This article published in the Economist (March 4, 2010) highlights the poor socio-economic situation and educational backwardness among the majority of Muslims, the largest religious minority in India. Relying upon the Sachchar Committee’s Report and Ranganath Mishra Commission’s findings, both of which it does not name, the article stresses on the fact that that the situation of most of the India’s 160 Muslims is as bad as Dalits. It also quotes the Commission on why the Dalit Muslims and Christians are also entitled to reservation, as they too, like their Hindu brethren are ‘deprived.” The article blames the politicization of the entire issue by the mainstream political parties for electoral gains as one of the major reasons for lack of any concrete action.
Although the article recognizes the importance of reservation in social upliftment, it expresses doubt about the same being panacea for all ills. To support the same it point out a large section Dalits despite having the benefit of the quota based affirmative actions for the last six decades still continues to be social, economically and educationally backward. At the same time it notes that “‘unlike that downtrodden group, do Muslims lack inspiring torchbearers. They already dominate Bollywood and include many sports stars. Above all, India’s Muslims need better schools and better jobs, as do most poor Indians.”
This article forms another piece in the series of articles in the recent days that have sought to analyze the problems plaguing the Indian Muslims and the political reasons for inordinate delay/inability to take credible action bring the community into mainstream. Earlier posts on the blog have also discussed the feasibility of extension of quota-based reservation to socially and educationally backward classes among religious minorities.
Although the article recognizes the importance of reservation in social upliftment, it expresses doubt about the same being panacea for all ills. To support the same it point out a large section Dalits despite having the benefit of the quota based affirmative actions for the last six decades still continues to be social, economically and educationally backward. At the same time it notes that “‘unlike that downtrodden group, do Muslims lack inspiring torchbearers. They already dominate Bollywood and include many sports stars. Above all, India’s Muslims need better schools and better jobs, as do most poor Indians.”
This article forms another piece in the series of articles in the recent days that have sought to analyze the problems plaguing the Indian Muslims and the political reasons for inordinate delay/inability to take credible action bring the community into mainstream. Earlier posts on the blog have also discussed the feasibility of extension of quota-based reservation to socially and educationally backward classes among religious minorities.
No comments:
Post a Comment