O mankind, verily we have created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and have made you into nations and tribes…

Thus says Allah in the Koran.

Interpretations abound: “The difference of race, color and social status are only accidental…Again, the value of equality is not just a matter of constitutional rights or gentlemen’s agreement…It is an article of faith which the Muslims take…and must adhere to sincerely.” – Islam in Focus. Sincerity seems apparent but reality is very different. Sermons are shrouded in greatness in the sense that they seldom appear to coincide with practice.

Take for instance, the case of Mansur Bakho, fruit vendor at Chawri Bazar, behind Jama Masjid in the Capital. A decade ago, Mansur heralded life in style. His being a dom by caste could not put paid to his emotional longings. Chiselled in build, then making bucks as a building contractor’s apprentice he eloped with a Sayyad neighbor’s niece. But the marriage failed to solemnize. He was trailed, collared, thrashed, put to trial by the biradari (the clan) and banished from his Azamgarh village in UP. “Caste doesn’t only break human bondage but hearts as well,” fumes Mansur. His broken heart cannot be seen but his pain is very visible.

Here’s another case: 25 years ago, Maqbool was a Hindu mochi. His great desire to educate himself incurred him 50 blows from a huge panchayat shoe (in the Katihar district of Bihar) exclusively designed for such occasions. The humbled cobbler converted to Islam in quest of a better deal. But things never changed for him. And recently, Maqbool died of tuberculosis, still illiterate. He lived a mochi throughout and his status in life never improved.

The myth that the Muslims are a monolithic society is gradually falling apart. That the caste system is only peculiar to the Hindus and that discrimination on the basis of birth is not the Muslim way appears to be a homily loud-mouthed by the Muslim leaders and bandied about to project a coherence that does not really exist. Flags of unrest have begun to flutter. Way back in 1994, the Backward Muslim Morcha (BMM) was launched to air the grievance of the backward and Dalit Muslims “to extract our legitimate rights at least by persuasion if not by force.”

Horrendous conditions:

According to the BMM’s national coordinator, Dr. Ijaz Ali, the neglected backward castes are out to lay bare the reality. It was kept under cover through the ages, in the name of the so called Ummah and Muslim brotherhood.

Islam’s not giving credence to caste or discrimination by birth notwithstanding, Dr. Ali thunders, “You have to see to believe the horrendous conditions under which the Dalit Muslims survive. The upper castes and the so called Muslim leaders give a fig to their material conditions…and they seldom do anything beyond mouthing hollow phrases of Muslim unity and brotherhood. They are even worse than their Hindu counterparts.

“Amongst Hindus the low caste men are called achhoots whilst amongst Muslims they are called arjaals. The Hindus have at least recognized the vices of the caste system and as a result one witnesses a perceptible change in the living conditions of the Hindu Dalits. But the Muslim leaders tend to suppress the whole problem by outright rejection of its presence. Hence the low-caste Muslims remain an exploited creed.”

Superficiality seems to emanate from the Friday congregations in the masjids. Mutually drawn up border between the high and low castes tends to mar the much-projected homogeneity of the Muslim society. Purity of caste is ardently preserved by disallowing marriages between the high caste Sayyads, Sheikhs or Pathans and the low caste Ansaris, Kunjras or Qureshis. Social impurity stems not only from economic disparity but also from cultural dissimilitude. Muslims in India appear to be divided more along historical and cultural lines than along sectarian beliefs. The latter is a simple horizontal division between the Sunnis or the followers of the Prophet and the Shia’s, who accord more importance to the Prophet’s grandsons, Hassan and Hussain. But what is intriguing is a more complicated vertical division that has been created by historical process. The historical division has its roots in the Muslim colonial era when the Arab and Turkish conquerors set out with the sword of Islam to distant lands. And India was a prime target of these crusaders.

The consequent empires that struck root in this country witnessed large-scale conversions to Islam. The whole process ran roughly along 3 lines.

First, there were forced conversions of the conquered by the conqueror.

Then, there were conversions driven by practical compulsions and were somewhat voluntary in nature. The Hindu employees who must have been hard up upon being paid less than their Muslim counterparts during the Sultanate period, preferred to embrace the rulers’ religion. However, the greatest number of conversions down the ages appear to be from the lowest stratum of the Hindu society. Unable to bear the indignity of low birth and the humiliation at the hands of their high caste brethren, they chose to convert.

