Community of differences

Muslim elites insist that all Muslims are one and there is absolute equality among them. This has resulted in two distinct tendencies. Many Muslims, who admit that caste differences obtain among them, often come up with the plea that some term other than caste should be used to designate different Muslim groups. Ethnic groups, biradaris or caste-like groupings have been considered and used as substitutes. Others deny the existence of caste among Muslims altogether, arguing that Islam is an egalitarian religion and does not recognise distinctions of caste and status.

Both tendencies arise from Muslim anxieties about their position in India. Some Muslims who argue that some other word instead of caste should be used to designate social divisions among them fear that if caste is used it would betray an affinity with Hindus. Others are prone to denying the existence of castes or social divisions among Muslims for fear that acknowledging them would reduce their bargaining power as a minority community.

Historically, social divisions similar to the caste system have existed among Muslims and can be identified through a hierarchy of status orders based on descent, association with an occupation leading to each caste confining marriages to its members, and differential access to economic resources and power. Thus, Muslims in India are divided into three broad categories called the ashraf noble born, ajlaf mean and lowly and arzal excluded. Each of these categories is further divided into a number of groups called biradaris, castes or zats.

The expressions 8216;backward Muslims8217;, 8216;Pasmanda Muslims8217; or 8216;Dalit Muslims8217; have been finding increasing mention in the discourse of traditionally backward Muslim castes in recent years. However, there does not yet exist any clear understanding of what these expressions actually mean or which castes or groups each one of them is supposed to denote. It has been used to denote a whole range of Muslim castes which are currently included in the category of the Other Backward Classes. It has also been used to denote those Muslim castes or groups which converted from the 8216;untouchable8217; Hindu castes or are so severely stigmatised and are subjected to such extreme forms of social exclusion that they would be comparable to the Scheduled Castes.

The Mandal Commission compounded and reinforced this confusion. Its task was to identify Other Backward Castes and to determine whether Other Backward Castes should be eligible for reservation along the lines of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. There was no difficulty in this with respect to Hindu castes because administrative policy clearly recognised a distinction between Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Castes. Because the presidential order of 1950 clearly and arbitrarily laid down that no person who professes a religion different from the Hindu religion shall be deemed to be a member of Scheduled Caste, the Mandal Commission lumped the severely stigmatised and extremely excluded among the Muslims with Muslim Other Backward Castes for purposes of affirmative action. Therefore, when the urge for equality and social justice seized the imagination of the lowest social groups in other religious traditions and the word Dalit came to be seen as a short-cut carrier of that aspiration, the expression 8216;Dalit Muslims8217; came to be used for a wide variety of groups other than those severely stigmatised and excluded and on that ground comparable to Hindu 8216;ex-untouchable8217; castes for whom the term 8216;Scheduled Castes8217; was reserved.

This poses a serious dilemma for any intervention for amelioration of the socio-economic conditions of Muslims. Should the deeply graded inequality within the community be taken into account and intervention should address the issues of the disadvantaged sections? Or, should this internal differentiation be ignored? So far Muslim elites bargained for the community as a whole, but the emergence of Backward and Dalit Muslim movements demands that the strategy has to be more discriminating. Given its highly contentious nature, en bloc reservation for Muslims as a community, on which the elite Muslims have been insisting for so long, is likely to generate conflict not only between Muslims and others but also within the Muslim community.

A more effective strategy would be affirmative action in favour of those who are really disadvantaged rather than to the entire community whose social profile is highly internally differentiated. Severely stigmatised and excluded Muslim groups, in line with the practice followed in the case of the Scheduled Castes among Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs, should be rendered eligible for benefits under the affirmative action in favour of the SCs and STs. The Constitution had originally provided this, but it was ruled out by an executive order in the early 1950s. All that may be required is withdrawal of that order. On the other hand, based on the data provided by the Sachar Committee and other sources, the list of Muslim Other Backward Castes should be revised so that a larger segment of Muslims becomes eligible for benefits of affirmative action under the Mandal formula.

The writer is a sociologist. His writings include Caste and Social Stratification among Muslims in India

Past imperfect

Before the Sachar Committee, and even before the high level panel set up by Indira Gandhi in 1980, in the nineteenth century, the British had asked a British civilian, W.W Sir William Hunter to put down his observations on the Indian Musalman8217;. Their reasons were to try and 8216;understand8217; the state of the erstwhile 8216;rulers8217; of India, and the reasons for what was interpreted as their innate anti-British stance. Hunter made it clear that he was only looking at undivided Bengal, in fact East Bengal, but his findings8217; often got generalised to cover Muslims as a whole. Historians later described his work as an 8220;apologia8221; written to address Lord Mayo8217;s question after the Revolt of 1857, 8220;Are Indian Musalmans bound by their Religion to rebel against the Queen?8221; Here is an excerpt from what he had to say in 1871, after examining data on government jobs in Bengal in a report entitled,

8216;Distribution of State Patronage in Bengal 8212; 18718217;.

8220;8230;The proportion of the race, which a century ago had the monopoly of Government, has now fallen to less than one-twenty-third of the whole administrative body. This too, in the gazetted appointments, where the distribution of patronage is closely watched. In the less conspicuous office establishments in the Presidency Town, the exclusion of Mussalmans is even more complete. In one extensive Department the other day it was discovered that there, was not a single employee who could read the Mussalman dialect; and in fact, there is now scarcely a Government office of Calcutta in which a Muhammeden can hope for any post above the rank of porter, messenger, filler of ink-pots and mender of pens8230;8221;