Reaching Pasmanda Muslims

In the recent Bharatiya Janata Party National Executive meeting in Hyderabad, Prime Minister Narendra Modi advised party workers to reach out to the marginalized and weaker sections of the minorities. It was also the party’s first official attempt to win. Pasmanda Muslim Community, This was welcomed by various Pasmanda Muslim leaders from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, but the Muslim community was not the only wave. Many people read in it the government’s attempt to break the unity of India’s largest minority. Some ridiculed the idea of ​​caste-based division in the community, pointing out that there is no caste system in Islam and efforts to improve the conditions of the underprivileged are only a strategy to increase the party’s vote bank.

what do the scriptures say

On paper, his claims are borne out by the principles of Islam. It was the casteless, classless society that Islam introduced that attracted many lower caste Hindus to Islam. In fact, Islam makes no distinction on the basis of birth, caste or class; Everyone’s emphasis is on universal egalitarianism. The Prophet told his audience in his final sermon, “An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab or a black black over a white one, except through piety.” To this day, Muslims pray side by side in mosques around the world. Whoever stands to his left or right or in front is unimportant. Imam can also belong to any section of the society. Differences of race or creed never dominated unity. As the famous poet Muhammad Iqbal, who better than allOn this subject it is written, I stood with the same clarity Mahmud-o-Ayaz (The sultan and the slave stood side by side / Then there was neither servant nor master, they did not divide anything)”. There is a hadith that says that all Muslims are like one body: if one part hurts, the whole body must feel pain. Surah al-Hujurat, verse 10 of the Quran, calls the believers as brothers and encourages them to settle disputes, if any.

a unique category

Beautiful and inspiring, it is often confined to the scriptures. The modern Indian Muslim society is not a replica of the society envisioned by the Prophet. While it attempts to maintain all tenets of faith in matters of prayer-fast-pilgrimage, socio-historical factors make Indian Islam a unique category where an unintentional blend of Hindu tradition and Islamic value coexist in harmony. Is. Of course, the overwhelming numerical superiority of the majority community has played a significant role in this. So does the fact that Indian Muslims comprise millions of people who changed their religion but brought their socio-cultural practices to the new faith with them. For example, Indian Muslims have concepts like ‘teej’‘ And ‘ fortieth‘ (approximately the third and 40th day of mourning for the dead), much like tahrvi‘ (13th day) Concept among Hindus. Similarly, if Hindu girls’ names often had the suffix ‘Kumari’ before marriage and later ‘Devi’, Muslim girls had suffixes such as ‘Jahan’ or Parveen, but rarely their father. name or surname was used.

Muslims are divided into Shia and Sunni sects. There are other sub-sects of Sunnis, such as the Hanafi (the majority of Indian Muslims subscribe to this school), the Hanbali, the Maliki and the Shafi. Most of the differences relate to their interpretation of Sharia.

While almost all of those differences are ideological, and in some ways universal, what is uniquely Indian is the presence of caste among Indian Muslims. As they say, in India you can change your religion but not your caste. Thus we have a discrepancy in terms like Dalit Sikhs and Dalit Christians, although both religions do not subscribe to the caste system. Among Muslims, we have the Sayyids, often referred to as the Brahmins of Islam. They trace their lineage to the family of the Prophet. Along with the Sheikhs, Mughals, Pathans and others, they bring forth the Ashraf category of ‘great’ Muslims, who are said to have come from the Arabian Peninsula or Central Asia. Then we have ajlafs or commoners, who are usually converts. Finally, we have Arzals whom some sociologists compare with Dalits.

social stratification

Keeping the Hindu caste system as the reference model, the caste system among Muslims is far from exploitable. The ‘purity and pollution’ model is largely absent. For example, there are no restrictions on pursuing education in an institution of your choice or even buying a house in a certain locality. A Pasmanda Muslim or a Muslim OBC – eg, a Saifi (carpenter) or an Ansari (weaver) or Salmani (Hajjam or barber) – is considered capable of offering prayers in a mosque, e.g., a Sayyid or Sheikh and Khan. . Men of these categories may struggle to marry Sayyid or Sheikh women. Again the rules are different if a Syed or Sheikh man marries a Pasmanda woman. The same norms of male dominance apply in Hinduism, where it is easier for an upper caste man to marry a lower caste woman than a Dalit man to marry a Brahmin woman. In fact, the most obvious example of Hinduism’s cultural influence among Indian Muslims can be seen in matrimonial advertisements in newspapers, where expressions are common, such as ‘a Sayyid family wants a match for their boy’ or ‘a sheikh. The family looks for a suitable ‘match for a girl’. The ad, without saying so many words, is as much about the victimization of same-situated and same-born families as it is to exclude people from other social strata. It is a mind-boggling blend of Islamic identity and Hindu social practice.

Of course, this social stratification is widespread, although it is much more prevalent in the West Bengal-Bihar-Jharkhand-East Uttar Pradesh belt. Here, if a person gives only his initials when meeting a person for the first time, it is not uncommon to be asked, ‘ what age do you put (What do you use after the initials)?’ It is a subtle take away at the origin of the individual’s caste. In Bihar, there are reportedly caste-specific graveyards. The ‘reservation’ in graveyards in places like Delhi and towns in Uttar Pradesh is subtle. People from certain parts of the country or of certain professions are buried, while others are often denied. Under the circumstances, about 30 years ago, the Pasmanda Muslims began to unite under banners such as the All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz, the All India Muslim OBC Sangathan and the All India Backward Muslim Morcha, which is said to be an umbrella body of 32 backward castes. , According to the Sachar Committee report, 40% of Indian Muslims are ‘Pasmanda’. Around the same time, we heard the slogan, ‘Dalit pitch is the same, Hindu or Muslim’ (All dalit-backward are alike, whether Hindu or Muslim)’.

This is the scholarship that the BJP wants to encourage and exploit. The irony is that since 2014, some policies of the government and the foot soldiers of the right-wing party have united Indian Muslims like never before. On one hand, we saw how Muslim women led protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act across the country with no questions asked about their caste origins. On the other hand, we saw repeated attacks on Muslim dairy farmers and animal transporters, sending the community into a mob with not only Sayyids and Saifis united, but Shias and Sunnis also axed each other, saying, ‘ The mob does not ask for your sect or caste when it attacks. It is enough to be a Muslim.

The big question today is, ‘Is it enough for all faithful to be Muslim?’ Or, as the BJP insists, ‘Is it everything to be a Pasmanda Muslim today?’

ziya.salam@thehindu.co.in