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Author: Shyam Khosla
Publication: Organiser
Date: December 17, 2006
URL: http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=161&page=4
Although the Sachar Committee was a product of a perverse mindset of the Congress-led UPA government, its findings are a wake-up call for the Muslims and the "secular" brigade that has been harping on issues like Shariat, Urdu and the disputed structure at Ayodhya to appease the community without empowering it socially and economically. Its findings are, in fact, a vindication of the Hindu nationalists' persistent stand that appeasement of Muslims by "secularists" is a part of their vote-bank politics and that they have been befooling the community without doing anything concrete for their welfare. The report says that while India has achieved immense progress since independence, Muslims are "seriously lagging behind in terms of most of the human development indicators". If that were correct, the earlier the Muslims appreciate that they are themselves to blame for their sorry state of affairs the better it would be for them and the country. Instead of blaming the Hindus and the State, they must make earnest efforts to discover the genesis of the problem. Discrimination against religious minorities is neither our cultural ethos nor tradition, why then are the Muslims lagging behind? Is it not because the community failed to throw up a leadership that could bring about social reforms and take the community out of the self-imposed isolation? Has not the community allowed itself to be misled by practitioners of vote-bank politics that raise issues that have nothing to do with economic and social upliftment of the community?
Report's major infirmity is its failure to go into the causes of Muslim backwardness while accepting as gospel truth the unsubstantiated complaints made by the community. It accepts without questioning the complaint that there is a marked reluctance on the part of house-owners to sell or rent out houses to Muslims, that Muslim students are unwelcome in schools, that they are denied jobs and that banks discriminate against them in giving loans. There may or may not be an element of truth in these complaints but the community must look inwards to find out why the society at large is distrustful of them. Instead of blaming others, it is for the community to devise ways and means to become more acceptable to the society. In the western countries, the refrain is that Muslims must learn to live in harmony with the national culture. Several western leaders have bluntly told Muslims to leave for a land of their choice if they can't live in harmony with Christians. And then there is the concept of reciprocity rightly advocated by the Pope in his famous speech with regard to Muslims demanding equality where they are in minority while denying it to others where they are in majority. In a recent article, Dr. Subramanian Swamy recalls his shocking experience in Thondi and Rasathipuram municipalities in South India where Muslims are in majority and run the civic bodies. Muslim-run majorities in these cities, he found out, have virtually converted these areas into "Dar-ul-Islam". The minority Hindu areas of the municipality have been denied civic amenities, funds for schools, garbage clearing etc., and sent notices in Urdu. Hindus are bluntly told to convert to Islam if they wanted civic facilities. Still worse is the fate of Kashmiri Hindus who have been booted out of Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley and are living as refugees in their own country. If that is what Muslim-majority areas in India with 83 per cent Hindu population do, is it any surprise that there has been an ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh. To expect that atrocities against Hindus in India and abroad won't affect the Hindu society is to ask for the moon.
The report reveals, of course, inadvertently, the shocking fact that Muslim clerics are spreading wild stories about anti-polio campaign as a part of western plot to reduce the Muslim birth-rate. That has led to poor rate of success of the polio vaccination drive in Muslim-majority areas in UP. The result is that Muslim children account for 70 per cent of the polio cases in India during the past three years. The Committee's perverse mindset is revealed by its failure to condemn the vicious propaganda against polio vaccination but blames the Indian State for its lack of commitment to educate the Muslim masses. Is it Sachar's case that the government's anti-polio campaign doesn't cover Muslims? Is he so obsessed with love for Muslim clerics that he can't say a word against their false propaganda that has done immense harm to the community they claim to serve? Sachar's attempt to inject communalism in our armed forces by ordering a Muslim head-count in the military was successfully resisted by our Generals. The number of Muslims in the army may not be commensurate with the community's 13.4 per cent share in Indian population. It is certainly not because of any discrimination in recruitment to defence services. The ugly fact is that most of the Muslim soldiers in the pre-independence Indian army opted for Pakistan. An equally galling fact is that most of the educated and well-to-do Muslims left for Pakistan leaving behind their illiterate and less fortunate brethren. A vast majority of Muslims that remained in India chose to follow traditional skills and paid little attention to education. Drop-out rate among Muslim school students is alarmingly high. How can they expect to go up the ladder without adequate educational qualifications and professional skills? Those who broke out of the shackles imposed by their severely conservative community leaders have risen in all walks of life-administration, education, medicine, sports and industry.
Another fallacy projected by the Sachar Committee is that Muslim community is more backward and deprived than Scheduled Castes-a group of Hindus that suffered untold misery and humiliation at the hands of Muslim rulers and their own religionists. The Scheduled Castes and Tribes deserve sympathy and affirmative action to undo the injustice done to them for centuries. The Muslim community that ruled the country for several centuries, exploited and inflicted atrocities on Hindus and can't be treated at par with SCs and STs. The Muslims are themselves responsible for their economic backwardness and social isolation. Instead of blaming the Indian State and the Hindus, they must do some soul-searching. They must ask themselves why they are so backward in communist-run West Bengal but much better-off in Narendra Modi's Gujarat. Do communists lag behind other "secular" parties in appeasing the minorities? Or does Modi go out of his way to help Muslims? Neither is true. If they honestly search for an answer they will discover that no community can progress if the state or the country remains backward, and more importantly, if the community is not a part of the national mainstream. It is for the Muslim community to join the national mainstream and work for the country's growth. Therein lies their salvation and not in following elements that are responsible for their isolation and backwardness-separatists and "secularists".
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