The Vice
President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari has said
that the Muslims of India constitute a community of 180 million, amounting to a
little over 14 percent of the population of the country. They are, after
Indonesia, the second largest national grouping of followers of Islam in the
world. Their contribution to the civilisation and culture of Islam is in no
need of commentary. Delivering inaugural address at the “Golden Jubilee
Session of All India Muslim Majlis-e- Mushawarat” here today, he
said that they were an integral part of the freedom struggle against the
British rule. They are dispersed all over the country, are not homogenous in
linguistic and socio-economic terms and reflect in good measure the diversities
that characterise the people of India as a whole.
He said that the
Independence of India in August 1947, and the events preceding and following
it, cast a shadow of physical and psychological insecurity on Indian Muslims.
They were made to carry, unfairly, the burden of political events and
compromises that resulted in the Partition. The process of recovery from that
trauma has been gradual and uneven, and at times painful. They have
hesitatingly sought to tend to their wounds, face the challenges and seek to
develop response patterns. Success has been achieved in some measure; much
more, however, needs to be done.
The Vice
President opined that the default by the State or its agents in terms of
deprivation, exclusion and discrimination (including failure to provide
security) is to be corrected by the State; this needs to be done at the
earliest and appropriate instruments developed for it. Political sagacity, the
imperative of social peace, and public opinion play an important role in it.
Experience shows that the corrective has to be both at the policy and the implementation
levels; the latter, in particular, necessitates mechanisms to ensure active
cooperation of the State governments.
He said that the
Mushawarat was formed in response to a perceived need to defend and protect the
identity and dignity of the Muslim community in India in terms of the rights
bestowed by the Constitution of India on the citizens of this land. This
objective remains relevant though some of its ingredients may stand amplified
or modified today. As a grouping of leading and most
respected minds of the community, it should go beyond looking at questions of
identity and dignity in a defensive mode and explore how both can be furthered
in a changing India and a changing world. It should widen its ambit to hitherto
unexplored or inadequately explored requirements of all segments of the
community particularly women, youth, and non-elite sections who together
constitute the overwhelming majority.
Following is the text of the Vice President’s
inaugural address :
“It is a
privilege to be invited to address the 50th anniversary session of
the All India Majlis-e-Mushawarat. Needless to say, and like many other
compatriots, I have over the years followed in some measure the work of this
consultative body. The Mushawarat was formed in response to a perceived need to
defend and protect the identity and dignity of the Muslim community in India in
terms of the rights bestowed by the Constitution of India on the citizens of
this land. This objective remains relevant though some of its ingredients may
stand amplified or modified today.
The Muslims of
India constitute a community of 180 million, amounting to a little over 14
percent of the population of the country. They are, after Indonesia, the second
largest national grouping of followers of Islam in the world. Their
contribution to the civilisation and culture of Islam is in no need of
commentary. They were an integral part of the freedom struggle against the
British rule. They are dispersed all over the country, are not homogenous in linguistic
and socio-economic terms and reflect in good measure the diversities that
characterise the people of India as a whole.
The Independence
of India in August 1947, and the events preceding and following it, cast a shadow
of physical and psychological insecurity on Indian Muslims. They were made to
carry, unfairly, the burden of political events and compromises that resulted
in the Partition. The process of recovery from that trauma has been gradual and
uneven, and at times painful. They have hesitatingly sought to tend to their
wounds, face the challenges and seek to develop response patterns. Success has
been achieved in some measure; much more, however, needs to be done.
In the past
decade, work has also been done to delineate the contours of the problem. The
Sachar Committee Report of 2006 did this officially. It laid to rest the
political untruth in some quarters about the Muslim condition and demonstrated
that on most socio-economic indicators, they were on the margins of structures
of political, economic and social relevance and their average condition was
comparable to or even worse than the country’s acknowledged historically most
backward communities, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. It specified
the development deficits of the majority of Muslims in regard to education,
livelihood and access to public services and the employment market across the
states.
In the same
vein, Expert Group reports were prepared in 2008 on the need to develop a
Diversity Index and establish an Equal Opportunity Commission.
Taken together,
these and other studies bring forth sufficient evidence to substantiate the
view that “inequality traps prevent the marginalised and work in favour of the
dominant groups in society”.
More recently
the Kundu Report of September 2014, commissioned to evaluate the implementation
of decisions taken pursuant to Sachar recommendations, has concluded that
though “a start has been made, yet serious bottlenecks remain.” It makes
specific recommendations to remedy these. It asserts that “development for the
Muslim minority must be built on a bed-rock of a sense of security.”[1]
It is evident
from this compendium of official reports that the principal problems
confronting India’s Muslims relate to:
- identity and
security;
- education and
empowerment;
- equitable share
in the largesse of the state; and
- fair share in
decision making.
Each of these is
a right of the citizen. The shortcomings in regard to each have been analysed
threadbare. The challenge before us today is to develop strategies and
methodologies to address them.
