OMAR KHALIDI (MAsSACHUSEITS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, CAMBRIDGE MAss.) INDIAN MUSLIM SOCIE1Y AND ECONOMY Introduction ndia accounts for a meager 2.4 o/o of the world surface area and yet it sustains I a whopping 16.7% of the world population. According to the 2001 census, the national population stood at a little over one billion people living in 29 states and 6 union territories. Slightly more than 12 o/o of the national popula­ tion is Muslim. The variation across the states is enormous in regards to physical size and geography, language and economic conditions. Some states have a Mus­ lim population as high as nearly 30 %, e.g. Assam, and others as low as less than one percent, e.g. Sikkim. Muslims constituted 24 o/o of the population before in­ dependence in 1947, but the Panition gave all the Muslim majority areas - ex­ cept pans of disputed Kashmir - to Pakistan. Barring the Union Territory of Lakshadweep Islands, and the districts of Murshidabad, West Bengal and Ma­ lappuram, Kerala, the Muslim population is thinly spread over the ever-changing boundaries and numbers of districts in the country. Muslims living in the rural areas constitute the majority of the total Muslim population, although Muslims represent a higher percentage of the total national population living in the urban areas. Ever since the first census of 1881, Muslim population has shown an in­ crease slightly higher than the national average. 1 The only exception to the growth was the decennial census of 1941-51, which showed a decrease in Mus­ lim population due to the twin upheavals of the Indian panition and the an­ nexation of Hyderabad State in 1947 and 1948 respectively resulting in large number of deaths, migration, and territorial transfer. Poveny is the major cause of higher population growth. As sociologist Mah­ mood Mamdani pointed out, people aren't poor because they have too many children; they have too many children because they are poor.2 Children are con­ sidered an asset in a poor family; they are a potential source of labor. The other reasons for a higher rate of growth may be lower infant monality, widow remar­ riage, high protein diet of red meat, residence in urban areas enabling escape from famine and disease. The increase is not owing to disapproval of family I-Census oflnclia, 2002, Internet version. 2-Mahmood Mamdani, Tht Myth ofPopulation Control: Family, Castt, and Class in an Indian Village, New York, Monthly Review Press, 1972. OM, XXIII n.s. (LXXXIV), I, 2004, p. 177-202 © lstituto per l'Oricntc C. A Nallino - Roma 178 OMAR KHALID! planning or factors of immigration and the rates of conversion. Demographers predict that should Muslims achieve the same level of economic and educational status as the upper caste Hindus, Muslim population growth would be similar to others. Urdu-Speaking Muslim Popu/,ation Just as India is multi-lingual, so is its Muslim population. Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Malayalam, and Tamil are the native languages of the regional groups of Muslims. However, a majority (63 %) of Muslims speak Urdu, even if some are not literate in it.3 The Urdu-speaking Muslims are spread in two main re­ gions of India: Bihar, Chattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pra­ desh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, constituting the Hindustan or upper India and the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra representing the Deccan, or interior southern India. In addition, there are Urdu-speaking diaspo­ ras in urban centers outside these states such as Chennai and Kolkata. This pa­ per is concerned with the Urdu-speaking Muslim society in the regions of Hindustan and the Deccan in general, but with a narrower focus on the popula­ tion, economy, and educational conditions in Uttar Pradesh, the state which has the highest number of Muslims in the nation. In addition to speaking a common language, Muslims in the regions of Hindustan and the Deccan share several characteristics that make them a homo­ geneous group. First, Muslims of the two regions are acutely conscious of their past as a former ruling group - real or perceived.4 Ajmer, Delhi, Agra, Fatehpur­ Sikri, Lucknow, Rampur, Tonk, Bhopal, and Sahsaram in the north and Hy­ derabad, Aurangabad, Bidar, Gulbarga, and Bijapur in the south are redolent with the architectural splendor of the medieval Islamic heritage, a daily reminder of the past glory. The two regions are also dotted with the innumerable shrines of the sufi saints, popularly, though sometimes erroneously associated with the spread of Islam in India. Second, unlike Muslims in Kerala, West Bengal, and Assam, who are concentrated in some districts, Urdu-speakers are thinly spread over many districts in the states of Hindustan and the Deccan. Third, unlike the small but prosperous merchant communities of the Bohras, Khojas, Memons, (mainly coastal western India) and the Labbais of Tamilnadu, Urdu-speaking Muslims are economically and educationally poor cultivators, unskilled laborers, and the unemployed. Economy: The National Picture Studying indicators such as land ownership, occupation, worker population ra­ tio and school continuation ratio can assess economic and educational condi- 3-For Urdu-Muslim covariance, see the map by geographer David Sopher, An Exploration of India, Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University Press, 1980, p. 306. 4-Theodore P. Wright, Jr., "Identity Problems of Former Elite Minorities", Secular Democ­ racy, 8 (August 1972), p. 43-51; reprinted in journal ofAsian Affairs, (Buffalo, NY), 1, 2 (Fall 1976), p. 58-63. .