Assessment for Muslims in India

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Risk Assessment | Analytic Summary | References

Risk Assessment

The Muslims in India face several conditions considered to be risk factors for rebellion, including persistent past protest, especially during the past decade, a history of lost autonomy, and political and economic discrimination. Factors that may inhibit future rebellion include India’s tradition of democratic rule and its past efforts to reach negotiated agreements with disgruntled minorities. The 2004 national elections turned out favorably as far as the Muslim minority is concerned, because the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party struggled to win votes. The BJP has reached out for Muslim support since its 2004 election defeat, and BJP relations with Muslim groups will be crucial for peaceful coexistence in the future. While the BJP has moderated its stance in recent years, the national government has not yet adequately addressed major issues such as the future of the Ayodhya site and economic disadvantages.

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Analytic Summary

The Muslims are widely dispersed across India but there are significant concentrations in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Kerala (GROUPCON = 0). The only Muslim-majority state in the country is Jammu and Kashmir (the MAR project lists the Kashmiri Muslims as separate group). There has been significant group migration across India due to voluntary movements, hardship, and the threat of or actual attacks by other communal groups.

The Muslims speak a common language, Urdu, but they also speak a variety of regional languages depending on the area in which they reside (LANG = 1). Their belief in Islam is the primary difference between the Muslims and the majority Hindu population (BELIEF = 2).

Beginning in the 11th century, Islam entered the Indian subcontinent and its influence expanded under the rule of the Muslim Mughal Empire. Although Mughal leaders did not traditionally impose their beliefs on the Hindu population, Hindu fundamentalists resented Muslim domination of India. During this period, many low-caste Hindus, Dalits, converted to Islam in order to escape cultural, political and economic discrimination by high-caste Hindus.

British rule following the decline of the Mughal Empire further politicized differences between the Hindu and Muslim communities. British divide-and-rule policies generally favored the Hindus in terms of employment in the civil service. The Muslims were at a disadvantage with regard to economic and educational opportunities.

The notion of a Muslim nation arose in the 1930s when Muslims began to politically mobilize to promote group interests. The Muslim League, led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah, was concerned that Muslims would be dominated by Hindus in an independent India. The leadership of the Indian Congress, the major nationalist movement, primarily consisted of high-caste Hindus. The partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan in 1947 led to one of the largest ever transfers of populations as Hindus and Sikhs migrated east to India and Muslims west to Pakistan. An estimated 600,000 people died in the violence that surrounded the partition and 15 million refugees were created.

The Muslims that chose to stay in India remain in a precarious position. Many Hindus view them with suspicion and consider them to be "pro-Pakistan". These suspicions of the Muslim community continue despite the fact that Muslims have resided in the area for centuries. The Indian Constitution does not provide any specific reservations for Muslims with regard to seats in the parliament, civil service jobs, or positions in educational institutions. Such provisions are available to the country's Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. A recent bill passed by a regional government aimed at providing a 5 percent quota for Muslims in government posts is a small step towards equality, but such laws may prove difficult to implement. Muslims form just around 13 percent of the country’s population but by the mid-1990s, the minority held only about 3 percent of government and public sector jobs and represented less than 3 percent of police and paramilitary forces. Muslims remain concentrated in lower-level positions such as fishing, artisanship, and unskilled labor. Political and economic discrimination is due to prevailing social practices by the dominant Hindu community (POLDIS06 = 3; ECDIS06 = 3).

The major grievances of the Muslims include their limited involvement in political decision-making on both the federal and regional levels (POLGR04-06 = 1). Historical neglect of the Muslims has also led the community to be economically disadvantaged and this has generated group demands for greater economic opportunities in the economic and educational sectors (ECGR06 = 2). The government-sponsored Sachar Commission Report on the status of the Muslim minority highlighted the lack of availability of sanitation services, roads, schools and other infrastructure for Muslims. The minority’s social and cultural concerns primarily focus on the freedom of religious practices and protection from violent attacks by the majority Hindus (CULGR04-06 = 1).

