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Chapitre D'ouvrage Année : 2023

Post-Sachar Indian Muslims. Facets of Socio-Economic Decline

Résumé

In 2005, the Government of India appointed a committee under Justice Rajinder Sachar to assess the condition of Muslims in India. Its findings put forward in the Sachar Committee Report (SCR) showed that Muslims were on the margins in terms of political, economic, and social relevance, and that their average condition was comparable to, or even worse than, the country’s backward communities including Dalits in certain indicators. This was followed by the Report of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities (Ranganath Mishra Commission) in 2007 which came to the same conclusion. Another report (drafted by the Post-Sachar Evaluation Committee headed by Amitabh Kundu), in 2014, evaluated the implementation of the decisions taken and concluded that though ‘a start has been made, yet serious bottlenecks remain’ (Kundu 2014: 167). It asserted that the policy interventions were not as adequate, given the magnitude of depriva­tion. The following pages attempt to map the changing socio-economic conditions of Muslims since the Sachar Committee submitted its recommendations and to update the report of the ‘Kundu Committee’. We find that the socio-economic condition of the Muslims has worsened since the Sachar Committee Report (SCR) in 2005, whose recommendations have not been fully implemented – as the ‘Kundu Committee’ has already noticed (Ibid.: 167). This is evident from most of the socio-economic indicators, that is income, education, and jobs, which were lower than that of Hindus including Hindu Other Backward Classes but slightly above the Dalits in 2005 – one of the things which have changed. While the situation of the Muslims had already worsened before the rise to power of BJP, in the post-2014 period, political and policy interven­tions have adversely affected Muslims. As Muslims are being subjected to multiple processes of marginalization in the context of the Hindu nationalist making of a majoritarian state, this chapter maps the socio-economic dimension of such marginalization. However, we also trace the internal socio-economic differentiation among Muslims, as a section of them have benefited from the double-digit economic growth rate of the 2000s. The Muslim youth appear to be particularly affected post-2014. Their educational attainment vis-à-vis SCs and OBCs has dropped since 2014, and their exit from the formal sector is becoming faster, as they hold the highest share in the category called ‘Neither in employment, education nor in training’ (NEET), a broader measure of inadequacy of being in the formal economy. However, this assessment needs to be qualified geographically and sociologi­cally. The following pages show that Muslims in southern and eastern India in recent times are doing rather fine when compared to their counterparts in northern and western India. Section 1 provides details on the relative position of Muslims vis-à-vis other social groups in most of the socio-economic indicators, that is income, educa­tion, and jobs. The evidence shows the worsening position of Muslims vis-à-vis other social groups between 2005 and 2012, before the BJP rose to power – a clear indication that they have not been ‘pampered’ by the Congress-led government, contrary to the BJP’s narrative. Section 2 offers details on policy and political inter­ventions, including an account of how some of these policies and interventions initiated since 2014 have further marginalized Muslims.
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Dates et versions

hal-04336269 , version 1 (11-12-2023)

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Citer

Christophe Jaffrelot, A. Kalaiyarasan. Post-Sachar Indian Muslims. Facets of Socio-Economic Decline. Tanweer Fazal, Divya Vaid, Surinder S. Jodhka (Eds). Marginalities and Mobilities among India’s Muslims. Elusive Citizenship, Routledge India, pp.19-41, 2023, Religion and Citizenship, 9781032077895. ⟨10.4324/9781003280309-3⟩. ⟨hal-04336269⟩
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