Let me cite an
instance to clarify this point. In March 2008, the All India Milli Council, of
which I am the General Secretary, organised a mammoth convention in Delhi, which
was attended by over one hundred thousand people. We discussed various issues
related to Muslim educational and economic empowerment, about what both Muslims
as well as the state should do about this. We also demanded that the government
should set up a judicial commission to investigate cases of terrorism or alleged
terrorism involving Muslims in the last fifteen years headed by a sitting judge
of the Supreme Court so that the truth about charges against Muslims being
involved in terrorism could be verified. The media did not highlight this or any
other demand of ours. Only some non-Muslim papers mentioned the rally, and that
too in some remote corner of an inside page, summing it up in just two lines.
Urdu media gave full information but national and Hindi media gave very little
information. -- Manzoor
Alam
Education is the most vital—both modern as well as Islamic
Manzoor Alam is the Chairman of the New
Delhi-based Institute of Objective Studies, a Muslim social science research
centre, and also the General-Secretary of the All India Milli Council. In this
interview with Yoginder Sikand, he speaks about the Muslim leadership in
contemporary India.
Q: What
do you think the priorities of the Indian Muslim leadership should be
today?
A: Indian Muslim leaders should
focus particularly on three major issues: economic, educational and political
empowerment of Muslims. All of these are crucial for establishing personal
dignity as well as dignity of the community. Of these, I think education is the
most vital—both modern as well as Islamic. Modern, or secular education, without
moral, spiritual content would be like a building without foundation. On the
other hand, religious education without modern education would be like a
foundation without a building. Both need to go together, in a harmonious
fashion. We do need modern education—of that there can be no dispute—but, at the
same time, we also need to preserve our Muslim identity, based on knowledge of
Islam, the legacy of Islam in the light of the Quran and the authentic Hadith,
and a critical examination of the later Muslim tradition. We also need to
promote professional and technical education for those many millions of young
Muslims who cannot go in for higher education due to economic
reasons.
Q: There
is a general impression that Muslim leaders do not pay sufficient attention to
issues related to Muslim education, being concerned more with identity-related
issues and controversies. Do you agree?
A: Till two decades or so ago,
in north India it was rare for Muslim leaders and organisations to talk about
Muslim educational empowerment. There was certainly no visible movement in this
regard. But, today, things have changed considerably. Of course, in the south,
Muslim organisations have for long been working in the field of education,
setting up institutions and networks for the purpose. There are many reasons for
this difference. South India was largely spared the horrors of Partition and
endemic communal violence. South Indian Muslims had stronger linguistic and
cultural affinity with Hindus than in the north. All this and more enabled south
Indian Muslims to focus much more on institution-building in an environment free
from prejudice and communal antagonisms, unburdened by the legacy of Partition.
Governments in these states of India also facilitated Muslim educational
advancement in different ways, though perhaps not as much as one would have
expected. Of course, now things are changing, and communalism is no longer
absent in the south as well, having been exported there, along with other
things, from north India.
Another reason for the continued
educational backwardness of north Indian Muslims was the way they were treated
by various political parties that were characterised, to varying degrees, with a
strong streak of anti-Muslim communalism. Owing principally to the Partition,
Muslims were looked upon as ‘traitors’, ‘enemies’, ‘untrustworthy’ and as
‘anti-national’. No party was seriously interested in helping Muslims,
economically or otherwise. Every effort was made to stamp out Urdu. Muslims were
deliberately kept out of government services. Routine pogroms directed against
them made them lose whatever hope was left regarding the system, including in
the possibilities offered by education for ameliorating their pathetic
condition. All this had a tremendously negative impact on the Muslim psyche.
Muslims and their leaders were forced, due to constant provocation from
anti-Muslim communal forces, to focus all their energies on defending
themselves, their identity, their very lives, from attacks, and were dragged
into endless controversies by communal elements who wanted them to be bogged
down in them so that they would have no energy left to work on the task of
internal reform.
