Shrinking spaces: a study of Indian Muslims

ABSTRACT

This article attempts to understand how perceptions of Indian Muslims are guided by myths which often masquerade as truths. It looks closely into the institutional discrimination which Muslims in India face both collectively and individually and makes an effort to study the process of the gradual marginalisation of Muslims in Indian public life. It tries to comprehend the crisis of secularism in India. It argues that secularism in India has been a façade to hide animosities, which never went away. Communities continued to distrust each other and Indians had a very limited interaction across communities. Towards the end, it tries to look at some possibilities for the future of India as a truly inclusive society.

KEYWORDS:

• Muslims
• minority rights
• majoritarianism
• discrimination
• secularism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. To name a few of them: Mohammad Ali Jinnah, barrister and leading lawyer of his times; Sikandar Hayat Khan; educated in UK; A.K. Fazlul Huq, leading lawyer, was one-time General Secretary of the Indian National Congress.

2. While addressing Muslims reference was always made to the Bhartiya Jana Sangh and later the BJP, with a simple assertion that it was the Congress only which could protect them from these forces. For example, Indira Gandhi while addressing a public gathering in Fatehgarh on 14th February 1974, said that if Muslim votes were divided it would help the Bhartiya Jana Sangh to win, so all Muslims must vote for the Congress in order to defeat the communal politics of Jana Sangh. (Times of India, 15 February 1974). Later Congress leaders held similar opinion.

3. To name a few of them: Khurshid Alam Khan, Salman Khurshid, Asad Madni, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Najma Heptullah.

4. From 1980 to 2014, the number of Muslim MPs in the Lok Sabha decreased by more than half although the share of Muslims in the Indian population during this period increased from 11.1 to 14.2 per cent.

5. 49 per cent Muslims think that police discriminated on the basis of religion, more importantly, 39 per cent non-Muslims also agree to this, Democracy in India: A Citizen’s perspective, State of Democracy in South Asia Study, (Round II) 2015. P. 71.

6. UP Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955.The Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Act, 2020, Sikkim Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 2017, Orissa Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1960, etc.

7. These ‘warriors’ wage a darker battle-against journalists who hold opposing views, minority communities like Muslims and Dalits, and opposition parties. A detailed analysis of India’s right-wing trolls and how they incite communal tension has been made by Swati Chaturvedi in her insightful book, I am a Troll. PM Modi follows a number of the chief offenders on Twitter (Chaturvedi, 2016, p. 139).

8. An event of this organisation was held in Delhi on 13–15th March, which was attended by people from other countries and parts of India. A few, attendees, it was later found were infected with corona virus. Many attendees went back to their homes, carrying the virus. While it was very irresponsible for the TJ to have organised such an event in March, the way the Indian media covered this event was extremely biased. It simply ignored several bigger events conducted even after this date in some of which, ruling party leaders and Ministers participated.

9. However, if the majority of people tested between April 1–3 were from the TJ, then it was not at all surprising that most positive cases were from that group. This was quite misleading as the government did not test people from other gatherings like this. Saugato Datta, behavioural and developmental economist says that this is basically sampling bias: since people from this one cluster have been tested at very high rates, and overall testing is low, it is hardly surprising that a large proportion of positives are attributed to this group. Even people without symptoms from this group were tested; this was another major source of bias. (http://scroll.in/article/958392/explained-samplingbias)

10. Rumours spread fast and thick and the police had to check facts and issue denials. In Saharanpur, the police issued a statement denying that Jamaatis quarantined in Rampus ‘created ruckus because they did not get non-vegetarian food and had excreted in the open’. The Meerut police also found to be untrue a report that a Maulana had spat on and bit a shopkeeper. The Belagavi Deputy Commissioner clarified that the allegation of BJP MP Shobhna Karandlaje, that people quarantined were spitting and misbehaving with health workers, was wrong.