Journal of Political Studies, Vol.

18, Issue - 2, 2011: 225-242

Political Legacy of the Muslims in India: An Overview

Tariq Hameed Bhatti ∗

Abstract

The Indian constitution was drawn from the different

sources of the world's constitution i.e. USA, Australia,
Canada and Great Brittan. There was the only objective
how to unite different kinds of people in united India. In
fact constitution provides privileges and comforts to her
masses so that all the minorities of India can take breath
under the Indian constitution. It is true that the Indian
constitution provides protection to the Muslims and other
minorities but practice is altogether different. The political
status of the Muslims in India seems almost very bleak.
Representation in the central and promotional states,
political party, method of elections and state policies of
Indian government can determine the political status of
the Muslims and others minorities. The role of press is
also worthwhile in attaining the true picture of the Indian
Muslims. The objective of the study is open, to explore
the socio economic and political status of the Muslims
through facts and figures and strong evidences. The
study concludes that in the post-independence context,
the Muslim elites (politicians, social activists, religious
leaders, academics, and journalists) believe that anti-
Muslim violence is planned and executed to render
Muslims economically and socially crippled and as a final
outcome of that economic and social backwardness,
assimilate them into the lower rungs of Hindu society.

Key words: Muslims, Hindu, India, Society, Politics

The Hindus and the Muslims had lived together for many centuries as
good neighbours but their religions did not permit them to be one or
same in any aspect of the life. In the whole period of British rule, the
communal cruiser and riots appeared every year in the various parts
of the country. These riots broke out on the issues such as cow

                                                            
∗
Author is Deputy Secretary, Higher Education Department, Civil Secretariat,
Lahore – Pakistan.
 Tariq Hameed Bhatti 

slaughtering, playing of music before mosques, coincidence of Hindu

and Muslim festivals, obstruction in each other's places of worship
and in festivals. But the educated classes attributed these causes
as the increasing heat of religious, political and race discussions,
which could be seen from the struggle for government posts. The
question of separate representation, Hindi-Urdu controversy, the
growing irritation of the Muslims with Swadeshi and boycott agitation
coupled with social disturbances, Muslim extra territorial sympathies
and above all the missionary or proselytizing movements were the
decisive reasons that proved a stunning blow to the communal
harmony.

The Muslims had ruled over the Subcontinent for about eight hundred
years and the Mughal Empire gradually headed towards decline. The
Empire had to face the mounting opposition from the local Indian
people and the Britishers as well. The East India Company came to
the Subcontinent for trade but the favourable circumstances helped
them establish their influence and prestige through political
manipulations. The British made every effort to capture the economy
of the Subcontinent and the War of Independence, 1857 convinced
the Hindus to convert their views and sympathies in the favour of the
British. The Muslims of India politically, economically, culturally and
religiously were living in miserable and helpless situation. A long
honourable and prestigious period of the Muslim rule was
presented in a distorted form in the history of Subcontinent. The
Muslim community sank into despair and desolation. They were
deprived of their jobs, property, social status and business.
Ultimately, it left almost next to impossible for them to meet their ends
in the light of the Islamic teachings (Hunter, 1996:164).

After 1857, the British established their rule in which the Muslims were
removed from the government services as Hunter writes:

The exclusion of the Muslims from army and the higher

posts of administration were necessary for the safety of
the British rule; but this policy ruined the Muslims. So the
war of 1857 resulted in completed annihilation of Muslims,
political power in India (Hussain 1997:21).

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, an eminent Muslim scholar, advised the

Muslims to attain the knowledge of the English language and modern
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sciences. He devoted his entire life to raise the educational standard

and political awareness among the Muslims of the Subcontinent. The
technique and strategy that Sir Syed adopted in bringing change were
significant. He urged the Muslims to learn English because by this the
Muslim uplift was possible. He opened schools and then college at
Aligarh which later on became the Aligarh University in 1920. After Sir
Syed’s death, this institution produced numerous political personalities
in the Subcontinent. Sir Syed was the first Muslim leader who used the
word ‘two nations’ for the Muslims and the Hindus of the Subcontinent.
The concept of Muslim nationalism in India was a direct outcome of the
Aligarh movement, on the basis of which the Muslims were given
separate electorate in 1909. All-India Muslim League was formed in
1906 on the concept of Muslim nationhood which led to the creation of
Pakistan. The principle of separate electorates was demanded in
Simla Deputation in 1906 under the leadership of Sir Agha Khan and
this demand was encouraged and conceded in the Lucknow Pact.
Perhaps it was the last political victory of the Muslims in the history of
the Subcontinent. Sir Syed realized the actual designs and objectives
of the Hindus and Muslims and in such circumstances, he gave the
“Two Nations Theory (Sayeed,, 1978:12-34).” The mission started by
Sir Syed was followed by Allama Muhammad Iqbal and Quaid-i-Azam
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Sayeed,, 1978).

