FROM THE EDOTOR’S DESK

MUSLIM INDIA, 1996

The reawakening, the stocktaking and the revaluation of the situation by Muslim Indians in 1995 had kindled hopes of political representation, economic development and social progress. The hopes reached a crescendo by mid-1996 with the assumption of power by a secular and professedly minorities friendly coalition government under H.D. Deve Gowda. But these hopes, if they had not been dashed to the ground by the end of the year or brutally falsified, have turned sour with increasing frustration, though not despair.

During 1996, faced with the General Election and the prospect of change of government the Muslim Indians failed to throw up a representative and collective but 'non-political' leadership to guide them through the political maze that the Indian polity represents and the complex political scenario which involves scores of parties, each representing special interest, below a national or nationalist facade, and none with the protection of rights and interests of religious minorities as its special concern!

LEADERSHIP QUESTION

The liberal - secular and elitist establishment promoted and funded from outside the community was unable to dig its roots in the community and provide credible and acceptable guidance. The academicians and intellectuals make poor physicians; they were divided among themselves both on diagnosis and treatment, each pulled and pushed by their own aspirations and by their patrons.

The Muslim politicians, whichever the party, had lost credibility like all politicians across the board, though they continued to be utilised by their parties as drum- beaters for mobilisation of Muslim support. Some Ulema distanced themselves from politics and sought refuge, as in all crisis situations, in the sanctity of their cloisters and seminaries.

While rejecting traditional leadership and discarding conventional politics in 1996 the Muslim Indians were not creative or united enough to put in their place a coherent strategy for representation in the power structure and an alternative leadership.

Not surprisingly, at the end of the game, after the dust had settled down, they found themselves more under-represented than ever before and represented, if at all, by gangsters, political adventures and confidence tricksters who were embraced by the powers that be.

That they did not respond to the love-calls of the BJP is laudable. But their failure to identify and support a rational, secular and enlightened leadership is equally tragic.

POLITICAL REPRESENTATION

In the General Election 1996, Muslim representation in the Lok Sabha fell to an all-time low. Also in UPA ssembly election fewer Muslims were Combined with arbitrary deletion of names from the electoral rolls and motivated delimitation of constituencies and candidates of non-entities rather than winnable Muslims by major parties even in Muslim concentration constituencies as the sectarian and 'caste" divisions within the Muslim community have led to the Muslims being eased out of the political arena.

Muslim Indians fail to comprehend why, while emergent social groups like the Yadavas, the Kurmis and the Koeris, the Chamars and the Dusadhs, much smaller in population, are calling the tune, while power is visibly shifting from the hands of the Savaranas to those of the Shudras, they are being left out in the cold and losing whatever clout they possessed. The reason is three fold. Firstly, they are unable to practise 'camouflage politics', build and control a political party of their own while keeping its doors open to others in keeping with the law of the land and, therefore, end up by scattering unconditional and sometimes unsolicited support among various secular parties. Secondly, in any Muslim concentration constituency, they tend to cancel themselves out through a multiplicity of candidates, some even sponsored and supported by the hostile forces in a deliberate bid to smooth their own way in. Thirdly, once they support a party across the board, they do not exercise their intelligence to distinguish between its strong and weak candidates at the constituency level and fail to see that they reduce their own representation as well as the number of friendly legislators by supporting weak candidates or by dispersing their votes among a multiplicity of Muslim candidates.

The only effective response to the situation is to evolve a non-political intelligence system which commands credibility and the allegiance of the community to decide, constituency by constituency, the candidate to be supported.

If the under-representation of Muslims in the legislation becomes chronic and endemic, the demand for proportionate reservation in the legislation is bound to gather momentum. Already it is being articulated.

