The Muslims of Anantapur -A Socio Economic Profile
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The Muslims of Anantapur -A Socio Economic Profile Dr. Md. Irfan Basha Confederation of Voluntary Associations (COVA) Hyderabad (A.P.), India 1 C o n t e n t s Page No Page No I. INTRODUCTION. Description of Rayalaseema . Historical and geographical settings . Brief description of Selected Towns and Villages . Demographic features of Muslims . Survey Design . Profile of Anantapur district II. SOCIO-ECONOMIC LIFE. Occupational patterns . Child Labour . Muslims in Government jobs III. EDUCATIONAL ASPECTS OF MUSLIMS. Status of Education: Basic figures . Elementary education and Muslims . Status of Urdu education in Anantapur district IV. POLITICAL CONDITIONS OF MUSLIMS. Basic figures v. Status of Muslim women VI. MUSLIM WELFARE AND MINORITY INSTITUTIONS. VI. CASE STUDIES. VII. APPENDIX i) Muslim Personalities of Anantapur ii) 15-Point Programme for dealing with the problems of religious minorities iii) Manual on Minority Welfare 2 CHAPTER-I. INTRODUCTION India’s population is composed of various peoples with different ethnic, racial, and socio- cultural backgrounds, most of who arrived in this land from different parts of the world at different points of time. Over thousands of years, there have been degrees of inter- mingling as some communities underwent sub-divisions and fragmentations and some others retained a distinct identity, maintaining a certain measure of their traditional exclusiveness mainly through cultural institutions. Indian Muslims are widely held to belong to this latter category. India came into contact with Islam nearly 1300 years ago and its adherents are scattered along the length and breadth of the country, from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean and from the Arabian Sea to the nation’s eastern frontiers. Indian Muslims have enriched Indian culture and civilization, and in general have played a significant role in the development of the Indian society as a whole, over the years. But what needs to be emphasized is that Islam did not come to the subcontinent within a single time span, but over periods of unequal lengths. As a result, its diffusion and absorption took place along different dimensions from one territory to another and from one class to another. The difference in the phases in which people live through Islam brought with it new dimensions in the nature of challenges facing Muslims in different areas, a potentially rich, hitherto neglected area of study. Muslims in India constitute 13.4% of the country's population,1 which amounts to about 138 million people. The economic and educational progress of the community is 1 Census of India, 2001, cited in Times of India (7 September 2004), p.1. 3 therefore very crucial for India as the country heads towards a transition from a “developing” to a “developed” nation. However, a sizeable section of the Muslim community is found to be socially, educationally, politically and economically backward. In such a scenario, no country can boast of “development” if a sizeable minority of its population remains illiterate and poor, lagging behind in all aspects of life. A positive endeavor of affirmative measures is required in legal and welfare terms in order to improve the status of Muslims and bring the community on par with national figures on literacy and employment. It will also strengthen the Muslim community's integration in the mainstream of India's modernization efforts. On the other hand, there is a pre-conceived notion against Muslims that they constitute a monolithic community. This tendency to view Muslims as a homogeneous community is also visible in earlier studies, both at micro- and macro-levels. Such an inaccurate view is easily dismantled in the face of evidence on the rich linguistic and cultural diversity of the Muslim community. There are numerous variations not only in the social organisation of different Muslim populations of India but also in the degree and nature of influences of local cultures and society. Muslims have established themselves in different streams of thought and interaction. Their social habits, cultural traits and occupational patterns vary from class to class, from area to area and from region to region. They speak numerous dialects and languages and observe wide ranging regional customs and local rituals.2 2 Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi, The Musalman (Lucknow: Lucknow Academy of Islamic Research and Publications, 1977), p. 41. 