MINORITY POLITICS IN INDIA:

With A Special Reference To Muslims

Mohammed Khalid**

The term minority is commonly used for a smaller group of

people who live in the midst of a larger group. United Nations
characterises 'minority' as a non-dominant group of individuals who
share certain national, ethnic, religious and linguistic traits and who
has the will to preserve and protect these traits. The UN declaration
of rights of persons belonging to national, ethnic, religious and
linguistic minorities, adopted by the General Assembly on 18
December 1992, enjoins upon the UN to protect the national, ethnic,
religious and linguistic minorities to ensure the political and social
stability of states in which they live.

In the social sciences and by consciousness-raising NGOs and

the human rights observers use the term for the disadvantaged
people or a subordinate group that experiences a narrowing of
opportunities -success, education, wealth, etc.- that are
disproportionately low compared to their numbers in the society.
They do not limit a minority on the basis of their numerical strength.
Minority group is weaker or rendered weaker in the social and power
structure and may be differentiated from others by race, ethnicity,
language, gender and religion. A minority is aware of its
subordination and has a strong sense of group identity and
solidarity.

There is hardly any country which does not have its minority
groups. Article 1 of the UN declaration urges every state to protect
the existence and promote the group identity of minorities. It urges

*
Department of Evening Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh.

1
the states to legislate to achieve these ends. In this context, India is a
land of minorities having ethnic, racial, linguistic and religious
minorities. However, a discussion on minority in India immediately
denotes to religious minorities and this notion is strong in academic
writings, political debates, power structure and even in the decision
making at the highest level.

Here in this essay, an attempt is made to assess the situation

of Muslims and their place in power politics of the country.

There are 40 odd countries in the world having entirely or

majority Muslim populations. Entire Middle East, Central Asia, North
Africa, Southeast Asia have sizeable Muslim populations. It is the
second largest religion in the world after Christianity. India, which is
at the periphery of Islamic Heartland of Arabia, has about 16 crore
Muslims which is the third largest after Indonesia and Pakistan. It is
largest religious minority constituting about 15% Indian population.

Despite their numbers, Indian Muslim has suffered from

identity crises, felt threatened by the outbursts of rightist
fundamentalist Hindu orgnisations especially after impendence of
the country. They have faced official apathy, religious intolerance,
social stigmas and have been discriminated in jobs etc. Despite
constitutional guarantees, the Muslims in India feel isolated and
away from the mainstream. These facts are indicated in the Sachar
Commission Report which was tabled in the Parliament on 30th
November 2006. The report says that 95% rural Muslim population
is living below poverty line. About 55% of Muslims in villages and
60% in urban areas have never been to school. Only 0.8% of
Muslims are graduate in rural areas and 3.1% in urban areas only
1.2% of them are post-graduates. Their presence in central and state
services is 4.9%. Their presence in Public Sector Undertakings is
7.2%, in IAS, IPS it is 3.2% in railways 4.5%, judiciary 7.8% and in

2
education 6.5%. However the presence of Muslims in the prisons is
disproportionately high for example, 32.4% of the prison inmates in
Maharashtra jails are Muslims while state has a population of
10.6%. In Delhi they are 12% of the population but constitute 28% of
the jail mates. In Gujarat they are 9% of the population but
constitute 25% of the prisoners.

The Report has criticised the political parties in the country

and the community leaders and has called for an affirmative action.
The Sachar Committee has also rejected the myths that Muslims
shun modern education and flock to the Madarsas as only 4% of
Muslim children go to Madarsas and explodes the notion that they
are averse to family planning. Report finds faster declining fertility
rates among Muslims as compared to other communities, so
demographically they will not out number the others in future.
Report finds two main factors which characterize Muslim problems
in India -educational backwardness and socio-administrative
mindset. The commission feels that it is the political marginalisation
and lack of empowerment of Muslims which is the major cause of
their problems.

Politically, Muslims have remained on the margins of Indian

politics since 1947. There was no Muslim renaissance in India and
they falsely basked in the glory of 700 years of Muslim rule in India
from Mohammed Ghauri to Bahadur Shah Zafar. First expression of
Muslim political ideas can be attributed to Sir Syed Ahmed Khan
who established Muslim Anglo-Oriental college which later became
Aligarh Muslim University.

Indian National Congress was established in 1885. It slowly

became the movement of India's independence. Many of the Muslim
leaders who were part of Congress gradually became concerned
about the future of Muslims in the independent India. Muslim elite

3
regarded Congress as a Hindu organisation. As the congress did not
address properly the Muslim question, a sense of separate Muslim
nationhood gained ground. Dr. Mohammed Iqbal and political
activists like Choudhry Rehmat Ali became the main ideologues of
the idea of Pakistan.