Allama Muhammad Iqbal was the first Muslim leader who gave the
idea of a Muslim state in clear terms in his presidential address at the
annual session of All-India Muslim League held at Allahabad in U.P. on
29 December 1930. He expressed that the Hindu concept of “Indian
Nationalism” meant Hindu domination over the minority communities
e.g. the Muslims. If the democratic principle of rule or power by
majority was accepted in the conditions prevailing in India, the Hindu
majority would always dominate the Muslim minority; their religious
relations could not be changed without destroying the separate nature
of the Muslim religion, traditions and culture. The distinct religion,
tradition and culture could be safeguarded only if the Muslims of those
regions where they were in majority could be separated from the
Hindu-majority regions. He said:

I would like to see the Punjab, the North-West

Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan
amalgamated into a single State. Self-government
within the British Empire, or without the British
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 Tariq Hameed Bhatti 

Empire, the formation of a consolidated North-West

Indian Muslim State appears to me to be the final
destiny of the Muslims at least of northwest India
(Tejani, 2008:191).

He also predicted that in the present scenario there was no future of

the Muslims in united India. He wrote in different letters to Quaid-i-
Azam that separate territories for the Hindus and the Muslims were the
only way to create a balanced life between both the nations. The
Muslims’ political elites did not consider the proposal given by Allama
Iqbal seriously but the great number of Muslim youth started struggle
by founding All-India Muslim Students’ Federation and took serious
steps to acquire separate identity (Mirza, 1991).

Allama Iqbal participated in second Round Table Conference held at

London to settle the constitutional problem of India. He declared
openly that there would not be any other solution except the division of
this land on merit. Chaudhry Rehmat Ali proposed the name of the
state ‘Pakistan’ in his famous pamphlet “Now or Never” in 1933
(Allana, 1969:103-110). He tried to convince the British leadership
through letters and press about the genuine need of a separate
homeland for the Muslims of Subcontinent.

Political Contentions

The persistence of the Congress in its refusal to acknowledge the

legitimacy of the Muslims’ right apparently arose out of its reluctance
to agree to any role for religion especially Islam. Nehru for example
consistently underplayed the importance of religion and instead
emphasized the significance of socio-economic reforms and
economic development. He was of the view that the pre-occupation
with communal, rather than the political, problem was the product of
under-emphasis on religion in political matters. The major objectives
of the Congress were:

i) to protect the basic and fundamental right of the people of

Subcontinent (India and Muslim).
ii) to promote cooperation among the various religious
communities of British India,
iii) to promote social, economic and moral values among them,

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iv) to improve better relations with the British Indian

Government so as to promote the interest of the Indians.
But soon the Irish Home Rule movement in Ireland made
the Hindu leaders of the Congress to demand also a Home
Rule in India, based on the representative form of
government for India (Johari, 2006:214). But Congress could
not fulfill its objectives.

Quaid-i-Azam reiterated that the Muslims and Hindus were two

separate nations by all definitions. Muslims, a nation of 100 million
possessed their own distinct culture, civilization and religion therefore,
they were justified in demanding a separate homeland.

Under the chairmanship of Motilal Nehru along with two Muslim

leaders named Sir Ali Imam and Shoaib Qureshi the Committee
issued a report in 1928 that ensured joint electorate, unitary system of
the state instead of federal system and Hindi as an official language.
Muslims reacted indignantly to the report considering it an attempt to
destroy the Muslim community. The Congress ruled during 1937 to
1939 in the Subcontinent and took such cruel and antagonist steps to
crush and eliminate the Muslim’s identity and religion by force. These
steps awoke the Muslims for final decision. The Muslims of
Subcontinent gathered under the great leadership of Quaid-i-Azam
with positive hope and desire. The Lahore resolution passed on 23
March 1940 infused a new hope and confidence in the Muslims. The
Lahore Resolution strengthened the Two Nation Theory which was
the base of the Muslims struggle for independence. Muhammad Ali
Jinnah stated that:

The Hindus and Muslims belong to different religious

philosophies, social customs, and literatures. They neither
intermarry nor inter-dine together, and indeed, they belong
to two different civilizations which are based on conflicting
ideas and conceptions (Legal Document No. 69).

