Five New Muslim Majority States?

Date: 3/5/2005

Comment

Five New Muslim Majority States?

Dina Nath Mishra

The Sentinel, Guwahati, March 04, 2005 http://www.sentinelassam.com/

In a State like Bihar, Muslims have been the sole determinants of power for the last 15 years because of the size of their population — it being 16.5 per cent. They not only vote strategically but most of the eligible Muslim voters go to polls with a mindset unlike others.

The size of Muslim votes plays a major role in shaping the politics of the country. The all India percentage of Muslim Population is 13.4 per cent. The States where Muslims account for more than 10 per cent of the population are: Lakshadweep – 95.5 per cent; J&K – 67 per cent; Assam – 31 per cent; West Bengal – 25 per cent, Kerala – 24.7 per cent; Bihar – 16.5 per cent; Jharkhand 13.8 per cent; Karnataka 12.2 per cent; Uttaranchal – 11.9 per cent; Delhi – 11.7 per cent; and Maharashtra – 10.6 per cent.

The point to ponder over is the phenomenal increase in the Muslim population in certain States and geographical areas. It is quite focused in UP, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam, specially in the districts bordering Nepal. In Western UP, a systematic demographic change is being slowly but steadily implemented from behind the curtain.

When Nationalist forces rang the alarm bell just after the release of the census figure of 2001, the secular brigade of media and politics derided it as a saffron propaganda. The Left wing Economic and Political Weekly of January 29 to February 4, 2005 devoted the whole special issue to it. By their well-known tactics of hair-splitting arguments about fertility differentials by religion, literacy and female to male ratio and then they come to ‘pooh-pooh’ the so-called saffron propaganda.

Almost a decade back, former Intelligence Bureau Chief T.V. Rajeshwar has written an alarming piece about the Religious Demographic changes in certain parts of India and warned the country in clear terms that the threat of second partition is looming large. I think nobody would call him ‘saffronite’. Presently he is Governor of Uttar Pradesh. When the UPA government came to power at the Centre, the so-called saffronite governor Vishnu Kant Shashtri was summarily dismissed and Rajeshwar was brought in his place.

Most of the writers and researchers who have flexed their intellectual muscles to disapprove the so-called saffron propaganda have banked on Muslim illiteracy and depravity for ever increasing Muslim population.

This impression is quite erroneous. Dr Omar Khalidi who was born in Hyderabad and emigrated to the US in 1977, had a Masters Degree from Harvard University in 1991 and Ph.D. from the University of Wales, and is presently teaching in the Massachusetts University of Technology, Cambridge, USA as a staff member of Agha Khan programme. He was interviewed by Radiance Views Weekly, New Delhi, a magazine of the Jamat-e-Islami.

A few extracts of his views may be useful to understand the scheme of happenings, which the Indian state may have to face. "We need Muslim majority districts for three reasons. One, concentrated areas provide security, physical security at large. Two, they provide an environment that is conducive to our cultural independence. Three, they provide a political base through which our people can be elected. At present, constituencies have been created in a way that our absolute number doesn’t translate into a good number of legislators. In order to make it possible for Muslims to be elected in proportion to their population we must have these Muslim majority districts. So this is the rationale on three accounts. I have given the examples of the States by carving out the districts of Hyderabad, i.e., Rangareddy in Andhra Pradesh and Gulbarga and certain other talukas that could be created into the Deccan province. Similarly in Bihar, the regions of Katihar, Kishanganj and Purniya can be made into Urdu speaking provinces or Union territories. Similarly there are regions in West Bengal and UP where Muslims can be in the majority. We have Mewat area that can be amalgamated into a Muslim majority area. There are still a great number of Muslims who would not be in majority still, having these strongholds is important for the Muslims. That would ensure our proper political representation in the States, and that we would have a voice in the Parliament. Today, we don’t. We are a lightweight minority, who are not taken seriously. We can then go there as a matter of right, not as a matter of bheek.

"A decade ago it was not fashionable to talk about reservation for Muslims in employment and education. Today, Muslims have reservation in Kerala and Karnataka, and in AP also we are likely to get reservation. So don’t judge everything with an eye on what is happening today. Things can change, we have to change things. Huquq liye jaten hain pesh nahin kiye jate. Why should anybody do that? We have to work for it. Nobody would give it to you just because you want it. You have to ask for it and provide justification for it and then get up. Nobody would give it to you as a gift. So it seems something realistic today."

The cat is out of the bag; it was there for long. Islamic Umma has to Islamize the whole world. Jehadis are fighting for it. In India they too have an agenda. Dr Khalidi has just put it in words and in fact if you mark his words, he has given a clear call.

Mohammad Ali Jinnah propounded the "Two Nation Theory" and planted it on those provinces and areas on the map of India, which had a Muslim majority, thus carving out a nation of Dar-ul-Islam. The rest of India remained Dar-ul-Harb for them. Secularism as practised in India has buried such a vital subject, which has not only partitioned India but several other countries as well.

Certainly "those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it". Indian people don’t mind a Barkatullah as Chief Minister of Rajasthan. In fact most of the Indians celebrated the rise of Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam as President of the country. Merit made him President not the religion. But an atmosphere of competitive appeasement of Muslims where many of our political parties compete with each other in support of divisive demands like creation of five new Muslim majority States needs to be condemned strongly.

Our intellectuals and secular parties have an ostrich like altitude. Indian people did not understand the expansionist political religion of Islam. Even now our intellectuals scream communal and saffronite, whenever question of demographic aggression and high percentage of increase in Muslim population is put forward most objectively.

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