In a recent article titled ‘Muslims in higher education: A sobering tale’ (Indian Express), Jaffrelot and Kalaiyarasan lament that while the enrolment of Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs in higher education has increased by 4.2 per cent, 11.9 per cent and 4 per cent respectively compared to 2019-20; the enrolment of Muslim students has dropped by 8 per cent from 2019-20. They also say that while OBCs constitute about 36 per cent of total enrolment in higher education, Dalits 14.2 per cent and Adivasis 5.8 per cent, Muslims stand at the bottom at 4.6 per cent even as they constitute about 15 per cent of society.
Demands must not spread disharmony or disaffection
The question is, so what? As a simple statistic, it is insignificant. However, when you look at what they are really implying, you find that it is ridiculous beyond imagination. They are trying to insinuate as if the nation, the government and our society are, in some inexplicable way, responsible for the falling enrolment of Muslims in universities and colleges. In fact, it is in extremely bad taste to resent and be jealous of the progress made by the Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs.
First up, let us get the legal position right. In our democracy, any group or community is free to demand anything for itself. It is for the government to see whether the demands are feasible, and the higher judiciary to see whether they are constitutionally permissible. However, they have no right to spread disharmony among various sections and disaffection against the State by accusing that the social status or rights being enjoyed by others are given to them unjustly; at their cost; or that their own status, as perceived by them, is the result of a ‘national conspiracy’ against them. In the following, I will take their contentions apart.
Once again playing the victim card so shamelessly
Lamenting that the future of the Muslim youth is bleak as job opportunities have been shrinking for Muslims even more than for others and that they face the highest unemployment rate among socio-religious groups, is baseless. They have no answer to its reasons except the fiction of discrimination, something that the Sachar Committee had tried and failed. There is no question of discrimination in the government and public sector. As far as the private sector is concerned, there is not an iota of evidence that they have, in any way, ever discriminated against Muslims at any level of recruitment. If there are not enough bright Muslim boys and girls, what can they do? Companies in the private sector are in the market to make profits, and not to wipe the tears of the Sachar Committee or to pamper the hackneyed narrative of the so-called ‘Ghareeb Musalman’.
Jaffrelot et al claim that you send the same CV with Brahmin names, Dalit names and Muslim names, and the percentage of those invited to an interview is the lowest in the case of the latter. They further say, “Where else have we seen a constant policy of discrimination vis-à-vis a vulnerable minority targeting their access to higher education? Only in countries where the intention was to manufacture second-class citizens.” These are baseless but very serious allegations because they have not submitted any proof with a statistically significant database. Therefore, it must be challenged on merit and, if they are not able to prove it, they must be prosecuted under the law for instigating the Muslims against the majority community and against the State under Sections 153A, 505(1)(b) and 505(2)(c), etc.
Even more outrageous is their claim that increased violence against Muslims has restricted their spatial mobility and has forced them to withdraw into their shells, a development evident from the ongoing process of ghettoization in almost all Indian cities. The fact is the ghettoization of Muslims is a centuries-old phenomenon with its origin in their peculiar socio-cultural and economic behaviour. Second, there is simply no evidence at all that violent incidents of communal nature in some area dissuades Muslims from going to college in that area. Anybody can check it for himself anywhere. Moreover, the same logic must apply to other communities also.
The nation, government and society cannot foster them
How can the nation, government and society at large be responsible for Muslims not attending college? The government has thrown open the doors of higher education to everybody. If Muslim boys and girls do not evince interest in higher education, what can anybody do? I must make it clear—the reasons for this state of affairs are intrinsic to the Muslim community; not extrinsic.
For example, one cannot argue that higher education in India is beyond their financial means. The fees in state-run universities are extremely low. You can open the websites of any state university and check for yourself. The fees are generally in the range of just Rs. 3000 for most graduate and postgraduate courses. Higher education is not cheaper than this anywhere in the world. Muslim boys and girls from even lower middle-class families are known to spend much more than this on films, restaurants, dresses, bikes and mobile phones, etc. By no stretch of the imagination, it can therefore be argued that they cannot afford higher education.
The central government has some 20 schemes for scholarships to Muslim students. According to a report in the Swarajyamag by Arihant Pawariya, the Modi government spent Rs. 22,000 crore on minority welfare; gave 3.2 crore scholarships; of which Muslims were the biggest beneficiaries. Fatima Khan had reported in The Print that there were 2.37 crore Muslim beneficiaries of government scholarships during Modi’s first term, while the figure under Manmohan’s second term was 2.33 crore. Moreover, there is a battery of Muslim organizations that offer scholarships and other financial assistance exclusively to Muslim students. A huge list of such organizations can be found in The Milli Gazette and Ummid.com, etc.
