Face to Face with the Indian Muslims
Dr Firoz Mahboob Kamal
(Note: The writer visited India several times; has visited Delhi, Mumbai,
Kolkata, Jaipur, Agra, Azmir and also travelled through the states of West
Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The article is based on personal
observations and face-to-face talks).
The Muslim-phobia & the disbelief
In
2001 census, 13.4% of the Indians were found to be Muslims. Now it is estimated
to be 15%. But most of the Indian Muslims do not believe this official figure
as true. They believe their percent is much higher. They think it skilfully
manipulated lie only to serve the anti-Muslim political agenda of the
over-stated Hindu majority. The Hindu ruling clique strongly feels that a
higher figure will generate more sense of deprivation among the Muslims; and
may generate more unrest. Even 15 percent Muslim population creates a lot of
Muslim-phobia among the ruling Hindu clique. They think it a great increase in
the Muslims from 9.9 percent share in 1951 census. Such panic in Hindu mind get
reinforced by the falling Hindu population of 85 percent in 1951 to 79 percent.
They foresee a declining Hindu majority in the near future in some strategic
states like Assam, West Bengal and Kerala; in these peripheral states at least
one-third of the populations are already Muslim. The ongoing deportation scheme
of the Muslims from Assam is in fact a ploy to cut the size of the Muslim
population. They blame such surge in Muslim population owes to infiltration
from Bangladesh. Such allegation can only damage India’s relation with
Bangladesh. Whereas the ground reality tell otherwise. Thousands of Indians are
working in Bangladesh –especially in its garments sector and earn huge amount
of foreign currency for India. Moreover, it is well recognised that the health
and socio-economic indicators of wellbeing is significantly better in
Bangladesh and its economy is moving faster than India. The poor in Bangladesh
enjoy better opportunity for moving faster in the socio-economic ladder than in
India; and no caste based system or religious scripture restrict their social
mobility. Moreover, India – a country heavily infested with anti-Muslim tyranny
and massacres offers little for its economic migrants.
The
statistical data and the facts-finding Sachar commissions set up by the former
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reveals that 10 percent Muslim population don’t
have even a 3 per cent stake in the government jobs. The government installs
such commissions headed by some ex-judge or judges only to minimize the anger
of the Muslims -usually after a major anti-Muslim massacre. Hence, such
commissions offer little to cure the real problems. Although low figures of the
Muslims in employment are enough to expose the government’s anti-Muslim policy,
the actual figure of Muslim population -if revealed, may turn uglier to tarnish
India’s global image -especially in the Muslim world. This may invite genuine
global rebuke. Moreover, revelation of the truth may further aggravate the
Muslims’ antipathy towards the government and precipitate a major political
upheaval. Many may turn even human bombs.
Such
anti-government anger of nearly 200 million Muslims may cause a huge political
explosion to reduce the country into a mess. Few years ago, India’s
vulnerability was nakedly exposed while few attackers brought Mumbai - its
business heart, to a standstill. Therefore, manipulation of the Muslim population
statistics stays as strategic tool in the hands of the ruling Hindu majority.
So, the actual number of the Muslims remains highly secret and sensitive issue
-as are the number of the Indian soldiers, details of nuclear bombs and the spy
agents at home and abroad. However, despite all such strategies, the Muslims
anger is now boiling up. It has already inflicted a major blow to Indian
National Congress –the original architect of un-divided India. For more than 50
years, the Muslims used to be the traditional vote bank of Congress. But its
huge disservices to Muslims are fully exposed -not only through thousands of
anti-Muslim massacres and demolition of the historic Babri mosque under its
watch, but also through massive deprivation of Muslims in political decision
making and in governmental jobs. Due to Muslims’ alienation, the Congress now
stands as a political orphan. It has lost its power in the central government
with little hope to come back. It has also lost power in many states with
significant Muslim population like West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and
Kerala. The deserted Muslims have been compelled to negotiate with the regional
parties for their survival. Hence, like dinosaur, an all-India national
political party is now an extinct. With such irreparable political
disintegration, this may turn the beginning of the end of India’s geographical
integration. In such a void, the emergence of Bharatia Janata Party (BJP) as a
Hindutva fascist party has only added more fuel to its socio-politico-ethnic
tension rather than solving it.
