For many veteran India-watchers, it comes as no surprise that India's 140 million Muslims are falling behind in many key categories - education, employment, access to credit, imprisonment, poverty, and more. (For non-veteran watchers, the image of the charming and successful Bollywood Muslim is basically a Bollywood myth.) The recent release of the Sachar report, named after a former Indian chief justice who chaired a government-authorized committee to look into the matter, provided reams of new data that back up these assertions. In fact, Muslim employment figures are lower than those of dalits (officially known as "Scheduled Castes" and known in the West as "untouchables"), with 48% male employment (vs. 53%) and 9% female employment (vs. 23%). Also, as with African-Americans, Indian Muslims are disproportionately represented in prisons (11% of the population makes up 40% of inmates).

However, while there is general agreement on the reality in which Indian Muslims find themselves, exploring causes, much less solutions, is proving to be more difficult. For example, racism is likely the factor in low Muslim employment rates for menial government jobs, but provides an unlikely explanation for the low rates among higher government service jobs, which tend to be more meritocratic and are awarded anonymously. And how to address discrimination when Muslim government employment in Gujarat - site of the infamous 2002 pogroms - has a higher rate than that of other Indian states with powerful Muslim political consituencies? The much-maligned madrasas clearly do not prepare Muslim youth for the growing employment opportunities in India, but the Sachar report states that only 3% of Muslim youth attend such institutions. Muslim women are clearly falling behind educationally, but in places such as Kerala where schooling is stronger and more equitable, the gap is nearly eliminated.

As was done for the dalits before them, some in government circles are taking the findings to be justification for a new set of quotas covering everything from government hiring to educational subsidies. Others are using the opportunity to accuse Muslims of causing their own troubles through self-imposed isolation, rote memorization as education, and dictates against women in the workplace.

The thrusts governing the direction of reform fall into two categories: placing the burden on government (through legal and economic programs), and placing the burden on India's Muslims to create home-grown solutions. Both strategies have supporters and opponents on either side of the divide, although the former is being lobbied for by Muslim organizations in the wake of the report and the latter is being trumpeted by the ruling BJP party and its supporters.

The answer may lie somewhere in between: Muslim leaders downplaying the emphasis on religious education in favor of a more standard skills-based curriculum and spearheading a cultural shift that will allow more Muslim women to be educated, and the Indian government taking steps to ensure that government services and educational opportunities reach the inner-city slums where Muslims make up a disproportionate amount of the population, and providing legal means for Muslims to overcome institutional discrimination where possible.

this is a very good commentary. btw for those looking for an interesting examination of issues facing rural Indian Muslims, I highly recommend watching Shabana Azmi's film "hari bhari."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272651/

>>> but the Sachar report states that only 3% of Muslim youth attend such institutions.

Is it not obvious by now that Islam can become as much religious establishment as a formal church in any other religion. Its obvious that those who attend religious institutions are those who afford to. And whether its our esteemed Deoband or Barelwi Ulema, they are all involved in theological disputes (that tend to fall within protection and advancement of their personal religious establishments) and not involved with the practical and necessary means of protecting the Ummahs most vulnerable.

AND Muslim Indians go further to blame the west for the problems we experience and not our own apathy. Most of these muslims were those who couldn't afford the puritanical vision of a PURE PAAK country purged of non-muslims and have been left to fester in India with only the propoganda of shariah but no actual recourse to practical social justice.

People also have to understand that within Indian and Pakistani muslim roots are strong anti western propoganda machines that easily recruit and seek funding for terror type jihadi theologies from their diaspora BECAUSE of the politics in the region.. but is it any surprise that these bodies don't even bother with goverment process or the just operation of ordinary civil society? This is just my testimony. But as Indian and Pakistani muslims we hold ourselves as either 1) exclusively Islamic and better than, or 2) Western compromised hypocrites who have strayed. With those schizophrenic options there's very little identity for people to build on.

I just wrote a letter to the Dawn regarding MJ Akbar's take on the Sachar report in a story called 'Shrinking Jobs for Muslims'. He claimed that this proves that it was all a 'hoax' perpetuated by the 'upper castes' on Muslims in India. Very puzzling that he should rail against Brahmans because we have the odds stacked against us in terms of having to struggle for the top ten percent of all seats in higher education; and that because the rest are pretty much reserved for someone or the other. Yes, Christians and Muslims included - as long as you are not a Brahman, you can somehow find a reserved seat. But this is probably not well known.