Faced with what they saw as
major threats to their religio-cultural identity, north Indian Muslims invested
their resources in setting up madrasas in order to protect their identity and to
save the tradition of Islamic learning and to promote Islamic awareness. This
was a very natural reaction to a strong and widespread sense of being under
siege.
Things, however, began to change
from the early 1980s, with the emergence of Muslim educationists across north
India, trying, in their own, limited ways, to promote modern education in the
community by setting up schools and colleges. This process continues apace even
today. However, they have been greatly hampered by the fact that very often
their applications for recognition for their institutions have been refused by
communal-minded bureaucrats in education and allied departments. This forces
their students to sit for examinations in other, recognised schools, which
naturally dampens their enthusiasm for setting up schools in the first
place.
To add to this is the fact of
discrimination in allocating funds to Muslim localities for schools. Take the
case of West Bengal, where Muslims account for around a fourth of the
population, but are economically and educationally extremely deprived despite
the fact that the state has been ruled by a so-called ‘progressive’ Marxist
government for over three decades. Muslim villages in West Bengal either have no
schools at all or else have insignificant schools running in shabby, dilapidated
structures. Despite the fact that Muslims in West Bengal and other north Indian
states have been requesting their governments to do something about the pathetic
condition of Muslim education, hardly anything has been done at all. This is
equally true with regard to government-funded schemes for economic development,
employment generation, health and so on.
Muslim leaders have not paid sufficient attention to such issues, nor has
the state.
Yet, as I was saying, in the
last two decades or so, Muslim organisations and leaders are increasingly
talking about the need for modern education, and some of them are also setting
up institutions for this purpose. I am quite optimistic that this trend will
gather momentum in the years to come.
Q: It is
often claimed that the quality of education imparted in Muslim-run schools and
colleges is very low, and that Muslim organisations are, in general,
characterised by inefficiency, corruption, and lack of professionalism, proper
work ethics and democratic functioning. What do you have to say about
this?
A: There are certainly many
problems with many of these institutions, but I suppose achieving high standards
is a long process. It cannot come about all of a sudden. It may not be proper to
compare the Muslim case with, say, the case of Christian educational
institutions, which have been in existence for over two hundred years in India.
It takes at least two or three generations for institutions to emerge and then
develop on professional lines. We should look at the functioning of these Muslim
educational institutions in the light of this fact. We need to appreciate the
motivation behind them and realise that professionalism will take some time more
to develop. And as more such institutions emerge, it is bound to create more
competition, which, in turn, will certainly lead to greater professionalism,
higher standards and more democratic functioning.
Q: To
come back to an issue that I raised earlier, is it true, as often alleged, that
Muslim organisations, by and large, do not focus adequately on economic and
educational issues, preferring to focus, instead, on religious or
identity-related matters?
A: This is only partially true.
If you look at the issues that many Muslim organisations, including those led by
the ulema, are today raising, many have to do with modern education and
employment for Muslims. But the fact remains that when these organisations start
demanding that the state live up its responsibilities as far as these issues are
concerned, the media remains mute and so does the state.
Let me cite an instance to
clarify this point. In March 2008, the All India Milli Council, of which I am
the General Secretary, organised a mammoth convention in Delhi, which was
attended by over one hundred thousand people. We discussed various issues
related to Muslim educational and economic empowerment, about what both Muslims
as well as the state should do about this. We also demanded that the government
should set up a judicial commission to investigate cases of terrorism or alleged
terrorism involving Muslims in the last fifteen years headed by a sitting judge
of the Supreme Court so that the truth about charges against Muslims being
involved in terrorism could be verified. The media did not highlight this or any
other demand of ours. Only some non-Muslim papers mentioned the rally, and that
too in some remote corner of an inside page, summing it up in just two lines.
Urdu media gave full information but national and Hindi media gave very little
information.
