Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan,soc.culture.bangladesh,soc.culture.indian
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1992 17:34:49 -0400 
From: "Arun K. Gupta" <ag3l+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Yet more excerpts !


Some further excerpts : (from Iqbal Ansari's Introduction to the
book "The Muslim Situation in India").

***

It is not the Muslims case that the entire community perpetually lives
under the threat of destruction of their life and property, and that
the entire Hindu community is hostile to them. But the frequency and
ferocity of communal riots with the added dimension of the reprehensible
role of the administration and the state security forces and para-military
organizations is naturally causing deep concern not only in the Muslim
mind but also among enlightened citizenry, and all those who are committed
to human rights

***
It must be conceded prima facie that Muslim backwardness is different
from the backwardness of the Indian scheduled castes and tribes, who
were forced to live a subhuman existence for ages by the dominant castes
among the Hindus.

But is Muslim backwardness a post-Independence phenomenon deriving at the
most from the debacle of 1857 and its aftermath when Muslims were subjected
to a deliberate policy of suppression by the British ?

The affirmative answer has been the assumption of most of the Muslim reformers
and activists ever since Sir Syed Ahmad Khan.

But even a cursory look at the ethnic origin of the bulk of the Indian Muslims
and their ethnography will indicate that the backwardness of this bulk is
historical, going back to the period when they got converted to Islam, with-
out any change in their low socio-economic status and occupational pattern.

Apart from spiritual solace and a perceptible change in their status as human
beings [i.e. in principle they were equals now] experienced by the bulk of
the newly converted Muslims of yore, their being Muslims brought only marginal
socio-economic benefits to them as they were not the direct or indirect
beneficiaries of the Muslim royal patronage system.

[from another point in the book]

The bulk of the indigenously converted Muslims seem to have come from the
social class and occupational groups of artisans, handicraftsmen, menial
labor, small peasants and other marginalised people....In spite of there
being Muslim dynasties for seven centuries, the bulk of Muslims were not
beneficiaries of the patronage system of the state. Rather people and caste
groups from among the Hindus which had come to terms with the new realities
seem to have enjoyed greater privileges under the patronage system. .....
Those who trace the present Muslim backwardness from the fall of the Mughals
and the post-1857 debacle perhaps have their eyes fixed on the lot of only
the Ashraf Muslims and their descendants.

[reverting to the introduction]

The long established myth that Muslims were the rulers of India for 700 years,
with its connotations of arrogance on the part of Muslims, and the Muslim image
of the past tyrant and humiliator as perceived by sections of Hindus needs to
be exploded....

Without appearing to denounce or eulogise the Perso-Turkish-Mongol kings for
being pro or anti or neutral to Islam or the Hindus, I would like our attention
to be focussed on the central truth that the bulk of indigenous Muslims have
ever since their conversion to the faith, continued to be a part of the larger
Indian society....

It is because of the memory of this distorted history of medieaval India that
the Hindus in spite of their constituting an overwhelming majority in the
country suffer from a siege mentality and always feel threatened by the Muslims.
***

Besides communal reading of history, the other potent source of distortion of
the contemporary Indian situation, vis-a-vis Muslims is the perception of a
resurgent militant Islam in its heartland in North Africa and West Asia as well
as in East and South East Asia.

It is hardly ever studied how much of the Islamic revivalism is genuine owing
itself largely to Asian and African Muslim peoples' efforts to decolonize them-
selves, not only politically, but also culturally.

In this endeavor to seek their authentic identity, there may be signs of
excesses, rejecting, for example, elements of westernization-modernization
which can be considered healthy and progressive.
But a close study of these Muslim societies would reveal that Islam is by and
large serving a liberating role for them.

The other Islamic militancy's phony and fake character is so palpable that no
discerning eye should miss it. It is the handmaid for despots, dictators, and
monarchs whose own legitimacy is questionable. It is in their search for
legitimacy that either socialism or Islam is exploited.

It is therefore, this author's plea to the Hindu elite not to read medieval
Indian history and contemporary Islamic world in a manner that imaginary
Islamic legions may appear to be on the march, the Indian Muslims serving as
their fifth column.

If they are prepared for a meaningful interaction with Indian Muslims, they
would discover a larger number of Muslims than they had imagined, intelligent
enough, upright enough and patriotic enough to say no-nonsense to these phony
calls to Islam either from the past or from the contemporary Islamic world.

***