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Marginalisation, privilege and caste among Indian Muslims

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Omair Ahmad
Omair AhmadFeb 12, 2016 | 16:24

Marginalisation, privilege and caste among Indian Muslims

A few weeks ago I attended a book discussion at Jamia Millia Islamia where Ruchira Gupta and Rachel Moran were speaking. I knew little about the event beyond that one of my friends was working with the organisation ApneAap, which is working to end sex trafficking by helping women in red-light areas. Ruchira is the founder of the organisation, and Rachel was speaking out of her experience as being forced into prostitution as a teenager in Ireland, and managed to extricate herself from the traumatic past. But before they even began the discussion, ApneAap screened a short documentary about a young girl from the Nat community.

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The Nat - a story of marginalisation

Among the various ills of the British colonial administration was its wholesale attack on the Indian communities who were nomadic, and semi-nomadic, quite often dwelling in forested and other areas which the British wanted to exploit. Those unwilling to "settle down" and produce for the glory of the empire were branded as "criminals" under the 1871 Criminal Tribes Act, which notified whole communities as criminals. Millions of people were affected and hounded by the police.

The Nats, being travelling performers, were also so categorised, and forced off of their land, punished, and stigmatised. Whether because of this enforced poverty and deprivation, or because of earlier practices, some Nat communities practice inter-generational prostitution. This last means that members of their own community force daughters, sisters, and wives into prostitution, and community members act as pimps.

While independent India repealed the Criminal Tribes Act, these communities remain locked into situations of deprivation and discrimination. Locked into the circumstances of their birth, these communities are often regarded as castes. According to Juanita Kakoty of ApneAap, who conducted field research on denotified tribes in six states of India, "The Nat live in Gujarat, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Bihar, and West Bengal and are scheduled castes in all states except Gujarat."

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They are also from both Hindu and Muslim communities. The documentary that was shown by ApneAap was of a Muslim Nat girl, who had managed, through the help of ApneAap and local social workers, to avoid becoming entangled in the community practice of prostitution. She wanted to study and become a member of the IAS, so that she could help other members of her community.

Even if she achieves her dream, I wonder how this young girl, part of the future of India, will look back on her family, and her community. How much of it will be tinged with shame for no reason of her own, but because this is how we consider whole communities, whole castes?

A personal story of unearned privilege 

I am also struck by how different my own experience is. My mother can rattle off the name of the last ten generations of her (male) ancestors without a thought, and I know my father's family have been landowners for at least the last three centuries, and our shajra (written family lineage) stretches back a millennia and a half. As a consequence I have received massive amounts of unearned privilege.

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The name of an uncle has earned me access, while the rank of a grandfather earned me a seat at a table. A former cabinet minister agreed to an interview (a BJP MP, by the way) only because he had been a student of my great-uncles. Even when I have actively tried to hide my lineage, people whittle it out through asking where I am from, who my father is, and so on. For me there has been little escape from my name, even though it has given me all the privileges that are denied everybody else.

This, really, is the reality of caste, and why it is so pernicious. All sections of people are denied equal opportunity -in a way that punishes one set of people and benefits another. Neither the privilege nor the disdain is earned. It is not linked to talent or hard work.

The fact that the third king of Bhutan, Jigme DorjiWangchuck, stayed as the houseguest of my great-uncle, has little to do with my ability to write, but when researching my book on the country, it suddenly opened up a number of doors. This is the hidden "quota" or "reservation" I receive through nothing I have done. The fact that another great-uncle was friends with Nehru, or was the president of the Zamindar's Party when Liaqut Ali Khan - who would go on to be Pakistan's first Prime Minister - was the Secretary, has nothing to do with me, and yet it makes research on India-Pakistan relations much, much easier.

A time for something new?

These privileges are carried on through marriages, which are highly selective affairs of who (and which caste, even if one does not call it such) marries whom, so that while one set of people inherit centuries of connections and advantages, another set are denied them. The outcome is that even mediocre people from well-connected families are guaranteed places (look at our politicians, especially the young) while those that lack access, but who may be hard-working, brilliant and capable, are shunted out of the system.

India has done this for more than two thousand years, or at least that is what genetics tell us, and what that has engineered is the marginalisation and death of some of our best young men and women, of people like Rohith Vemula, who should have been the hope of this country. In both the unearned privilege given, and the denial of achievement, based on family, caste and community, the assumption is the same: the individual is worthless, their community is everything. Maybe, in a Republic of equal citizens, we could try to build a better system?

Last updated: February 14, 2016 | 18:51
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