Economic condition of Muslims
MUJIBUR REHMAN
Offers insight into the current socio-economic status of Urdu-speaking Indian Muslims
MUSLIMS IN INDIAN ECONOMY: Omar Khalidi; Three Essays Collective, P.B.No 6, B-957, Palam Vihar, Gurgaon, Haryana-122017. Rs. 575.
When India's Hindu far right unleashed a concerted campaign of pseudo-secularism during the post-Shah Bano era, it put the otherwise erudite, articulate secular intellectuals on the defensive. It almost cornered them. Its appeasement accusation generated a popular perception as if Indian Muslims were born with silver spoons.
It made people believe that the community's contribution to art, culture, literature, Bollywood or even cricket was completely fabricated and was a product of the Indian state's blind patronage as if merit or talent played no part in their success stories. This campaign also catalysed Hindutva's hostile political passion and made it overshadow a very well rooted public reason of Indian secularism completely.
Glaring contrast
On the fertile ground of these imaginary theories and constructed grievances grew the demon of political Hindutva whose ever-growing capacity to destroy the diverse, modern India is still defying any accurate assessment. The portrait of the Muslim community, it can be argued, presents a glaring contrast of extraordinary accomplishments in some areas and sustained backwardness in others.
Why does a community that can legitimately boast of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, M.F. Hussain, Azim Premji, Irfan Pathan, Shah Rukh Khan and Sania Mirza still have such a large number of its members leading lives of an underclass? It would be indeed outright racist to argue that the community is genetically designed for inferior abilities or has some sort of divine tryst with raw misfortune of all sorts. It is ironical to see the presence of such massive suffering in a community that has historically ruled the region for centuries. How did it happen? Who is to be blamed? Is it British colonialism or India's flawed development strategy or internal factors of the community life or Indian Islam or some indecipherable factor?
This book sheds insight into these questions that have been neglected for years by historians, economists and scholars of other disciplines.
It details facts about the socio-economic conditions of the community prior to the Partition and afterwards. Indian Muslims, it claims, have branched out to new professions from the conventional ones like the army, civil service and traditional education.
Homogeneity
In addition to the general narratives on the conditions of the community during medieval, colonial and independent India, it has chapters on specific States like Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra. It articulates a subtle argument for a well-crafted affirmative action policy for Muslims, for it could cause expansion of its middle class presuming that the latter can anchor a positive change in their socio-economic conditions.
One wonders why this research completed only a few months ago is without a chapter on Gujarat or even on Jammu and Kashmir. Since frequent riots have been attributed as a dominant factor for worsening economic conditions of the community, research on riot-free States like West Bengal or Kerala could help understand how they fare in the economic project for Muslims.
What the reviewer found indeed deeply problematic is the notion of `homogeneity' of Indian Muslim identity on the basis of purely Urdu language employed in the research design here because the challenges of non-Urdu-speaking Muslims are not substantially different from their Urdu-speaking counterparts in India. In addition, it would be self-defeating to offer a generalised formulation on the finding on such a narrow idea of homogeneity.
Untouched areas
There are, without doubt, several aspects calling for further inquiry for an enhanced understanding of this puzzle. A need for a sequel to this well written book is warranted and the dimensions that are untouched here but need further interrogation are: the role of tiny Muslim elites who profited enormously professionally during the heydays of India's symbolic secularism or pre-Hindutva era of modern India if there was one; the role of Muslim fundamentalism; and most importantly, specific research on key States like Gujarat, Assam, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, and others.
Notwithstanding these shortcomings, the book definitely merits the attention of general readers and scholars because it offers refreshing insight into the understanding of the economic condition of India's Muslims, and also because of its attempt to challenge the `herd mindset' of scholars who have been only tangentially dealing with such an important theme.
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