Muslim politics became separated from the Congress when

Muslim League was founded at Dacca in 1906 with the sole aim to
protect the Muslim interests in India and give them an independent
political voice. In the beginning the British welcomed its formation as
a country weight to the Indian National Congress. However the
annulment of partition of Bengal in 1911, abolition of khilafat in
Turkey in 1918, dragged the league away from the British and
Lucknow Pact and Khilafat movement brought the Congress and
Muslim League closer. This cordial relationship lasted until the
elections of 1937, when both the parties jointly contested the
elections in central province. After the elections Congress got a
majority of its own in the provincial legislature and refused to give
the league agreed number of ministerial berths. Discontented,
Muslim League parted ways with Congress.

From 1940 onwards league began to insist that the Muslims

were not a minority but a nation, and that India was a binational
country. Between 1942 and 1945 when most of the Congress leaders
were in jails, the hitherto weak Muslim League Mobilised and
acquired enormous hold over the Muslims. Mohammed Ali Jinnah
propagated the two nation theory. From the end of 1930s till 1946
Muslim League successfully spread its ideology of Pakistan among
the Indian Muslims and adopted Pakistan Resolution at Lahore in
1940.

As demand for Pakistan grew intense, political loyalties in

India were also shaped on religious lines. To press for its demand for

4
a separate state for the Muslims, the Muslim League called for a
Direct Action Day on 16 August 1946. It also refused to compromise
anything less than creation of Pakistan.

Muslim politics in India before partition had three faces:

1. Dr. Iqbal and Mohammed Ali Jinnah supported by Liaqat Ali

Khan and A.K. Fazal-ul-Haq who originally fought for and were
concerned about the protection of rights of Muslims in India.
Later they felt a separate homeland must be obtained for
India's Muslims in order to achieve prosperity for them. They
felt that in Pakistan Muslims will be free to decide the course
of their future themselves. They argued that Hindus and
Muslims are distinct in every respect and can not live together.
They said that once the British withdrew, the power will be
transferred to a Hindu Congress. In independent India
decisions will be taken on the basis of majority. Muslims,
being less in number will be permanently subjected to the
decisions of the majority i.e. subjugation to the whims of
Hindu majority.

2. There were nationalist Muslim leaders like Maulana Abul

Kalam Azad, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed
Ansari, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Saifuddin Kitchlu etc. Most of
these leaders rejected the idea of Pakistan and the two nation
theory. They strongly felt that every Muslim must participate
in the freedom Movement and join Indian National Congress.
They felt it as the patriotic duty of all the Muslims of India.

3. There was a third dimension to the Muslim politics. The

religious leaders like Maulana Syed Abul Ala Moududi, the
founder of Jammat-e-Islami at Pathankot and a prolific writer
who sought to propagate the Islamic religion and create an
islamic state in India.

5
Transfer of power and Muslim politics

Inspite of the best efforts to avoid the partition of the country,

Pakistan was created on 14 August 1947. On the principal the
Muslim majority states of Bengal and Punjab were divided. East part
of Bengal was made East Pakistan which is now called Bangladesh.
West Bengal is part of India. Similarly, Western part of Punjab was
made West Pakistan and Eastern Punjab became part of India. The
600 odd princely states were free to join India or Pakistan subject to
the contiguity principle. For example North West Frontier province
(NWFP) wanted to join India but could not because it fell within the
Pakistani territory. The three princely states whose transfer to any of
the two nations could not occur was the Muslim ruled princely state
of Junagarh in Gujrat, the largest state in India having a Muslim
ruler, Hydrabad and Muslim majority state of Jammu and Kashmir
which had a Hindu ruler. During the transitional period the Muslim
politics was primarily concerned with the future of remaining
Muslims in India and annexation of these three princely states.

Muslim politics in independent India

Creation of Pakistan did not put an end to Muslim question in

India. Millions of Muslims were left back in India. An overwhelming
majority of them chose to remain in India. Interestingly, the Muslims
from Uttar Pradesh, where demand for Pakistan nurtured and got
full support, did not migrate in large numbers. Punjab witnessed a
bloody and violent migration in which over a million people on both
sides were brutally killed in religious frenzy. Muslims who
constituted about 60 per cent of combined Punjab population were
reduced to less than 1 percent after partition which further came
down after the creation of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh in 1966.

6
 Muslims constitute about 15 percent of Indian population and
about 160 millions in number, are spread across UP, Bihar, West
Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Gujrat and Andhra Pradesh etc.

After country's independence, the Muslim did not try to evolve

their separate political identity. At that time country was boiling with
religious intolerance and the aftermath of the creation of Pakistan
had put the entire Indian Muslims in an unenviable situation. The
Hindu extremist organisations like Hindu Maha sabha and Jan
Sangha, RSS etc. advocated that India should be declared a Hindu
state on the ground that the Muslims of the country have carved out
their separate home land. However, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and the
Congress did not heed this to. India was declared a Sovereign
Democratic Republic with no state religion. Religious freedoms were
granted to all its citizens and the minorities were given rights to
protect promote and propagate their religion and culture.

