[Many of the Dalits, the
low-caste Hindus once known as untouchables, have gotten government jobs, or
slots in public universities, opportunities that have meant stable salaries and
nicer homes. And to Mr. Mansuri the reason is clear: the affirmative action
quotas for low-caste Hindus, a policy known in India as reservation, which is
not explicitly available to Muslims.]
By Jim Yardley
 |
Manpreet Romana for The New York Times
Murtaza Mansuri, a Muslim rickshaw repairman, says India's
Muslims need quotas to get ahead.
|
MUZAFFARNAGAR, India — Along the narrow lane known as Khadar Wallah, Muslims and
low-caste Hindus have lived side by side for years, bound by poverty, if not
religion. Yet recently, Muslims like Murtaza Mansuri have noticed a change.
Their neighbors have become better off.
Many of the Dalits, the
low-caste Hindus once known as untouchables, have gotten government jobs, or
slots in public universities, opportunities that have meant stable salaries and
nicer homes. And to Mr. Mansuri the reason is clear: the affirmative action
quotas for low-caste Hindus, a policy known in India as reservation, which is
not explicitly available to Muslims.
“We are way behind
them,” Mr. Mansuri, who repairs rickshaws for a living, said on a recent
afternoon. “Reservation is essential for Muslims. If we don’t get education, we
will remain backward, while others move forward and forward.”
For decades, the issue
of affirmative action for Muslims has been a politically fractious one in
India. Many opponents, including right-wing Hindu groups, have long argued that
affirmative action policies based on religion violate India’s Constitution and
run counter to the country’s secular identity. Quotas, they said, should be
strictly reserved for groups that have suffered centuries of caste-based
discrimination.
But these arguments have
been steadily countered by an undeniable and worrisome byproduct of India’s
democratic development: Muslims, as a group, have fallen badly behind, in
education, employment and economic status, partly because of persistent
discrimination in a Hindu-majority nation. Muslims are more likely to live in
villages without schools or medical facilities, a landmark government report found in
2006, and less likely to qualify for bank loans.
Now, the issue of Muslim
quotas has bubbled to the surface in the recent election in the state of Uttar Pradesh,
where the winner, the regional Samajwadi Party, has promised to carve out
a quota of jobs and educational slots for Muslims, an idea first raised by the Indian National
Congress Party. Legal and political obstacles remain, and some
Muslims are skeptical that leaders will muster the political will to push
through a quota, even as many consider such preferences justified and long
overdue.
“We also fought against
the British for Indian independence,” said Hafiz Aftab, president of the
All-India Muttahida Mahaz, an organization that has led protests on behalf of
Muslim preferences. “We lost so many of our brightest people. But after
freedom, the government didn’t make any efforts to uplift Muslims.”
Indians in Uttar Pradesh
have also witnessed the political rise of the Scheduled Castes, as the Dalits
and other “backward” caste Hindus are legally called. Before losing the recent
election, Mayawati, the state’s powerful Dalit chief
minister (who uses one name), dominated Uttar Pradesh and used her position to
reward many of her supporters with jobs, housing and other benefits. Dalits
still remain overwhelmingly poor and marginalized in many parts of India, but
Ms. Mayawati’s extensive use of the reservation quota system and other
preferential policies in Uttar Pradesh provided opportunity to many Dalits.
“These Scheduled Castes
were the most deprived people socially and economically in Uttar Pradesh,” said
Mr. Aftab in an interview before the state elections. “Now they are the ruling
class. This is the result of 64 years of reservation.”
India’s original
reservation policies were codified during the drafting of the national
Constitution as quotas for Scheduled Castes and tribal groups. Over the years,
other Hindu castes were added at both the state and national level, as
different groups agitated for inclusion and politicians saw opportunities to
carve out new vote banks. India’s modernization, rather than erasing caste, was
codifying it.
“In India, the deepening
of democracy will not happen by erasing all caste-community boundaries,” said
Yogendra Yadav, a leading political scientist in New Delhi. “I see it as the
next stage of social justice in India.”
Most Muslims in India
are the descendants of low-caste Hindus who converted over the centuries, often
to escape the deprived status to which Dalits were consigned. Yet those caste
affiliations never fully disappeared, meaning that a hierarchy lingered among
Muslims in India. Two government commissions sought to include “backward”
Muslims in the quota system by using their former Hindu caste identity, along
with educational and economic indicators.
India’s four southern
states have managed to extend some affirmative action benefits to Muslims, if
not explicitly along religious lines, but elsewhere Muslims have largely been
excluded. The 2006 report, known as the Sachar Committee report, found that
Muslims who should have qualified for affirmative action were not getting it,
even though they were living in greater poverty than some groups that were
getting the benefit.
“Our Constitution says
we should not provide reservation on the grounds of religion,” said Mufti
Julfiquar Ali, a Muslim leader in Uttar Pradesh. “But basically, reservation
was given on the grounds of religion. A Muslim washerman got no reservation,
but a Hindu washerman got one. Hindu carpenters will get reservation, but the
Muslim carpenter will not.”
Along the lane of Khadar
Wallah, Muslims and Dalits last month voiced starkly different opinions about
the need for creating a quota to benefit Muslims. Some Muslims had doubts about
whether political leaders would fulfill the pledge and whether such a policy
could be tailored to truly help them.
But Badruddin, an older
Muslim man who uses one name, wanted the benefit. He said affirmative action
had enabled many lower-caste Hindus to secure government jobs that provided
stability so that their children could remain in school. In many Muslim families,
he argued, children must often drop out of school to earn money.
“The Scheduled Castes
are better off than we are because they are in government jobs,” he said. “Once
you have a government job, you will be uplifted.”
Several Hindus said
quotas for Muslims were unnecessary and would dilute already scarce
opportunities for lower-caste Hindus. “Without reservation, we would not have
progressed very much because of discrimination,” said Boharan Lal, 71, a Dalit,
adding: “I do not believe that Muslims are more backward. They are doing
better.”
Mr. Mansuri, the
rickshaw repairman, dropped out of school in the eighth grade, but is still the
most educated person in his extended family. “Our only source of income was
from my father,” he said, explaining why he went to work.
He has watched as his
Dalit neighbors have gotten jobs, or college slots, through quotas that, over
time, brought better jobs and salaries. He pointed to the renovated homes of
some low-caste Hindus as evidence of what affirmative action can bring, and
what Muslim families struggle to afford. He said Muslims were also to blame
because for too long they did not push their children to stay in school. But
that has changed, he said.
His own house was
recently refurbished, with smooth concrete walls painted bright green, and is
easily as nice as the homes on the alley owned by Dalit families. Asked about
it, Mr. Mansuri explained that the house was an example of how his family had
benefited from preferential treatment: An agent had contacted him saying that
banks were seeking to loan money to Muslims after the 2006 Sachar Committee
report detailed discrimination in banking.
“Earlier, if we had
applied,” Mr. Mansuri said, “we would not have gotten a loan.”
Hari Kumar contributed reporting.