INSTITUTIONAL FRAME

1996 saw no institutional development towards the protection of rights and interests of minorities. The PM's 15-Point Programme remained a dead letter. The compensation scheme for loss of life and property in communal disturbance evolved for the victims of anti- Sikh disturbance of 1984 was not applied to the Muslims. The Wakf Act, 1995, though promulgated, was not brought into force except in one or two States. The Central Wakf Council was not reconstituted. Once again, the vested interests began to conspire to dismantle the Punjab Wakf Board into separate State Boards for Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, for the convenience of exploitation. Maulana Azad Educational Foundation and the Minorities Finance and Development Corporation made precious little contribution towards economic or educational uplift of the community. The so-called special Educational Programmes for Muslims under the N.P.E. went unnoticed.

The Minorities Commission has been reconstituted with the eminent Jurist Dr. Tahir Mahmood as Chairman but despite being saddled with a motley assortment of members, the Commission has shown signs of life and dynamism during the brief period he has been in office.

COMMUNAL ENVIRONMENT

The Ministry of Home Affairs has once again established a Minorities Cell to go into minorities

problem related to law and order. But the fact remains that though communal violence has abated, Hindu communalism is on the rampage and anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim propaganda goes on unabated. Neither the Home Ministry, nor the State Governments, nor the Minorities Commission, nor the Press Council have taken any effective steps to curb this vicious flow both verbal and written. The social environment remains surcharged with communalism and if poison continues to be injected in the body-politic, that it will erupt some day is a certainty but when. no one can say. Happily there were no serious communal incidents during 1996.

KASHMIR SITUATION

Parliamentary and Assembly elections were held in J&K. Having realised its suicidal boycott of the Lok Sabha poll, National Conference, even though it had nothing new to "offer to the people", entered the fray and registered a landslide victory in the Assembly election. Farooq Abdullah assumed Chief Ministership. However, 1906 came to, a close - and time passes fast - without any move towards restoration of autonomy or any respite in militancy. All Parties Hurriyat Conference boycotted both elections and stands marginalised due to its failure to rise to the occasion and its dependence on external support penetrating charges of corruption. People have seen through the Pakistan game and have rejected the gun vulture but they have not developed any love for the Indian Government or affection for Farooq Abdullah who is behaving in their eyes, more and more as an agent of the Centre. Farooq Abdullah even shies from making his case for autonomy and special relationship to the Indian people, even to Muslim Indians. Indeed there is Virtually no emotional or ideological communication between the Muslim Kashmiri and the vast mass of Muslim Indian.

RESERVATION

Reservation in Public Employment and Higher Education was a major issue before the Muslim Indians during the year. Once again, hollow pride and internal differences have robbed the Muslim Indians of an opportunity because the UF Government, despite the Len's reluctance, could have been pressed into instituting reservation for the community as a whole, on the ground of backwardness. On one hand, the hostile forces have projected the views of the anti-reservation elements and, on the other; they have revived the 'Caste' factor. It is amazing that the so-called lower caste groups among Muslims are being persuaded to believe that they have more to gain by categorization along with Hindu OBC's or Hindu SC's than with other Muslims. However, the demands of Muslim OBC's and Muslim SC's for separate quota for themselves has a logic of its own but in the absence of Muslim solidarity, it would be an uphill, near impossible, task for them to achieve their demand. The Association for Promotion of Education and Employment of Muslims has correctly reiterated during 1996 its demand for a Muslim quota, based on population and relative backwardness, which should be preferentially available to the eligible candidates from the Muslim sub-communities notified as 'Backward Classes'.

EDUCATION

1996 witnessed increasing attention to educational development. The Talimi Caravan organised by UP Rabita Committee, the A.I. Women's Education Conference in Madras and the All India Conference on Muslim Education, jointly organised by the American Federation of Muslims from India & All India Muslim Education Council in Patna were the highlights of the year. However, what is needed is urgent investment of available resources, scarce as they are, in priority sectors of post-Secondary technical training, higher secondary education, and post-Higher Secondary coaching for competitive examinations and of residential facilities for talented students at district level. Madarsas and Masjids, big and small, continue to have first claim on Muslim charity, apart from Masjids leaving little for 'secular' education! There is increasing need for a rotational fund for financing higher education, particularly in Medicine, Engineering and Management. AMU passed through another phase of disturbances, deliberately orchestrated by the land mafia. Similar mafia has played a role also in the Jamia Millia Islamia Campus in New Delhi

