additional problems. That is why the average literacy rate among Muslims is much less than the national average. Most Muslim women, in particular, do not receive school education, let alone higher education Their empowerment is both a challenge and an urgent necessity.
It is true that there are regional variations, especially where the Muslims, along with Christians, enjoy benefits in the shape of liberal admission to institutions and scholarships, or in states where job opportunities have steadily increased after Urdu earned its rightful status ...Yet the overall picture is disconcerting. The worrying aspect is that they will remain, unless remedial measures are taken, outside the area of state employment and in the unorganised sector either as workers or as self-employed petty bourgeoisie ..
(Many) bemoan ... that opportunities for economic advance are specially blocked for Muslims because of official neglect and discrimination. This, they insist, has contributed to Muslims being 'the hewers of wood and drawers of waters'.
... Some other individuals and groups ... floated the idea of launching not one but several Muslim political parties ... This may turn out to be an ominous trend. My fears are based in part on past experiences and, in part, on present-day social and political realities. Among other things, I recount the fate of the Majlis-i Mushawarat (in the 1960s) in UP ... For one, democratic institutions, though easy to work with, do not always lend themselves to being effectively used or manipulated by religious collectivities.
Second, the Muslim share of the votes is, all said and done, small in most constituencies, though they can tilt the balance in some. So that, as the sole spokesmen of their co-religionists, Muslim political activists, regardless of their tall claims, have not carried much influence in decision-making processes. Nor have they succeeded in acquiring the profile of the backward caste leaders in UP or Bihar. Here the caste configuration has not only altered the political landscape but also ensured that Muslims play second fiddle to the more dominant caste alignments.
Although politicians of all hues would continue to court Muslims for electoral gains, the steady decline of the Congress has, in reality, gradually diminished the value of the 'Muslim vote'
In effect, Muslim leaders, unless tied with progressive political formations, would remain minor players in any electoral or political arrangement in New Delhi as weil as in Lucknow and Patna. What they can do best, more so after the collapse of the Congress hegemony, is to make their choices from a large number of secular options available in the political marketplace and hitch their fortunes with the secular combinations. After all, this strategy has paid off in recent decades, though perhaps not to everybody's satisfaction ...
... The moral of the story is that the Muslim communities, whether for tactical or other tangible reasons, must work out, as they have so often done after independence, cross-community linkages, not community-based ones. In other words, the secular and democratic regime, rather than the Islamist dimension, must provide the overarching framework to build new political networks. Taking refuge in or drawing sustenance from fundamentalist organisations ... is a recipe for disaster.
Nobody can take exception to the pursuit of one's faith. Nobody can object to Muslims starting schools and colleges, including madarsas, reforming charitable endowment (auqaf), improving the status of Muslim women, generating employment and energising the defunct Muslim institutions ... It is patently foolish and counterproductive to do so. Serious and fundamental issues of poverty, education and social emancipation that afflict the Muslim communities cannot be resolved by flexing one's muscles. (Source: The Indian Express, 5 June, 1999)