These two opposite perceptions of Nehru and Quaid-i-Azam convinced

the Muslims to think about the separate way of life in future. Through
this resolution it was decided and declared that an independent,
separate homeland was essential for the Muslims of Subcontinent. The
Congress leadership being hostile and biased condemned the
Pakistan scheme and said it might be the dream of the Muslims.
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Gandhi called it ‘a moral wrong’ and ‘sin’ to which he would never be a

party. After the resolution, Hindu press came out with aggressive
propaganda against the Lahore Resolution. The Hindu tried to secure
support of some Muslims who tried to prove that it was a baseless
philosophy and thinking of the Muslims to have a separate country.
The Congress found it difficult to concede that the Muslims should
be represented only through their co-religionists no matter this
principle had already been agreed upon at Lucknow Pact in 1916. It
was obvious that the Congress needed to identify the genuine
representatives of the Muslims but it seemed unable to make the
right choice during the most critical phase in India's struggle for
independence. Rajagopalachari tried to reconcile this difference but
the League leadership could not be trapped. Within few years the
Muslims won the destination of Pakistan on the democratic bases.

Since independence in 1947, some castes ∗ were highly politicized.

Whether the caste infiltrates the parties or the parties use the
existing caste organization or association to mobilize the voters, is an
important question. When Islam appeared in this region, a bulk of the
lower class Hindu embraced it. The golden principles of Islam
convinced the Hindu society to ponder over the new ideas. In this way,
a faction of the society started Bhakti Movement which meant
brotherhood, love and equality. Actually this movement was to detain
and stop the great number of Hindu conversion to Islam (Arif,
1991:42). Ideological differences produced unrecoverable
controversies between the Hindus and the Muslims and this conflict
gave birth to separatist tendencies.
                                                            
∗
  The caste system divides Hindus into hierarchical structure consisting of four major castes
including the Brahmins (Priests an custodians of the nation), Kshatriyas (rulers + commanders),
Vaishyas (traders and business class) and Sudras labour, worker and slaves. In this
hierarchical social order the Brahmins occupy the top position and the Sudras the lowest. In
rural India the system has also created a highly segregated residential pattern in which the
Shudras live on the out skirts of the villages, away from the high-caste neighbourhood.
Some sections of Sudras have been treated as "Untouchable" by the members of the upper
castes because their hereditary occupations have been considered unclear. The Hindu caste
system in reality, however, does not exist in these simple four divisions the four main castes are
actually formal names for the organizational structure consisting of 3000 (three thousand sub
castes into which the present Hindu society is divided. Castes and sub-castes are very important
instruments of political socialization. In the formation of the political attitudes of young adults
and children, the caste affiliation plays a vital role. There is much strong evidence that all persons
who are originating from upper castes. (Brahmins and Kashatriyas) show a higher level of
personal efficacy and interpersonal trust. 

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Clashes in customs and traditions of Hindus and Muslims

forced them to think in different ways. Some times these
differences were directly conflicting and abusing each
other (Gauba, 1976:64).

In an article, M. N. Shrinivas found:

Caste erects a powerful barrier against the emotional

integration of the people of India. It divides them into
numerous small and hierarchically arranged groups
and man's loyalties tend to be absorbed by his
immediate group (Gauba, 1976:64).

Therefore, caste system and the religious ideologies played decisive

role in the political manipulations during the 20th century.