The default by
the State or its agents in terms of deprivation, exclusion and discrimination (including
failure to provide security) is to be corrected by the State; this needs to be
done at the earliest and appropriate instruments developed for it. Political
sagacity, the imperative of social peace, and public opinion play an important
role in it. Experience shows that the corrective has to be both at the policy
and the implementation levels; the latter, in particular, necessitates
mechanisms to ensure active cooperation of the State governments.
The official
objective of sab ka sath sab ke vikas is commendable; a pre-requisite for
this is affirmative action (where necessary) to ensure a common starting point
and an ability in all to walk at the required pace. This ability has to be
developed through individual, social and governmental initiatives that fructify
on the ground. Programmes have been made in abundance; the need of the hour is
their implementation.
The foregoing pertains
principally to governmental action or lack thereof. Equally relevant is the
autonomous effort by the community itself in regard to its identified short
comings. What has it done to redress the backwardness and poverty arising out
of socio-economic and educational under-development? How adequate is the
response in relation to the challenge?
A century back the
lament was emotive:
Firqa-bandi
hai kahein aur kahein zaatain hain, Kya zamaane main panaph-ne ki yahi baatain
hain?
Today, we have to admit
that both ‘firqa bandi’ and ‘zaat’ identity is a ground reality. The imagery of
Mahmood and Ayaz standing shoulder to shoulder in the same line is confined to
the mosque; so are the injunctions on punctuality, cleanliness and discipline.
Each of these is violated beyond the confines of the congregational prayer. Corrective
strategies therefore have to be sought on category-differentiation admissible
in Indian state practice and hitherto denied to Muslims (scheduled caste
status) or inadequately admitted (segments of OBC status). Available data makes
it clear that a high percentage of Muslims falls into these two broad
categories.
It is evident that
significant sections of the community remain trapped in a vicious circle and in
a culturally defensive posture that hinders self advancement. Tradition is made
sacrosanct but the rationale of tradition is all but forgotten. Jadeediyat or
modernity has become a tainted expression. Such a mindset constrains critical
thinking necessary both for the affirmation of faith and for the wellbeing of
the community. The instrumentality of adaptation to change - Ijtihad -
is frowned upon or glossed over. Forgotten is its purpose, defined by the late
Sheikh Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi as 'the ability to cope with the ever-changing
pattern of life's requirements'. Equally relevant is Imam Al-Ghazali's
delineation of the ambit of Maslaha - protection of religion, life,
intellect, lineage and property. Both provide ample theoretical space for
focused thinking on social change without impinging on the fundamentals of
faith.
It is here that
the role of Mushawarat becomes critical. As a grouping of leading and most
respected minds of the community, it should go beyond looking at questions of
identity and dignity in a defensive mode and explore how both can be furthered
in a changing India and a changing world. It should widen its ambit to hitherto
unexplored or inadequately explored requirements of all segments of the
community particularly women, youth, and non-elite sections who together
constitute the overwhelming majority.
This effort has
to be made in the context of Indian conditions and the uniqueness of its three
dimensions: plural, secular and democratic. Some years back a close observer
had posed the problem:
“To deny
discrimination and pretend all is well is to fly in the face of facts. But
agitation against discrimination can arouse the very emotions that foster
discrimination. The solution of the Muslim problem lies in a resolution of this
dilemma by devising a form and content of agitation which heals old wounds and
inflicts no new ones. This resolution can be achieved by regarding
discrimination as what it is; a problem of Indian democracy to be resolved
within the framework of national integration.”[2]
This would
necessitate sustained and candid interaction with fellow citizens without a
syndrome of superiority or inferiority and can be fruitful only in the actual
implementation of the principles of justice, equality and fraternity inscribed
in the Preamble of the Constitution and the totality of Fundamental Rights. The
failure to communicate with the wider community in sufficient measure has
tended to freeze the boundaries of diversities that characterise Indian
society. Efforts may be made to isolate the community; such an approach should
be resisted.
The Indian
experience of a large Muslim minority living in secular polity, however
imperfect, could even be a model for others to emulate.
One last word.
The world of Islam extends beyond the borders of India and Muslims here, as in
other lands, can benefit from the best that may be available in the realm of
thought and practice. Some years back I had occasion to read the Algerian-French
philosopher Mohammed Arkoun and was impressed by his view that our times compel
us to rethink modernity so that, as he put it, ‘critical thought,
anchored in modernity but criticising modernity itself and contributing to its
enrichment through recourse to the Islamic example’ could open up a new era in
social movements.[3]
Would future
generations forgive us for failing to explore these options?
“Verily never
will God change the condition of a people until they change it themselves with
their own souls.[4]”
And so the task
before Mushawarat in the foreseeable future should remain a threefold one: to
sustain the struggle for the actualisation in full measure of legal and
constitutional rights, to do so without being isolated from the wider community,
and to endeavour at the same time to adapt thinking and practices to a fast
changing world.
I thank Dr.
Zafarul Islam Khan sahib for inviting me today. Khuda hafiz.
Jai Hind.”