Ahead of the 2025 Delhi elections, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi raised serious concerns regarding the neglect of Muslim-dominated areas in the national capital. Criticising the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led state government, Owaisi alleged, “In the assembly constituencies in Delhi where Muslims live, the garbage of Delhi is thrown in those areas. No clinics and schools have been built in Muslim-dominated areas. There is no development in those areas.”
He also revealed that he had filed multiple RTI applications to uncover the allocation of housing under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) for Muslims. According to him, the lack of transparency and inclusion in such schemes reflects systemic neglect.
For the millions of Muslims and Dalits living in the cities of India, the words of the Hyderabad MP reflect a painful and living reality. In fact, it is a realism experienced globally by nearly all marginalised communities in an era marked by capitalism, crony capitalism, and neo-fascism, with its neo-liberal, anti-welfare policies, often perpetuated by states masquerading as bastions of populism and democracy.
History and Reasons
The roots of Muslim segregation in India are deeply intertwined with the post-partition displacement in 1947 as communal tensions forced large-scale migrations. Many Muslims moved to urban pockets, forming isolated neighbourhoods for safety, while others were uprooted entirely.
The trauma of Partition deepened the chasm between Hindu-majority and Muslim-majority areas in cities and towns, laying the groundwork for ghettoization. The relentless cycle of communal riots that continued through many decades after Independence further entrenched this segregation. Fear and insecurity drove Muslims to cluster in specific areas perceived as safer. For example, many Muslims in Mumbai gravitated toward areas such as Mira Road and Mumbra following the 1992-93 (post-Babri) riots. Similarly, after the 2002 pogrom in Gujarat, Ahmedabad witnessed the growth of neighbourhoods like Citizen Nagar and Juhapura. These areas are often derogatorily called “Chhota Pakistan”, reflecting deep-seated prejudice and propaganda that Muslims are “unpatriotic and anti-national”.
This self-imposed segregation was compounded by systemic discrimination in housing, with landlords and developers refusing to rent or sell property to Muslims. The pattern mirrors the experience of Dalit segregation, rooted in caste-based discrimination. As Dalits were considered “untouchables” through a religiously imposed ‘caste-system’, they were historically confined to separate “bastis” or colonies, excluded from mainstream society.
While this ghettoization in the case of Muslims might appear voluntary, it is, actually because of the state’s inability to ensure the safety and security of its citizens, and lack of political will to deliver the fundamental rights of religious minorities, leaving affected communities to create their own sanctuaries.
Denial and Deprivation
Infrastructure in these Muslim and Dalit ghettos is woefully deficient. Reports indicate that 51% of Muslim-majority neighbourhoods are more likely to have limited sanitation services compared to the Hindu majority areas. Schools are often overcrowded or underfunded, offering substandard education that hinders upward mobility.
Healthcare access is similarly grim; studies reveal that Muslim-majority areas have fewer government clinics, leaving residents dependent on private providers they often cannot afford. Drinking water and garbage collection are also pressing issues, further worsening health risks. The condition of roads and absence of footpaths, flyovers, underpasses, traffic signals, banks and ATMs in Muslim areas makes the overall ‘quality of life’ pathetic to say the least.
Local corporators are hand in glove with the police and administration to erect a web of illegal constructed houses and buildings. These unauthorised concrete jungles and slum areas do not generate any revenue for the government as property sales registration is non-existent. It creates an alibi for the government to ignore the legitimate infrastructure requirements of Muslims’ areas citing “zero-income” through property taxes, etc. The unemployment rate among Muslims in urban India is 8.1%, higher than the national average. Many are confined to low-paying, unorganised sector jobs or small businesses due to limited access to quality education and skill development. This perpetuates a poor quality of life, trapping families in a cycle of poverty. Together, these factors create an environment of denial and deprivation, highlighting the urgent need for targeted policy interventions.
Allegations of Threat and Nuisance
Out of 2,000 registered housing societies, over 1,300 (68%) have zero Muslim members, despite Muslims making up 12.9% of Delhi’s population. Six in ten Muslims in Delhi live in societies with 90-100% Muslim occupancy, indicating severe segregation.
An example of institutionalised segregation in India is the Gujarat’s Disturbed Areas Act (1991) that restricts Hindus and Muslims from selling or leasing property to each other in certain areas in the state. Studies in Delhi and Mumbai housing markets show brokers and landlords often refuse Muslim clients, relegating them to Muslim areas.
Actor and former MP, Shabana Azmi told a TV channel in 2008, “I wanted to buy a flat in Bombay and it wasn’t given to me because I was a Muslim and I read the same about Saif (Ali Khan). Now, I mean, if Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi cannot get a flat in Bombay because they are Muslims, then what are we talking about?”
Some builders categorically reject Muslim customers, creating “Muslim-free” housing complexes. In June, last year, over 30 residents of a housing complex in Vadodara (Gujarat) protested the allotment of a flat to a 44-year-old Muslim government employee under the MukhyamantriAwas Yojana. They argued that the presence of the Muslim woman and her teenage son in the complex would create a “threat and nuisance.”
What drives the ghettoization?
The rise of Hindutva ideology with its emphasis on cultural and religious homogeneity, has created an environment where Muslims are viewed with suspicion and hostility. This social conditioning, an outcome of full-time Islamophobia has not only damaged Hindu-Muslim relations permanently but also created the bogey of an “enemy within”. High-profile incidents of mob violence, lynchings, and targeted campaigns against interfaith interactions have deepened mistrust and compelled many Muslims to seek safety in numbers by clustering in specific areas.
The Hindutva-driven narrative has also affected governance, with municipal and state authorities neglecting Muslim-dominated areas, reflecting institutional apathy. The only way out of this quagmire is to frame anti-discrimination laws in housing, ensure inclusive urban planning, and investment in infrastructure.
Neutralising the virus of communalism through education, interfaith dialogues and initiatives to build trust and reduce biases would be a long-term project that must be undertaken if we wish to see the India that our founding fathers envisaged. Isn’t it time for the people of India to emulate these lines by poet Narsinh Mehta – “vaiṣṇavajana to tenekahiye je pīḍaparāyījāṇe re” (Call those people holy, who feel the pain of others).