Denial and Deprivation

Indian Muslims after the Sachar Committee and Rangnath Mishra Commission Reports

Abdur Rahman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9780429603365
• Subtopic: Social Policy
• Index: Social Sciences

The volume attempts to gauge and analyse the level of denial and deprivation faced by Indian Muslims by evaluating their status after a gap of several years of Sachar Committee (2006) and Rangnath Mishra Commission (2007) Reports. It presents and discusses the current conditions with respect to outcome indicators such as population, education, economy, poverty, unemployment, consumption level, availability of bank loans, infrastructure and civic facilities and representation in government employment. By placing facts in perspective, it also discusses community-specific issues such as use of Urdu, madrasa education and Waqf. In the post-Sachar era, governments started many schemes to improve the condition of Muslims whose reach and impact is assessed with the help of latest data. It presents the social structure of Muslims, presence of OBCs and Dalits and suggests a practical pattern for reservation. It follows up the process of implementation of recommendations of these reports and highlights how the governments adopted tokenism, attempted to implement minor recommendations and shied away from major ones. The volume highlights the lopsided attitude of the previous UPA govern­ments, hostile attitude of the present NDA regime and accelerated marginalization of Muslims in today's scenario due to open discrimination, mob-violence, lynching and hate crimes in the name of various communal issues. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

CHAPTER 1
Introduction

Background

We Indians celebrated our 72nd Independence Day on 15 August 2018. A general jubilation was felt and the day was celebrated differently at different places to commemorate the birth of our nation. India gained its independence after more than two centuries of repressive British rule. Our esteemed and long-sighted freedom fighters had been dreaming of an ideal nation which would be democratic, secular and socialist in nature. They had been visualizing a republic which would ensure justice, liberty, equality and fraternity and there would be just and equitable distribution of the country’s resources among all communities. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar drafted the Constitution by incorporating those dreams and all possible elements of a modern secular nation. India adopted the Constitution and became a republic on 26 January 1950. The Constitution gave social justice and voice to the communities which had been the victim of centuries of neglect, injustice and religion-sanctioned hatred and discrimination. When India awakened to life and freedom, all socio-religious communities (SRC) were not on the same level of social, economic and educational development. By taking a revolutionary step, the parliament approved reservation in government jobs, education and politics for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). A special Act to end discrimination and violent treatment against the SCs/STs was enacted. The successive governments at the centre and all state governments have been implementing a wide variety of schemes and programmes to facilitate the socio-economic development of the vulnerable groups especially SCs and STs to provide them social and economic security. Generous budgetary allocations are done to all the programmes meant for development of SCs and STs. Due to these welcome steps, they have been able to catch up with all other social groups. Has the situation been similar for the Indian Muslims?

After 71 years of Independence, India has achieved significant socio-economic growth and development and has made tremendous progress in science & technology, agriculture, means of communication, space technology, computer science and IT. It has also been very successful in reducing the level of poverty and improving crucial human development indicators such as health, life expectancy, literacy and education. Numerous studies and reports, however, reveal that not all communities and social groups have shared equally the benefits of the growth process. If all social groups and communities do not get equal benefit from the development process, it creates discontent and distrust among them. Giving equal benefit to all, creates mutual respect and cooperation among them. If the development process is misdirected or not equally focused, they may have opposite result. Economic, social, educational and political inclusion of all on the basis of equality and justice is essential for the unity and integrity of the country. Studies of prominent scholars and government reports show that Muslims are one of the most backward communities in India. They are away from the mainstream and are lagging behind most of the communities in terms of most of the socio-economic indicators. Although Muslims constitute 14.2 per cent of the population, yet their contribution to the GDP is only about 6 per cent. Recent data show that on most socio-economic indicators, general condition of Muslims is comparable to or even worse than the SCs and STs.