Propaganda of Secularism before Partition

Secularism is a way of life and conduct guided by the material

consideration devoid of religion and spirituality. The basis of ideology
is material means which alone can advance the welfare of mankind
and their religious beliefs retard the growth of human beings (Anjum,
1987:1-24). Secularism debars government to interfere with the
religious affairs of the citizens. It is an antonym to theocracy. The ideal
of a secular state was put forward by Marsilio of Padau in 14th Century
in his famous book Defensot Pacis in which he declared "the rights of
the citizens are independent of the faith they profess; and no one
may be punished for his religion (Oliver & Edgar, 1905:317-24)."
According to the liberal democratic tradition of the west, a secular
state means to give religion a neutral status, not hostile to religion.

Nehru adopted secular stance just to unite the different races, cultures
and religions of the people of the Subcontinent. He said, the people of
India were divided into different religions and there was no way to
satisfy the people except secularism. For national unity and
solidarity, the secularism could provide the practicable view and
ideological support to the people of the state. Nehru maintained:

The government of a country like India with many religions

that have secured great and devoted followings for
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 Tariq Hameed Bhatti 

generations can never function satisfactorily in the modern

age except on a secular state (Donald, 1963:139).

The Hindu nationalism is based on Hindu ideology and this philosophy

automatically excludes all minorities such as Muslims and Christians.

The most disturbing element in the politics of India had been the
question of cow killing. This question assumed a definite shape
under the British rule and constitution a menace to the peace of the
country. Slaughtering of cow was the religious aspect of Muslims
whereas it was repugnant to all the Hindus and the Sikhs. In 1916, two
serious Hindu-Muslim riots erupted in the Patna District on the eve of
Eid-ul-Azha. Moreover, religious processions, Hindu festivals like Ram
Leela and other occasions did not pass without communal clash
(Sandhu, 2011:5).

The Muslims objected to the music before the mosques on the ground
that it disturbed the devotees in the prayers. They regarded music
and songs as things of enjoyment and refused to allow them before
the mosques. The Hindus on the other hand, considered it to be
their right to play music and argued that in past, processions
accompanied by music always passed by mosques at all hours without
any objection from the Muslims (Mohaya, 1987:376-78). Thus the
communal issues ultimately embittered the overall political scenario.

One of the main causes of the communal crises was the

apprehensions amongst the Muslims regarding their faith at the
hands of the Hindus. Dr. S. K. Datta, an India Christian Member of the
Legislative Assembly, expressed this matter between the two
communities, was due to the posts and positions and this had
embittered the situation. It implied that the Muslims became victim of
the economic situation of the country and they were feeling
themselves insecure and hopeless. It can not be denied that the
disturbances widely spread and progressively more frequent since
the separate electorates were introduced in the Minto-Marley Reforms
(Sayeed, 1978).

One of the most painful causes of the Muslim-Hindu riot was the
Urdu-Hindi controversy which appeared in 1867. It was an open and
clear biased attack on the Muslim civilization by the Hindus. Thus
the political tension between the two communities mounted up
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gradually. Therefore riots started between the Hindu and Muslim

intellectuals at large scale. This language controversy roused such
passions on the both sides which aggravated the situation. It had
marked an effect on Muslim politics marking the educated Muslims,
already suspicious of rising Hindu leadership, more apprehensive of
the future. But after the formation of Indian National Congress in
1885, the educated Hindus became less interested in the language
problem (Sayeed, 1978).

The period of hostility between the Hindu and Muslim communities

may be said to date from the inception of the Shuddhi movement
directed by the Arya Samaj against the Rajpoots (converted to Islam
during the regime of Aurangzab) of Agra and the neighbouring district
in 1923, to the Hindus a clear objective and directed as it was a mass
movement. These cultural and religious conflicts and differences were
not allowing both the nations to live together under the same social
umbrella. Every effort of Hindus to reduce the passion and
determination for freedom became useless.

The Hindus and the Sikhs played aggressive role and massacred the
Muslims in last days of migration from India to Pakistan. As the
partition was announced, the communal tension increased promptly.
Violence, plundering, carnage and stabbing were on peak in eastern
districts of Punjab. The Muslims’ life, respect and assets were
unsecure in the non-Muslim majority areas. Youth were put to death
and children were being slain ruthlessly in front of their parents. The
hooligans raped women in the presence of their relatives.
Approximately 12 million people were displaced from the Indian
parts who came to Pakistan in a miserable condition (Ejaz,
2003:25). Situation became more painful when migration from other
parts of India began at a tremendous rate in the third week of August
1947.

