Voice
of the oppressed Empowering Dalit Muslims
BY YOGINDER SIKAND
Ali Anwar is the founder of the Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz (‘Marginalised
Muslim Front’), Patna, Bihar, a union of several Dalit Muslim and Backward Caste
Muslim organisations. A well known Hindi journalist, he is the author of
Masavat Ki Jang (‘The Struggle for Equality’) and Dalit Musalman
(‘Dalit Muslims’) and writes regularly on issues related to Backward Caste/Dalit
Muslims, who form the majority of the Muslim population in India. In this
interview with Yoginder Sikand he talks about his involvement in the
struggle for the rights of Backward Caste/Dalit Muslims.
How did you get involved in the Backward Caste/Dalit Muslim
movement?
I belong to the Ansari community, which is one of the largest
Muslim communities in India. The ancestral profession of the Ansaris is weaving.
They are considered a ‘Backward Class’ for purposes of reservation. My family is
from the Shahabad district in Bihar. My grandfather was a horse-cart driver and
father was a mill worker, and before me there was not a single person in my
family who had passed the matriculation examination. The Ansaris in my area
practised weaving as a profession for generations but with the onset of British
rule and with the sort of capitalist ‘development’ that India went through after
1947 this profession of theirs was almost totally decimated. That’s why my
parents and relatives, even I as a child, were forced to take to rolling beedis
to supplement the meagre family income.
As a child itself I was sensitised to the crass oppression and
poverty that I saw all around me. As a student I got involved in leftist
politics. This was partly due to the influence of my father, who was a trade
unionist associated with the All India Trade Union Congress of the Communist
Party of India (CPI). My first involvement in people’s struggles was when some
students of my high school in Dumraon started a movement against the Maharaja of
Dumraon, a dreaded feudal lord who was also the manager of the school.
Thereafter I joined the CPI and remained a card-holder of the party for around
20 years.
How did you take to journalism as a career? In particular, what
made you focus particularly on issues related to the Dalits and Backward Castes?
My association with the CPI inspired me to take to writing to
document and highlight the oppression of the poor and their struggles against
feudal and class/caste oppression. I worked for many years as chief reporter
with the CPI’s Hindi magazine Janashakti, based in Patna. However, over
the years I also discovered that within the communist parties casteism continues
to be rife. Most of the leaders of the various communist parties are themselves
from the so-called ‘upper’ castes, which is one reason why they rarely talk of
caste but instead talk only in terms of class. In a sense, for some of them this
is a way to perpetuate upper caste dominance.
My perception of the reality of caste oppression among both
Hindus and Muslims was further strengthened as I travelled around Bihar as a
journalist and this was reflected in the sort of articles that I began writing
after Janashakti closed down and I joined Navbharat Times and
later Jansatta and then Svatantra Bharat. For instance, I did a
story on the Police Lines in Patna where there are separate barracks and
kitchens for different castes, and another story on Dasrath Manjhi, a Dalit
worker who literally broke half a mountain over a period of 19 years in order to
build a road. Another story I wrote was on how, as in the case of the Hindus,
many so-called ashraf or upper caste Muslims use fake ‘Backward Caste’
certificates to get jobs reserved for the Backward Classes. One such case was
that of the granddaughter of Abdul Ghaffur, Bihar’s only Muslim chief minister,
who belonged to the upper caste Shaikh caste but got a fake Backward Caste
certificate to get a government job. This article, which was published in the
Hindustan, created a great stir and I received many threatening letters for
having exposed this racket!
In 1996 I received the KK Birla Fellowship for journalists to do
a study on Dalit/Backward Caste Muslims, a subject about which very little has
been written even though these Muslims constitute the vast majority of the
Indian Muslim population. Owing among other factors to caste prejudice, upper
caste Muslim writers – Syeds, Shaikhs, Mughals and Pathans as well as non-Muslim
scholars have displayed little or no interest in writing about the non-ashraf
Muslims. This is one reason why I thought it was crucial to write about them and
to highlight their pathetic conditions and their struggles for equality and
justice. And so I began travelling around Bihar to document the lives of Dalit
and Backward Caste Muslims in the state, a report that was later published as a
book in Hindi titled Masavat Ki Jang (‘The Struggle for Equality’). It
has recently been translated and published in English and Urdu as well.
What are the major arguments that you have put forward in your
book?
