When the present writer reached India in early 1982 to take up an assignment which was to last three and a half years, he frequently came across the observation that the overall psychological approach of Indian Muslims to their position in the Indian society and to India itself had undergone a sea-change after 1971. In a broad sense the statement implied that:
a. After the Dhaka surrenders of December 1971 the Indian Muslim no longer looked upon Pakistan as a “bastion of Islam’ a source of moral and (perhaps) physical strength which could sustain his morale in moments of crisis.
b. The average Indian Muslim was now learning to keep him afloat. Even though the majority community still looked upon him as something of an alien even a potential Pakistani agent, and the Indian establishment and the extremist Hindu elements now felt much more confident of them and had shed the inferiority complex which they had developed as a result of centuries of Muslim rule.
Apart from the fact that relights or communal distinctions should have at all continued despite the secular Constitution which India consciously adopted after independence, it is difficult to accept that the sensual tensions of Hindu Muslim relationship have disappeared after 1971 in any perceptible sense. Indeed, the pre-1971 pattern has more or less continued. Amore fundamental question therefore is: Has the psychology of Indian Hindus in any sense changed after 1971, and if so. Is it a change for the better or otherwise?
IMPRESSION
In a recent article. Syed Shahabuddin. a brilliant intellectual and member of Indian Parliament, more or less confirms the impression outlined in the preceding paragraph. While asserting that the post-1971 generation of Indian Muslims is not the same as the earlier generation. He laments nonetheless that his fellow Indian Muslims continue to suffer from a deep sense of economic and cultural insecurity. Shahabuddin goes (on 10 point out that the “Muslim Indian is not prepared to buy peace or even prosperity at the cost of his identity and dignity”. Does it mean that the price demanded from Indian Muslims for their integration into the Indian mainstream is that they surrender their identity and dignity?
Ironically while Shahabuddin.
Has been described as “yet another Jinnah’ by many of his Hindu compatriots some of his relations who migrated to Pakistan after partition believe that he is anti-Pakistan. The latter in the present writer’s opinion is an unfair and harsh verdict the fact is that Shahabuddin continues to crusade for the rights of Muslims and loses no. ‘Opportunity to stress the point that Muslims are being discriminated against because of their religion and because of their older generation identified itself with the Pakistan movement. Which in effect means that the psychology of the majority community vis-a-vis Muslims continue to be what it was when the slogan of Pakistan was first raised, The recent incident of the Babri Masjid of Ajodhya is an uncomfortable reminder of many such incidents which happened in the years immediately following the partition, Even more uncomfortable is the fact that the present District Judge of Faizabad, in his judgment delivered on Feb. 1st 1986, cited the authorities to have the status of the Masjid restored as a Hindu temple for the first time since partition:
VALUES
Even the most impartial observer would concede that the Muslims in India by and large continue to feel that their social and religious values are under siege, that the ‘majority community does not demonstrate and adequate sense of accommodation even towards the constitutional rights of the Muslim’s, that social and economic discrimination is still practiced on a large scale, that Muslims continue to be looked upon by extremist Hindu elements belonging to Jan Sangh, RSS and Vishwa Hindu Parishad as pro-Pakistan and anti-India, Whether Dec. 1971, was a “psychological watershed” or not, the Muslims continue to feel that things have not changed and that they are vulnerable to the Capriciousness of a brute majority.
There are elements among Muslims who repose implicit faith in the freedom of conscience and religion guaranteed under the Indian Constitution, and would want their fellow Muslims to confine their agitation within constitutional framework, The mass of Muslims are however too uneducated of too desperate to face the situation with equanimity. They believe that the State does not demonstrate any real anxiety to Acquit itself of its responsibility under the Constitution, and the Bap between precept and practice is still very much there, If the history of the past 39 years is anything to go by, Muslims in India would want to see a more tangible manifestation of the Authority’s will (o integrate them into the mainstream, without any threat to their identity or dignity. Reconciliation sooner rather than later is of course inevitable. The eighty or one hundred million Muslims of India (whatever the actual figure) have to find a solution to their problems within the society to which they belong, Reconciliation is made doubly difficult because of the educational backwardness of Muslims themselves and for this they have to accept their own share of the responsibility certainly to a large measure. Muslim social workers deeply conscious of the plight of their community bitterly complain of lack of interest and initiative on the part of their fellow Muslims. ‘An Educational Foundation in Delhi repeatedly reports lack of response from Muslim students to offers of scholarships.
To some extent, this is due to a vast section of the Indian Muslim community being economically dependent upon their family professions as artisans and skilled workers. A child going to school or college means one worker less for earning the daily bread. Lack of education leads to its own problems, like loss of employment opportunity and advancement in the social system. This in tum breeds vicious circle, but even so, Muslims cannot be held responsible for all the economic and social deprivation that they suffer.
Inevitably, over the past 39 years, the situation has not remained altogether static. There are positive signs in the system which was not there two or three decades ago. ‘The substantial vote bank of the Muslim community create sits own compulsions for the Government in power to mitigate the social and economic backwardness of the Muslims as a class. Yet other positive developments the serious sustained attention being paid by responsible Indians to the causes of Muslim backwardness. A large ‘number of individual scholars and social scientists, both Muslim and Hindu, as also several research Organizations and institutions spread all over the country have done, and are doing, some very worthwhile work in this area, This leads to a better and wider understanding of the actual position of the Muslims belonging to different social strata and walks of life,
And not all of this is cosmetic or propane’s bulimics;
SLO Weavers TELS, incredible that some of these social studies have led to some very wild conclusions. For instance, the late Mr. M.R.A. Baig, a senior diplomat and scholar in his published work The Muslim Dilemma in India stressed two aspects, due attention to which, in his opinion could result in closer integration of the Muslim community in the mainstream of Indian nationhood.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 23, 1986