Muslims in India: Post-Partition Era

After the partition, the Hindu fundamentalist forces reorganized the

Hindutva movement for the establishment of the Hindu Raj in India.
This movement could not attain its aims earlier because before the
partition Hindu leaders laid the foundation of Indian secularism in the
policy and constitution. Muslims and Hindus got independence on
14th and 15th August 1947 respectively (Ejaz, 2003:25). It was also a
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notable issue about the Muslims who remained in India deliberately

or non-deliberately and they were almost equal the strength of
Pakistani people.

These Indian Muslims had participated in every service of the

Pakistan movement, voted in favour of independence and desired
for the separate homeland. The Hindu leadership and other
extremists forced them to vacate this land. They said that "Hindustan
is for Hindus." They gave very tough time to the Muslims living in
India after 1947 and their progress in the various aspects of life was
checked on the religious ground. History has recorded a chain of
communal riots in India which occurred since the birth of Pakistan.
This painful condition of the Muslims is empirical evidence that they
have been living as "low status people" and bitter rivals. Protection of
their life, honour and property remained a major problem. World
observed the blood bath of Ahmadabad and all other areas wherein
the Muslims are residing. It is an open violation of the human rights
accepted by the world. The Muslims are one of the biggest minorities
(12% of the total population) of India and all over the world (Ejaz,
2003:25).

After the partition, the worst of the hardships which the Muslims had
to suffer during the exchange of population in Delhi, the Punjab and to
some extent in Bengal were soon over. As against this, they had
won the freedom for which they had struggled for many decades.
But in reality the plight of the Muslims during 1947 and the following
years was, and, to some extent, still is, worse than that in the pre-
partition India. For many Muslims, the greatest spiritual anguish,
perhaps greater than that of being separated for ever from their kith
and kin who had willingly or unwillingly migrated to Pakistan, was that
they had to see hundreds of thousands of Sikh and Hindu refugees
from West and East Pakistan in a deplorable plight, driven out from
their homes and wandering about in quest of shelter and to hear the
bitter words that all this was done to them by the Muslims. The
revenge was imperative to be taken by the victims.

Islam had taught them that it was much more disgraceful and
humiliating for them and their brothers-in-faith to be cruel and unjust
than to be victim of cruelty and injustice. The sparks of hatred and
revenge in the eyes of the displaced persons from Pakistan and of
reproach and suspicion in the eyes of their old non-Muslim
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neighbours aroused in them a strange and complex feeling. They

were shocked at being held responsible for the actions of others, but
some of them realized the unpleasant truth that in this world of blind
retribution, one has to suffer for the misdeeds of one's brothers.
Besides, the partition of the country itself which had come as a bolt
from the blue, to many of the Muslims who supported Pakistan as well
as to those opposed it, filled their hearts with grief and anger. The
opponents of Pakistan consisting mostly of the Ulama, the masses
and some middle class nationalist Muslims, chafed at their
helplessness as they saw that all their efforts to prevent the division
of the country which they knew to be disastrous for them, had failed.
The supporters of the Pakistan demand, who could not or did not want
to go to Pakistan, repented their folly in trusting their leaders who,
either deliberately or out of ignorance, had assured them that the
Pakistan's slogan was merely a threat under which the Muslim
League wanted to secure the maximum rights and privileges for
Muslims. Pakistan had turned from a clever stratagem into an
unpleasant fact and the big and small leaders who had deceived them
or been deceived themselves, were in Pakistan fighting for loaves and
fishes and had left them in India to pay the price.

The Hindu's communalist arguments assert that the riots are caused
primarily by the Muslim extremists acting on behalf of Pakistan to
defame India and to create conditions leading to further
dismemberment of the country. Riots, according to the Hindus, are
precipitated by Muslims throwing rocks on the peaceful Hindu's
processions or places of worship, or Muslims attacking the
police and the defence latent or explicit emerges. In such scenario
the Muslims are deprived to access to economic resources of the
country. Khushwant Singh in his book entitled End of India has
expressed that of Hindus would not accommodate Sikhs and
Muslims, therefore India would not remain united (Singh, 2003:25).

These writings do depict the reality of the Muslims, Sikhs and

Christians in the Indian society. These writings do not help in
determining the status of the Muslims in India.

To measure the political status, political party is the essential element.