We sent our resolutions to the
government, but got no response. Six months later we met with the Prime
Minister, and were informed that he had not received our resolutions. We handed
him the file containing the resolutions personally, insisting that his official
photographer take a picture of us doing so in order that it could be verified
that he had indeed received the resolutions. The Prime Minister informed us that
he would look into the matter. More than a year has passed since that meeting,
but, I regret to say, nothing at all has happened in this
regard.
It is not at all proper to tar
all Muslim politicians with the same brush and accuse them all of being
indifferent to the economic and educational problems of Muslims. When the state
itself is unwilling to act on the recommendations of the committees it has set
up to address Muslim marginalisation for fear of alienating Hindu voters, why
blame only Muslim leaders. Sometimes, even if Muslim leaders talk of these
issues and make representations and demands, the government refuses to do
anything at all, despite the tall promises it might make.
Q: I
agree with you, but I don’t buy the argument of some Muslims that it is the
state alone, and not also their leaders, that are to blame for Muslim
backwardness. What do you say?
A: I agree with you here. The
fault is on both sides. Many of those who project themselves as Muslim ‘leaders’
are not even aware of the resources provided by the state, in the form of
various schemes for general development as well as specifically for the
minorities. Many of them are also not aware of the considerable
resources—financial, infrastructural and human—that the community itself
possesses that can be tapped for Muslim advancement. Many of them have no idea about the
constitutional rights of citizens and the special provisions made by the
Constitution for minorities. This might seem strange, but it is a fact, and is
the case because, generally, they are handpicked by non-Muslim-dominated parties
not on the basis of merit but, rather, because of their perceived ability to
attract Muslim votes. Since these ‘leaders’ are unable to do much for Muslims,
they have a vested interest in whipping up controversies in order to stir Muslim
emotions so that they can thereby present themselves as their
‘leaders’.
Further, these leaders are
hopelessly divided, often seeking to pull others down. They lack even a minimum
common programme. It is also the case that many of them are in politics merely
to feather their own nests and that of their relatives. We simply do not have
leaders of the moral stature, intellect, vision, independence of mind and
popular support like Maulana Azad or Rafi Ahmad Kidwai today.
But, I would again say that it
is not the fault only of today’s Muslim ‘leaders’ for neglecting Muslim
bread-and-butter issues. Political parties must also take a major share of the
blame. If getting qualified and capable Muslims elected on their tickets might
be difficult, they could have, if they had wanted to, nominated them to the
Rajya Sabha or upper house of state assemblies. Regrettably, few Muslims are to
be found in these bodies. What is the use of nominating Muslim film stars and
sportsmen, as some parties have? How can they be expected to play any role in
effectively articulating Muslim concerns? There are many qualified Muslim
intellectuals and activists across the country. Why do political parties ignore
them? Does this not reflect deep-rooted prejudice?
Q: Most
Muslim organisations that claim to represent all the Muslims of India are led or
dominated by maulvis. Middle-class, modern-educated Muslims have little space in
them. Why is this the case?
A: This issue has to be
understood in historical perspective. In the wake of the uprising of 1857
against the British, which is also described as India’s First War of
Independence, several thousand ulema were hanged by the avenging British. It was
then that the idea took root among many Muslims that the ulema were their
leaders, now that the Mughal rulers had been toppled. They saw the ulema as men
who had struggled for the community and for the country, who had sacrificed
their very lives for them. This is one reason why the ulema came to be seen as
the leaders of the community by large numbers of Muslims.
There are yet other reasons for
this phenomenon—the very low levels of education among Muslims generally; a
concern shared by many Muslims that their religious identity is under threat and
so needs to be protected, which they see the ulema as capable of doing; and the
fact that the ulema are seen, and see themselves, as representatives or symbols
of Islam, and who, therefore, Muslims should follow and accept as their leaders.
This tendency is further reinforced by the fact, or the perception, that many
‘modern’-educated people who try to project themselves as Muslim leaders have
proven to be concerned mainly with their own personal interests and
glorification.
