The missing Muslims

Syed Nazakat, 14 April 2008, Monday

Ever since independence, Muslims have lagged behind in every possible field. Why is it that millions of Indian Muslims were left behind? Should the entire community be termed backward? Where lies the fault for this backwardness?


AS SAFINA, 46, widow and mother of five children swings her squealing young son into the air, her starchy white pinafore gleams against the blue sky. Every time she sends her son and daughters to school, brings a notebook and pencil for them, attaches a button or hem on their school uniform, she knows she is performing an act that will help to transform the fate of her family.

"The most important thing is education," said Safina, who lives in Nizamudin Basti in Delhi. She is selling cigarette and candies at her roadside shop. "I am sending my children to school despite the fact that I am so poor", she added while walking past the crowded and rubbish-strewn street leading to Hazrat Nizamuddin shrine. "Look, this is where I came from," she said while pointing towards slums (basti). "I want to get out from here. I want my children out from here."

An Indian Muslim, she embodies a simple answer to a grave situation the India’s 150 million Muslims are facing all across the country today. The high level Rajinder Sachar committee formed last year by the prime minister to measure social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community, has confirmed that Muslims are living in deplorable condition in the country. The report indicates rampant illiteracy, unemployment and poverty among Muslims. Former MP Syed Shahabuddin has compared the condition of the Indian Muslim to that of blacks in the US — an analogy once reserved only for Dalits.

Mohammed Hamid Ansari, chairman of the National Commission for Minorities and a distinguished diplomat who served as India’s ambassador to the United States, believes that mere reservation is not going to help Muslims. "I think education is the only way to improve the living condition of Muslims. It is long but reliable way-out," said Ansari. "The Ulema had great influence on the Muslims, but this did not result in the advancement of education. Education is the main challenge for Indian Muslims."

The social economic condition of Muslims in India, which is the home to more Muslims than any Muslim country in the world except Indonesia, has raised many disturbing questions. More importantly why Muslims are left behind in every field of life even after fifty years of partition? Though the reason is a mix of history, politics and apathy of system, but the question is, are the Muslims too not responsible for their under development?

"It would be wrong to generalise the whole situation. There are many reasons for backwardness of Muslims in the country. But the Ulemas and the Muslim community can’t shrug their shoulders," said Prof. Yoginder Sikan who has done considerable work on Indian Muslims and madrassas. "The Ulemas are still involved in unnecessary issues; they are not encouraging Muslims for modern education and the educated Muslims are not interested to work for their community, with the result Muslims are failing behind".

The Sachar committee has clearly mentioned that illiteracy is one of the main reasons behind the social and educational backwardness of Muslims. The pathetic educational levels of Muslims in the 20-30 age groups is an indicator to why the Indian Muslim is missing from the corridors of power, from the civil services, from the judiciary and from land ownership. According to findings of the committee 90 per cent of Muslims do not even reach 10th class. Then no wonder that only 2.2 per cent of IAS officers are Muslim and no Muslim is a secretary-level official in the Central government.

With no education, parents expect their sons to take over often low-paying jobs. That is why the community’s performance affects the nation’s growth: India’s 13.4 per cent Muslim population contributes only 6 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country. Though the global issues concerning Muslims, whether Iraq and Middle East crises, the Afghanistan invasion, the Danish cartoons controversy or George Bush’s "war on terror," are relatively muffled in India, but there are incidents when Muslim leaders gave vent to their fury. As a result, politics dominates the religion - and the religion becomes a cover for rhetoric.

"Our Imams always issue fiery statement from Mosques. They talk about Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and other things. They never bother to see what is happening to their community in their own towns," said Ali Mohammad, 35, a riksha pullar, standing outside the grand Masjid where Shahi Imam, Syed Bukhari has just termed the Sachar report as a political bandwagon and proudly asked the government to give reservation to Muslims by defining the entire Muslim community as ’backward’.

Many Islamic scholars are saying that there is a need to reform the education system of Islamic madrassas in the country, which are considered a major source of radical influence on Muslims. There are over 50,000 madrassas in the country. "Indian madrassas are doing good work and they are there for years. But I think that there is a need of revival of education system. Madrassas have no formal education system, so the students who read there have no chance of getting jobs in government departments or public sector,” said Yoginder Sikand.

However Moulana Mohammed Farooq Qasmi of Dar ul Uloom Deoband, one of the biggest Islamic seminaries in the world said that they are not against reforms of madrassas but reforms should not become a political issue "There is a lot of confusion about madrassas. We are educating our youth about their religion, and I think there is no harm in it. Every religion does that, Farooq Qasmi said, while pointing out that only four per cent Muslim children study in madrassas (as Sachar committee states) and it indicated lack of basic education facilities to Muslims.

What is also striking is that the money generated by wakf (charitable) boards is not used for the education and development of Muslims. "Millions of rupees are collected by wakf boards every year. They are spending their money on shrines, mosques and graveyards. They have to utilise that money for establishing educational institutions and professional colleges," said Abusaleh Shariff, a member of the prime ministerial committee conducting a socio- economic survey of Indian Muslims.

There is another source of money – Zakat, which can be used for social and economic development of Muslims. "Islam has prohibited interest to help weaker sections of society. If interest free co-operative banks are established with the Zakat money to help small artisans and traders, it can be of tremendous help in uplifting the poor Muslims," said Dr. Jamul-ul-din who teaches at Calicut Univerity in Kerala.

This bleak statistical picture is rendered drearier still by new trends visible in many cities. Muslims are the first to be questioned, harassed and arrested by the police after terrorist attack anywhere in the country. That seems to be the reason that the only places where the Sachar committee found Muslims visible are prisons. Also in Gujrat, Muslim community leaders wrote a detailed letter to the Sachar committee that communal riots of 2002 has adversely affected the education of Muslim children and large areas of Muslims have been branded as "negative zones" by banks and credit card companies.

While the Muslim community is still struggling to understand, what does the Sachar committee’s finding actually mean for them, the report has become a hot political potato. The Congress leaders are talking about religion-based reservation and the BJP is claiming an obscurantist minority is being appeased and pampered. The winter session of Parliament, where the Sachar committee report will be tabled is all set for heated debate.

Far away from this political drama, Safina has figured out how to benefit for the apathy of society and system. "Once you understand that nobody is going to help you. You realise that you have to make your own future". As dusk gathers, Azan resounds from the mosque near Nizamuddin shrine. Safina is cleaning her house and asking her children to finish homework before going for Quranic classes. She has never thought of sending her children to school.

That her kids are now in school, learning and doing well is perhaps prophetic, a hopeful sign. Her self-help and resilience represents the leading edge of change. Now everybody including the government has to ensure that she and other people like her do not fail in their endeavor.

Sachar committee’s findings at a glance
· Muslims form 14.7 per cent of India’s 1.1 billion population.
· Across 12 states, with an average Muslim population of 15.4 per cent, only 6.4 per cent of government employees are Muslims.
· In 15 states where Muslims average 17 per cent of the population, they are 8 per cent of the lower judiciary.
· In eight states where they average 14.82 per cent of the population, they account for 23.4 per cent of prison inmates.
· Only 7.2 per cent of the number of school-leaving students each year are Muslims.
· Only 2.2 per cent of IAS officers are Muslims and no Muslim is a secretary-level official in the Central government.
· Out of 1.1million Indian soldiers only 29,000 are Muslims.
India ’s 13.4 per cent Muslims contribute just 6 per cent of the GDP
· There is no Muslim in RAW.