The hostile strategy
To
keep the Muslim population figure low, the government tactics are well-known.
The most common strategy is to keep huge number of Muslims out of the census
record, especially in the provinces adjacent to Bangladesh like West Bengal,
Assam, Tripura, and in big cities like Calcutta, Mumbai and Delhi. In only one
state of Assam, it is about 4 millions. To justify such exclusion, they invent
fabricated pretexts. The political parties like BJP (Bharatya Janata Party),
Bishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Congress), RSS (Rastriya Shebak Sangh),
Shibshena, Bajrang Dal and other communal outfits make explosive issues out of
the same fabricated story. They allege that millions of Bangladeshis have
entered and settled in the bordering provinces around Bangladesh. They also
demand immediate push back of these Muslims to Bangladesh. In Assam, along with
anti-Muslim political agitation, thousands of Muslim men, women and children
were mass-murdered in the eighties. And no one was punished for such heinous
crime. Such demands for the push-back and the anti-Muslims agitations with that
demand are more commonly arranged prior to any national census or voter list
update. The government then gets easy pretexts to exclude huge number of
Muslims from the census as well as from the voters' list. Even the rural
Muslims of West Bengal who live in the slums of Calcutta, Bombay or New Delhi
to make a living also get labelled as Bangladeshi, and thus left excluded from
the census and from the voter list. The allegation they face is based on their
mother tongue which happens to be Bengali – conveniently forgetting the fact
that West Bengali Muslims also speak the same language. Since inclusion in the
census is required as a proof for citizenship, so large numbers of the
Muslims are left disqualified to register as Indian citizen. This keeps the
door open for the government to push them back into Bangladesh at a suitable
time.
Highly
inflammatory news and feature articles demonising the Muslims and blaming them
as illegal intruders appear regularly in the Indian media. The tune and flavour
of those reports are almost always the same. The Muslims are blamed to cause a
dangerous demographic shift in Indian population. For example, the Time of
India once published a claim of a central Jubofront (Youth Front) leader in a
mass-gathering that Muslim population rose significantly in Assam and West
Bengal. The paper added its own hype to the fear that if such increase in
Muslim population is not checked now then these provinces will turn Hindu
minority province in near future. The paper projected it a great threat to
India’s integrity and prelude to creation of another Pakistan in its own
territory. During my six months’ stay in India I found recasting of such
inflammatory news almost once or twice a week on the front page in major Indian
dailies like the Time of India, the Hindustan Time, Indian Express, the
Statesman and many others are in the forefront to spread such anti-Muslim
venom. So the anti-Muslim fervent never gets any opportunity to die out, rather
continuously receives a new lease of life. The communal parties thrive on such
media-engineered phobia and anti-Muslim hatred.
Once
I read an article in the Hindustan Time under the headline "Hindu
Population and Muslim Population". The writer tried to tell that there are
two different rates of population growth in India: one for the Muslims and
another for the Hindu. And he tried to prove that the growth of Muslim
population is much higher than that of the Hindus. He cautioned that the Hindu
domination will soon come to an end in India if the Muslim population continues
to increase with the current rate. I found it a morbid delusion; only a man
with pathological hatred against Muslims can believe such politically motivated
speculation. How the Muslims with its current 15 % proportion can emerge as the
majority in India – which did not happen even in about 700 years of Muslim
rule. I also wonder how these people can sleep at night with such tremendous
fear. I noted that the Hindustan Time, the Time of India and the India Today
have special interest in publishing such views. These types of much spin-added
news and feature articles are circulated through these papers by different
names and in different perspectives at least few times a week. These articles
are published as regular refreshers to the Hindu communal so that the
anti-Muslim sentiment is always kept alive.
The
role of the Indian newspapers and magazines to generate such fear in the Hindu
mind is on the increase. There are few exceptions like the Frontline, but the
circulation of those newspapers is very limited. Once I had a long discussion
on the issue with one of the leading Indian economist from Kerala. Although a
Hindu, but I found him very rational and thoughtful. He studied and taught
economics in the MIT in the USA and happens to be a close friend of former
Prime Minister Monmohan Singh. He agreed with my observation. I also told him
that how India can have a friendly relation neighbouring Muslims countries with
such a Prime Minister toxic hatred against the Muslims.