My point however is to ask why are Muslims asking for more quotas rather than do what the Brahmans do - work harder? Surely you know that there are hundreds of thousands of poverty stricken Brahmans who are toiling away with no hope of reservations and quotas and vote bank politics coming to their rescue? And as everyone knows, there is no organization like a Church or Mosque to guide individual Brahman families; they pretty much fend for themselves. Meaning 'individuals are responsible for what they do'.

Nobody except the parents of the kids are in charge of the children. Whether it is a minority in the USA or India, the root causes are the same. Giving quotas will never uplift any poverty stricken group. What the Muslims in India need to do is what the African Americans are trying hard to do - get the primary education system in order. Instead of insiting that unqualified people get appointed to important positions and destroy what little progress is being made, people should realize that regardless of time, caste or religion, one needs to work hard in order to be qualified to be a responsible citizen. Insisting on easy street is a sad admission of defeat and a sign that they have given up.

As to the theory that terrorists are being spawned in India and Pakistan - the jury is still out on that. It is certainly true that Pakistan is churning out terrorists but in spite of tremendous pressure from the Pakistani terror outfits, Indian Muslims seem to have resisted turning to terror. Invariably there will be some Pakistani connection whenever a terrorist is caught in India.

>>> very puzzling that he should rail against Brahmans because we have the odds stacked against us in terms of having to struggle for the top ten percent of all seats in higher education

Many previously advantage/privileged white people complain about how unfair affirmative action is. Its a

>> Giving quotas will never uplift any poverty stricken group. What the Muslims in India need to do is what the African Americans are trying hard to do - get the primary education system in order

Thats ambigous in a society as polarised as India. The African American position actually undermines your point.

>> Indian Muslims seem to have resisted turning to terror

But BJP supporters are maybe just unruly protestors?! Stop rewriting the facts and dictating terms that sterilise the muslim presence in India.

Ghulam,

You are the victim of propaganda when you think Brahmins were 'previously previliged'. The Brahmins even in the glory days when they were respected by society were mainly hermits and scholars who were supported by alms and charity. They never had money like white slave-owners. What you mistake for 'previlige' was no more than sponsorships by wealthy people of other castes. All this business of Brahmins abusing power was more a metaphor conjured up by people wanting hurt the intellectual class of India in those times, namely the British and before that the Muslim invaders. They were successful in turning people against the guardians of Hindu culture. However it appears the Brahmins have managed to succeed in a small way by working harder and harder and it seems to anger Muslims no end. From MJ Akbar to Javed Naqvi they rail against Brahmins - of all the weak people to pick on! I can understand envy, jealousy even, but such hatred? That puzzles me because Brahmins are not the people the Muslims should be worried about.

>> The Brahmins even in the glory days when they were respected by society were mainly hermits and scholars who were supported by alms and charity

Hey I forgot about you. Isn't that just an amazing leap of fact. How'd you manage to reach this delusional assumption? Well if you gonna make things up there's no real point to make now is there.

>> I can understand envy, jealousy even ..

Then why is the tide of fascism turned against muslims? Most of the (poor underprivileged) muslims who've found themselves tacitly guilty for not supporting the racist nationalist fervor of Hindustan, sit marginilised and discriminated against. You expect me to believe that a 140million people, ethnically and culturally no more different than their neighbours, who have about as much association with a religious class as Ashwariya Rai has with the poor .. are guilty of hating Hindus. AND magically their sorry state is karma and not the

Surprising no .. that muslims .. despite their appalling living conditions and uphill battle against the masses of discrimination .. still have no problem holding on to their faith.

Ghulam,

What you are displaying is an amazing hatred of Brahmins without even thinking about it! I did not even say anything bad about Muslims or Islam; all I did was point out what I know to be true as a Brahman myself. I come from a long line of people who were scholars but never wielded political power nor economic clout of any significance.

I suspect you have no first hand contact with Brahmans or you would already know this truth. The image you have is most likely fashioned by the popular press that likes to portray the Brahmans as people who suppressed everyone else.

In truth the class system was due partly to economic realities, partly social and mainly political which was the work of the political classes. Surely you are not under the illusion that there is no class system today in Saudi Arabia, or Europe or the USA?

However, it is easy to look at Brahmans today and say 'these guys seem to have made it ok! Then they must be the reason why we are not ok!' Simple to the point of being a Simpleton's view, but that seems to be your view.

Your name means 'slave' in Indian languages - I hope it is intended to mean the Slave of God and not of ignorance.

Hindu religion was always there. Infact Prophet Mohmand learned from a Hindu Scholer called Bhaskara and after going back to persia (gulf) he wrote the holly kuran.

The Hindus world over understand that Muslims are Brothers of Hindus

The only thing he did is wrote it in Arabic.