In the electoral politics of the country, Muslims in India stood

by the secular Indian National congress helping it to reject the
militant Hindu stance. Unstinted Muslims support to the Congress
continued from 1952 till about 1976.

Muslims, however remained in deep identity crises. They

became alienated in their own land, they were accused of
partitioning the country. Their loyalty to India was a suspect and
their patriotism was questioned. Muslim were in a predicament.
Doors remained closed for the Muslims in certain government
services inspite of the fact that they unstinted supported congress,
which ruled the country for most of the time after independence.
They got back a false sense of security. During the post-
independence period Muslims were rioted against, their monuments
were claimed to be temples of yesteryears and the center or state

7
governments for their economic and educational advancement made
no special efforts.

Muslims started thinking that congress was only paying lip

service to their problems and nothing concrete is being done for the
improvement of their physical quality of life etc. They started
alienating from the congress. The process started with forced
sterlisation and demolition of Muslim area in Turkeman Gate in old
Delhi during emergency and it completed with the demolition of
Babri Masjid on 6th Dec. 1992. Muslims accused congress, who was
in power at the centre, for complicity and inaction in the demolition
of Babri Masjid. They started looking for alternative political parties
preferring Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD to Congress in Bihar, Mulayam
Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party in U.P. As UP and Bihar slipped out
of the congress fold, it became difficult for congress to come to power
on its own and ultimately had to settle for a coalition at the centre.
To appose the BJP, Muslims in UP and elsewhere, in the past few
elections resorted to tactical voting that is, voting for the candidate
who can defeat the BJP whichever political party he/she may belong.

On the other hand, Muslims knowing fully well that they will
remain on the margins of powers politics and can not get their due
share in power, their politics became more protectionist. Their main
concern being to protect their religion and culture. This is evident
from the fact that apart from Jammu and Kashmir where Muslims
constitute 67% of the population, rest of India had only two Chief
Ministers Abdul Ghafoor of Congress in Bihar from 1973-75 and A.R.
Antuley of congress in Maharashtra from June 1980 to Jan. 1982,
during the last 60 years.

The country has seen three Muslim Presidents. Muslim may

boast of Azim Premji of Wipro, they may feel happy about the visible
Muslim presence in Ballywood or feel proud of Aligarh Muslim

8
University or Jamia Millia Islamia. But their presence in Lok Sabha
is only 6.7% (36/534) and in Rajya Sabha 10.3% (25/242).

The Muslim politics in India hovers around their masjids,

dargahs, traditional Islamic institutes like Darul Aloom Deoband,
Darul Aloom Nadwa etc. Their politics is confined to get
gubernatorial positions, nominations to the Haj Committees,
Minority commission and various other government bodies. Their
politics is to ensure the sacroscence of Muslim Personal Law,
protection of Art 370, get back the Babri Masjid or promotion and
protection of Urdu language. Their politics is more on emotive issues
rather than consolidation of their strength and become a political
force. Many of them fear that Muslim consolidation can be counter
productive.

The rise of terrorism in the recent years has further increased

the Muslim dilemma. In the aftermath of demolition of Babri Masjid
anti-Muslim riots took place at many places including Bombay and
after some time the whole Bombay was rocked by bombs killing
hundreds of people. The attack on Indian Parliament, Red Fort,
Varanasi temple bombing, Delhi and Hydrabad bomb blasts,
Akshardham temple attacks have placed Muslims in an awkward
situation as most of the terrorists alledgly involved in these cases
have been Muslims. Due to misdeeds of few people the whole of the
community is viewed being in league with terrorists the institution of
religious education, Madarasas, are in the line of fire by Hindu
rightist organisations as garneries to produce militants.

While the Bajrang Dal, Vishav Hindu Parishad, BJP and other
members of Sangh Privar continue accusing Muslims of Islamisation
of India, and want to put them at the mercy of the majority, other
political parties use them merely as a vote bank. Their presence on

9
political scene is abysmally marginalised. They are slowly developing
a gheto mentality especially after the Gujrat Riots.

Today, Indian Muslims have important organisations like

Tablighi Jamaat, Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamiatul ulema-e-Hind, All
India Milli Council etc. who can bring political awakening in them.
But they are more concerned with religious work. India has only two
Muslim political parties, All India Union Muslim League in Kerala
and Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat in Hydrabad but they have local
influence only.

It can therefore be safely concluded that the Muslims in India

are at the cross-road, like a rudderless boat, on the political scene of
the country.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

10