The propaganda that the Muslim minority is pampered because of which the Hindu majority is deprived of its share in income, education, social recognition, etc., is as false as the Sangh Parivar propaganda on population. Let us take the date on education.

Table I will show that far from being pampered, Muslims in India are a discriminated minority.

According to a survey conducted by the Planning Commission for 1987-88, the average literacy rate for the Muslims was 42 per cent, while the national average was 52 per cent. In the case of women the situation was worse. Only 11 percent Muslim women were literate compared to the national average of 39.42 per cent.

Table I

Number of Persons Currently Attending Educational Institutions Per 1000 Persons by Age Groups, Sex and Religion, 1990

Rural India

Urban India

(Source: "Sarvekshana", National Sample Survey, 43rd Round, 1990)

Tables 2 and 3 show that Muslims in the lower income brackets are much larger in number than the majority community. A high-power committee headed by the late Dr Gopal Singh submitted a report to the Minorities Commission in 1983. This revealed that throughout the 70s the Muslim community found placements in jobs and educational institutions much less than the qualified and eligible sections of their population.

Table 2

Community-wise Break-up of Income (Gopal Krishna Study)

Table 3

Community-wise Break-up of Jobs and Professions

In the "Garibi Hatao" decade of the seventies, of the total bank loans given for poverty alleviation programmes. Muslims received on 3.76 per cent. According to The Economic Times (December 21, 1992) the decline in the community's relative economic strength was between 20 and 25 per cent.                                                                                                                 A similar situation emerges in relation to the Muslim share in civil services. As in any other employment avenue, Table 4 shows it is lower than the percentage share in population.

Table 4

Civil Service Examination Results Public Employment

Likewise, of the total 415 High Court judges on January 1, 1992, only 29 were Muslims i.e. 6.99 per cent. (Source: The People's Democracy, 8 March, 1998)

Ashutosh Varshney on B.IP's Need to Win Trust

Why is Hindu nationalism an object of considerable suspicion? Why is it that a majority could still elude the BJP? While many have inched closer to the BJP, why do so many others still believe that it is a loose cannon?

My ... hypothesis is that at the deepest level, the idea that India's national identity is Hindu and that Hindutva should be everyone's culture in India is profoundly disturbing, not simply for the intellectuals but also for the masses. The problem has two parts. The first is by now conventional wisdom. The idea of Hindu unity is threatening to the lower caste parties and large proportion of lower castes themselves. It effectively means that the way India's lower castes have historically been treated by the upper castes is only a social, not a political issue This is absurd, for Hinduism may be externally and doctrinally tolerant, but internally it has been quite intolerant. Lower caste issues of dignity are real and have a national spread. Lower caste resentments will go up or down - perhaps down in this election - but they will not disappear. It's too serious a matter for millions of lower caste Indians. Dignity is not something only upper castes can claim to have.

Second, a large number of Hindus - quietly going about their lives, not participating in mobilisation, but no inclined towards the lower caste parties either – remain unpersuaded. Those who are mobilised often receive a lot of political attention, not those who stay back in their homes. But the latter also vote. As a result, there is often a gap between political mobilisation and election results. The Ayodhya movement was arguably the largest movement in recent years but the BJP did not come to power. Mobilised numbers can be an inaccurate indicator of electoral strength.

Deep inside their hearts, large proportions of the quiet, unmobilied, Indians are not ready for an ideology, however moderate its political practitioners may have become, that all religions and diverse groups of Indians must 'assimilate' to a Hindu centre which, furthermore, would be defined by an organisation like the BJP, RSS or VHP.

India's minorities - linguistic, religious, caste or tribe-based - have made remarkable contributions to India's culture, life and history. To deny that is to cause  undue bitterness and rancour. Millions of peace-loving Indians are happy with the nation's many diversities and the syncretism of its culture.

One may, of course, ask: Is India's culture really syncretic? The question is relevant for both elite and popular culture. ..

It is neither Hindu nor Muslim, but highly syncretic. Non-Muslim minorities have also shaped the India we know. The Sikhs have been the heroes of our  armed forces; Indian Christians have made major contributions to education; and Parsis have been among the nation's leading industrialists.

It is pointless to deny, as some scholars do, the India's history has witnessed bitter struggles between Hindus and Muslims, but it does not follow that their have been no constructive exchanges between them Hindu nationalism amounts to a highly selective are dangerous retrieval of India's past.

It clearly hurts the Muslims, but my main hypothesis is that it also upsets the deeper, everyday equilibrium people's lives. When millions of Hindus and Muslims are locked into daily relationships of business, work, and neighbourhood, to make such a lot of fuss over who is true Indian can only generate suspicion, disquiet an unease.

Indian culture is not Hindu; it is simply India Hinduism is undoubtedly a large component, but it is not synonymous with Indian culture and civilisation. That why Nehru used the term "Indo-Muslim" to characteristics Indian culture, and Gandhi, a Ram Bhakta, never called India Hindu. Gandhi was a Hindu and a nationalist, but not a Hindu nationalist.

In a similar vein, others have used the term 'salad bowl', 'mosaic', or 'thali'. Such conceptualization does not devalue the contributions made by minorities the India's history and culture. The 'melting pot' – the conception that all minorities must melt into the Hind pot - does

The core of the (Hindu) ideology stands for bigotry, bitterness and narrow-mindedness. And the moderation of BJP leaders does not quite neutralise the visceral mean-spiritedness of RSS and VHP cadres.

To overcome these suspicions, Hindu nationalists will have to work harder. How about ... apology for destroying the Babari mosque.

Your aim should not just be alliance-building, but winning the trust of millions who remain sceptical ... For great political leadership, there is no substitute for generosity of spirit.                                                                                       (Source: The Hindu, 26 February, 1998)

Bihar: Votes and Seats, 1998