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Muslims and the Indian Army

Sandeep Dikshit

After 60 years of Independence, we should be sufficiently confident of our collective secular beliefs and practices to examine facts.

SHOULD THE Indian Army be exempted from the Rajindar Sachar Committee's inquiry into the economic and social status of Muslims? The Army fears it "may convey the wrong message to the troops, adversely affecting the well-established cohesion, regimental spirit, and morale." It also argues that the national policy on reservation is not applicable to Army recruitment. All recruitment was on the basis of a 1984 formula ensuring equitable selection from all regions.

The Army takes pride in having put in place a system that insulates it from ethnic and religious turbulences. This despite the fact that the battle cry of one of its regiments is a shabad from the Gurbani while the Gorkhas invoke Goddess Kali. They are a throwback to tradition. Indeed, the temple, mosque, church, and gurdwara in the Army are in a common dharamsthal (place of worship). The spirit of brotherhood encompasses all — the Naga battalions from the Northeast and the Gorkha regiment of Nepalese origin. The Army is the force of last resort in communal riots; it has battled insurgency in several States after other security forces were overwhelmed by the task. Army officers command men from different social and ethnic backgrounds and participate in their religious ceremonies and receive absolute allegiance.

Given its record of facing up to nearly every challenge in India and abroad, the Army's reluctance to part with information about its internal processes is understandable. But the Sachar Committee is questioning none of the Army's practices nor is it asking for changes in its ethnic or religious composition.

What is the information available about recruitment to the Army? According to a book, Khaki and the Ethnic Violence in India, by Omar Khalidi, writing to Chief Ministers in 1953, Jawaharlal Nehru felt deeply about the absence of Muslims in the defence forces: "What concerns me most is that no effort is being made to improve this situation which is likely to grow worse unless checked." The same year, his Defence Minister Mahabir Tyagi admitted that the percentage of Muslims in the armed forces had fallen to two and "to correct this state of affairs, I have instructed that due regard should be paid to their recruitment."

This was soon after Independence. Before Partition Muslims formed 36 per cent of the Army; the transfer of two major regiments and some other units to Pakistan led to the percentage falling to two.

The Army tends to be wary of civilian attempts to examine its functioning. No other Central or State police organisation had reservations about forwarding the information sought by the committee despite the low representation of Muslims in their ranks. Consider the decade-old statistical data with the National Commission for Minorities: the Assam Rifles has 2.5 per cent Muslims, the Border Security Force 4.54 per cent, and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police 1.81 per cent.

It is reasonable to conclude that the same data hold good for the Army. In this regard, the Sachar Committee, in a routine survey of a large number of organisations and even Government welfare schemes, sought a systematic account of the recruitment pattern. It would perhaps suggest correctives to ensure Government service is as widely representative as possible. The Army itself, while not providing for quotas in recruitment, reserves seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in all the 17 Sainik Schools it runs.

Omar Khalidi argues that the aggregated State-wise recruitment figures do not reveal religious, ethnic, and caste composition of the Army. At best there are surmises such as the then Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's estimation of Muslims comprising one per cent of the Army. But such figures without a comparative base, source or starting point are virtually useless for a meaningful analysis.

Does the Army, in fact, have such information? All its application forms contain a column under "religion" just as in the forms for other Government jobs. It would not be too difficult for the Army to cull the figures from its recruitment offices. Its reluctance to part with the information has, however, found it some unlikely allies. Anti-minority groups that have constantly questioned Muslim loyalty to the nation have joined the current resistance by the Army.

The Sachar Committee admits to distorted perceptions about Muslims ruling over reality in the absence of "authentic information about the social, economic and educational status of the community." The absence of such data came in the way of planning, formulating, and implementing specific interventions, policies and programmes to address the issues relating to the socio-economic backwardness of the community. Worse, the lack of information perpetuates myths about appeasement of Muslims.

For the Army planners too, the committee's questionnaire should not have come as a surprise. The Government's National Common Minimum Programme said efforts would be made to see how best the welfare of socially and economically backward sections among religious and linguistic minorities, including reservation in education and employment, could be enhanced. The Sachar Committee is a step in that direction.

The Army need not fear a change in composition because of the Committee's report. After 60 years of Independence, we should be sufficiently confident of our collective secular beliefs and practices to examine facts.

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