TeaHe is the President of Bharatiya Janata Party. outreach program To woo the Pasmanda Muslims as part of its Mission 2024 in several states may seem unnatural to some, given the party’s position in relation to the community. However, the BJP has mastered the art of unusual electoral victories by taking advantage of all possible situations. Its subtle combination of historic actions and new vision has helped it leave opposition parties far behind.
In addition to evolving processes of creating a narrative and outreach, the party has also ensured regular exams and the use of social engineering to bring in one out of every three votes under its umbrella. This has helped it become a formidable vote catcher across the country , Especially in Hindi speaking areas.
A few weeks after the BJP’s national executive meeting in Hyderabad to focus on the Pasmanda Muslims, the party now plans to reach out to the community in Uttar Pradesh – the state with the largest Muslim population in India.
Pasmanda Muslim and BJP’s Minority Roadmap
In the Indian context, Muslims are not a monolithic category. They are broadly classified into three social groups – the Ashrafs (‘noble’ Muslims), the Ajlafs (backward Muslims) and the Arzals (‘Dalit Muslims’). The latter two are known collectively as ‘Pasmanda’ – a Persian word meaning ‘those left behind’ and used to describe depressed classes among Muslims. The leaders of the Pasmanda Muslims claim that this community constitutes about 85 percent of the Muslim population in India.
The BJP seems to have devised a strategy to reach out to the community on the basis of inclusion and representation. Even in the 2022 UP assembly elections, the party was strategic in its approach to reach out to the Pasmanda Muslims, ensuring the reach of a target community. The BJP’s acceptance of diversity within Muslims at this time can be understood in the following context.
create a political identity
BJP won two consecutive Lok Sabha elections without direct and massive support from the Muslim community , Both Pasmanda and Ashraf – and continue to show signs of similar performance – into 2024. Nevertheless, it plans to infiltrate the community, which has traditionally been considered the vote bank of opposition parties. According to the Pasmanda leaders in the party, these schemes have been done before 2014.
Taking forward the formulas of social engineering, BJP’s reach to the Pasmanda community is a step towards gaining an edge in UP and Bihar, where the Pasmandas have significant population of 3.5 crore and 1.5 crore respectively. This is likely to have a huge impact on the Samajwadi Party (SP) in UP and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar as the Muslim-Yadav alliance forms a major part of the Muslim community. Taking references from the past, where the BJP has done a lot of damage to the parties by targeting the non-Yadav and non-Jatav voter bases, shows the same.
Furthermore, the strong belief among the community that political parties and like-minded civil society organizations did not pay heed to the question of internal stratification among Muslims adds to the situation. With the word Pasmanda coming into the mainstream, the BJP would be hoping for a possibility of uniting all the sub-castes in the Muslim backward categories.
Read also: The Pasmandas are the real minority deprived of welfare. Muslims are not homogeneous
An act of balancing or altruism?
The BJP has already established a clout in the system by giving an important place to the leaders of the Pasmanda community. The party did not give a single ticket to a Muslim candidate during the assembly elections in UP, but has accommodated community leaders in various capacities. Pasmanda Danish Ansari was made Minority Welfare Minister in March.
Additionally, in a targeted effort, the BJP has ensured community representation within the party in the form of Jamal Siddiqui as the national president of the BJP Minority Morcha and inducted several Pasmanda leaders into minorities, including Ashfaq Saifi. Is. The chairman of the commission, Iftikhar Ahmed Javed, has been made the chairperson of the UP Board of Madrasa Education and Chaudhary Kaif-ul-Wara has been made the chairperson of the UP Urdu Academy.
In addition, the BJP plans to identify more individuals in the community for leadership roles.
BJP also claims the success of welfare schemes: Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the slogan during the 2014 Lok Sabha electionseveryone’s sleepOnedevelopment for all Development for all. BJP minority cell leaders claim that schemes for Muslims focusing on women empowerment, health, education and upliftment of backward Muslims were made and implemented.
The UP Minorities Welfare Minister confirmed that during the pandemic, the free ration scheme helped the Muslim community, especially the poor and backward Muslims. Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana has directly helped the poor Muslims. 35 to 40 percent beneficiaries of many government schemes are Pasmanda Muslims and others financially deprived Muslim.
Read also: There is no place for casteism in Quran but Ashraf Muslims interpret it differently
hugging savarkar IDiyas of India?
Additionally, the placement of Pasmanda Muslims is in sync with Savarkar’s idea of India’s larger Hindu identity. He argued that a Hindu is one who considers India to be his homeland, the land of his ancestors and his holy land.
India is the ‘Land of Hindus’ as their ethnicity is ‘Indian’. Unlike the Ashrafs, who trace their ancestry to Arabia and Persia, the Pasmanda Muslims are believed to be the local Indian population who converted to Islam.
For a large majority of Pasmanda Muslims, indigenous customs and customs remain part of their culture, despite years of Islamization. Thus, by giving privileges to the Pasmanda Muslims, the BJP is trying to fit into the larger narrative of its program of cultural indigenization.
In its unique social engineering to garner Muslim votes, the BJP is likely to further isolate the already ailing Muslim community. Mainstreaming the ‘Pasmanda’ in the country’s political discourse does not ensure the upliftment of Muslim backward castes or bring to the fore the social division between ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ castes within the community. This would reduce any chances of a united Muslim front emerging, which is facing repression as a whole unit rather than as scattered castes.
Siddharth Raina is an independent researcher from Delhi and Sara Jamal is an independent researcher who has previously worked for Reporterly, An Afghan Journal. Thoughts are personal.
(Edited by Likes)