Why Muslim And Dalit Politics Fail In India? (Falling prey to ‘Vote-Bank’ politics)

Mohammad Arsalan
_________________

Many Muslims intellectuals claim that Muslims don’t have a political stand, some say that Muslims only vote against the BJP, some are talking of Dalit-Muslim alliance in the upcoming UP polls. In my opinion all these things doesn’t fit to the prevailing political unawareness of Muslims in India. All the marginalized communities of India don’t have a political stand that mainly consists of Muslims, Dalits and Tribals (w. r. f.  Justice Sachhar committee report 2006). The reason is that they are educationally, socially and financially backward. They battle only for bread and butter and know nothing of what is going around, hence they easily fall prey in the political system as underdog. That is what commonly called ‘Vote-Bank’.

Every political party requires lobbying for which Brahmins (including Rajput, Bhumihar and Baniya- not all but majority) are the fittest as they have always been socially powerful and financially strong since 2500 BC. Initially they lobbied for Congress and now they have their own fascist Bartiya Janta Party. Amid all that, Brahmanical hegemony is uprising creating more social repression, inequality and injustice in the society; the same that happened after 2500 BC up till the ‘Gora Sahib’ arrived in India followed by ‘Bhura Sahib’ and now by ‘RSS’.

This social inequality was realized by Dr. Ambedkar and he included Article 16 (4) i. e. ‘equality of opportunity in matters of public employment’ in the constitution providing special reservation for the backward class for their social and educational empowerment. At that time also Ambedkar was opposed by many upper caste Hindus. Further deliberate plotting was done against him to defeat in the Loksabha elections of 1952 & 54, later he was nominated in the Upper House or Rajya Sabha. Whereas the Élite Muslims in British India didn’t accepted the due demand in constitution and later majority of them flee to Pakistan leaving back the backward Muslims as orphans.

Now what Muslims and Dalits need to realize is that to take political stand it’s very important to come out of poverty. One is in despair when is in poverty and has no option but to be used as masses for propaganda by the ruling-class. Here I would like to quote Sir Syed, he said ‘Ignorance is the mother of poverty’. Ignorance comes from lack of knowledge and education. This was realized by Sir Syed after the first war of Independence in 1857, where he saw Muslims being brutally butchered by the British. He got to understand that education is the only key which could take these poor marginalized community including Muslims and other backwards from deprivation and vicious circle of poverty. That was the only key they could attain their position in social and political spectrum. Later on he started Aligarh movement and MAO College was formed in 1877.

It’s true that politics decides the fate of individuals and communities especially in an inclusive and diverse country like India. But feudalism and Brahminisation has still influenced the politics of India. To my little knowledge I think that Muslim and Dalit intellectuals fail to understand that it’s poverty, despair and jeopardy that has made marginalized communities aloof from the main stream. Those Muslims who use slangs like ‘rehnumai’, ‘qyadat’, and whatnot are either highly ambitious and are used by different political parties for Muslim appeasement, the others who actually commit themselves for a social change fail to understand the social fabric, problems of poverty, and beat around the bush. At initial level it’s important to eradicate the class-inequality, more and more focus on education should be done for emancipation and demanding rights rather than making hubbub of SP, BSP, Congress, BJP and bla bla. Until social equality and social justice is achieved; democracy will be a mockery in India and marginalized communities will remain a ‘Vote-Bank’.

NO FULL STOPS IN INDIA: BOOK REVIEW

Mohammad Arsalan
_________________
For those who want to know the ground realities of India and the way her culture and traditions are harbored by its inhabitants ‘No full stops in India’ is a must read. Mark Tully, a renowned British reporter and commentator of BBC has pinned up series of events in such a beautiful way that it paints a felicitous picture of India, his understanding of the ‘Idea of India’, its diverse and pluralistic culture makes this a compelling reading.

He has been critical of his own British people in the way they have swept in the westernized narrative of being superior and further creating an élite class in India that endorses the same. Tully accuses the same élite Indians and British for poverty, despair and jeopardy that major population of India face. He quotes renowned economist Amartya Sen who wrote, ‘It’s important to understand the élite nature of India to make sense of India’s policies’. Citing the democracy and the ruling-class culture in India he says, ‘India’s élite have never recovered from their colonial hangover, and so they have not developed the ideology, the attitudes and the institutions which would change the poor from subjects to partners in the government of India. Democracy has failed because the people the poor have elected have ruled- not represented- them. The ballot-box is only the first stage in democracy.’ He promulgates the idea of perpetuating India’s own civilization rather than making a replica of the west. Brazenly he argues that lingua-franca of English among Indians by the English is part of their cultural hegemony or imperialism. For the adaptation of English language and knowing it’s pride among Indians, Mark being a British brutally accepts the way English giggle at the Indians, he says, ‘yet the irony is that we, the British, laugh at India’s zeal for our language, and Indian accent and Indian English have long been a fruitful source of jokes.’

In ten essays Mark has projected ample of de-facto cosmos of India’s life, from Shudra’s life in Badaun district of UP to Kumbh Mela that is held after every 12 years at Allahabad. He gives case studies and first-hand account of data of how extreme liberals and feminists have caused more fundamentalism in India; he has explained that in the whole episode of ‘Deorala Sati’ incident where a teenage girl Roop Kanwar deliberately committed Sati, and how the issue was then politicized and mongered. The historic epic Ramayna’s telecast at Doordarshan and the art culture of South India is all well imbibed in the essays. ‘Operation Black Thunder’, Indira Gandhi’s assassination, tussle among the Congress party, Rajiv Gandhi as PM and his assassination, Hindu radicalization, tribal issues and their vernacular art, rise and downfall of communism in Bengal, and whatnot. The book is a whole lot of realities and perspective that India falls into.

Tully says that intellectuals in India try to find out the solutions of their problem from the west not actually realizing that much of the solutions to Indian problem lies within India. Though written in 1992, the book still holds a lot of relevance in today’s context in India. For this book ‘No full stops in India’, Kushwant Singh in Sunday magazine has commented, ‘What [Tully] has to say makes for compelling reading’. And yes the Swami rightly said in the book, ‘there is always a story behind a story in India’…’There are no full stops in India, only comas.’

Post Script: Though there are certain points of which I am critical of, the stories are impeccable.