Ordinary Muslims might recognise
that the ulema do have certain limitations, that they are not properly trained
or equipped to deal with many of the issues of the modern world. But, at the
same time, they might see them as better leaders than the ‘modern’-educated
Muslims, who have done little for them and who do not appear to be concerned
particularly about Islam or Muslim identity.
Another issue that must be
considered is the fact that the existing political parties do not want an
organic, grassroots-based leadership to emerge among Muslims. They would rather
present and project some figures as ‘Muslim leaders’ who can gain Muslim votes
for them. It is a fact that those Muslim ‘leaders’, including some
‘intellectuals’ and maulvis, are
favoured by parties who make minimal demands on the state for resource
allocation for Muslim economic and educational empowerment, focusing instead on
only identity-related issues.
Be that as it may, it is also a
fact that, particularly after the release of the Sachar Committee Report that
highlighted the immense problem of Muslim educational and economic
marginalisation and called for urgent steps to address the situation, scores of
Muslim organisations, including those led by ulema, are now taking up Muslim
economic and educational concerns in a big way, organising seminars and rallies
and demanding that the state act on the recommendations of the Sachar Committee
that it had itself set up. Lamentably, the government shows little or no
interest in doing so. What Muslims are saying is that it was not they but the
government that appointed the Sachar Committee and the Ranganath Mishra
Committee, and if the state is unwilling to accept the suggestions of its own
committees to take positive steps to address Muslim backwardness it simply
indicates a deep-rooted bias against Muslims in the state apparatus
itself.
Q: Do you
think the present-day Indian ulema are able to adequately interpret Islamic
teachings in the light of the conditions of the present-day and thereby provide
proper leadership to the community? Is it not the case that many of them are
wedded to the tradition of medieval fiqh or jurisprudence, much of which has
outlived its usefulness in the vastly different context of
today?
A: The rapid changes brought
about in today’s globalised age have undoubtedly posed serious challenges to
Muslims, who have, by and large, not been able to adequately respond to them on
a host of issues. We need to be able to discover how to express the rahmat or
mercy of Islam in the context of the changed conditions of a globalised world.
We need to seriously address the issue of how to express the teachings and
values of the Quran and the Sunnat or practice of the Prophet in today’s
context, which certainly goes beyond the medieval fiqh framework. This must be
based on a consciousness that the Quran lays down certain principles that we
must follow but that, at the same time, it also allows human beings sufficient
room to adjust to different situations and contexts.
Not recognising this, and,
instead, insisting on the blind following or taqlid of the medieval fuqaha has
led to a veritable crisis in Muslim thought and to a rigid dualism between the
traditional ulema, on the one hand, and ultra-secularist Muslims on the other.
The way out is to seek to apply the message and values of the Quran and Sunnat
in accordance with the changed spatio-temporal context. It is these teachings
and values, rather than just some revered personalities of the past among the
clerics, that must be the guiding light. And then, in this process of
reconstructing Muslim thought, the fact must remain upper-most in our minds that Muslims do not
live on an island. They live and have to interact with others. So, unless the
changing global scenario is properly understood and factored in, our
intellectual crisis cannot be properly addressed.
For this task we also need a
critical examination, based on a deep study of the teachings and values of the
Quran and the authenticated Hadith, of the historical legacy of Muslim thought
that developed after the Prophet. Alongside this, we need the combined efforts
of the ulema as well as experts in modern subjects. Only then can we come up
with contextually-relevant understandings of Islam on a whole host of issues of
contemporary concern. This task can best be undertaken by ulema who also have a
good knowledge of modern subjects and contemporary conditions, but this might
take some time to develop. This is precisely what the New Delhi-based Islamic
Fiqh Academy, which I am also associated with as a founder-trustee, is trying to
do.
Q: How do
you gauge the performance of Muslim MPs and MLAS in articulating Muslim demands
and concerns?