The biased bureaucracy
I
found a very common notion among the Muslims that the Indian governments' civil
servants are more communal and Muslim basher than the political workers. So
there exists an active non-co-operation in the bureaucracy towards reducing the
Muslims’ deprivation. Such non-co-operation becomes more evident during or
after any anti-Muslim massacre. These bureaucrats then make it impossible to quickly
control the killing or undertake any impartial investigation. So the demolition
of Babri mosque or massacre and destruction in Mumbai and Gujarat could
continue for many days in broad day lights. And the people in charge could not
find any murderer for the dead three thousands in Gujrat. In a civilised
country with a huge army and police force, the criminal killers cannot enjoy
such a free hand in planned mass-murder and destruction. But that happens in
India again and again.
These
Indian bureaucrats are more active to preserve their own vested interests; they
possess little interest to cater services without racial, religious or
linguistic bias. In their midst, faith of a Muslim works as the greatest
disability. Any small attempts of doing justice towards the Muslims are viewed
suicidal by them. And it has a long history. During the British rule, the
Bengal Pact forwarded by Chittaranjan Das and Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy ended
in a fiasco due to these bureaucrats. The Pact promised more employment opportunities
for the Muslims; hence was detested by the Hindu elite. The vested interest
that they established in the administration as the most obedient servants of
the British raj was kept unaltered even in the independent India. In fact, the
British rule survived in India for 190 years because of their deep obedience to
those foreign imperialists.
The
colonial foreigners have gone, but now they enjoy their full liberty to execute
their dominance over the Muslims and minorities. They received huge benefits
from the British for their servitude. After 1947, these mercenaries proved to
be lucky to fully protect their all privileges. Now in India they want to
ensure the same privileges for their future generation. The possible
advancement of the downtrodden 200 million Muslims may make some crossover into
their privileges; hence consider them as a real threat. So, Muslim hatred gets
more intense among them. In fact, they use the state apparatus as a powerful
weapon to protect their territory against any Muslim advancement. As they made
alliance with the British rulers, these communal bureaucrats also made alliance
with the communal politicians to promote their self-serving cause. This why,
Babri mosque could be destroyed in daylight during the whole day without any
preventive effort by any police –as if there existed no police in India on that
day to stop that crime. The Indian Prime Minister Narsima Rao, his whole
ministry and the whole civil and military bureaucracy showed their robust
inaction. They silently watch the destruction on TV; probably celebrated it,
too.
One
can easily sense the tip of the anti-Muslim ice-berg in Indian bureaucracy
after landing at Bombay or Calcutta airport from a European or Middle Eastern
cities with a Bangladeshi passport. It seems they find it difficult to swallow
the pride of a Bangladeshi Muslim travelling worldwide with an international
passport. Probably they think such privilege is only the right of the upper
caste Hindu -as it is customary in India. The communal nature of the Indian
administration and the police becomes more evident during any event of Muslim
mass killing. The police become more active in suppressing the Muslim victims
than the Hindu killers. More Muslims are taken to jails than the Hindu
attackers -as happened in Muslim massacre in Mumbai and Gujarat. In both the
places, numerous Muslims were killed or arrested and oppressed by the state
police. They also faced the criminal charges. In Meerut, Indian police added a
new chapter to its already tainted record. They dumped hundreds of Muslim
corpses into the nearby canals to show the low number of Muslims deaths in the
massacre. During the demolition of the Babri mosque, they indeed provided
protection to the militant Hindus so that they could accomplish the crime
without any hindrance or resistance from the Muslims. After the mosque
demolition, the Hindu terrorists started the Muslim massacre. According to
government statistics, more than two thousand Muslims were murdered in Bombay
alone; fire was set to thousands of Muslims’ houses and shops. Women were raped
and Muslim babies were thrown into fire. What is more surprising is: the police
were not able to find a single murderer or looter -as if nothing happened in
that systemic pogrom. They made history in Nellie in Assam. Thousands of
Muslims were killed in the eighties, but not a single murderer, rapist or
arsonist had to appear before the judge to receive any punishment. Prime
Minister Rajib Ghandi signed an accord to stop all judicial investigation.