Group interests are largely represented by conventional organizations but also by a few militant groups (GOJPA04-06 = 3). There is no single organization that is supported by the majority of group members. The Indian Union Muslim League is the main political party while the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was alleged to be responsible for a few bombings in the state of Uttar Pradesh in summer 2000. Muslims had traditionally supported the federal Congress (I) party; however, after the destruction of the Babri Masjid (mosque) by Hindu extremists in 1992, Muslim disenchantment with the Congress led to the creation of regional alignments between Muslims and low-caste Hindus.

There are not only political but also religious divisions among India’s Muslims. Violent clashes between members of the Sunni and Shia sects were reported during a 2005 parade in northern India (INTRACON05 = 1). The majority of the country’s Muslims are Sunnis as is the case in neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh (RELIGS1=5). Intracommunal violence was also an issue in 2006, although it had nothing to do with sectarian dispute: Islamic extremists in the city of Malegaon bombed fellow Muslims in an attempt to ignite tensions with Hindus, the suspected perpetrators of the attack. This rare act of aggression targeting fellow Muslims killed 31 and injured 100, some of whom were children

Relations between the Muslims and the dominant Hindu community have grown increasingly tense since the 1992 destruction of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. Hindu-nationalist parties such as the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena contend that a temple to mark the birthplace of Ram, a Hindu god, was torn down hundreds of years ago so that the mosque could be built. In December 1992, hundreds of Hindu militants stormed the site and destroyed the Babri Masjid. Thousands of people died in the Hindu-Muslim riots that ensued in India, and in neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh. Since then, periodic riots have erupted as Hindu extremist groups are still attempting to build a Ram temple on the Ayodhya site. Violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims relating to other matters also occurred from 1998-2000. One prominent example of Muslim-Hindu violence is the outbreak in 2002 of Muslim-Hindu clashes in Gujarat. As a result of what has been termed the Gujarat massacre, as many as 5,000 Muslim families continue to be internally displaced within India. The violence against Muslims in Gujarat led to the death of more than 2,000 people. Since 2002 there have been no comparable occasions of Muslim-Hindu bloodshed.

In 2000, Muslim concerns about discrimination led to wide-scale protests during 2000 when India’s most populated state, Uttar Pradesh, sought to pass a bill that would require state approval prior to the construction of religious structures. Further tension arose from the 2002 massacre of thousands of Muslims in Gujarat in response to a train bombing, which is further cause for concern. Yet the growth of Hindu fundamentalism was halted when the federal BJP coalition failed to win reelection in 2004. The years 2004-2006 witnessed Muslim protests on the anniversary of the Ayodha mosque destruction (PROT04-06=3).

Concern over the status of India’s minorities has been expressed by states such as Pakistan and the US and NGOS like Human Rights Watch. India’s Muslims began to significantly mobilize to press for group interests in the early 1970s. However, it was during the 1990s when more broad-based campaigns were launched, especially in relation to the protection of their religious rights. In recent years, Muslim militant groups such as SIMI are alleged to have engaged in sporadic violent acts (REB05 = 2).

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References

Girdner, Eddie J. 6/1992. "India: Burning Fundamentalism and the Politics of Caste." Asian Profile.

Gold, Daniel. 6/1992. "Organized Hinduisms: From Vedic Truth to Hindu Nation." Asian Profile.

Human Rights Watch. 2/27/2003. “India: Carnage in Gujarat Unpunished.” http://hrw.org/english/docs/2003/02/27/india5336.htm, accessed 12/06/07.

LexisNexis. Various news reports. 1990-2006.

Malik, I.H. 10/1993. "Beyond Ayodhya: Implications for Regional Security in South Asia." Asian Affairs. 24.

Mumtaz Ahmed. 1991. "Islamic Fundamentalism in South Asia: The Jamaat-i-Islami and the Tablighi Jamaat." in Marty, M.E. and R. Scott Appleby (eds), Fundamentalisms Observed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Puri, Balraj. 10/2/1993. "Indian Muslims since Partition." Economic and Political Weekly.

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