“Congress policy is to make one caste of Hindus fight against another caste, but they never talk about castes among Muslims” -Prime Minister Narendra Modi
While caste discrimination has stereotypically been connoted to Hindu social structure, this statement by Prime Minister Modi has an argument embedded with a strong historical base pertaining to Islam and derived its backing from Dr Ambedkar who in his book ‘Pakistan or Partition of India’ while commenting on the caste census of 1901 had opined, “Everybody infers that Islam must be free from slavery and caste. Regarding slavery nothing needs to be said. It stands abolished now by law. But if slavery has gone, caste among Muslims has remained. There can thus be no manner of doubt that the Muslim Society in India is afflicted by the same social evils as afflict the Hindu Society.” He further stated, “The Muslims do not realise that these are evils and consequently do not agitate for their removal. Indeed, they oppose any change in their existing practices.”
Castes among Bhartiya Muslims
Henry Waterfield while presenting the report of 1871 census to both the Houses of Parliament in Britain had stated “caste system is perhaps as prevalent among the Mahomedans as among those professing Hindoo religion.”
In the 1901 caste census muslims were categorically termed as Sheikhs and Sharifs, etc castes, and more prominently through the Sachar Committee Report (2006) which accepted the existence of the caste system among the Bhartiya Muslims and categorised them into three major categories:
•Those without any social disabilities, the Ashrafs
•Those equivalent to Hindu Other Backward Castes (OBC), the Ailafs
•Those equivalents to Hindu Scheduled Castes (SC), the Arzals
Those who are referred to as Muslim OBCs are a combination of the second and third categories.
Within these three categories, there are also major sub-castes based on the hierarchy.
The Ashrafs form the creamy layer in the Bhartiya Muslim society pertaining to their societal hierarchy; especially the Sayyeds, The Sayyeds have traditionally married within their caste and usually do not marry someone outside of their community. They are believed to be the descendants of Husayn Ibn Ali, the grandson of Islamic prophet Muhammad, while the descendants of Hasan Ibn Ali (brother of Husayn) are called ‘Shareefs’. The two communities are often at the forefront of Muslim social hierarchy and are very influential in Islamic society.
Caste Discrimination devoid of inclusivity
The non-Ashrafs constituting 85 percentage of the Muslim population in Bharat are termed as Pasmanda, the term coined for the first time by Ali Anwar, a journalist and Pasmanda Muslim Activist in 1988 claiming “There is a lack of representation of Muslim lower castes in both religious as well as political bodies.”
In 1990 Pasmandas got the OBC status; However, benefit in enrolment into educational institutions did not remove their hindrance of getting representation into mainstream politics due to discrimination which is evident by the fact that between 1952 to 2004 Muslim representation in Lok Sabha shows that while the Ashrafs account only 2.1 per cent of the total population, it got 4.5 per cent seats representation whereas the so called Pasmandas accounting to 11.4 per cent of the population got a negligible representation of 0.8 percent seats. Thus, indicating the widespread caste based socio political discrimination in the Muslim society.
Being an ex student of Aligarh Muslim University, Abdullah Mansoor in one of his article pointed towards the caste based discrimination among muslims inside reputed educational institutions like AMU, “Another reflection of this undeniable and very deeply-rooted prejudice against the ‘low’ castes is the fact that ever since AMU was founded, not a single ‘low’ caste Muslim has been appointed as the Vice Chancellor of this institution.” While advocating for the rights of backwards classes muslims and demanding there inclusion in the mainstream of religious and political organisations, he adhered to the fact that there existed a conflict between hierarchy and egalitarianism in Islamic ideologue throughout history. The dominant strains of Indian Islam are deeply hierarchical and casteist, as Ali Anwar’s Masavat ki Jung (2001) and Masood Alam Falahi’s Hindustan mein ) Zaat-Paat aur Musalman(2007) amply document. Most Muslim organisations like the Jamiat-Ulema-Hind, Jamaat-e-Islami, All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Popular Front of India and so on are dominated by the Ashraf sections.
Practice of untouchability, although abolished and believed to be prevalent only among Hindus in Bharat has a deep rooted practice effective among muslims too. Renowned sociologist, Tanweer Fazal while accepting the existence of its soft practice in Islam said, “You might find that the lower castes stand behind everyone else while offering namaaz at a mosque”, thus pointing towards the religious discrimination prevalent in the community.