A: For the most part, these
people are handpicked ‘leaders’ who are at the mercy of their parties and cannot
do anything against their parties’ wishes. The fact of the matter is that no
political party wants a good, responsive Muslim political leadership to emerge,
one that can address the genuine concerns and demands of Muslims. So, our Muslim
MPs and MLAs work not for the community, but, rather, for their own political
parties, whose goodwill they are dependent on and whom they have to please. Even
within their own party structures they are unable, sometimes even unwilling, to
articulate Muslim issues. They are often scared that if they do so they would
run the risk of being branded as ‘communal’ or even worse, which would cause
their parties to deny them tickets in the next elections.
Some Muslim MPs and MLAs do
whatever little they can, in their personal capacity, to help Muslims but,
generally speaking, they feel that their position in their parties, which are
led mainly by non-Muslims, would be at stake if they get too vocal on Muslim
demands. So, there is really a limit to what they feel they can do, and often
that limit is very low. Further, because they are also dependent on non-Muslim
votes and because they tend to take Muslim votes for granted, assuming that
Muslims would vote for them anyway, they do not wish to appear to be overtly
interested in helping Muslims. In this way, they fail to adequately address
Muslim issues. On the other hand, in non-Muslim-dominated constituencies,
non-Muslim candidates generally consider Muslims as helpless, and as having no
choice but to vote for this or that ‘secular’ party simply to keep the BJP out,
and so do not feel the need to do anything about Muslim economic or educational
development. All they need to do to garner Muslim votes is to present themselves
as champions of ‘secularism’.
Another issue that must be
considered while gauging the ability of Muslim MLAs and MPs in articulating
Muslim issues is the marked tendency of the media to quickly brand as
‘communal’, ‘divisive’ or worse, any effort by any Muslim leader to highlight
even genuine Muslim demands. If a non-Muslim politician tries to do the same
thing, he is branded as ‘pseudo-secularist’. This naturally tends to further
limit what elected representatives can do for Muslims.
Q: To
come back to a question that you left unanswered, why is it that so few
well-educated middle-class Muslims are visible as leaders in Muslim
organisations?
A: There are many reasons for
this. A very large section of the Muslim middleclass, especially in north India,
migrated to Pakistan in the wake of the Partition, so the existing Muslim
middleclass is very small. Elite Muslims are even smaller in numbers. But while
this tiny section of elite Muslims displays, by and large, no concern for the
poor Muslim masses, I must say that an emerging Muslim middleclass that is
gradually making its presence felt today is becoming increasingly involved in
community issues, for instance, in terms of setting up modern schools, which you
can now find in every Muslim locality. These are men and women who have risen
from the lower middleclass to the middleclass in recent years, who run these
institutions both as a profession as well as out of concern for the educational
development of the community. Many middle-class Muslims do not, for fear of
being wrongly labeled as this or that, want to be publicly associated with
Muslim issues, but they do help, in their own ways, such educational
initiatives.
Q: Are
Muslim organisations paying adequate attention to the particular issues and
views of the Muslim youth and women? Are youth and women adequately represented
in such organisations?
A: I think there is now
considerable pressure on Muslim organisations to accommodate the youth. Some
organisations might be resisting this, but I believe that ten years onwards no
organisation that continues to resist this demand will be able to survive. As
far as women are concerned, I believe that we need to pay much more attention to
their education. In fact, I would go so far as to say that women’s education
should be made, directly or indirectly, compulsory. At the same time, while I do
believe that, as human beings, men and women are equal, they do not have exactly
the same roles in society. This does not mean that women should be denied roles
in the public sphere, as some argue. Rather, I feel they can well work in the
public sphere or gain higher education, even in environments that are not
gender-segregated, provided the environment is proper.
Q: A
major issue that Muslims are faced with, in India and elsewhere, are negative
stereotypical images of Islam and its adherents in the media. What do you feel
about this? What could be done to address this
problem?
A: One reason for this is the
low representation of Muslims in the dominant, non-Muslim, media. We at the
Institute of Objective Studies have tried, in our limited way, to address this
problem by providing almost 500 scholarships over the past two decades to Muslim
students to train in journalism and media studies. Many of them are now
well-placed in the media, including in the non-Muslim media. But even there they
often lack independence, constantly having to look at the eyebrows of their
bosses to see how they might react to the Muslim-related stories they write or
cover. It is rare for them to be allowed to cover any positive stories about
Muslims.