While
the bureaucrats are so much impregnated with anti-Muslim venom, it is not
surprising that these officers will discover scores of fabricated reasons to
exclude the Muslims from the voters' list or census record. The sheer lack of
their interest in protecting Muslims’ lives and property becomes more evident
from the lack of judicial prosecution in any anti-Muslim genocide. But such
failures make little political and moral impact in India’s civil
administration; nor are they considered any moral or ethical disability for the
job. Therefore, such anti-Muslim killings happen again and again –rather with
more frequency and ferocity.
The neglect
The
Muslim population in Jaipur is quite large; but very few people could tell me
the actual number. They live in a very small area of the city. The new
constructions are booming in all directions in the outskirts, but the Muslims
are not moving to those areas. They fear, anytime the Hindu neighbours may turn
murderous against them. The Muslims learned such harsh reality from the
previous massacres that happened mostly by the hands of the Hindu neighbours.
So in Jaipur, like any other Indian city, the heavily-congested old city centre
is the abode of the Muslims. There is no park, no wide road, no clean drain, no
good school or college – even no arrangement for regular removal of garbage.
Piles of garbage covered with thick armies of flies and mosquitoes were visible
even in the close vicinity of living quarters. Most of the civic facilities are
absent there. I saw some horrendous pictures of such neglect also in Ajmer –the
city of great shrine of Khawja Moinuddin Chisti. While visiting the famous
shrine, I needed to go to the public toilet located at its backyard. But I
could not proceed. The faeces were overflowing its dirty footpath. This famous
shrine brings in a lot of money to Ajmer city and huge foreign currency to
India, but its basic facilities are kept in utter neglect. It depicts a clear
picture how the provision of very basic services to the Muslim visitors gets
totally ignored by the Hindu administration. Even in Shahjahan’s mosque in
Agra, the mark of chronic neglect was revealing. But in famous Hindu temples, I
found a different standard.
The
situations are not different in Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and other cities. In
all of these cities, the Muslim dwellings are situated in unhygienic and
congested city centres. The reason is the same. The Muslims suffer from a
serious lack of safety and security in the prosperous areas – because of its
Hindu dominance. During the Muslim massacres in the past, the victimized Muslim
families happened to be the inhabitants living in the Hindu-majority areas.
During any anti-Muslim slaughter, the neighbouring Hindus always appeared ready
to annihilate them with huge jubilation. Those killings did not need any
outsiders. As soon as any riot starts, the Muslims are immediately robbed of
their houses and properties. As if, there were ready-made forces standing very
close for doing the job. In fact, such readiness is furnished by the Indian
media and the communal political parties by their continuous anti-Muslim hate
campaign. The Muslim houses are gutted, the women are raped and shops are set
on fire. Murdering the Muslim men, women and the children remains on the top of
the agenda. Probably the killers believe that such murder is the most effective
way of elimination of the Muslim population in India. What is more shameful is:
these kinds of heinous atrocities are committed not only by the criminals of
the localities but also by the so-called educated and well-off Hindus –even by
academics and other professionals. The so-called intellectuals not only help in
instigating riots, but also actively engage themselves in the arson. A doctor
from Baireli recalled how a Muslim professor was killed by his Hindu
neighbour's gunshot. In fact, this is the reason why the Muslims have lost
trust in Hindu neighbours and left the Hindu-dominated areas and gathered in
over-crowded Muslim quarters. Because, they perceive saving life is more
precious than living in good locality. Since located at the centre, these areas
possess little room for further expansion. So the problems are multiplying with
the ever-increasing Muslim population. On the other hand, the Hindus are
establishing their absolute dominance in the new residential areas. The
political leaders –both in the government and in the opposition, show little
political commitment to resolve this inhuman issues. They only pursue to keep
the status quo. Surprisingly, such a huge humanitarian issue couldn’t be a
political issue in India!
