MUSLIM POLITICS
Caste Politics in Muslim Indian Society
Note in The Communalism Combat, Bombay, October, 1997
Following the opening of the locks on the gates of the Babari Masjid in Ayodhya in 1986 and the Ramjanambhoomi movement that gathered momentum in its wake, Vilas Sonavane, Fakhruddin Bennur and a few other activists from Maharashtra - all with an OBC social background - started worrying about how to counter the aggressive Hindutva propaganda which sought to demonise Muslims as 'outsiders'
Soon in their search ... a new political perspective emerged: Hindutva's hostility against Muslims is as old as the communal ideology itself. The growing assertion of the backward castes and Dalits compounded by V.P. Singh's decision to implement Mandal's recommendations posed a serious threat to the centuries' old hegemony of the Hindu upper castes. One way to contain the serious crack developing within Hindu society was to draw attention to the threat that all Hindus faced from a common enemy - Muslims. If Muslims could be projected as a united, homogeneous, religious community, a strong pitch could be made for the absolute necessity for Hindus to stay united and avoid divisive issues like Mandal.
How do you demolish ('deconstruct') the myth about Muslims? Fortuitously, an action of the government of Maharashtra in 1992 - a notification reduced the number of castes in Maharashtra eligible for reservations recommended by Mandal was slashed from 272 to 215. Among those affected by this were nine Muslim OBC castes. This provided the OBC activists from Maharashtra the opportunity to turn a perspective into an instrument of mass mobilisation.
Through a mass contact programme in Maharashtra. Muslim OBCs were made aware of the benefits they were being deprived of and Hindu OBCs convinced that the best way to defend and promote their own interests was through OBC-unity cutting across religious divides.
In December 1994, the Maharashtra government issued a new GR, adding 118 more castes (42 of them Muslims) to the list of those eligible for reservation benefits. The Shiv Sena-BJP coalition government which came to power in March 1995, initially pretended ignorance of the 1994 GR but relented when faced with a cross-community agitation by the castes who stood to benefit. Because of the efforts of the Muslim OBC Sangathan, more than two lakh OBCs among Muslims have managed to get caste certificates till now.
As nothing succeeds like success, the experience in Maharashtra sent ripples throughout the country. The first national convention in Delhi held in August 1996, in which delegates from most states in the country were present, was a success. The demands raised at the convention were for extension of Mandal Commission's recommendations to all Muslim OBCs.
From Maharashtra to New Delhi and from there to Lucknow; back to the States. What does the movement, still in its incipient stages, hope to gain? Since an overwhelming majority of India's Muslims are from the OBC category and since there is sure to be competition within the limited number of jobs among the hundreds of OBC castes from different religions, it can be nobody's argument that reservations will resolve the economic problem of the Muslim OBCs. The great promise which the emerging Muslim OBC holds lies elsewhere.
The outpourings of the Muslim OBC delegates whether in Delhi or in Lucknow may soon inspire one of them into paraphrasing Kanshi Ram: "Syed, Shaikh, Mughal, Pathan, in sub ko maro jute char".
The Muslim OBC's growing self-assertion through the Sangathan cannot but alter his own psyche, challenge the social inequality within Indian Islam; it also has the potential of radically redefining the agenda for what constitutes the "Muslim question" in India.
And that takes us straight into the arena of politics The very nature of the demands promises to take Muslim OBC away from the politics of religious identity and towards issues of social justice and equality. Not surprisingly, the established leadership among Muslims has responded to the Sangathan with suspicion, hostility and a growing counter-demand for reservation benefits for Muslims as a community. The promise it holds for decommunalising Indian politics make it worthy of support.
(Source: The Communalism Combat, October, 1997)
Shahabuddin's Letter to The Communalism Combat, 27 October, 1997
The anonymous article "A New Muslim Identity" in your issue of October, 1997 is factually inaccurate and politically confused. If the writer sees promise of decommunlisation in assertion of Muslim OBC identity, he is living in a fool's paradise. The very fact that the Muslim OBC's have launched a Sanghatan of their own is indicative. Why can’t existing OBC organisations struggle for the rights?
But what are the rights? The Mandal Commission in 1980 and several State Governments like Bihar and UP much before that have already categorised some Muslim castes as OBC. Qualitatively the situation does not change if more Muslim castes or professional groups get themselves listed as OBC. Does it expand the available space or is the same space to be share by more groups? If so, taking the Central Scheme of reservation as the model, how much of the 27% quota will in fact become available to Muslim OBC's, who shall be like many Hindu OBC's, competing against much more advanced Hindu OBC's like Kurmis, Yadavas and Koeris in the north, and Reddys in A.P., Vokalingas in Karnataka, Thevars in Tamilnadu etc in the South.
The irresistible conclusion is that the Muslim OBCs are being taken for a ride unless quantitatively it can be proved that they are getting a share in the benefits of reservation, in proportion to their population, in public employment under the centre and in various States. Otherwise, the promotion of the Muslim OBC identity would have achieved its real purpose: sowing seeds of bitterness and disunity among the Muslim Indians so that divided, they become powerless to exert any pressure on the power structure to defend their human, constitutional and legal rights - individual and collective. Indeed, this would remove the biggest obstacle in the path of Hindutva. The Muslim OBC movement is thus helping the Hindutva movement.
Assuming that Muslim Indians stand divided among the higher castes, the OBC's and the Dalits, will it direct the Hindutva fury away from the last two to the first as the exclusive target? Will the Muslim OBC's and Muslim Dalits feel safe and secure during communal frenzy? Will Islam, its sacred personalities and the holy scripture and their personal law become immune from defamation and motivated assaults? Will the Urdu-speaking child be able to get his education through his Mother Tongue or acquire proficiency in it in the High School? Will the minority educational institution be safe against the persistent erosion of Article 30 and non-application of Article 29(2) of the Constitution? Will the Muslim OBC and Dalit youth not face the bias and prejudice in selection and recruitment for private and public employment?
The problem of the Muslim OBC's is different from the problem of the Hindu OBC's. In the Indian society, beyond the caste lies the religious identity and that is where the Hindu OBC's will always beat the Muslim OBC's. In a word, the problem in Muslim access to employment and higher education is not only backwardness but bias. If not, let the Hindu OBC's and Dalit's be prepared to concede a Sub-quota for Muslim OBC's and Dalits?
The writer is not aware that the demand for declaration of Muslims, as a community, a Backward Class and consequent reservation in public employment is as old as the Constituent Assembly and has been repeated by many associations and parties since then. The Association for Promoting Education and Employment among Muslim Indian held its National Convention in October, 1994, and adopted a Resolution to demand Reservation but with a provision that candidates belonging to notified (OBC) Muslim Sub-communities, with minimum qualification, shall have the first claim on the Muslim quota and the candidates of other Muslim Sub-communities shall be admitted, in order of merit, if only and to the extent that, the Muslim quota remains unutilised where there is the question of the "Ashraf' swallowing the Muslim quota?