Another serious concern is that
the media ignores the voices of recognised Islamic scholars and, instead,
projects some people with Muslim names to speak about Islam in a prejudiced
manner, simply to criticise it, although they do not possess a deep
understanding of the basic Islamic texts and resources. This further reinforces
Islamophobic trends in society.
Yet another problem is that the
media often totally ignores Muslims’ genuine concerns and demands, including the
undeniable fact of Muslim marginalisation. If at all it talks of Muslims, it is
only in the context of something negative, which it presents in sensational
terms, using it to generalize for all Muslims. Often, these negative events and
developments are not even properly investigated, and can even be entirely
concocted. Naturally, this tendency makes many Muslims look upon the media with
suspicion, which only further strengthens the hold and influence of conservative
elements.
The inherent and deep-rooted
media bias is not easy to remove, no matter how hard we may try. The media in
India has become increasingly corporatised, driven by capitalist greed. It
thrives on sensational news, which is how it depicts not just Muslim issues, but
virtually all other news as well. So, there is a limit to what Muslim
organisations can do to address media bias. All the same, I would suggest that
they should make efforts to interact personally with people in the media, and
cultivate professional as well as personal relations with them. For their part,
non-Muslim media personnel covering Muslim issues must properly study and
understand Muslim society and its issues, which is something that, with a few
exceptions, they completely lack. We don’t want their sympathy. We don’t want
them to eulogise us. All that we want is for them to be honest when they write
or speak about us. If some Muslims somewhere have said or done something wrong,
they must certainly report it, but not in a manner that creates the impression
that what those particular Muslims have said or done is true for all Muslims or
for Islam as a religion. Likewise, if some Muslims do something decent, this,
too, should be reported.
I would also suggest that Muslim
organisations develop a professional media policy. Some Muslim organisations
claim to have media cells, but, unfortunately, these are not professionally run,
and thus are not very effective.
Q: There
are literally hundreds of magazines run by Muslims across India that focus on
Islamic issues, and thousands of madrasas that are engaged in teaching and
research on Islam. How is it that, besides your Institute of Objective Studies,
there is really no Muslim social science research institute worth the name that
deals with the empirical social realities of
Muslims?
A: I think this has, in part,
has to do with the intellectual crisis that Muslims face. There are a number of
Muslim intellectuals and social scientists employed in colleges and universities
across India. Many of them are good teachers and have a good knowledge of their
subject, but they do not have much familiarity with Muslim empirical
issues—social, economic, educational, legal, political and so on—because they
simply don’t take the trouble of doing field work since this involves physical
labour and hardship. They prefer to read and write books while sitting in their
own ivory towers, earning fat salaries. This is at the root of our intellectual
crisis today. It is bound to get worse now with salaries of university employees
being suddenly and massively hiked, which might make them even more complacent
and less inclined to do field work. Our ‘intellectuals’ have little or no
contact with people and realities at the grassroots and yet claim the right to
pontificate on Muslim issues or to solve them.
But there are other problems as
well, to do with prejudice. Often, if a Muslim social scientist does a study on
a Muslim-related issue, his findings would be dubbed as biased and lacking in
objectivity just because he is a Muslim. Further, for Muslim social scientists
to get data on Muslims from government sources is sometimes very difficult.
Once, the Institute of Objective Studies commissioned a study on petrol pumps in
Delhi, to see how many Muslims had been allocated such pumps. The concerned
authorities simply refused to share this information with us. Had the research
team consisted of non-Muslims, they might not have faced the same
refusal.
Yet another problem is that
Muslim institutions don’t often have enough funds as well as qualified people to
do the sort of empirically-grounded social science research that is needed.
Often, governments are also not interested in funding such
research.