This is imperative to bring out the causes which are main hindrances
to acquire the political status of the Muslims in India. It is also
necessary to explore the legitimate rights of the Muslims through the
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 Tariq Hameed Bhatti 

true democratic and political process. Until, a community can not

receive the legitimate rights, the survival of that community always
deals with political dilemma.

Agony besides killing is that assimilation of the Muslims through

physical terror and socio-economic pressure was the way adopted by
the Hindus as the "final solution." Most of the riots took between
Hindus and Muslims place in the ethnically mixed populated areas.
The districts with a little population for example, in coastal Andhra or
the hilly areas of Uttar Pradesh, the communal riots did not disturb the
life. Likewise, riots had rarely been reported from the Muslim-
majority districts of Malappuram in Kerala and Murshidabad in West
Bengal. This pattern reveals that the minority community avoided
because they reconciled to its inferiority and vulnerability. Riots mostly
occurred in urban areas while rural areas remained peaceful.
Industrial cities including Bombay, Bhiwandi, Baroda, Surat in the
west, while Kanpur, Moradabad and Meerut in the north can be
quoted as examples. The industrial as well as old walled cities like
Delhi, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, and Bhopal also experienced bloody
riots. Industrial cities such as Jamshedpur, Ranchi, and Rourkela
where the working class solidarity was stronger experienced blood-
letting turmoil. Areas populated by the refugees from Pakistan
seemed victim of the conflicting trends. “This was particularly the case
in the 1950s through the 1970s” (Khalidi, 1998:21).

This price, the Muslims of India, especially those of North India, had
to pay not only in the form of spiritual and mental anguish but also in
that of economic depression and educational and cultural
backwardness. The terrible difficulties which Indian Muslims had to
face during the years following 1947 and, to some extent, are still
facing the same agony.

The main source of income for the upper and middle class Muslims in
north India had for centuries been Jagirdari, zamindari and
government service. This also applies to Hyderabad (Deccan) and
some other states. After independence, the Princely States, jagirs,
and zamindaris were abolished throughout the country. No doubt
millions of non-Muslims were also adversely affected by this but, so
far as the Muslims are concerned their higher and middle classes in
the Muslim's states and North Indian Provinces were absolutely ruined.
Among the non-Muslim's feudal class many had, during the period of
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political transition, prudently acquired urban property, invested in

business or started cultivating the soil on a big scale. But the Muslim
landlords, specially the owners of large estates, mostly relied on the
Muslim League to save their property through the talisman of Pakistan
and did nothing for themselves. When this whole structure of false
hopes suddenly collapsed, they lost their senses and did not even do
what they could have done to improve their lot. A great difficulty in
their way was that owing to the slow and inefficient administrative
machinery of government, they got compensation for their lands after
a very long time and that too not in cash but in the form of forty years
bonds on the interest (Khalidi, 1998).

As for those Muslim families which had for generations taken to

government service, they found that the scope had become much
narrower for them. The reservations which the British had provided for
them and which enabled them to find employment without any great
difficulty, were now gone and they had to struggle through open
competition to get into government service. In this struggle they had
to face a great obstacle; almost in all Northern and Central states, the
official language was changed into Hindi. Up to this time, Muslims had
not generally learnt Hindi.

As a necessary result of the economic and educational

backwardness of the Muslims, Urdu literature also fell into a state of
sheer neglect. The educated class of the Muslims in India was now
greatly reduced in number and even these few educated Muslims
were directly or indirectly involved in the economic difficulties and
found it difficult to buy books. There are very few universities in India
which offer Masters in Urdu which shows discrimination against Urdu
which is considered as the Muslim's language.

On the poorer class of the Muslims, the effect of the partition was, in
one respect less and in another respect more pronounced. In the
matter of employment, the intensity of the communal passion which
had been rising for several years before partition and had reached
its climax at the actual time of the partition, did create some difficulties
for them but not so much as for the middle and higher classes of
Muslims. However, during the communal riots they had to suffer
much more than their co-religionists belonging to higher classes. So
there was in them a constant feeling of uneasiness and insecurity.
Moreover, many families from this class had also disintegrated owing
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to the exodus of the Muslims to Pakistan. Brother was parted from

