Over the political trajectory they have traversed since the disintegration of the Mughal Empire, in particular since the fall of Delhi to the Marathas and then to the British, towards the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, the Muslim Indians have been in search of a viable political role in the Sub-continent. Fed with delusions and illusions,  obsessed with dreams and hallucinations, they have landed in blind alleys and into dark nights of alienation. Overtaken by the rising wave of nationalism and democracy, failing to reach an honourable accommodation with the Hindu majority they sought refuge in separatism and division.

Today, half a century after Partition and Independence, they have woken up to realise that in the contemporary world, no minority group can dominate a political system; nor can it demand or seek parity with the majority group nor can it expect the Most Favoured Community treatment, or deserve any special status. But, individually and collectively, it can ask for and has a right to receive its due i.e. proportionate share in governance, in development, in welfare. It is a long and tortuous journey from the demand of Restoration to the quest of Parity, to the desire of Proportionality. Their legitimate aspirations may still be resisted but it makes democratic sense in a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society which claims to dispense social justice.

The Muslim Indians constitute 12.5% of the Indian people. But against their due share of 70 seats, actually in 1996 there were only 26 Muslim MPs, which means an under-representation of 63%. This political representation has been steadily falling since the high mark of 48 reached in 1980. In the State legislatures, with the exception of J&K, their under-representation is even worse. In some States, there is no Muslim MLA!

Election after election, in State after State, the pattern of under-representation persists and raises a  question-mark on the place of the second largest community of the country in the political order.

Since the inception of the Constitution, the Muslim Indians have committed themselves to Democracy, Secularism and Social Justice which form the essential framework of national governance and alongwith the rule of law, provide built-in safeguards for the protection of their human rights and their rights as a minority group.

The Muslim Indians, particularly the youth, is feeling increasingly disenchanted with the working of the secular order.

The Muslim Indians find themselves powerless -under-represented not only in the legislatures but in the power structure as a whole, the Government, the Bureaucracy, the Judiciary, the Armed Forces, the Mass media.

They are unhappy with the secular parties whom they have wholeheartedly supported because they care for their own caste base and show little understanding, far less patience for or sensitivity to their anguish and agony. They all exploit them in elections and seek their votes without paying any price; without doing anything for them after the election, without, in any way, endeavouring to reduce the space of hostile discrimination, of humiliation and harassment and expanding the area of equality and justice. In the existing order the Muslim Indians are guaranteed life but not livelihood, physical survival but not dignity and equality.

The Muslim Indians realise that the political parties - national or regional - all have a narrow focus, well-defined social constituencies and they act as vehicles for promoting the entry of particular sections of the rising Shudras, Achhuts and Adivasis into the corridors and the halls of power, despite resistance from the high castes which continue to rely on the Congress and the BJP.

The Muslim Indians see their 'leaders' as passive tools in the hands of their political masters, the leaders of the secular parties, which have deliberately reduced their Muslim workers to the level of vote brokers and no more, to be paid in terms of memberships of Wakf Boards and Haj Committee and Urdu Akademis and occasional directorships in a public sector bank and even less frequent governorships or Vice-Chancellorships.

No leaders of any secular party, with one or two honourable exceptions, have ever permitted a Muslim worker to emerge as a leader of the party, or even of his community. No leader of any political party is prepared to tolerate a Muslim intermediatory between himself and the Muslim 'voters'. In the "secular parties" Muslim workers do not occupy any decision-making position; they adorn the Minority Cells or serve as ornamental Vice-Presidents; the highest are no more than errand boys of the mighty party bosses. Every secular leader wants to serve his own caste, clan and tribe but aspires also to be recognised as a Muslim leader because, only with the added support of the available Muslims, he can strut about on the national stage as a 'national leader', win a score of parliamentary seats, even less, and get a better share of power for his social constituency! Since in the inner struggle of the Hindu society, each caste group wants Muslim support to bolster its own claim but without an equitable quid pro quo, for an assurance to Muslims for due share in power, this has been the common political culture of the national leadership, whichever the party, and try as they might, the Muslim Indians do not see a Muslim face anywhere.

So, while all secular parties including the Congress, which is also shifting gear from high caste to the Shudras, desire Muslim support to sustain their political campaign and expand their vote-base, while all Hindu leaders -Vajpayee and Advani included - desire to be accepted as national leaders by the Muslim Indians, no one - not the most secular of the lot - would like a Muslim member of his own party to be someone on his own, lest he argues on equal terms and articulates Muslim demands and aspirations.

Moreover, while the Hindu community and every sub-community thereof is consolidating itself for participation in governance, for a share in power, the Muslim Indians are dividing themselves into sub-communities so that their 'caste leaders' can sell the support-base of at least one section of the community, to political parties which are eager, in their struggle for power, to have a part, if they cannot have the whole on their side.

The Muslim Indians feel suffocated, oppressed, distrusted, humiliated, reviled, alienated, they are forced to lead a double existence, take it all lying down, live on the margin of existence, accept a back seat, a second class status, or else.

