The problems that the Muslims face in modern India are enormous as well as complex. Any two or more minds, therefore, would think differently and come out with as many solutions. It is also possible that two or more solutions may be feasible as well as viable at the same time. It is like burning any numbers of candles to end the darkness which is thick and deep. All the candles, therefore, should be welcome as long as they burn for giving light and do not clash with one another to make a dangerous fire.
Indian Muslims are faced with multi-dimensional problems today. There is visible all round marginalization everywhere. There is also a ray of hope, however. There has emerged a middle class, small and even disorganized. The encouraging sign is that some of them seem to be committed to raising their standard. They are thinking people, though they think at different wave-length. The good thing about them is that they are broad-minded and respect or tolerate one another’s views. No one insists that only his/her candle is giving pure and perfect light, hence all others should put off their lamps. The attitude seems to be one of tolerance that allows any numbers of lamps to burn together even in the same room.
So, you organize a programme to discuss the problems of Indian Muslims and decide what should be the strategy to tackle them properly. One would stand up and say that the Muslims should welcome the formation of smaller states. He even might suggest the reorganization of districts within the constitutional framework to create Muslim-dominated districts with which they will identify themselves and work hard for its development. He would give the example of Malapurram in Kerala as a success story. And yet some one else in the same room would stand up and say that it is simply not workable everywhere. He would also say that any such demand would be counter-productive and bring about tragedies in Muslim lives.
A third voice may be different from two discussed above. It would lament that while the Muslim role in the formation of secular government has been great and yet they have not been allowed to reap their rewards. For instance the Muslims are far more than Yadavs in U.P. and have usually been voting for the Samajwadi Party led by Mr. Mulayam Singh. But the Muslims have not benefited from an allegedly pro-Muslim leader in comparison to the Yadavs, the caste he hails from. He would, therefore, suggest to the Muslims to decide their priorities and demand from the governments in U.P. and Bihar, atleast, to uplift their conditions. People would hear him without complaint and tolerate his views. This is an important development and deserves to be strengthened.
Once people hear and tolerate differing views, analyses and ideas, the differences of opinion become a blessing. Such a situation develops when people allow their minds to be governed by a common concern for the Muslim plight. Such people are an asset and deserve appreciation. Fortunately for the Muslim community in India such a scenario is fast developing.
To demand the creation of cultural enclaves would be, no doubt, counter-productive. But the possibility of such enclaves coming into being can not be ruled out. If we strengthen the Panchayati Raj and promote it fairly in rural India the possibility is that a large number of Muslim villages would naturally become a sort of cultural enclaves where they can develop their language and culture.
What we should, then, do is that we demand the full implementation of the Panchayati Raj, and the Gram Sabhas specially should be empowered, politically as well as economically. They should have the right to set up schools at the government cost. The fund for such projects has naturally to come from the government. No doubt, MLAs, even MPs will resist any move of empowering the villages, for an empowered Gram Sabha might curtail their power. The Muslims and the Dalits, however, must work together and ensure that villages are empowered in the real sense of the word. This indeed would be real decentralization, a system of governance that a lot of intellectuals support as it gives the poorest of the poor a chance to manage and run his show for his own wellbeing.
[December, 2004]
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