The Muslim migration
After
1947, the mass migration of the Indian Muslims took place primarily in two ways
- external migration and internal migration. The external migration was
basically exodus to Pakistan. And the goal of the internal migration was to
leave villages or non-Muslim dominated areas to settle in the Muslim-dominated
areas in the cities. The Indian Muslims are facing similar situations that the
Jews experienced in Germany, France, Poland, Russia, and other European
countries. Confronted with the persecution by the Christians, they withdrew to
the ghettoed life in the heavily congested areas of the European cities.
Likewise, every major city in India is divided into two sub-cities: the smaller
congested one for the Muslims and the other one for the non-Muslims. Indeed, in
every Indian city, the Hindu-Muslim dividing line is all too obvious to ignore.
During the riot, this division-line becomes the natural border between the
warring Hindus and Muslims. Many Ph.D. holders or university professors in
Bangladesh or Pakistan may fail to understand the famous “Two-Nation Theory”;
but in India, its visibility is quite distinct even to a layman. An illiterate
person can see it and feel it in every moments of his existence. The current
inhuman condition of the Indian Muslims explains why the movement for the
creation of Pakistan was so strongly felt in Hindu majority states of India;
and why the Indian Muslims were eager to migrate to Pakistan even at the cost
of abandoning the dearest lands, houses, business and dear ones where their
forefathers grew up and settled for hundreds of years.
The deprivation
The
Jaipur city has many mosques. Most of these are old, and built during the
British rule. I could not find a single mosque built in recent years. Every
time of prayers, I intentionally offered my prayers at different mosques (I
visited at least at six of them) -so that I could get the opportunity to see
different people each time. I found every mosque to be old and some of them are
dilapidated. The floors, the prayer mats, the walls and the ablution areas of
those mosques told the story of deprivation and poverty. Jaipur is a provincial
capital, but its mosques do not match even the standard of a district mosque in
Bangladesh. Once I got the opportunity to offer my Eid prayer in one of the
Jaipur mosque. It was one my very saddest experience during my whole stay in
India. People’s attire on a festive day gives a true depiction of a people’s
happiness and prosperity, at least on that day people do not hide their
reality. At least on that day people’s inner self gets an outward expression. I
offered my Eid prayer in a mosque in the outskirt of Jaipur city, near to its
international airport. It is also near to one of the business hub of the city
-known for its traditional Rajasthani bed-sheets and garments. On that Eid day,
to my utter surprise, I could not find any joy and jubilant festivity in people
who came to offer the Eid prayer. Even the mosque did not receive any special
treatment for the Eid. Prison people do not show any joy in their march,
the same thing I saw in people who came for Eid prayer. Even very few people
joyfully embraced each other after the Eid prayer –which is very common in any
free Muslim country. Poverty was evident from their dress. The facial
expression showed a very gloomy frustration. Probably poverty, alienation and
marginalisation have robbed their inspiration for any joyous living and cultural
expression.
In
most Indian cities, the number of the mosques did not increase even though the
Muslim population soared. I saw similar picture in Delhi, Agra and Bombay. The
existing mosques cannot accommodate the musallies especially on Friday and Eid
days. Consequently, the Muslims become compelled to stand on the street during
Friday and Eid prayers. As a consequence, this creates traffic jams in busy
areas. And such traffic jams generate utter hatred in Hindu minds against the
Muslims. Without understanding the real reasons of such problem, the Hindu asks
the government to stop Muslims’ outpouring onto the streets. The Hindu communal
organisations made huge issues out of it, but they never ask the government to
allocate adequate lands for building more mosques to accommodate the ever
increasing Muslim population. Whereas performing salah in a proper mosque
environment is the most fundamental right of the Muslims in any country. But in
India such right goes to the bin in front of these Hindu eyes. Whenever the
Muslims take their own initiative to build a new mosque they face fierce
resistance from the Hindu administration. While sitting in a mosque in Jaipur,
one tablighi man told me how the government stopped further extension of a
mosque in Jaipur. Since none of the mosque in Jaipur could accommodate all the
attendees during any large Tablighi Ijtema, the local Muslims took initiative
to construct a two-storey big mosque in the outskirt of Jaipur city. But the
government did not permit to execute the plan. Since such mosque could be a
visible Muslim icon, the BJP government of Rajasthan rejected the plan on the
ground that it does not want any such new icon of any Islamic significance in
their state. They did not hide to remind that India is a Hindu country, so its
priority is to promote icons that fit with its own identity.
