DIVERSITY MATTERS: MUSLIMS: Towards a middle-class & moderation

The majority community has not made a serious effort to find out about them or what their religion is all about, they feel. But against the odds, Kolkata’s Muslims are slowly making a move towards change, shattering stereotypes in the process. RAKHI CHAKRABARTY reports

SADIA FATIMA TASNEEM wants to be a doctor. So, this class IX student of an English medium school in central Kolkata has chosen the science stream.
School over, a knot of girls, all in class IX, stood outside waiting to be escorted home. Clad in red-and-white burqas, Tasneem, Zainab, Zubeida have dreams in their eyes. Dreams of making it big, of carving a niche for themselves, of being career women. One of them, Arwa wants to be a computer programmer while Sarrah is keen to don the lawyer’s black cloak.
Can they? One wonders. After all, stereotypes of Muslim women behind the purdah relegated to the role of home-makers dominate the popular perception.
Peering out of the hood of the burqa, young Arwa, a commerce student, said, “Why not? Without the support of our parents, could we have come to school? My father has bought me a computer and I spend most of my time on it.” Her friends echoed her views.
These were voices of conviction. Determination. Voices of the future, really, of the Muslim community.
Slowly, a little warily maybe, Muslims of the city are making efforts to break out of the stereotypes and move out of ghettos. For a community mired in financial quicksand and plagued by poverty and lack of education, among other things, this is a tough task.
And, systematic propaganda painting Indian Muslims as the Other in the psyche of the majority community makes the task even more difficult, felt Dr Mohammed Khalil Abbas Siddiqui, noted scholar and anthropologist.
It is the images of a Mullah-dominated, fatwa-ridden, fanatically belligerent society, a complex sub-nation driven by polygamy and misogyny that together form the popular perception of Indian Muslim society in the minds of the majority of Indians, said Sk. Sadar Nayeem.
To all this, now the tag of terrorists has also been added. “Parsis or Jews are neither under the scanner nor are perceived as terrorists. So, inspite of being a minority community, they have been able to make advances,” said Dr Siddiqui.
But, as stakeholders, Muslims don’t figure very prominently in the Red citadel of Kolkata. “Even though 26 per cent of the population is Muslim, their share in government services is only two to three per cent. In fact, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee admitted the meagre representation of Muslims in the government sector,” said Mr Ahmed Saeed Malihabadi, editor of a city-based Urdu daily.
The occupational structure of the community is such that a majority are self-employed in business or cottage industries like bakery, zari trade, garment manufacturing, weaving, kite-making, leather industry and so on. “The representation of the community in the service sector in the state is appalling and the community lacks leadership to voice their protest. There is no pressure group to present the problems of the community,” said management and training consultant Mr Ayaz A Shafi.
It is a vicious circle. After Partition, a large chunk of the Muslim intelligentsia left for Dhaka, Karachi or Lahore. “The community suffered a major setback and no leadership has emerged since then. Gradually, the community became largely dominated by traders and shopkeepers for whom education was not a priority,” said Mr Shafi.
But, that is changing. After 1971 when Urdu-speaking Muslims were uprooted from East Pakistan, they finally realised that Pakistan was an illusion and not the paradise they had thought it to be,” said Mr Malihabadi. This gave them mental stability and instilled in them a determination to face the situation. “They set up their homes here and became sons of the soil,” said Mr Malihabadi. A middle class and an upper middle class are emerging. They are giving their children best of education in English medium-schools, he said. What holds true for other communities applies to the Muslim community too. Where there’s a middle class – even if conservative – there’s hope for moderation and a deep apathy towards violence.
But, vestiges of discrimination remain. “Not only there is no encouragement from the social systems but also there is discrimination against Muslims,” said Dr Siddiqui. And, those of the community who have prospered are scared to take up the cause of their deprived brethren. “They run the risk of being branded communal,” said a bureaucrat. For example, during the 1992 riots in Kolkata, the Dhobitalao bustee in Tangra was set ablaze. A senior Muslim IPS officer was deputed there for rehabilitation of the riot victims. Since the population there comprised 60 per cent Muslims, he had to live with the communal tag for the rest of his service and languished in insignificant posts. It is such incidents that have engendered a deep-rooted sense of deprivation.
According to Maulana Athar Abbas Rizvi, Imam of Basravi Masjid, “The community suffers from an inferiority complex. Even those who are educated have been denied scope for better jobs. Naturally, the rest feel disheartened. Above all, whenever Muslims have progressed, they have been stopped. In Gujarat, Muslims were a prosperous lot. But the genocide targeted and finished them.”
Moreover, there is reluctance still when it comes to women going out for work. “In the community, to bring bread home is still perceived as the man’s domain. A woman can excel in a particular field but she would still be ignored,” said Mr Shafi. In Kolkata, too, the complaint is of governmental apathy. “All the state government has done is to maintain peace. Just that,” said Mr Malihabadi. In fact, efforts by the community to improve their educational status have not received much help; it took 22 years to get recognition for the Milli Al-Ameen College in Beniapukur. Not many Muslims, even those who can afford it, venture to set up institutions. And, seeking foreign aid is out of question. “There is a plethora of NGOs and institutions running with foreign aid. But, if a Muslim institution opts for foreign aid, immediately it would be under the scanner. And, soon enough it would be linked with terrorist groups or branded as an ISI agent,” said Dr Siddiqui.
But, things are changing. “With the IT boom and development all around, Muslims have also realised the need to step out of the shell,” said Mr Shafi. There is a conscious effort to look at professional avenues like banks, IT sector, media or the hotel industry, for instance.
“A push is required. Muslims are exploited as vote banks and then left high and dry. Also, the majority community has not made a serious effort to find out about Muslims or what their religion is all about,” said Mr Shafi.
Anybody listening? If not, start now. For, every seventh man in the city is a Muslim.