I have tried to show, with the help of interviews, oral
histories and statistics, that although Backward Caste/Dalit Muslims form the
overwhelming majority among the Muslims of Bihar, they are victims of pervasive
discrimination and, on the whole, are economically and educationally extremely
marginalised. The state has done little if anything for them and instead has
sought to promote the small minority of ashraf or upper caste Muslims as
Muslim ‘leaders’. I tried to highlight the nexus between the state and the
ashraf political and religious leadership in Bihar, a phenomenon that can be
observed in other parts of India as well. This explains, as I have shown, how
under various governments in Bihar non-ashraf Muslims have hardly
received any representation, whether in successive ministries or in government
services. Most of the few Muslims who have been so represented have been from
the ashraf, and they do little for the non-ashraf Muslims, being
barely concerned about their plight at all. In addition, I have highlighted the
fact that in large parts of Bihar Backward Caste/Dalit Muslims continue to face
social discrimination at the hands of both self-styled ashraf Muslims as
well as so-called upper caste Hindus. I have shown how the leadership of large
Muslim religious organisations is almost completely in the hands of the
ashraf Muslims.
Could you tell us something about the Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz? How
was it established and what are its objectives?
The Mahaz is a broad front of a number of Dalit and Backward
Caste Muslim organisations from different states of India, particularly Bihar,
Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Delhi. In the course of research for
the book I was working on, I realised that Dalit/Backward Caste Muslims are
hardly organised at all and have few effective leaders. Till now they have been
following the lead of the ashraf, both professional politicians as well
as maulvis who have, as I said, taken no particular interest in
addressing their pathetic socio-economic conditions. Like their upper caste
Hindu counterparts, they want us to focus only on communal controversies or
narrowly defined religious issues and in this way seek to completely displace
the harsh reality of the lives of Dalits and Backward Castes from political
discourse. Hence I along with several of my friends set up the Mahaz in Patna in
1998 to organise the Dalit/Backward Caste Muslims so as to help evolve a
leadership that would be responsive to their concerns and which would also seek
to build alliances with non-Muslim Dalit/Backward Caste groups so that we can
engage in a broad united struggle for our rights.
What sort of work has the Mahaz been engaged in?
We have participated in several people’s struggles for justice
to the Dalit/Backward Caste Muslims through staging demonstrations, presenting
memorandums and bringing out publications. Recently we launched a Hindi
magazine, Pasmanda Ki Awaz (‘The Voice of the Oppressed’). This is the
only Dalit/Backward Caste magazine in this country, although the Dalit/Backward
Caste Muslim population in India is well over 100 million! Hardly any of the
hundreds or even thousands of other Muslim magazines and papers, not to speak of
media controlled by non-Muslims, ever talks about our issues – such is the
indifference to the problems and plight of our people.
The Mahaz has also been pressing with the demand that the state
include Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians in the Scheduled Castes list. Due to
an extremely discriminatory presidential order issued in 1950, the state denied
Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians reservation and other benefits that had been
provided for Dalits in the Constitution. Going completely against all notions of
secularism, democracy and social justice, it declared that such benefits would
be limited only to those Dalits who claim to be ‘Hindus’. Later, due to
political compulsions, the state was forced to extend these benefits to Dalit
Sikhs and Dalit Buddhists. So why, we ask, should Dalit Muslims and Dalit
Christians, too, not be included in the list of Scheduled Castes?
The ashraf Muslim leadership has never voiced this demand
because they are not at all interested in the plight of Dalit Muslims. But I
think it is crucial that Dalit Muslims be given justice and treated by the state
on par with ‘Hindu’ Dalits. Currently they are classified along with several
more powerful castes as ‘Backward Classes’ instead of Scheduled Castes because
of which they have not been able to benefit at all from ‘Backward Caste’ status.
This is despite the fact that they continue to practice the same occupations as
‘Hindu’ Dalits and face the same sort of discrimination and oppression despite
following Islam, a religion that is fiercely opposed to caste and untouchability.
How do you think the other Dalits would respond to the demand of
including Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians in the Scheduled Castes list? Might
they not oppose this on the grounds that this would result in a reduction of
whatever little benefits they are able to procure from the state?
This problem can easily be solved if while including Dalit
Muslims and Christians in the Scheduled Castes list the Scheduled Caste quota is
proportionately increased. In this way, the other Dalits would not oppose this
demand. In fact, they would welcome it because in this way the Dalit movement
would itself be strengthened. After all, all Dalits, irrespective of religion,
belong to the same race and the blood of common ancestors flows in their veins.