At
some places, the masjid surroundings had been annexed illegally by either
government or non-government organisations. I witnessed the process of
dispossessing all the surrounding land of a mosque located near the Jaipur
international airport by the government’s Public Works Department (P.W.D.). The
imam of the mosque hailed from Bihar province. The mosque was built during the
rule of the British. There is a residence in the mosque premise to provide
accommodation for the imam, but that has been occupied by the employees of
P.W.D. I saw many people gossiping in that room. In leisure times, the imam has
to sleep right on the floor of the mosque. On the huge waqf compound of the mosque
lie the worn-out metallic tools belonging to the P.W.D. After the prayer, I
talked with the attendees at the mosque. Knowing that I was a Bangladeshi,
their enthusiasm got quite a bit of boost. I had the opportunity to ask them
many questions. They also wanted to know many things about Bangladesh. At the
time, the Bharatya Janata Party (BJP) was ruling Rajasthan. There were no riots
but oppression on the Muslims was taking place in other ways. The educated
Muslims had no chance to secure jobs. They did not have other alternatives but
to accept low-paying jobs at the factories owned by the Hindu businessmen. As a
result, they have little zeal for higher education.
While
strolling along the streets of Ajmer, I came across a retired headmaster of a
local secondary school. All four of his children were university graduate but
no one got any job. He lamented, "The Muslims have no other alternatives
but to do menial chores under the Hindus. Some are living from hand to mouth by
begging at the majar [shrine]". We were discussing while standing on the
main street in front of the majar. The shopkeepers were doing brisk trade on
both sides of the road. Most of the buyers were Muslims travellers –many from
other parts of India and many from Bangladesh. The headmaster continued,
"Here you can see hundreds of shops but none of the shops are owned by the
Muslims - not even the shops that sell prayer rugs and tasbees [counting beads]
even though the Muslims comprise 40% of the population of the city of Ajmer.
Even in Muradabad, Aligarh, Baireli where Muslims are somewhat successful in
businesses, their shops and houses were burnt many times under the pretext of
different flimsy excuses. This is how attempts were undertaken to drive the
Muslims away from their established position in business. I talked with several
shopkeepers at Agra - the city that boasts Taj Mahal. They sell miniature
marble replicas of Taj Mahal. Most of their highly educated relatives did not
get any job. The Muslims can't even get near to the ladder to socio-economic
development, let alone climbing up the ladder. Stagnation prevails over their
entire existence. Apart from business, the Muslims are also being gradually
driven away from the higher education sector.
The policy of exclusion
Aligarh
Muslim University was founded by the Muslims, with Muslims donation from all
over India. After India’s independence, new laws had been passed to curtail the
admission of Muslim students and introduced the admission of the Hindu
students. The logic shown is that the Hindus must have equal rights of
admission in every institution in secular India even in Aligarh. As a result,
the Aligarh Muslim University has lost its Muslim identity. Instead, the Hindu
fundamentalists of the BJP have established their stronghold. These days, the
city is remembered more for brutal anti-Muslim skirmishes than for the name of
the university. I heard from an ex-Aligarh Muslim doctor about his story of how
he was deprived from getting admitted into the post-graduation program due to the
meddling of ever-increasing Hindu faculty members. He said that Hindus comprise
more than half of the number of teachers of this traditional Muslim University.
Whenever some Indian Muslims working in the Middle-East countries take
initiative to build schools, colleges or madrasahs at their own cost for the
backward Muslims, the Hindu media starts storms of propaganda against such
venture. BJP and other communal parties campaign against establishment of
such Muslim schools. They complain that an uneven competition has been started
which will help the Muslims to go ahead of the Hindu. They demand equal
opportunity for the admission of the Hindu students at these institutions which
are built at the sole expense of the Muslims' hard earned money. The government
yields to their demands. Consequently, not only the Hindu students get
admitted, but also the Hindu teachers are given appointments. The situation is
such that the Muslims can't grow up in the way they want. Everywhere, including
at the religious institutions, there are government interferences.