Muslim Indians know that with all their zeal the RSS and the Hindutva forces cannot exterminate, or liquidate them or push them into the sea or across the border into Pakistan/Bangladesh. But even under the secular order they find the social environment getting increasingly communalised. Feeling threatened by assimilation, absorption, Hinduisation and sensing psychological and physical pressure at every step, deprived of any symbiotic or empathic relationship with the power structure subjected, to inequality and injustice, linguistic and cultural genocide, brain-washing and vicious propaganda, they question whether it could be worse under the Hindu Raj! ·

Why is no one prepared to give the Muslim Indians their due or at least show concern with their existential problems - with their education, livelihood, health, and environment? At the back of it all, rankles the 'original sin' of Partition. Didn't the Muslims of India participate, desire, demand and receive their 'share' in the form of Pakistan? How dare they demand any further share? These are the unstated questions in everyone's mind. Mass consciousness is also kept ablaze with one-sided and exaggerated versions of a thousand years of 'Muslim' rule. Every effort is made to generate fear of the Muslim Indians' territorial connections!

Muslim Indians are not in a position to change the rules of the democratic game - under-enumeration in census, omission in electoral registration, dismemberment of Muslim concentration pockets in delimitation of constituencies, reservation of Muslim concentration constituency for SC's, bias in selection of candidates, the entire electoral system are all consciously weighted against them.

This is the sum total of the situation fraught with inequity and injustice, which the Muslim Indians face 50 years after Independence.

The Muslim Indians are frustrated and angry, irritated by the constant calls to save democracy and secularism. Indeed they have been so wrapped up in the democratic game, and electoral politics, that they can hardly conceive any other alternative strategy or tactical line, though their faith in the secular order stands eroded. They have not even developed any forum for collective thinking, thanks to their fragmentation among secular parties.

The Muslim Indians know that the Hindu Indian is not the oppressor, for a vast majority of the oppressed are also Hindus. Then, is the Hindu belonging to the twice-born high castes the common oppressor? The Hindu elite? To a large extent, yes, with some notable exceptions. But the high caste elite do not have the votes; they have to generate a national constituency. This was provided by the Congress and is now being done by the BJP by consolidating the votes of the Hindu masses, in the name of Hinduism in the interest of the Hindu elite, to maintain the status quo. This explains the Hindutva wave, the deep and the pale saffron penetrating and even substituting the party colours.

Having seen through the mask of secularism worn by the Indian state and discovered, to their disbelief and horror, the ugly face behind it, the Muslim Indians have realised the truth and yet many are prepared to give the system a chance, to play the political game, if the rules of the power game are changed

1)     to introduce reservation in legislature and public employment or proportionate representation

2)     to universalise welfare and development or provide for proportionate share at every functional level to all social groups, on the basis of uniform criteria.

Some are thinking of joining a political party en masse and make it the historic vehicle of their aspirations.

 Some are even thinking of forming a political party with themselves in the driving seat, keeping its doors open to all and its antenna sensitive to all.

Let me add, the Muslim Indians do not see any future in separatism or fundamentalism or confrontation or pan- Islamic consolidation. They have played the communal game and lost. They demand justice not only for themselves but for all the oppressed groups in the country, and work in, for and through a political party or alliance which stands for Justice to All and Welfare of All.

If the secular parties do not see the writing on the wall, the dark clouds gathering on the horizon, if they continue to dissipate their energy and strength in internecine fights, if they do not forgive-and-forget but carry on with their old feuds to the bitter end, if they are objectively helping the fascist, anti-secular, majoritarian forces, then why should the Muslim Indians alone champion the cause of secularism? Why not, in the name of secularism, enter the political arena like other social groups as an autonomous factor and not as a subservient element?

Like all 'secular' parties the Muslim secular party will primarily promote the interests of the Muslim Indians defined as broadly as possible: Equality, Justice and Welfare of all, irrespective of religion, caste or language.

Never mind, if the advent of a Muslim party rocks the ship of State, destabilises the system, disrupts the status quo.

Never mind, if Muslim Indians are charged with paving the way for Hindu consolidation.

Never mind, if Muslim Indians are called communal and separatist and even Pakistani agents and pan-Islamic fundamentalists and hurled all the other abuses in the political dictionary

The adversaries would know that the Muslim Indians are not communal, because they want all communities and sub-communities and sub-sub-communities to enjoy equality and justice and they do not want any special rights, privileges or status for themselves, except keep their religious identity.

They would realise that the Muslim Indians cannot entertain separatism, because, with the exception of the Valley, there is no border region in India with a Muslim majority which can secede or even demand autonomy They would appreciate that the Muslim Indians cannot be pro-Pakistan; because Pakistan cannot even take care of its own Muslims.

They would consider that the Muslim Indians cannot bank on Pan-Islamism, because the Muslim World stands divided and 50-odd Muslim-majority states can do nothing for Muslim minorities.

They know the Muslim Indians cannot adopt Fundamentalism, because even in their wildest dreams they cannot hope to restore Muslim rule over the country.

They know that the Muslim Indians have to eschew violence because the ever-increasing spiral of violence always harms,a dispersed minority.

But they must also know that no oppressed group puts its trust in the status quo; nor is it permanently committed to 'stability' or order; nor does it remain a silent spectator for long, or accept continuity.

All over the world the oppressed groups, when they lose hope and faith, demand Change and are prepared to face discontinuity, instability, disorder, chaos, to lose what little they have but threaten to bring down the house, if it does not become a home!

This is the mood of Muslim India today. No doubt a black mood, a portent for dark days, if we have the eyes to look into the future.

New Delhi,                                                                                                                                   

1 March. 1998