Unlike the ashraf Muslims who take great pride in their
claim of foreign extraction, Dalit and Backward Caste Muslims are all of
indigenous origin, being descendants of converts from the oppressed castes. This
is why we don’t use the words ‘Dalit minority’ or ‘Dalit Muslim minority’ or
‘Backward Caste Muslim minority’. We Dalits and Backward Castes are not a
minority at all. In fact, taken together, we are in the majority, the ‘Bahujan’,
forming over 85 per cent of the Indian population despite the fact that we may
follow different religions. We see that the politics of communalism, fuelled by
both Hindu and Muslim elites, is aimed at dividing us, making us fight among
ourselves so that the elites continue to rule over us as they have been doing
for centuries. This is why we in the Mahaz have been seeking to steer our people
from emotional politics to politics centred on issues of survival and daily
existence and social justice, and for this we have been working with non-Muslim
Dalit and Backward Caste movements and groups to struggle jointly for our rights
and to oppose the politics of communalism fuelled by Hindu and Muslim upper
caste elites.
Some Muslim leaders, mainly from the so-called ashraf,
are demanding reservation for all Muslims in government jobs and educational
institutions. How do you view this demand?
I am totally opposed to this demand. The Constitution explicitly
says that the reservation policy is meant for socially and educationally
marginalised communities. How can anyone seriously argue that all Muslims in the
country are socially and economically backward? Many of those who do argue in
this way actually seek to promote the interests of the educationally and
economically better off ashraf who, though they form only a small
proportion of the Muslim population, would inevitably hog the lion’s share if a
separate quota in jobs and educational institutions was introduced for all
Muslims. This demand is also unconstitutional because nowhere in the
Constitution is there any provision for reservation on the grounds of religion.
Further, such a demand is bound to fuel the fires of communalism and
Hindu-Muslim conflict, which would inevitably hurt Dalit/Backward Caste Muslims
the worst, they being the principal victims of communal violence.
Of late some people, including some self-styled ashraf
leaders, have been asking for a separate Muslim Backward Caste quota within the
larger Other Backward Caste (OBC) quota, on the grounds that Muslim OBCs have
not been able to benefit much from the general OBC quota. I am opposed to this
demand as well. I think this is a crafty move to create and promote communal
strife between Hindu and Muslim Backward Castes, which can only work to the
benefit of the upper caste Hindu and Muslim elites.
The claim that Muslim Backward Castes have not been able to benefit much from
the 27 per cent quota earmarked for Backward Classes by the Mandal Commission
because these benefits have been cornered by some more powerful and influential
Hindu Backward Castes first needs to be established. We have to conduct surveys
to show this, and this is something that has not been done so far. Now, this
claim might well be true but we can think of this later. We can’t take up too
many issues at the same time. I believe that instead of a separate Muslim quota
in the OBCs, we should think of dividing the 27 per cent quota that OBCs now
have into two, on the Bihar model: one for the ‘Most Backward Classes’ and the
second for other OBCs. Both categories would have Hindu and Muslim castes as
well as those from other religions, depending on their socio-educational
conditions.
Some Muslims, particularly from the so-called ashraf, see
the Dalit/Backward Caste Muslim movement as ‘divisive’ and ‘un-Islamic’. Some of
them even go so far as to claim that it is a Hindu or Jewish conspiracy to set
Muslims against each other. How do you respond to this charge?
Yes, that is an accusation I have been hearing day in and day
out. When we started our work we were branded as ‘anti-Islamic’. Numerous
maulvis, mostly of ashraf background, branded us as ‘divisive’ and
‘dangerous’ and appealed to Muslims to stay away from us. Urdu newspapers,
almost all controlled by the ashraf, also boycotted us and refused to
publish anything about us. Today however, perhaps because our movement has
expanded and grown into a powerful force, their open opposition has somewhat
declined.
