Non-Subscriber Extract
Indian Muslims' gradual alienation
13 March 2008
A possible resurgence in Hindu nationalism (Hindutva) coupled with other key factors, such as the regionalisation of Indian politics, have led Indian Muslims to become increasingly politically alienated. But this is not necessarily a cause for alarm. It is possible, but not inevitable, that this trend will lead to an increase in India's nascent home grown militancy, given that the majority of Indian Muslims remain moderate and secular in their political outlook.
Communal tensions over the past 15 years have affected the internal dynamics of India's Muslim community. In particular, its long-standing commitment to secular politics has come under increasing pressure from desires to bring religious identity more directly into the political domain.
These desires have been stimulated by military repression and stalemate over the fate of Muslim-majority Kashmir, the rise of Islamic cultural assertiveness in the neighbouring Middle East and recognition of some of secularism's failures within the Indian state.
Although gaining protection for their religion, Muslims have enjoyed few other benefits in 'secular' India. They are disproportionately poor and ill-educated - virtually on the same level as the lowest Hindu castes. They are also heavily under-represented in state institutions, from the army to the civil service. Moreover, they are constitutionally disadvantaged in that religion - their mark of 'difference' - is not recognised as a legitimate criterion for affirmative action programmes in the same way that caste is within the Hindu community.
Consequently, a generation of younger Muslims in particular has become restless with the debilities of Indian secularism and attracted to more immediate methods of asserting political identity, including militancy (albeit for only a few).
In the past few months, a noticeable feature of Muslim-related militancy has been the number of violent acts aimed at targets within the Muslim community. In particular, a number of Sufi shrines - distinguished for the non-denominational character of their devotees and for their popularity even with non-Muslims - have been bombed by Islamist militants.
The regionalisation of Indian politics is also contributing to Muslims' sense of political alienation. For example, Muslims in India's largest state, Uttar Pradesh, now face some delicate political choices. Following the demise of the Congress Party in the 1980s, they had largely supported the Samajwadi Party (SP) of Mulayam Singh Yadav, making common cause with the middle-ranking Other Backward Castes (OBCs) who comprise the SP's main constituency. But, during the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh state assembly election in February 2007, rifts began to appear.
Given that the politics of the OBCs are geared to maximising the advantages gained from caste reservation quotas in education and government employment, many of their local leaders resented the attempts by Muslims to extend quotas to themselves.
Outlook
The forthcoming election season is likely to offer Indian Muslims few certainties and several difficult choices in terms of which regional and national parties can offer them a political place. The revival of Hindu nationalist themes could see a return to the violent confrontations and attempted pogroms of the early 1990s, this time with a stronger domestic base of Islamist militancy to wreak a potentially more terrible revenge. However, politics will most likely diffuse along a series of different regional axes with the majority of Muslims seeking to protect the bases of secularism by alliances with social constituencies among the majority population. Indeed, the majority of Indian Muslims still cleave to the secularist path and are likely to resist any resurgence of Hindu nationalism by strengthening the secular parties opposed to it. But with their increasing alienation from the OBCs, it is no longer very obvious where such constituencies sympathetic to their cause might be found.