Understanding the complex and volatile minority matrix
Q: The recent clashes in Bengal are being perceived by some as the fallout of the Trinamul's Muslim appeasement strategy. How do you view them?
A: This has nothing to do with any kind of appeasement. The Basirhat-Baduria incident was reportedly the result of an extremely offensive and objectionable Facebook post. This trend of using the social media by RSS-BJP-backed activists in the name of shadow organisations to provoke and create communally tense situations is not new. It has been going on for a while in several states. It is all happening in the context of a majoritarian government at the Centre and growing global Islamophobia. In order to counter such campaigns, progressive activists on social media as well as intelligence officers of the state must be all the more vigilant. Hate speech cannot be promoted in the name of free speech, or hate-mongering in the name of expression. There are adequate hate crime laws under the Indian Penal Code (sections 124A, 153A, 153B, 292, 293 and 295A, and Section 95 of the Code of Criminal Procedure) and these must be invoked.
Q: So you are saying there is nothing like minority appeasement?
A: There is barely any appeasement in socio-economic terms. Mostly it is the RSS-BJP combine that likes to talk about Muslim appeasement because it suits their totalitarian propaganda and fascist agenda. And with what do they back their claims? Visibility of certain Hindu politicians at Muslim religious gatherings and the tacit support by some political parties on the issue of personal law reforms as well as aggressive posturing of Muslim conservatives. Such a brand of politics is counterproductive and only gives the RSS-BJP agenda a shot in the arm. The Trinamul and other mainstream parties must understand that they can win elections with the support of both Muslims and non-Muslims by simply delivering on the larger developmental issues without overdoing caricatures of identitarian symbolism and tokenism.
Q: What have state governments over the years done to improve the socio-economic state of Muslims?
A: In the final seven years of Left Front rule (2004-11), Muslims of the state were behind the Scheduled Castes (SCs), and marginally behind the Scheduled Tribes in the area of basic education. When it came to higher education, they were way behind the Hindu upper castes and Hindu other backward classes (OBCs). All of this is according to the 2014 Kundu Committee Report. [In 2006, the UPA had set up the Sachar Committee to take a look at the social, economic and educational conditions of Muslims in India and make recommendations. The committee headed by Amitabh Kundu was to review the implementation of the recommendations of the Sachar Committee.] The Kundu report states that although poverty levels among Muslims have been higher than that among SCs, poverty reduction [among Muslims] was at its highest in West Bengal during the Left rule. There is slow and steady improvement of Muslim representation in state government jobs now. The 2016 staff census report of the West Bengal government states that Muslims now comprise 5.73 per cent of state government employees - an increase of over 2.3 per cent in the last one decade. At the same time, there is visible evidence that backward castes among Muslims in the state are slowly getting into higher education and middle-class professions. And this is because of the implementation of the 2007 Ranganath Misra Commission Report that had recommended 10 per cent reservation for the backward castes among Muslims.
Q: Would you say that the TMC government is doing exactly what the Left Front government did - paying lip service to Muslims?
A: Simply put, three primary issues are relevant for Muslims in India - identity, security and equity. The majority here feel that the first two issues have been addressed by the Left and TMC; and the last, not so much by either. Both the Sachar and Misra reports talk about the Left Front regime. For a fair assessment of the TMC regime, we need to wait for the 2021 Census, or careful analysis of the large sample surveys of the National Sample Survey Office and health surveys in the coming years.
But it is a fact that West Bengal is the only state to have implemented the Misra Commission recommendations. The Left rolled it out and the TMC facilitated it by including more backward castes from both the Hindu and the Muslim communities. In 2004-05, nine Muslim groups constituting only 2.4 per cent of the total Muslim population in Bengal found place in the state OBC list. Today, out of nearly 174 OBC castes, 115 Muslim groups comprising nearly 90 per cent of the state's total Muslim population have been enlisted as OBCs. This has increased the educational and job opportunities for significant sections of Muslims in the state.
But this is nothing new. Reservation existed for backward caste Muslims in southern states at the time of the British Raj. Even today, Muslim OBCs get 10 per cent reservation in educa-tion and 12 per cent in jobs in Kerala and 4 per cent each in education and jobs in Karnataka.
Q: Is a Muslim-interest party any solution to the current problems of the community, as some have begun to argue?
A : A separate party for Muslims in West Bengal would be a recipe for disaster. It would help the RSS-backed BJP to consolidate and polarise the population along religious lines as has happened in Assam. Except for Assam, Muslims have hardly ever voted overwhelmingly for a Muslim party. They have traditionally voted for mainstream political parties. The MIM in Hyderabad [Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen] and the Muslim League in Kerala have very limited and localised influence. Muslims in West Bengal and in other states actually need to make a broader long-term strategic alliance with Dalits and Adivasis in order to form a larger social coalition to counter the RSS brand of homogenised one-dimensional politics of Manuvadi Hindutva, which is exclusionary and very different from the pluralist tradition of Hinduism.
Q: What's your advice on ways to react to volatile situations such as we have recently witnessed?
A : One major reason behind communal clashes in recent years is the lack of basic knowledge about other religious communities. The lack creates conditions for both Hindu and Muslim fundamentalist groups to vitiate the political discourse. Muslims must open up dialogue through old and new platforms where exchange of knowledge about Hinduism, Islam and Christianity is made possible. The Muslim community also needs to isolate its conservative and fundamentalist leaders - as was done in the case of Noor Rahman Barkati, who was removed from the post of Imam of the Tipu Sultan mosque after he made provocative statements. Finally, and I repeat, Muslims must foreground the demands of education, health, employment and access to public goods by aligning with the marginalised and poor sections among the Hindus.