New converts:

These new converts with a new found appellation arjals (natives of low origin) are still looked down upon as mortals of lower origin, discharging inferior jobs. The superior creeds called ashrafs (of noble blood) are the conquerors of the Arabic and Turkish origin. The contours of demarcation, which have an origin in the medieval ages, have stayed and the roots of discrimination have spread. According to Dr. Ijaz Ali of the BMM, who himself comes from the backward Kunjra caste, “Even Sir Sayyad Ahmad Khan had termed the Julahas (a sub-caste) who took active part in the revolt of 1857 as Bazaat men of low origin…He even denied the backward Muslims entry into the Aligarh Muslim University, and kept its door open only for the Ashrafs.” Social and cultural divide seems to have fixed the areas of aspirations. Wonders Dr. Ali, “How are they (the low castes) connected with Personal Law, Babri Masjid, Shah Bano etc.? These are predominantly the concerns of the upper caste Muslims, who have throughout neglected more important issues which are intricately related to the poor, Dalit Muslims. They have never cared to raise the issue of poverty, social backwardness and education.” The upper caste Muslims have their own charges to fling at the BMM. Comments a Congress Minority Cell member, “Dr. Ali is trying to engineer a rupture in the Muslim society to further his own interests.” Dr. Ali promptly shoots back, “…Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi wrote a book in which he said that the Sayyads are the highest caste…They accuse me of trying to break the Muslims but will they care to explain why the 3 most important positions in Muslim society are being occupied by the high castes?” A BMM activist alleges embezzlements worth crores in the various State Waqf Boards, “Most of which are run by high caste men.” Though it may take quite some time before things look up for backward Muslims, the Morcha seems bang on target, says Dr. Ali. The 2 poles of the Muslim society are divided by their social standings and aspirations. According to him,the forward castes are driven by their sustained probe for honor, status and wealth, whereas the backward castes are propelled by a dearth of wholesome sustenance and a sense of deprivation.

Growing Chasm:
“Only the leaders of the backward Muslims will strive for the betterment of their beleaguered brethren. The upper castes have repeatedly stonewalled the backward leaders’ efforts to come forward and raise their cause.

“Till these high caste Muslim leaders are there, there is no hope for the backward Muslims…they will keep us backward, ignorant and dependent so as to exploit us as was the wont for ages.” The chasm seems to be growing by the day. Thus screams Aina, a small Urdu booklet, “Sharing a mass prayer in a masjid doesn’t necessarily dilute the contours of disparity. You can’t hallucinate people for eternity…In fact, the Muslim society is fragmented into various castes…And there is no denying the fact that the forward Muslims are bigger exploiters than their counterparts in the other communities.” Feels Mohammed Kalam, a research scholar of sociology in the Jamia Millia, “Horizontal division is not unknown among the Muslims world over. There are tribes, sects etc. of competing interests. But such vertical division – based on exploitation – with perceptible social consequence can rarely be found anywhere else, and is peculiar to this country.” Kalam elucidates two probable reasons. “First, interactions between Hindus and Muslims, in which one culture is influenced by the other; and second and perhaps more definite is the low caste (Hindu) origin of the backward Muslims.” Kalam believes that though the caste system is not so elaborate, complete and defined as it is amongst the Hindus, it is equally exploitative in nature.

This perhaps explains the sustained backwardness of the low caste Muslims. According to Kalam, backwardness, which can be defined in terms of acute ignorance and presence of medieval institutions, is a double-edged sword. While, on the one hand, it places the lower caste at the mercy of the forward castes whence they are subjected to emotional and social exploitation, on the other, supreme frustration, emanating from extreme poverty, a sense of being let down and rejection, sends out messages of unrest.

The BMM is perhaps one such message. According to a BMM activist, the upper castes have not only denied the existence of casteism, so that they need not accept the responsibility of ‘our uplift’ but have also utilized the seemingly gullible masses to their own advantage.

Bells of dissent:

Fumes Dr. Ali, “The so called Muslim leaders till date have raised such issues to further own cause. While the lesser Muslims were grappling with poverty and backwardness, the forward caste leaders, taking advantage of their ignorance, entangled them in the Babri Masjid issue to swell their own numbers. “They forced riots, in which the poor Muslims were killed. The poor lost their jobs, while the upper caste Muslims reaped the political harvest.”

Though the revolt doesn’t appear to have attained finality, bells of dissent have picked up in frequency. Recently, the backward Muslims have formed a new society – Amarite Ahle Ansar al Hind – to effect an economic blockade of the religious societies run by the upper caste Muslims. The society has appealed the Dalits to deposit the zakat (contribution) from Ramazan to Bakr-Id in its account instead of the upper caste religious institutions.

It seems, the Mansurs and the Maqbools, have multiplied into a million faces. As the upper caste Muslims face a hard time ahead, it remains to be seen whether the “caste rebellion” amongst the Muslims will go the Hindu way.

(Truth Detector: Courtesy ALIVE)