In the rural villages of Northern India, where people of the Ashraf and non Ashraf community reside in the same village or locality, the backward class muslims are prohibited to eat in the same utensils even in marriage functions and social gatherings, mostly they are not invited at the weddings of the higher castes and if they are so invited, they are fed after the guests belonging to higher caste muslims have eaten already. The Ashrafs mostly do not marry off among the Pasmandas; Marriage Bureau sites dedicated for muslim marriages have ‘Caste’ option mentioned in it. Even the graveyards of the lower caste muslims differ from the upper caste muslims. The caste based discrimination among Bhartiya muslims has its testimonial evidences in pre- Independence era. The great reformists of Muslims have quite often opted for divisions based on caste over an egalitarian outlook. The founder of Aligarh Muslim University and Father of Muslim India, Sir Sayyed Ahmed Khan has been quite often accused of being a casteist muslim whose philanthropy is restricted only to upper caste muslims. Dr. Masood Alam Falahi, a Professor of Aligarh Muslim University had claimed “Sir Ahmed’s biased mentality never allowed him to think about whole of Indian Muslims.” Until 1947, students were given a character certificate at AMU; “The holder of this certificate belongs to the sharif khandan (upper caste) of his district.”
Roots of Casteism in Islam
Although, some sociologists have quite often complained the existence of the caste system in muslims to have had its influence from the hindu caste based social structure wherein the Hindus converted to Islam have not left their castes behind, but the roots of hierarchy among the believers have a prolonged history.
During the ascendency of Islam, the Arab society was organised on the basis of the ‘notion of honour and status’, ‘birth and unity of blood’, ‘tribal aristocracy’, with traders and chieftains having wide control over diacritical symbols. Some tribes were very powerful like the Quraysh, while other tribes, like Khazraj, did not have much power. It was at that time that Prophet Mohammad started preaching to people. He was from the Quraysh tribe, which was a high status tribe and preached for uniformity in the society. Those who were discriminated in the society got attracted towards his teachings with the hope of an egalitarian society based on the principles of equality and justice. Prophet Mohammad stayed in Arabia for 22 years where he preached this up-till his death. The Sunnis believe that after his death, there were four Caliphs who were the successors of Prophet Mohammad, who ruled the Islamic world after him, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman Gani, and Ali respectively. One thing that seemed common among all four of them was that they all belonged to the Quraysh tribe. Thus, many scholars believe that this tribe started to dominate Islam from this time and the roots of division in Islam was created where built in scope for discrimination was pocketed well. Islam was spreading at this time at its peak wherein it reached the Persian Empire. In the 7th century when Prophet Mohammad was preaching people, Iran, a part of the Persian empire was divided into 4 groups based on their hierarchical lineage; Religious, Warrior, Government Servants, Farmers and Sheferds. Although Islam entered the nerves of Iran, yet social divisions persisted with the same affluence as it did prior to its arrival. Thus Islam based on caste divisions or in some places class based divisions became the norm. When Islam entered Bharat and conversion of Hindus by means of force, power, willingness or deceit occurred, caste system embedded in them, got reflected their their occupation after conversion. The upper caste Hindu converts became advisors, ministers, governors, army officials, or managers in king’s court. And the lower caste hindus worked as labourers and lower ranked servants, thus their status did not change because of the discriminatory outlook of the islamic invaders. For example, Sultan Shamsuddin Iltutmish ruled in the 13th century, he committed widespread discrimination amongst muslims based on their caste.In one incident, he removed 33 people from their posts when he found out that they belonged to lower caste. There has always been a tendency among the Arabs to consider themselves as ‘pure blood’ muslims and the others as ‘converts’ with ‘impure blood.’ In Arab countries, racism against Black Muslims and Asian Muslims, especially South Asian Muslims, is staunchly practiced wherein practices worse than untouchability exists, people with non- Arab blood being treated as second class citizens in the social diaspora, there dignity being compromised at the hands of pure blooded Arabs. Oppression against Black Muslims in the Arab world has its contributions from the Trans-Saharan slave trade, the Red Sea slave trade, and the Bhartiya Ocean slave trade. Although, it is believed that Prophet Mohammad had made a slave give the first Aazan, the culture of Slavery as a part of its omnipresent history has validated to its practice of discrimination and oppression against so termed ‘inferior race’ within muslims.
In Turkey, only Sayyeds can wear black turbans; in Yemen, people who does cleaning chores are treated as untouchables.
Egalitarianism and Equality as terms has been confined to mere ideological utopia in Islam with no practical accomplishment of it on ground.
Be it in the religious, political diaspora or social strata, lower caste muslims, termed often as Pasmanda muslims, inspite of being among the majority proportion within Islam are denied space at the hands of upper caste muslims. Dr BR Ambedkar had realised that the caste system was very profusely prevalent amongst them as well. To understand lower class Muslim marginalisation, it is also imperative to explore the class-compositions intermeshing with the caste-categories of Bhartiya Muslim communities, so to say, to locate the circle within circles. Muslims in Bharat are possibly imagined as a monolithic religious minority, but empirically they are also a heterogeneous community, notably more in the anthropological/sociological sense. They are differentiated along ethnic and socio-cultural lines into various groups and sub-groups and also in caste and tribe groups. Their stratified social order is akin to any other religious community in Bharat. There is a need to bring the lower caste Muslims to the mainstream of our socio-political scenario.
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