Let me set the record straight here. We Dalit/Backward Caste
Muslims are believing Muslims. We take our faith in Islam seriously. Islam, as
the Koran says and as Prophet Muhammad showed in his own life, stands for social
equality and justice. It is completely opposed to social hierarchy. So when we
protest against inequality and injustice how can we be said to be going against
Islam? On the contrary, what we are doing is, in my view, actually mandated by
our religion. On the other hand, those who keep silent on the plight of Dalit/Backward
Caste Muslims are actually working against Islam, for they are indifferent to
its mandate of social justice and equality. Among them are several maulvis
who have elaborated fanciful theories to argue the case for caste hierarchy in
the name of what they call, in Arabic, kafa’a! And few of these
maulvis take any interest in our plight, being more concerned with the
details of minor fiqh or jurisprudential issues or with promoting their
own sectarian brand of Islam while denouncing other Muslim sects as deviant.
Some ashraf accuse us of dividing Muslims. They say that
caste has no sanction in Islam and they accuse us of injecting the poison of
caste into Muslim society. Such people are completely blind to social reality.
Islam, it is true, has no conception of caste, but Indian Muslim society is, by
and large, characterised by the existence of multiple castes. And for centuries
the ashraf have taken pride in being of foreign extraction – Arab,
Iranian or whatever – and have considered other Muslims, who are all of
indigenous Indian extraction, as being of ‘low’ caste. So all this while the
ashraf have been championing caste and division among Muslims based on caste
but this does not strike our opponents as ‘casteism’ or as ‘un-Islamic’, yet the
moment we non-ashraf begin to speak, to oppose this system of ashraf
hegemony, we are dubbed as divisive and ‘anti-Islam’ and so on. This reaction is
no different from that of many upper caste Hindus who brand the Dalit movement
as divisive, accusing it of reinforcing caste simply because the Dalit movement
seeks to do away with upper caste hegemony.
My answer to those who falsely accuse us of dividing Muslims is
that far from doing so we are trying to unite the dozens of Dalit/Backward Caste
Muslim communities who have been kept divided for centuries! We are trying to
bring them – Ansaris, Halalkhors, Kunjeras, Kalals, Dhuniyas, Mochis and who
knows how many more such castes – together on a common platform to voice their
demands and concerns. Now, you tell me, are we dividing these Muslims or uniting
them? We are not setting Dalit/Backward Caste Muslims against ashraf
Muslims. Our movement is not directed against them. Rather, we seek to
strengthen and empower our own people, to enable them to speak for themselves
and to secure their rights and justice from the state. We welcome well meaning
people of ashraf background as well as non-Muslims who are concerned
about the plight of our people to join us in our struggle.
When we are accused of dividing Muslims, our response is, "You
so-called ashraf have kept us divided for centuries by fanning sectarian
(maslaki) differences. Why don’t you put an end to this instead of
telling us what to do? You have created and magnified these sectarian divisions
for your own interests, to run your own little religious and political shops,
for which you have not stopped even at promoting bloodshed and hatred. First you
put an end to this sectarian hatred and division that you have created and then
talk to us."
Today numerous maulvis of different maslaks – Deobandi, Barelvi,
Jamaat-i Islami, Shia, Ahl-i Hadith and who knows how many more – issue
statements against each other, some going to the extent of branding all Muslims
but themselves as ‘apostates’ and even as ‘enemies of Islam’! Is that not
‘dividing the Muslims’?
Why don’t those who accuse the Dalit/Backward Caste movement of
dividing Muslims condemn the way these maulvis spread serious sectarian
conflict and divide Muslims? Is it because the vast majority of leaders of these
maulvi groups are from the ashraf, so that when they fight on
sectarian lines it is okay because this does not threaten ashraf
hegemony, but when they see Dalit/Backward Caste Muslims getting together to
struggle for their rights, they set apart their sectarian differences for the
time being and come together to condemn them as ‘divisive’?
This said, let me point out that not all ashraf Muslims
behave this way. Not all of them are opposed to our demands. In fact, some of
them, as well as some Hindus of upper caste background, have been supporting our
movement and demands. Yet I cannot help saying with deep regret that while
several upper caste Hindus have been supporting the Dalit movement in different
ways, very few upper caste Muslims have taken any interest in the concerns of
Dalit/Backward Caste Muslims. n
Ali Anwar’s email address is [email protected]. For
English and Urdu translations of Ali Anwar’s book Masavat Ki Jang,
published by the Indian Social Institute, New Delhi, contact [email protected].
For the original Hindi version, contact Ali Anwar directly. For his other book,
Dalit Musalman (Hindi), published by World Dignity Forum, New Delhi,
contact [email protected].
(Dr Yoginder Sikand, email: [email protected].)
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