All. Muslim educational institutions, including the AMU and the JMI are now being forced to introduce reservation for SC's, and ST's,. Similar dispensation for the OBC's may not be far in the future. These further limit educational opportunities for Muslims since they do not enjoy any reservation in other universities. In any case, since neither the AMU nor the JMI have been formally recognised as minority educational institutions, Muslims do not enjoy any preference or reservation in admission. Indeed the proportion of Muslim in post- graduate courses which are marketable is steadily going down.

A magnificent development was the passage of the Abul Kalam Azad Urdu University Bill, 1996, but the very low budget allocation for 1996-97 indicates that the University may take years to become functional. Moreover, the Bill does not authorise the University to affiliate Urdu-medium institutions throughout the country or to run the basic degree courses in Arts, Science, and Commerce with Urdu as the medium of instruction.

PERSONAL LAW

A major event was the unequivocal statement by the Union Government before the Supreme Court disclaiming intention to introduce a uniform civil code in haste and its repeated reassurance to the Muslim community in this regard. Another positive development was the rejection of the plea of unconstitutionality against the Muslim personal law raised in Shahnaz Sheikh Case.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board did not show much activity and failed to complete its mandate of codification of Muslim personal law or organisation of effective campaign of social reform, particularly in the field of dowry, divorce and polygamy or expansion of its chain of Dar-ul-Quza.

Some negative campaign against Mathura Idgah and Varanasi Masjid and the Calcutta HC's ban on use of PA System for Azan.

BABARI MASJID QUESTION

The Muslim psyche wounded by the demolition of the Babari Masjid continued to lick its wounds. Indeed the Muslim voters largely turned away from the Congress because they held P.V. Narasimha Rao responsible for the tragedy. But the UF Govt. merely reopened the old and settled question of transfer of the title suit to the Supreme Court under Article 138(2) of the Constitution and thus divided the Muslim public opinion. It did not show any sense of urgency. The Liberhan Commission of Inquiry was nowhere near completing its allotted task; the farce of criminal prosecution of top RSS-VHP-BJP leaders by the Special CBI Judge continued to be played in full view and even the title suit being heard by the Special Bench of Allahabad H.C. made very slow progress though it began to record evidence. There was no progress in the contempt cases pending before the Supreme Court. The Central Government or the PM failed to give any formal assurance that if the tile suit was decided in favour of the Muslim community, the Babari Masjid site shall be transferred to them, without any demur.

MARCH OF HINDUTVA

Following the failure of the BJP to gain an overall majority and form a Hindu Government, first in Delhi and then in Lucknow, the Hindutva forces were struck with confusion, contradiction and dilemmas. Their Mathura and Varanasi agitations failed to enthuses the people. Their campaign for total central ban on slaughter of the cow and its progeny again fizzled out. The BJP thought discretion to be the better part of valour and decided to place the Ram Janmabhoomi question on the backburner and not to associate itself publicly with the Mathura and Varanasi adventures of the VHP. Indeed although Vajpayee headed a 14-day government of theyear, as the whole the BJP's inner contradictions were fully exposed during the year. Its claim to be "a party with a difference" fell flat. It turned out to be equally infected with indiscipline and internal bickering’s and, what is worse, the Mandal epidemic. The BJP appeared to have recognised that it had reached a plateau and in order to make a quantum jump to power, it has to change its"chal", "Charitra" and "Chehra", as a member of its think-tank put it. That is why the BJP tried to befriend the regional parties, on one hand, and to cultivate the Muslims and other religious minorities on the other. But as Shakespeare said "Can a leopard change its spots"? But the real engine of Hindutva and the RSS kept generating steam. Hindutva may beat a tactical retreat but its strategic objective remained unchanged – the Hinduisation of the Indian society and polity.