There is no dearth of books, government records and reports prepared by academicians and civil society on Muslims in India. Colonial rulers, after 1857, at times, also published reports on social and employment conditions of Muslim. After Independence a lull was observed. Shortly after Independence, in 1949, the Nehru administration decided not to cross-tabulate economic and religious/ethnic group data because it felt that such statistics had heightened communal and caste sensibilities during the colonial era.¹ However, it is clear that exclusion of caste- and community-wise data in the national economic life did not decrease casteism or communalism, nor did it promote a caste-free society.² But soon after, reports on Muslims’ social and employment status began to emerge. These include various reports including the Sachar Committee Report (SCR) and the Rangnath Mishra Commission Report (RMCR). The SCR and the RMCR have completely engaged Muslim leadership and intelligentsia and have been the subject of discussion at all forums.

The first official document establishing the Muslims’ backwardness was the Report of the PM’s High Level Committee (HLC) better known as the Sachar Committee. It was mandated to obtain relevant information from all departments/ministries, consolidate, collate and analyse the information and present a report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community of India. It comprehensively documented the economic backwardness and deprivation of the Muslims along most vital indicators. The SCR recognizes that the Muslim community ‘exhibits deficits and deprivation in practically all aspects of development’. It completely demolishes the myth of ‘appeasement’ and ‘pampered treatment’ of the community. This is evidence not of favoured treatment, but cumulative and comprehensive official discrimination and neglect. It suggested various measures to improve the socio-economic and educational condition of Muslims of India.³

The second report is by the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities (NCRLM), better known as the Rangnath Mishra Commission (RMC). The RMCR is considered the most revolutionary report as, first time in the history of independent India, it recommended reservation for minorities including Muslims and to amend para 3 of the Constitution (SC) Order, 1950, which deprives Dalits belonging to the Muslim and Christian communities of the SC status. Its recommendations are strong and have been hailed all over the country among scholars and academicians.⁴

These two reports clearly made public the socio-economic status of Muslims. While the first is described as the diagnostic report or the health check-up report of the Muslim community, the second suggests remedial measures. Justice Sachar brought out facts over ground which had been in the shape of myths and perceptions till eleven years back. The SCR suggests remedial measures which include revolutionary and modern steps sensing huge backwardness. Extreme backwardness and alienation of the community were being felt and perceived by the common man. The essence of what Sachar Committee has put on record was known to the common man. People had been discussing these issues at tea stalls, homes, various forums etc. The ‘perception’ and ‘common knowledge’ of the common man has got ‘official seal’ and now has become authentic. The RMCR, by recommending reservation and deletion of the Presidential Order, has also given ‘official sanction’ to the long-pending demands of the community.

These reports sent ‘shock waves’ not only in the Muslim community but also among common citizens of India. Having got official seal of their backwardness and sanction of reservation demand, the community members suddenly woke up from the slumber. They petitioned, staged dharna, took out processions, agitated, blocked roads, courted arrest, etc., to press the government to implement these two reports. At all forums people cited the SCR for acute backwardness and the demand of reservation was backed by the RMCR. Political parties which thrive on Muslim votes, pushed the government in the corner and demanded to implement these reports. The UPA government of Manmohan Singh which had these two reports prepared, suddenly became cautious and defensive. Although it was inching towards implementation, it did not take major steps for the fear of losing the majority vote. The fiercest opposition came from the members of right-wing political parties, which not only opposed the report vehemently, but vowed not to implement them in the states ruled by them. They said that these reports were unconstitutional as they discriminated people on the basis of religion. By and large some section of the media regularly reported the progress and remained neutral. A section of the media has been opposing, few of them supporting it without any reservation. Academicians and scholars both are weighing on different scales. Both the lines – opposition as well as support – are not in conformity with the objective analysis. These reports should be analysed in the context of the prevailing socioeconomic, employment and educational conditions and the space provided by the Indian Constitution.⁵

