ISLAMABAD: Speakers in a roundtable discussion held in Islamabad lamented that contemporary India was moving towards deeper polarization, more religious intolerance, and increased violence, having a deeper negative impact on the region.
The round table discussion was organized by the India Study Centre (ISC) at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) in the context of hosting the renowned French scholar Christophe Jaffrelot, with the title “The Plight of Indian Minorities under Modi’s India.” The event was attended by academics, practitioners, diplomats, students, and representatives of the media.
Professor Jaffrelot, in his presentation, remarked that it was necessary to underline vigilantism and hate speeches and that there was a lot more to cover when Muslims’ marginalization in today’s India was anticipated. According to him, via thoroughly researched quantitative data, Muslims in India have been facing a consistent decline in their condition since 1947.
He lamented that unjustified to an agreeable proportion of India’s overall population, Muslims were highly underrepresented in government offices but, unfortunately, over-crowded in jails. Besides, the most important fact about Muslims under the BJP rule was that Muslims’ representation in elected assemblies (both in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies) was alarmingly decreasing.
From the 1980s to 2019, Muslim participation in the Lok Sabha went down from 9 percent to just 4.6 percent. In major Indian states like UP, Muslims had been facing political marginalization.
Challenges for Muslims in India
Prof. Jaffrelot also underlined the yawning socio-economic gaps between Hindus and Muslims. Muslims in India were more deprived institutionally as compared to other small communities, including Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Muslims’ share of wealth was just 9.5 percent compared to 36.1 percent of Hindu Upper castes and 33.3 percent of Hindu OBCs.
Muslims were facing the same situation in education, Prof. Jaffrelot said, adding that there was a huge decline in the proportion of those Muslims who opted for higher education, and this gap had further multiplied under the BJP government. In 2021-22, only 19.8 percent of the whole Muslim population entered higher education institutions. These factors collectively caused Muslims’ deprivation under Modi’s rule in India.
In his introductory speech, Director ISC Dr. Khurram Abbas said that the BJP’s attempt to unite all Hindu fragments together into a single Hindu party would fail as sub-castes galore had initiated the creation of small parties of their own in every state. He further said that Hindus alone had 1,600 jatis, with multiple caste-like divisions, and bringing them together for long would be almost impossible.
According to the Election Commission of India, 38 new parties have been registered since 2014, the year when Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister, he said.
The Roundtable ended with concluding remarks by Ambassador Khalid Mahmood, Chairman BoG ISSI.