If, in spite of all these ‘injections’, Muslim boys and girls are still exhibiting declining interest in higher education, nobody else but they and their community must be held responsible.
It is also not possible to argue that educational institutions discriminate against them. All the admissions are now made on the basis of open examinations and no system in the world could be fairer. If they are not appearing for the admission tests or are not able to score the requisite marks, it is their problem.
Let us ask a brutal question; what exactly do Jaffrelot et al and others of their ilk expect the nation, the government and the society to do for the Muslim students? Do they want that the government must pass legislation that every Muslim boy and girl who manages to clear Plus Two exam, shall be automatically granted a university degree after the prescribed years without him or her going through the hassle of admission tests or study merely because he/she has had the privilege of being born a Muslim? Or, do they want lowered standards for admission and degree for them by law?
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We know their real intentions but, they try to cover it up by demanding reservations for Muslims in universities (and, by extension, subsequently in employment), which was the hidden agenda of the Sachar Committee. The political undertones of the lamentations of Jaffrelot et al can be easily discerned from their observation that UP accounts for 36 per cent of that total decline followed by Jammu & Kashmir, which accounts for 26 per cent. What do they want to convey by this? To me, the unstated insinuation is that the atmospheres in UP under the Yogi government and in J&K under the BJP-appointed LG are such that Muslim students are disheartened or discouraged from pursuing higher education.
Real reasons why Muslim students lag behind
Others could make progress because they consciously became a part of the mainstream. On the other hand, the Muslims still continue to keep themselves aloof. Ghettoization is not out of any fear but because it is a compulsive habit. They have gone the extra mile to assert at every step of the way that they are ‘different from others of the Indian society’ and that they will live life their own way.
It defies logic the way the Muslim community consciously refuses to become a part of the mainstream job market. When they do not want to compete on equal terms with others in the job market, there is no need for them to undertake higher education. Thus the decline in Muslim percentage in higher education is essentially because of their disinclination to join the job market along with others. Coaching institutes of almost every town and city are chock-full of youth who toil extremely hard to clear the competitive exams. You hardly find any Muslims out there, for the simple reason that, by and large, they do not have any desire to join the mainstream and take up jobs. Well, then what is the reason to complain? Be happy with whatever you are pursuing. If their youth from the lower and middle classes compulsively prefer to join their family businesses or professions (such as puncture repair shops, scooter-bike repair shops, painter’s jobs, plumber, electrician or AC mechanic jobs, umbrella repair jobs, or selling meat, etc.) after their stint in madrasas or schools, what can the government or the society do?
Several scholars, including Dr. Rakesh Sinha, Rajya Sabha MP and author point out that the Sachar Committee had completely ignored the social resistance within the community which does not allow Muslims to integrate into the mainstream. Sachar did not dare venture into the politically incorrect solutions for liberating the Muslim women in particular, who are forced to take up home-based low-paying occupations. Muslims’ real problems lie within their own community and its regressive practices; however, those who have lived by Muslim appeasement would never speak it out as continued propagation of the victimhood narrative garners them both the sympathy and the votes of the Muslims.
For long, Jaffrelot et al and other liberals have been lamenting the ‘economic marginalization’ and ‘social exclusion’ of Muslims. These hoaxes have been summarily debunked.
R. Jagannathan, editorial director of Swarajya, points out that they don’t ask themselves a basic question, “Why is it that a historically backward and socially-ostracised section of Indians has been able to pick itself up by the bootstraps, while a once-dominant minority, which ruled the country and sometimes inflicted miseries on the majority, is unable to rediscover its past socio-economic mojo?” He says that they purposefully want to mislead the public into believing that the Muslim slippage in educational attainment is related to political marginalisation. Jagannathan’s conclusion is that an unexplored reason behind the Muslim slippage in terms of educational attainment is ‘self-marginalisation’.
Also Read: Indian Muslims – ‘eternal outsiders’?
Speaking of the state of the Muslim community post-independence, Najmul Hoda, a serving Muslim IPS officer, correctly observes that morbid melancholia has been stylised as a cultural trope, and victimhood became their favourite dope. He asks, “They should ask themselves whether they, like their compatriots, undertook socio-religious reforms, and dotted the country with institutions of modern learning instead of religious seminaries. If the answer is in the negative, they have a lot of catching up to do.”
To blame the fictional ‘marginalization’ on the equally fictitious ‘rising Hindu majoritarianism’ actually constitutes an offence. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, majoritarianism means that the numerical majority of a population should have or has the final say in determining the outcome of a decision. Our laws and the Constitution do not allow any majoritarianism in the country in theory. If they insist that it is nevertheless happening in practice, it means it could happen only with the tacit approval or support of the government. This amounts to instigating the minorities against the State—punishable under Section 505(1)(b) IPC.