4 Indian Islam cannot be studied or portrayed as a single social unit whose essential core steadfastly resists any changes through cultural influences. Islam came to India via different routes. Broadly speaking, early Muslims came as traders and merchants in the south and as tribal warriors and rulers in the north. In spite of their regional diffusions, cultural and linguistic segmentation, class stratification and sectarian-doctrinal divisions, they do share a characteristic of a religious minority group for all descriptive sociological purposes relevant to the present study. It is not their regional, cultural, linguistic, class and sectarian homogeneity, but a comparative homogeneity based on the tenets of Muslim faith and creed as well as on tangible rituals related to birth, matrimony, inheritance and death that mark them out from various other communities in India. But while attending to the comparative homogeneity of Indian Muslims as a viable religious minority group amenable to descriptive studies and analysis, the complexity and multi-dimensionality of the Indian Muslim situation with all its regional, cultural and class components has been largely ignored by most thinkers and activists. It is at their own peril that Muslims ignore their regional and class-specific problems. What is needed today is a series of studies of Muslim communities from different parts of the country to investigate the many divergent patterns of organization and ethos. The present enquiry arose in the context of such a felt need for micro-level community studies in contemporary India. Description of Rayalaseema Andhra Pradesh is the fourth largest state in India, in terms of area, and the fifth largest in terms of population. Geographically, Andhra Pradesh has three broad divisions-- Telangana (10 districts), Coastal Andhra (9 districts) and Rayalaseema (4 districts). Each is a distinct area, geographically as also in the socio-economic composition of the 5 population. The same can be said about the Muslim community of each area. They have distinctive social, cultural and linguistic characteristics. The Muslim population is higher in terms of percentage in Rayalaseema than in the other two areas. According to estimated figures from the 2011 Census, the Muslim population in Andhra Pradesh is 9.80% of the total population. In Rayalaseema – 13.10% (4 Districts) In Telangana – 12.90% (10 Districts) In Coastal Andhra – 4.84 % (9 Districts) Rayalaseema, nearly one-fifth of the total area of Andhra Pradesh, has a 13.10% concentration of Muslim population (2011Census estimates). A large number of them live in urban areas and are mostly artisans, petty shopkeepers, traders, skilled and unskilled workers and labourers belonging to the working class. A majority of the Muslim masses are illiterate and poor. A Brief History of Rayalaseema The first known important landmark3 in the history of Rayalaseema, according to traditional historiography, is provided by the edicts of Emperor Ashoka (273 B.C. – 232 B.C.), which indicate that this area formed a part of the Mauryan Empire. The next epoch is that of the Sathavahanas, whose empire stretched over this region in the first and second century A.D. The Ikshvakus, Pallavas, Chalukyas and Rashtrakutas ruled over this region from about 300 to 973 A.D. The next landmark epoch is regarded to be that of the Cholas of the Tamil country. 3 P. Raghavendra Rao, Ancient and Medieval History of Andhra Pradesh (Delhi: Sterling, 1997), pp. 1– 138. 6 The Kakatiyas of Warangal expanded their power over this area from 1158 A.D. to 1323 A.D. This period is of particular interest because successive Kakatiya monarchs cleared a number of forests and established a number of settlements, also improving the economic conditions of the Rayalaseema region. It was during the rule of successive Vijayanagara dynasties from 1336 A.D. to about 1700 A.D. that Rayalaseema reached the height of its glory, chiefly during the reign of Sri Krishna Devaraya (1509 - 1529 A.D.) of Tuluva Dynasty (1502 - 1570 A.D.), when it came to be known as “Rathnalaseema.” Sri Krishna Devaraya ruled this area with Vijayanagar (near Bellary, in present-day Karnataka) as his capital. Later, the Rayalaseema area formed parts of the empire of the Bijapur sultans and, over time, the Nawabs of Golkonda, the Moghuls, the Mysore Kings, the Nizam and the British Empire until India’s independence. At the time of the formation of the state of Andhra Pradesh, the district of Bellary was allotted to the state of Karnataka, which at that time was called the Mysore state. According to the historian, Tara Chand, The Musalmans made their advent in South India on the western coast as early as the eighth century if not earlier, and in the tenth century on the eastern coast; that they soon spread over the whole coast and in a comparatively short time acquired great influence both in politics and in society. On the one side their leaders became ministers, admirals, ambassadors and farmers of revenue and on the other they made many converts, propagated their religious ideas, established mosques and erected tombs which become centres of the activities of their saints and missionaries. It may, therefore, be premised without overstraining facts that if, in the development of the Hindu religions in the south, any foreign elements are found which make their appearance after the seventh century, and which cannot be accounted for by the 7 natural development of Hinduism itself, they may with much probability be ascribed to the influence of Islam, provided, of course, they are not alien to its genius.3 The existence of Muslim settlements in this area dates back to the advent of Allauddin Khilji (also called Garshasp Malik) in south India around 1296 A.D.