Muslims in India how deprived?

Author: Saradindu Mukherji

Publication: The Indian Express
Date: December 1, 2006
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/17623.html
Introduction: Hindus as a community are losing political power and clout very
rapidly in a shrinking India
The series of reports in The Indian Express based on the Sachar Committee Report
on the under-representation of Muslims in services and their over-representation
in the jails, are meant to project the overall image of a deprived community. At
the same time there is the implication that the Hindus in post-partition India
have an over-representation in both services and the other sectors. This
assumption is wrong, and the methodology adopted, faulty. It does not calculate
what the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Christians have lost forever in what are now
Pakistan and Bangladesh. Their losses were entirely appropriated by Muslims. This
never happened in India.
The relative position of religious communities in India can never be seen in
isolation: that would make sense only when the overall scenario - the political
status, economic condition as well as the security concerns of both Hindus and
Muslims in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and also Kashmir are taken into account.
While Pakistan/Bangladesh have carried out a religious/ethnic cleansing of its
minorities, the Muslim population in India continues to rise at a rate higher rate
than that of the Hindus. Additionally, there is the unique case of the Hindus of
Jammu and Kashmir: in 1947, they comprised 10 per cent of the population, today
they have been reduced to a tiny number of around 5,000. The rest - some 400,000 -
have been rendered refugees in their own land. In any case, the Muslims of India
on the whole are better off and more secure than the Hindus of the Kashmir valley.
The point is some minorities are different from other minorities and some
majorities are different from other majorities.
All said and done, the Hindus as a community are losing political power and clout
very rapidly in a "shrinking and shrunken India", and stand to lose whatever is
still left in their hands. Having been victors all along, the Muslims can't claim
to be hapless victims now. Our market-savvy pundits may say that despite the
steady political/demographic decline of the Hindus, some of them are very
resourceful and so there is nothing to worry. History provides many examples of
how money power, without the backing of politico-military support, just withered
away. In fact, the number of prosperous Muslims is quite substantial and it would
be useful to know the percentage of Hindus in the ever-growing list of farmers who
have been committing suicide in Vidarbha, Kerala, Andhra and even in the
communist-ruled West Bengal.
The writer teaches history at Hansraj College, University of Delhi