India: an Example of a Territory Previously Under Muslim Rule
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chapter 2 India: An Example of a Territory Previously under Muslim Rule 1 Introduction Muslims in India constitute a large minority; their number reached around 140 million people (census of 2001) and may well have increased to around 170– 180 million in 2014.1 As everywhere in the world, they were and still are highly diverse in terms of social status, religious affiliation and individual conviction.2 There are significant regional and denominational differences, making them a marginal group in both economic and social terms.3 Their position in Indian 1 According to the census of 2001 there were 138,188,000 persons, 13.433% of the entire popu- lation of 1,027,015,422 persons; cf. A. P. Joshi/M. D. Srinivas/J. K. Bajaj, Religious Demography of India. 2001 revision, Chennai 2005, 10, table 1.4. According to the census of 2011 the total amounted to 1,210,193,422 and is estimated to reach around 1.27 billion in 2014. Interestingly, the figures in the census of 2011 which concerned religious affiliation were not published until May 2014. Reports explain this with the probability of a new Hindu–Muslim ratio in favour of the latter; cf. ‘Why is Census 2011 silent on religious data?’, Niticentral 3 May 2013 (Priyadarshi Dutta). This corresponds to a report in the Times of India of 30 Oct. 2013 (‘Muslim population myths’,T. K. Arun) dealing with propaganda figures used by Hindu extremists, who claim that an absolute Muslim majority will be reached in 2035 due to ‘conversion, threatening, rioting, slaughtering, terrorism, intrusion, polygamy, no birth control’. 2 Cf. only Mohammad Mujeeb, The Indian Muslims, New Delhi 2003. 3 This is proven by the extensive data in the ‘Sachar report’ (Prime Minister’s High Level Com- mittee, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India, n. p., Nov. 2006), and the relevant summary 237ff. A wealth of new data contained in the India Social Development Report 2012 by the Council for Social Development (pp. 175ff.) confirm these findings. Cf. also Omar Khalidi, Muslims in Indian Economy, Gurgaon 2006, summarised 224ff.; Abusaleh Shariff/Mehtabul Azam, Economic Empowerment of Muslims in India, New Delhi 2004, with extensive statistical information, and the contributions by Amir Afaque Ahmad Faizi (Prospects of Economic and Financial Inclusion of Muslims in India, 347ff.) and Malik Rashid Faisal (Employment Opportunities for Muslims, 367ff.) in Ahmad (ed.), Economic Conditions. Regarding discrimination expe- rienced by Muslims cf. e.g. Nadwi, Muslims in India, 126ff., who deplores discrimination in the areas of mission, education (syllabuses, materials), language (Urdu) and working environ- ment. Abu Saleh Shariff, former Member-Sectretary of the Sachar Committee, complained in 2014 that the government reacted only half-heartedly to the report, and that Muslim initia- © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2015 | doi: 10.1163/9789004281806_012 352 part 3, chapter 2 society is under a strain for historical reasons.4 Still, coexistence has been over- all peaceful since the political partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, albeit interrupted repeatedly by violent unrest and attacks.5 The origin of the nationhood of the political antagonist Pakistan was due precisely to the Islamic faith, even though reality often diverges from this ideal, and the unsolved con- flict over Kashmir has led to persistent tension.6 The Hindu majority society – which itself includes ‘separatist’ groups – saw the self-image of many (but by no means all) Muslims as an independent nation, an idea which developed before as well as after partition, as a possible threat to the unity of the state. The Mus- lim desire for partition emerged because they did not consider their interests in protection and participation to be protected sufficiently.7 It is not possible in this place to go into the frequently discussed, and so far unresolved, question tive was required in educational progress in particular (cf. ‘Muslims and their problems get no weightage in the country’s development model: Shariff’, Milli Gazette 1–15 Feb. 2014, 4). 4 Regarding the fundamental conflict between the widely held majority opinion which focusses on the unity of the country under a democratic government, and the widespread concern among Muslims of losing their identity simply by being overruled by the majority vote cf. Jain, Muslim Political Identity, esp. 124ff. and the summary 274, 284, which contains a wealth of references. Having provided plausible evidence for the Muslim leadership’s desire for (espe- cially in the period before partition in 1947) autonomy, Jain goes on to criticise it by pointing out that the majority of Indian nationalists and supporters of unity had accepted diversity of language, ethnicity and religion. Remarkably Jain employs the democracy argument only and does not raise the issue of substantively effective minority protection. Rather, he sees the Muslims as a group who see themselves as past rulers and insist on their prerogatives; a view for which there is ample evidence from the time of the British Raj with regards to the Muslim upper class, but which does not reflect the current situation realistically. 5 Cf. e.g. Iqbal A. Ansari (ed.), Communal Riots, The State and Law in India, New Delhi, 1997; Rafiq Zakaria, Communal Rage in Secular India, Mumbai 2002; Ashutosh Varshney, Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life. Hindus and Muslims in India, 2nd ed., New Haven etc. 2002; Jackie Assayag, At the Confluence of Two Rivers, Muslims and Hindus in South India, New Delhi 2004; Dwivedi, Introduction, 1ff. and the subsequent lucid contributions in Dwivedi (ed.), The Other India, 2012. 6 Cf. e.g. Miridu Rai, Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects. Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir, Delhi 2004. 7 Cf. Noorani, Muslim Identity, 121 and ff.; Shaikh, Community, esp. 76ff., 103, 233f. and pas- sim; regarding the dedicated support for state unity from the Muslim side see Maulana Hussain Ahmad Madani, Composite Nationalism and Islam, New Delhi 2005 (transl. by Hus- sain/Imam). Concerning the minorities’ participation – not very well known in India – in the freedom movement cf. Shan Muhammad, Muslims and India’s Freedom Movement, New Delhi 2002, and the collection They Too Fought for India’s Freedom. The Role of Minorities, Gurgaon 2006, ed. by Asghar Ali Engineer..