Muslims are the second largest majority in plural Bharat. They should have been thriving in every walk of life and contributing to the progress and development of the country. But the condition they have been made to live in since Independence, to which they contributed a lot shoulder-to-shoulder with others, is known to the plural polity, especially with reference to the Justice Sachar Committee Report. The question is who are responsible for the systematic backwardness and planned marginalisation of Muslims. Muslim leaders? The successive Governments at the Centre and in States? Or the Ultranationalists, Hindutva forces? In fact, all of them. While the Muslim leaders and social scientists did not plan for the all round development and advancement of the community; and the powers-that-be, especially the Congress, exploited Muslims at the hilt as mere vote banks and practised soft Hindutva to keep them at bay especially at times of appointments in both government and private sectors, the Hindutva forces did their all rather openly and brazenly to push them to the wall through periodic riots and orchestrated blasts.
The discussion assumes importance at a time when Muslim voting pattern as exhibited during the recent four States and one Union Territory Assembly elections is being keenly observed. While most of the Muslim analysts have welcomed the increasing Muslim presence in at least three out of five Assemblies that had gone to polls recently, Abusaleh Shariff, who was part of the Sachar Committee, calls this trend “unfortunate”. Shariff rues, “We want Muslims to go to normal schools and not madrasas, but now the same is happening in politics. They have to be part of mainstream parties and the latter too have to be more inclusive – give them tickets and pay attention to their welfare agenda to check the unfortunate drift.”
This is the general refrain that Muslims do not like to be in the mainstream of India’s socio-political life. Different sections of people define the word ‘mainstream’ differently. Hindutvawadis use this word in the context of Muslims to mean that the latter should come to their fold. Mere wishful thinking on their part, indeed. On the contrary, the powers-that-be did not allow the Muslims to breathe equally and enjoy the environs of the Indian mainstream life.
Now, as the results of the recent Assembly elections have shown, the Muslims stand awakened. They realise the worth of their votes and are ready to assert themselves. If they are not allowed to be part of the mainstream parties, they do not bother; they can have their own choice of political parties and can decide what is best for them.