STATE OF THE COMMUNITY

A wide gulf continues to yawn between the Muslim elite and the masses, between the 'modernists' and the 'obscurantist', between the progressives and the conservatives, between the Ulema and the professionals, between the liberal and the orthodox. Perhaps this is true of all Muslim communities all over the world in this age of transition, even in Muslim-majority States. In the intervening space, masquerade all sorts of dubious characters and organisations under false pretences. The Milli 'Parliament's session in Patna and the SIMI's Khilafat campaign launched during the year demonstrated the extremist and unrealistic thinking of the extremists who, constitute a fringe but parade themselves as the holders of the banner of Islam, to lead the Muslims towards a Islamic State, towards the Caliphate. Such a campaign, pitting the State against Islam, trying to reverse the flow of history, generate nothing but antagonism and hostility and is nothing short of being suicidal in a non-Muslim country. Such out-pouring poisons the environment and prepare the soil for Hindutva's harvests.

Unfortunately the Muslim Indians have no organisational infrastructure. The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat remained dormant throughout the year, it took the President a whole year after the reorganisation of the Markazi Majlis and the election of the office-bearers to form the Working Committee! The AIMMM did not address itself to any major community problem. Unfortunately, the All India Milli Council, the rival forum, also showed signs of decline, particularly, after the General Election in which it gave unqualified support to the National Front or its major constituents like the JD in Bihar or the Samajwadi Party in UP. Jamiatul Ulema-e-Hind and its various factions appeared to have gone to sleep. Jamaat-i-Islami-Hind has been occupied but with internal consultations; however its publication programme has maintained steady rhythm.

TOWARDS 1997 AND BEYOND

Another test of political sagacity may come in not too distant a future. Muslim Indians must set their agenda, the sooner, the better.

* Build up a Non-political Consultative and Guidance Bureau with a nationwide network, with the association of all available experience and skills of relevance, with the representation of all sects and baradaris, of all schools of ideology, from all fields of human endeavour, which would monitor and promote the secular order, while maintaining equidistance from all secular parties, and encourage the formation a Secular Alternative, which should be strong enough to face the Hindutva Rath when it begins to roll again in the political Mahabharata which will come before the sun sets on the 20th century.

* Build up a nationwide network of educational development committees, Societies, Conferences to formulate a practical programme for promoting education at all levels, to make full use of the official programmes, as well as to channelise selectively minority community's own resources, wherever necessary.

* Launch a campaign of Social reform through codification of personal law and an active campaign against Triple Divorce and Polygamy and for remarriage of divorcees and widows and for the welfare of the aged and the orphans.

* Organise a Foundation for Economic Development which would supplement availability of funds for self- employment as well as assist entrepreneurs in seeking financial support from government schemes.

* Participate actively at mass level in all secular political parties and movements whose objective is the establishment of a Just Society which would assure an equitable share in power to all social groups.

* Develop a Cadre of Workers who would, for the Love of Allah, protect the interest of the community in census operation, revision of electoral rolls, delimitation of Constituencies and wards, adjudication of intra-community disputes, assist the eligible member of the community in securing benefits from government welfare programmes and generally collect member of the community in securing benefits from government welfare programmes and generally collect and disseminate information of relevance and use to the community.

Not by mutual recrimination but by mutual support and understanding,

Not by waiting for angels to drop from the heaven but by supporting positive initiatives and lighting a candle.

Not by isolation in ghettos but by participation in national endeavours,

Not by abusing the enemy and cursing the fate or waiting for the deliverer but by assertion of right in dignity,

Not by hostility and rivalry but by cooperation and good neighbourliness,

Not by worrying about their own problems only but by feeling concern with the problems which afflict all the countrymen,

The Muslim Indians can regain value in the political market-place and count in the national transactions, at least as much as the Yadavas, Kurmis and Koeris, or the Chamars and the Dusadhs.

The Muslim Indian has no desire to be the King but why can't be one of the King-nation?

New Delhi,

I February, 1997