BOOK REVIEW
Muslims in Indian Economy
Muslims in Indian Economy
Author: Omar Khalidi
Pages: 240
Publishers: Three Essays Collective
P.O.Box 6, B-957 Palam Vihar, Gurgaon
Haryana, India
www.threeessays.com
Price: Rs:575
Review by Mohammed Ayub Ali Khan
It is an undeniable
fact that Indian Muslims live under precarious socio-economic
and educational conditions. Illiteracy, unemployment,
low professional skills, poverty and other socio-economic
ills are rampant in this community of 130 million.
But whenever the issue of Muslim backwardness is
raised, it is quickly dismissed by the communalists
and bigoted elements as a figment of imagination.
They claim that the Muslim minority is pampered
at the expense of the Hindu majority. Others, including
some from secularist and progressive traditions,
while acknowledging backwardness, insist that the
reasons for backwardness lie within the community.
They assert that the Muslim population needs to
free itself from rigid observance of religious and
traditional values to get on the path to progress.
Is there such a thing as Muslim backwardness in
India? What are the reasons for it? How does Muslim
economic condition in the early twenty-first century
compare with the recent and distant past? Dr.Omar
Khalidi in Muslims in Indian Economy attempts to
answer these and related questions empirically and
analytically.
Khalidi provides a macro analysis of the economic
condition culling data from various sources including
historical accounts, government gazettes, interviews
and news reports. The data from 1870s until the
1940s is easily available as the colonial government
routinely compiled statistics about the education
and economic level of population groups in general
and their share in state employment. This practice
changed when the Nehru administration declared that
the collection of such data heightens communal tension.
However, this policy was never fully implemented
and the successive governments collected such data
for internal use but did not declassify them even
after the passage of several decades. Understandably,
Khalidi’s micro-analysis is limited to the
regions/states of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra
Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra due to the absence
or lack of access to reliable data relating to other
states.
The early Muslim community largely consisted of
military aristocracy and did not take part in commercial
ventures. It was busy in “soldiering and governing”
and its worldview on money did not aim at wealth
creation. The gradual conversion of some castes
and outcastes of Hinduism led to the emergence of
the Muslim commercial artisan classes (Khojas, Labbis
Memons, etc). Conversion of peasant communities
to Islam improved their social standing but not
economic status. Khalidi writes that the pattern
of economic stratification of the Muslim community
which emerged during medieval times continues to
this day: “A community of miniscule numbers
in trade, slightly large numbers in military and
bureaucracy, larger number of artisans, and the
largest number of landless peasants.” However,
a cursory look at the available data in military
and police services (compiled by Khalidi in his
Khaki and Ethnic Violence) and bureaucracy shows
that the first two categories in this classification
should be interchanged.
Challenging the popular perceptions Khalidi shows
that the Muslims coming from military, bureaucratic
and learned backgrounds did take to modern education
during the colonial era in majority of provinces
and regions. It is true that early on they shunned
modern education while the Hindus adapted quickly
to the changed circumstances. “Most Muslims
were too conservative to learn English, many considering
it the highway to infidelity. But the Hindu classes
were not; they had learnt Persian for a livelihood,
in the past, so why not English and they soon monopolized
the subordinate services.”
However, thanks to the efforts of pioneers like
Sir Syed Muslims tried to catch up and by 1871 they
were showing remarkable improvement. Their representation
in governmental services was at par with their population
percentage and in some instances they were even
over-represented. A report compiled by the Aitchison
Commission in 1886, for instance, showed that Muslims
who accounted for 13.4% of the population in N-W
Provinces and Oudh held 44.8% of executive positions
and 45.9% of judicial positions. They made up 2.4%
in the Central Provinces population and yet held
18.1% of the combined executive and judicial positions.
The reservation granted to them in 1925 ensured
that they were adequately represented in governmental
services. The British Army consisted of 30-36% against
the 23 percent Muslims in the national population
as per the census of 1941.
Just as there were signs of improvement things took
a turn for the worse with the onset of the partition.
Apart from the killings and the loot the most tragic
thing for Indian Muslims was the migration of highly
educated Muslims to Pakistan leaving the rest without
any role models. This “migration to Pakistan”
theory was valid up until 1971 when Pakistan finally
tightened up its migration policy. Other reasons
include lack of modern education and discrimination
(“plausible for some jobs” but “hard
to establish court-admissible evidence”).
Despite the limitations the book offers a number
of instances of discrimination. Khalidi draws on
personal interviews to document several instances
of blatant discrimination. Mian Azim Hussain, a
Punjabi IFS officer, opted for India in 1947. In
the mid-1960’s, when “the post of Foreign
Secretary was about to fall vacant, it was openly
said in the corridors of the service were ruled
out for selection to the top job.” The reservation
of seats made things tougher for Muslims, argues
Khalidi. “The reservation system made competition
that much more difficult for poor Muslims, whose
educational condition has not been any better than
those of SCs and STs (interestingly this fact is
now being forwarded by opponents of reservation
like Bhalla).
To the successive governments’ credit the
book also provides detailed information on the various
government schemes and commissions initiated for
minorities. It is another matter that there have
been numerous instances of fraud and mismanagement.
Khalidi limits his discussion on the role played
by Islam to say that “Islam itself is certainly
no impediment to education and critical inquiry.
However, interpretations of Islam by certain vested
groups can certainly be a roadblock to modern education.”
It would have been informative if the author had
examined this issue in detail as some observers
(most notably former VC of AMU Hashim Ali Akhtar
in his Riba & Credit Needs of Muslims) have
claimed that Muslim aversion to interest-bearing
loans and the lack of alternatives to them are a
major roadblock in their path to progress.
Also missing from the study are some important reports.
One such report was compiled by the leading advocate
and anti-Shuddhi leader Ghulam Bhik Nairang. He
was delegated by the Muslim League to draft the
Delhi University Amendment Bill in which it had
argued to raise the number of Muslims in departments
where they were few of them (Kalaam-e-Nairang Ed.Dr.Moinuddin
Aqeel).
Muslims in Indian Economy is a well documented book
put together through years of research and analysis.
It gives statistical support to the claims of Muslim
backwardness and impoverishment. It is expected
that the author will provide a more complete analysis
of the economic condition of Indian Muslims, covering
all the states, in the near future.
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