A V Rajwade: The remedy is education

The recent controversy about the Prime Minister's remark on the "first claim to resources" generated by economic growth, following the report of the Sachar Committee on the socio-economic status of the Muslims, reminds me of two ironies. Some time back, Mr Advani was criticised by his party for having praised Jinnah's secularism as reflected in his address to the Constituent Assembly, after the formation of Pakistan. On the other hand, the reactions to the report of the Sachar Committee suggest that Jinnah was right in believing that the Muslims will never get a fair deal in a Hindu-majority India""indeed, this was his justification for demanding a partition of the country and creation of Pakistan. So, if Mr Advani praises Jinnah's secularism, the Congress party, which has been in power for most of the last 60 years, and wears its secularism on its sleeve, is proving his two-nation theory!

The recent debate about reservations in educational institutions, jobs, etc. for Muslims reminds me of an experience I had while working in a bank a long time back. I was a member of a team studying the causes of sickness in industry. As part of the study, the team met a number of industrialists, particularly from the small-scale sector, whose units had become sick. The interesting part was that a large majority of those interviewed felt that the reason for their sickness was the unwillingness of banks to lend them further moneys""few were willing to concede that the bank's unwillingness to lend was a symptom of their sickness, rather than the cause. The point of narrating this incident is to question whether the relatively low educational levels and representation of Muslims in services or professions is a symptom, or whether the rest of the society is to be blamed for it, emphasising the need for affirmative action.

At the outset, I should confess to two things""I have no quarrel with affirmative action relating to the Dalits and other backward classes, subject to economic criteria. Secondly, as an atheist who believes that God was created by man to overcome his fear of the unknown, to give hope for a better future in this or the after-life (which, as far as concrete evidence goes, exists only in the minds of the living), I have no communal agenda. To me, the claim of the place where Lord Ram was born is as much a myth as the literal truth of the Bible or the Koran, or that these holy books are the words and edicts of the divine.

The key issue is whether Muslims need to be treated on a par with the Dalits and other backward castes in the Hindu community, as far as affirmative action is concerned. To me, there are various reasons why the two are not on a par:

For centuries, the Dalits were deliberately denied basic human rights by the caste Hindus, and have been deprived of social status and educational opportunities for long. There is therefore a strong case for reservations, provided economic criteria are not ignored, and for a definite period of time;

On the other hand, the Muslims were the ruling class in much of this country for centuries; at least sometimes, they were oppressors, and rarely the oppressed;

There is reason to believe that, in terms of their divide and rule policy, the British favoured Muslims when they were ruling this country.

Every other minority community in the country""Jains, Sikhs, Christians, Parsees""is doing better, indeed far better, than the average Indian;

The existence of a proportionately large number of Muslims in high-profile occupations like movies, music, sports, etc. is some evidence that there is no general bias against them.

To me, it seems that the key issue is the Muslim community's attitude towards modern, secular education, and that, perhaps, is the real cause for the state of affairs brought out in the Sachar Committee Report. Recently, India Today (August 14) had a cover story on the subject of the relative backwardness of the Muslim community in terms of education. Editorially, the magazine blamed "educational institutions, governments and social systems" for the failure of "Muslim parents to educationally empower their children". A quote in the story reads: "See, the problem with the Mohammedans is that we don't believe in education".

A personal experience suggests the same. Almost 30 years back, I was staying in Malbar Hill, an affluent locality of Mumbai, where my neighbour was a well-known Muslim classical singer (his brother was a music director in Bollywood). Clearly, the family was quite well-to-do but neither of the musician's two sons completed even matriculation""and there was no pressure from the parents to do so. There were three daughters and my enquiry about their schooling elicited a reply that "hamareme ladakioko padhate nahi". Are the two examples I have quoted exceptions? I sincerely doubt. It is equally true that the educated Muslims do not carry much weight in the community and those that do, do not emphasise the importance of education.

How one wishes that our secularists had emphasised the need for the Muslim community to change its attitude towards modern, secular education, rather than merely encouraging a culture of victimhood? This is like the sick industry blaming banks for its woes rather than doing any introspection or self-criticism. Reinforcing the idea that the rest of the world is to be blamed for the Muslim community's low scores under so many socioeconomic criteria, or that its wellbeing depends on sarkari patronage and reservations, does not serve the interest of the community which our political leadership is so concerned about. President Abdul Kalam was so right in arguing in a recent speech: "There is a need to introspect on this dependency syndrome which we have created. We need to remove these dependencies systematically and allow people to perform in a competitive environment in the global market". He was giving a speech at a CBI conference on corruption, but his remarks have far wider implications.

avrajwade@gmail.com