Our Muslim political leaders,
too, do not seem to realise the importance of empirical research on Muslims and
the need to encourage the setting up of institutions to do this work. Such
research is vital to understand the causes and dimensions of Muslim backwardness
and to make plans to address the issue. Lamentably, all that most of our leaders
seem to be interested in is getting Muslim votes and winning elections. If at
all they set up institutions, these are white elephants that can bring them
quick publicity. They would not like to sponsor, say fifty primary schools in
Muslim slums, because that would not bring them publicity.
The same lack of enthusiasm for
empirical research characterises various Muslim organisations, whose work
remains mainly promoting religious education. They tend to have a fixed set of
objectives, often defined by their particular sectarian affiliation, and seek to
remain limited to this, while ignoring various social conditions and their
implications for future generations. They often suffer from a vision without a
task or a task without a vision, being much more concerned with protecting their
particular understanding of sect-based Islamic identity than with the social
realities of Muslims. Often, theirs is a very ritualistic understanding of Islam
that is divorced from the social aspect. Their approach is entirely theological,
and what they lack is sociological sensitivity.
Instead of just criticising
this, however, I think we should also seek to understand why this is the case.
Right from the Partition onwards, Muslims have been forced to be increasingly
ghettoized, this trend being further reinforced by periodic anti-Muslim
violence. Naturally, this has led to increasing concern for protecting their
religious identity, which has meant that other aspects of their lives—economic,
educational and so on—have tended to get less attention on the part of Muslim
organisations and leaders.
Q: What
then is the way out for Muslim leaders to address the issue of Muslim
educational, economic and social marginalisation?
A: I think Muslim organisations
must have a social vision that transcends concern simply with religious
identity. They must seek to facilitate the emergence of young social activists
at every level, including the grassroots. These activists must not remain
limited to, or concerned solely with, religious or identity-related issues.
Rather, they should work on a whole host of issues—economic, political,
cultural, educational, environmental, and so on. The issues they raise must not
be limited to Muslims alone. Rather, they must also take up general issues,
working together with non-Muslim activists, leaders, organisations and
movements. For this we need the help of the middle-class, to arrange for funds,
ideas and skills, but, sadly, the middle-class, which is the principal motor of
change in any community, is still very small among Muslims, especially in the
north.
Along with grassroots activists,
Muslims also need NGOs. At present, the vast majority of Muslim NGOs engage only
in religious education. They need to work on every other front as well, access
government-funded schemes, and use the rights that the Constitution provides to
all Indian citizens. These NGOs should not be limited in their work or even in
the composition of their staff to Muslims alone.
It is true that there is
discrimination in the matter of disbursement of development grants from
governments to Muslims, but it is also a fact that Muslims have few, if any,
NGOs that can access these funds. Let me cite an instance. When Chaturanan
Mishra was the Union Agriculture Minister he asked me if I could identify a
Muslim NGO in Bihar, his home state as well as mine, that was engaged in the
field of agriculture to which he could allocate 400 acres of land to start an
agricultural training centre. I scanned the whole of Bihar but couldn’t locate
even one such Muslim NGO. And so, this plan came to nothing.
Muslim organisations must
realise the importance of NGOs today, in the age of ‘globalisation’, when the
state is rapidly retreating from providing services, the task being taken up by
NGOs instead. International and government funding for development work is now
being largely routed through NGOs. Given this, the lack of Muslim NGOs working
on issues other than religious education, the situation is very disheartening.
How can Muslims access many government schemes if they have no NGOs? But, of
course, merely setting up NGOs is not the answer. I know of Muslims who have
tried to form NGOs being refused registration, or being forced to pay bribe to
get permission to work, or being asked to pay a ‘commission’ on grants for the
projects that they get. And then you also have the problem of numerous NGOs, run
not just by Muslims but others as well, that are simply money-making machines
for their bosses and a means to promote their political
interests.
Manzoor Alam can be contacted on
manzoor@ndf.vsnl.net.in
9:44 PM
Sultan Shahin
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