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[ COMMUNAL MATTERS - INDIA ]
terrorists brainwash young
people by rubbing salt in
the wounds. Says Asghar Ali
engineer, the Director of
Centre for Study of Society
and Secularism. “Injustices
against Muslims give a handle
to terrorists; it is one of the
causes.” He also believes
that education creates more
prejudices. “Uneducated
people are far more secular that
the educated. Our education
system creates more bigotry.”
The portrayal of history is one
of the reasons cited… a history
that is full of the evil deeds of
Muslim Kings. Zeenat Shaukat
Ali points out that the history
books are biased. “Muslims
are portrayed as violent and
aggressive. Positive things
should be highlighted,” she says
and there are positive things.
She quotes noted historian
Romilla Thapar, who has gone
on record to say that there is a
tendency to highlight the bad
deeds of Muslim rulers and play
down their good deeds. Even
the contribution of Muslims
during the Independence movement is not
adequately projected rues Engineer.
And so the divide deepens, and somewhere
sometimes the seeds of violence are planted.
Perhaps in school, perhaps at home and
perhaps in adulthood, as there is only a
superficial interaction between people of
different communities. “Ghettoism adds
to the feeling of alienation, leads to a lack
of understanding of the other,” says Julio
Ribeiro, former Commissioner of Police
(Mumbai) and former Director General
of Police (Punjab). Engineer defends the
ghettoism. “It is ideal to live in cosmopolitan
areas but community people feel insecure.”
Such feelings of insecurity increase after
communal riots.
No one actually believes that there
is a direct link between feelings of
discrimination and terrorism. “Not
everyone turns to violence, only a minority.
There are so many fundamentalist Hindus
Zeenat Shaukat Ali at the event
but only one of them killed Gandhi. So
many women are gang-raped but there is
only one Phoolan Devi. But it is still action
having a reaction,” says Siddiqui.
Considering that all the accused in the
Malegoan blasts have turned out to be
those from the Hindu community seems to
strengthen such a hypothesis. These blasts
were allegedly carried out to “avenge” the
terrorist attacks in various parts of the
country over the past several years. Action
and reaction?
Has India been good to Muslims?
Counter to the argument that Muslims
are being discriminated against in India,
is the belief of the Hindus who argue that
Muslims in India have it good because
India’s constitution is a secular one. Siddiqui
acknowledges this. “India’s constitution gives
equality to all, I would say this is the best
country for Muslims in this sense, in fact
Muslims here have more freedom
that even in Muslim countries.” The
Indian Constitution allows Indian
Muslims to have their Personal Civil
Laws. And this is the point that the
major opposition party, the BJP,
keeps raising and objecting to. But
while Muslim leaders acknowledge
that the constitution is a good one,
they believe that the reality on the
ground is different. Siddiqui points
out that the government has failed to
protect the minorities and Engineer
says, “Any claims of appeasement of
Muslims is nonsense. If appeasement
was happening Muslims would be
more represented everywhere, but
they are not getting recruited even
if they are educated. Everywhere
they are below 3-4 percent, even
in the military.” In fact this lack of
representation of Muslims in the
police forces and in the army is
hurtful to Zeenat Shaukat Ali. “As an
Indian how would I feel?”
Trends from the National Sample
Survey Organisation (NSSO) in
1990-2000 and 2004-05 do show that
Muslims do face discrimination when
it comes to getting jobs… and it is
educated Muslims who face the most
discrimination. This reiterates Engineer’s
point that it is educated people who are
prejudiced against Muslims. The difference
in the unemployment rate between the two
communities is significantly less amongst
the less educated. For example 9 percent
of Hindus in the rural areas who had
studied till school level were unemployed
as compared to 14 percent Muslims, a
difference of 5 percentage points. In urban
areas there was no difference at all, with
both communities facing an unemployment
rate of 7 percent. However, when it came
to educated Muslims the scenario was
different. 15 percent of Muslim graduates
in rural areas are unemployed as compared
to only 7 percent of Hindu graduates. And
10 percent of Muslim graduates in urban
areas were unemployed as compared to
5 percent of Hindu graduates. The gap
in unemployment rates reduces at post
graduate level, but it does exist. six percent
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