The SCR enjoined governments to pave the way out of the deprivation-trap for Muslims through ‘inclusive development and mainstreaming of the community, while respecting diversity’. Optimistic members of the community had hoped that the governments would do something concrete for it. However, the scale of government intervention was too small to touch even the fringes of the numbers of deprived people. Several writers have criticized the pace of implementation. K. Rahman Khan, then Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, on 15 March 2011, criticized the centre for not fully and honestly implementing the Sachar Committee recommendations.⁶ A Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) pulled up the government for mere lip service to the recommendations of the SCR. It pointed out that the government was not attending to the ‘crux of the problems’ brought out in the report. Muslim organizations and intellectuals have always questioned the efficacy of schemes and criticized the slow pace and shabby implementation of the provisions. Sensing the situation, K. Rahman Khan, then minority minister, formed a committee in 2013 to review the process of implementation of the Sachar Committee recommendations.

Genesis of These Reports

Experts trace the origin of these two reports in the manifesto of the Congress party released before the general election of 2004. It said, ‘The Congress believes in affirmative action for all religious and linguistic minorities’. It reiterated that the Congress was committed to adopting the policy of reservation followed in Kerala and Karnataka, for socially and educationally backward sections among Muslims and other minorities on a national scale.⁷ This statement is directly linked with the setting up of the RMC. There were commitments on Muslims’ education, economy and communal violence measures also. This resulted in the setting up of the Sachar Committee in 2005.

The SCR and RMCR

From Sir W. Hunter’s book (1871) to the Gopal Panel Report (1983), there are enormous documented evidence to show that on all indices – income, health, education, employment – Muslims rated dismally lower than other communities. To have a clear picture on all this, the UPA-I (2004-9) set up the Sachar Committee with the aim to ascertain the socio-economic and educational status of Muslims. The committee based its report on contemporary data and came up with some startling facts. The SCR is an extremely valuable document on social, economic and educational status of Muslims for two reasons. First, it exposed the myth of ‘Muslim’s appeasement’ as its findings were shocking testimony to six decades of institutional bias and neglect that had left Muslims far behind other SRCs. Second, its recommendations contained seeds of a ‘major socio-economic transformation’ of Indian Muslims.⁸

On 27 November 2011, Late Syed Shahabuddin, a former Member of Parliament, said,

According to the Report of the Sachar Committee, the Muslim community is almost as backward as the SCs and STs and more backward than the non-Muslim OBCs. The government has been ignoring its own reports and commissions to silence the people. The Gopal Panel Report (1983) was simply filed away. Today, the recommendations of Sachar Report have been reduced to the award of a few thousand scholarships which are hardly delivered within the current year. Now we had the recent example of historic NCRLM, headed by a former Chief Justice of India, Justice Rangnath Mishra, which had been gathering dust on the table of the Parliament for three years without being discussed.⁹

The SCR presents a dismal picture and gives detailed account of the position of Indian Muslims without any ‘exaggerated description or emotional comments’. It reveals the extent to which Muslims have been marginalized during decades of development. It is not that Muslims were not aware of their position but they never knew that they were lagging behind other minority groups at the all-India level and had even fallen behind the SCs in some states. They wonder how Muslims, who were noted for research, entrepreneurship and spirit of enquiry in earlier cen...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Two Reports
• 3. Reactions to the Reports
• 4. Minorities and their Rights
• 5. Population of Muslims and Related Issues
• 6. Educational Condition
• 7. Urdu
• 8. Madrasas
• 9. Economic and Employment Condition
• 10. Access to Banks and Bank Credit
• 11. Social and Physical Infrastructure
• 12. Poverty, Consumption and Standards of Living
• 13. Government Employment
• 14. Wakf Properties
• 15. Deprived Sections in Muslims and Affirmative Actions
• 16. Government Programmes and Schemes in the Post-Sachar Era
• 17. Status of Implementation of Sachar Committee Recommendations
• 18. Status of Implementation of Rangnath Mishra Commission Recommendations
• 19. Reports after Two Reports
• 20. Conclusion
• Epilogue
• Index