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MONTHLY * Vol 11-11 No:130 * NOVEMBER 1997/ RAJJAB 1418H

email: editor@islamicvoice.com

FEATURES1

* Progress through Proportional Pepresentation
* Two decades of Progress : Five-fold increase in Inter-pass Muslim Girls

Progress through Proportional Pepresentation

By Prof. S.A. Kudsi

Of all the discriminations the Muslim community is up against its treatment as a political untouchable eversince Independence is the worst. Probably this may be the gift the Muslim community is honoured with for its sacrifice of life and property during the freedom struggle. The post-Independence life of Muslims in India is a saga of pains and pangs, exploitation and injustice. The largest minority which is contributing in building “New India” is often a suspected, hated and neglected lot. Even after 50 years of Independence the Muslims are made strangers in their own native land and are treated as political untouchables.

Though the demand for proportional representation for Muslims is very old, well justified, within the parameters of constitution and secularism it has remained a wild dream for Muslims for reasons unknown. Certainly it is not catching the required momentum because of lack of Muslim leadership, proper organisation, unity and political awareness. This demand for reservations for Muslims in the Parliament, Assemblies and all other local bodies being common to the whole Muslim community, all our leaders of various parties should unite cutting across their political affiliations. The government cannot any longer turn a deaf ear to such a major problem of the largest minority which constitutes 12% of Indian population. What is needed is a concerted and persistent peaceful struggle to convince the government that the peace, progress and prosperity of India is possible only if the largest minority is allowed to play a meaningful role in the political activities of the country through reservations of seats in the representative bodies right from Parliament to local bodies.

The demand for reservations for Muslims can be substantiated on the following grounds.

1) The government has provided reservations for SC/ST not only in matter of seats but also in jobs since Independence to this day for their upliftment. Then why is the same provision for reservation of seats and jobs is denied to Muslims for their upliftment? It is accepted as an and established fact that Muslims are educationally, economically very backward and neglected. When this is so why not reservation for them on a par with SC/ST for their development? Is it not political apartheid and political discrimination?

2) The purpose of socialism which our government pledged to work for is establishment of an egalitarian society, that is society of equals. How is it possible if the largest minority of Muslims is denied any opportunity to come up? Egalitarian society can be established and secularism in essence can be had only when a major minority is allowed to become equal through reservation of seats in proportion to its population. Otherwise our goal of socialism and secularism becomes a mere utopia.

3) The BJP’s latest call for Muslims to join the national main stream sounds as hypocritical as inviting a friend to a dinner and keeping the doors locked. How can Muslims join the national main stream when they are politically discriminated against? Muslims are well remembered only on the eve of elections. So many sorts of promises are made for their welfare and then forgotten. Why then the BJP, so much concerned about Muslims, opposes reservations for Muslims is a mute question.

4) It is observed that the welfare of the Muslims does not lie in the establishment of powerless Minority Commissions, fundless Minority Development Corporations, dreamy Urdu Directorate and defunct Urdu Academies. These are all as good as giving a lollipop to a crying child. Muslims’ welfare is consists only in reservation of seats in Parliament / Assemblies / Local bodies and jobs. All other measures taken by government are merely cosmetic and eye-wash.

5) Muslims do not have a state dominated by their own population like Punjabis, Chennai by Tamils, Andhra by Telgus, etc., They are scattered over. So they cannot have sufficient number of members in the elected bodies to air their grievances.

6) The delimitation of constituencies is a dangerous political conspiracy played against Muslims, which resulted in steep reduction of their elected representatives in the Parliament and Assemblies. As a result of this delimitation of constituencies thickly Muslim dominated areas were so divided that a Muslim candidate can never get elected. This is infact a death-knell for Muslims. That is why today we notice the strength of Muslim MPs and MLAs is waning in Parliament sharply. In Madhya Pradesh there is not a single Muslim MLA to air Muslim grievances. If Muslims do not awake and take a lesson from the writing on the wall the day may not be far off when the Parliament will be minus Muslim MPs.

7) India being a land of multi castes, multi-languages and multi-religions need to have equal opportunities for all. The corollary of natural justice demands fair treatment and fair deal with all. How can brothers in a house be happy when big brother is sick? Muslims being the largest minority form the very heart of India. How can a body be healthy if the heart is weak? How can Gandhiji’s dream of “Sarve Janaha Sukino Bhavato” be realised by discarding Muslims?