brother, father from son, daughter from mother and, in some
instances, wife from husband. Poverty and military reservations
generally prevented them from visiting each other even on important
occasions like marriages or births or deaths in the family and, if some
of them ventured to do so, it was at the cost of being crushed under
the burden of debt and victimization. The new generation of the Indian
Muslims in the government service has joined government jobs but in
lower and medium grade services. Most of the Muslims do not have
self-confidence to go for open competition for the higher services.
During the last few years, a vast field of employment has opened out
for the educated people in engineering and other technical
occupations but here also there is not much scope for the Muslims
because they have, on the whole, neglected technical education in the
same way as they neglected modern education in general in the
days of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. Only in the Aligarh Muslim University,
we find a substantial number of Muslim students entering the
engineering College or the Medical College (Anjum, 1987).

In primary and secondary education Muslims have begun to take a

keener interest, partly because attention is now being paid even in
one or two Hindi states to teach Urdu as an optional subject in the
secondary schools and to open primary schools with Urdu as the
medium of instruction. As for non-Hindi states, most of them
provide not only primary but also middle schools which teach in Urdu.
Still the Muslims and other Urdu-speaking people have serious
grievances, especially in one or two Hindi states, that neither in
offices and courts, nor in schools are the state governments giving
those facilities for the use of Urdu which have been approved of in
principle by the central government (Anjum, 1987).

The communal seeds rooted in the bureaucracy in India. The

departure of the British and Muslims officers from India the upper
caste Hindu dominated in the offices. Most of them ignored
Muslims by considering them enemies. An officer M. N. Buch
expressed his confession in Indian Express in 1990 about
humiliating attitude of the Hindus towards the Muslims:

Even today many highly placed Hindus look upon every

Muslim as a potential Pakistani. As a District Magistrate
more than a quarter of a century ago, I still remember
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the secret instructions we used to receive from the

Government not only to keep a watchful eye on Muslims
in any law and order situation, but also to seize even
their licensed weapons if the occasion demanded it. No
similar instructions were ever received about potential
Hindu trouble makers (Khalidi, 1998).

According to Kuldip Nayar, the demolition of Babari Mosque exposed

the biased intentions of the public servants. Even very high ranking
officers defended the cruelty made by the fanatic Hindus at Ayodhya
(Khalidi, 1998).

Many groups can bring communal harmony through voluntary

activities such as public gatherings, sports, folk festivals, and other
recreational events. Such efforts proved effective enough as
deterrence in many cases when the law enforcing machinery failed to
secure cordiality (Khalidi, 1998).

Most of the generation that brought about this divide, and the
holocaust that followed it, in which more than a million lives were
lost, have disappeared form the scene but the history has still all the
facts preserved. The present generation of the Muslims is paying the
price of the segment of history which was not their fault. Sarfraz Mirza
maintains that the Muslims left behind in India are deemed to be the
enemies by the Hindus. The communal riots in several parts of India
can be presented as evidence in this regard:

… the Muslims have been and are still being treated as

Malechch and bitter rivals. They have not the least
protection of life, honour and property. The
consequences of which is that the world has witnessed
the bloodbath of Ahmadabad and in many other parts of
India. India must rise above its archaic thinking and live
in the modern world as a civilized state (Mirza 1991).

The Hindus conceded Pakistan but it enraged them against Muslims as they
dismantled the dream of Mahabharta.

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 Tariq Hameed Bhatti 

Conclusion

It is obvious that the discrimination based on religion and language is

the most important feature of the Indian political system. The Muslims
are deprived of their political share in the presence of joint electorate.
They cannot attain their due political right in the legislative
assemblies. They are exploited by the Congress and Bhartia Janta
Party on the eve of election by committing fake and false promises. In
fact at the time of partition of Subcontinent the Hindu leadership
declared that all minorities could be independent and secured by the
constitution in their religious, social and economic activities and
development but these promises seem merely on the papers and the
Muslims are being discriminated against in India. With all these odds
in the Indian society, people are slightly satisfied and normal at
present time. But they are acutely suffering from the Hindu prejudice
and extremism. There are many precedents that inform that the
Muslims are deprived of the high government jobs especially in
military, bureaucracy and other important jobs. It means they are still
paying the price of their relation with the Pakistan movement and the
spiritual affiliation with the Muslims living throughout the world
including Pakistan.

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 Political Legacy of the Muslims in India 

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