Conclusively it should be borne in mind firmly that, India’s unity, integrity, communal-harmony, peace and prosperity is entirely dependent on respecting the aspirations and conceding the demands of the Muslims. One fails to understand after all what India is going to lose if Muslims are given reservation equal to their population? Is it anti-democratic, anti-secular, anti-constitutional anti-natural justice? These questions remain echoing till the answer is got in the form of reservation for Muslims equal to their population on par with SC/ST’s in representative bodies as well as in jobs.
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Two decades of Progress : Five-fold increase in Inter-pass Muslim Girls

By Nusrat and Ahmad Rashid Shervani

Now almost everyone is talking about the educational backwardness of Muslims and we find a galaxy of luminaries frightfully busy in “solving the problem of Muslim educational backwardness”. Only 20 years ago there were few (very few, indeed) who had the foggiest idea of the extent of educational backwardness of Muslims. It was then that we launched our scheme to raise the academic levels, and improve the Board Examination results of Muslim Inter Colleges. Since then, how far have we come from there? Let us try to take a look.

The Intermediate or 12th standard Examination is an important point because it is from here that most young men and women go on to take-up specific courses of study to ultimately enter various walks of life. No use counting how many Muslims there are among doctors or engineers unless we first count how many Muslims are sitting in the pre-medical and pre-engineering tests for admissions in Medical or Engineering Colleges. And one can appear for these tests only after passing the Inter Exam. How Muslims would fare in such tests would to a large measure depend upon how they fare in the Inter Board Exam. In this report or analysis we are trying to give a glimpse of the progress of a cross-section of Muslims at this very level.

From 96 Inter Colleges, 10606 students appeared for the Inter Board Examination 1996 and 8678 or 82 per cent passed, 745 or 7 per cent got first division. Not bad, no? Well, not too bad, considering that the result of most of these colleges were generally much poorer when we launched our scheme for raising academic standards and improving the results of Muslim Inter Colleges of Uttar Pradesh twenty years ago. But we would come to that a little later. Let us first look at the 1996 results a little more closely.

Out of 96 colleges included in this study 36 are purely girls colleges, 39 are purely boys colleges and 21 are co-educational colleges. From 36 girls and 21 co-education colleges, 4778 girls appeared, 4408 or 92 per cent passed and 413 or 9 per cent got first division. From 39 boys and 21 co-education colleges, 5828 boys appeared for the same examination and 4270 or 73 per cent passed and 332 or 6 per cent got first division. Girls did a lot better than boys. Let us go a little deeper into it. From 36 purely girls colleges out of 4482 appeared 4183 or 93 per cent passed and 406 or 9 per cent got first division. From 21 co-education colleges out of 296 girls appeared 225 or 76 per cent passed and 7 or about 2 per cent got first division. From 39 purely boys colleges out of 4276 appeared 3038 or 71 per cent passed and 205 or 5 per cent got first division. From 21 co-education colleges out of 1552 boys appeared 1232 or 79 per cent passed and 127 or 8 per cent got first division. So, boys tend to do better when there are girls around but, on the other hand, girls tend to do better when there are no boys around. Can we then say that co-education is good for boys but bad for girls? Well, that is what we see in these 96 colleges at the level of the Inter Board Examination in the year 1996.

Now About Muslims

From 96, mostly Muslim, colleges 6989 Muslims appeared and 5874 or 84 per cent passed and 420 or 6 per cent got first division while 3617 non-Muslims appeared and 2804 or 78 percent passed and 325 or 9 per cent got first division. The comparative pass-percent of Muslims is higher while the proportion of Muslims attaining first division is much lower. Let us peep a little deeper.

Out of 36 girls colleges 8 are purely Muslim. From these 968 appeared and 916 or 95 per cent passed and 56 or 6 per cent got first division. From the other 28 colleges 2512 Muslim girls appeared and 2349 or 94 per cent passed and 204 or 8 per cent got first division. Not much difference. However from these very 28 (mostly Muslim) colleges 1002 non-Muslim girls appeared and 918 or 92 per cent passed 146 or 15 per cent got first division. It is not difficult to realise that the difference in first division is too much? 15 per cent is almost double of 8 per cent. And who does not know that in these days of stiff competition merely passing the Inter Examination does not mean much. Without a first division (in fact, without very high marks in first division) it is hardly possible to get admission in any good course of study in any decent college or University, even in the Aligarh Muslim University, even for a Muslim student.

It is all very well to wail and whimper about the real or imaginary (sometimes real but mostly imaginary) discrimination against Muslims but we Muslims should also see why in our own colleges (run and managed by Muslims, having mostly Muslim Principals and teachers) most of our daughters lag so much behind their non-Muslim class-mates in the matter of getting first division in the Inter Board Exam. Pray, who discriminates against Muslims in their own colleges? Who or what scares Muslims in their own dear Islamia or Sunni or Shia or Mohammadia or Siddiquia or Farooquia or Osmania or Alvi or Hussaini or Haidery or simply Maulana Azad or Kidwai colleges? If Muslims do not learn to catch-up with the rest of the Indians (including the Dalits) even in their own cosy corners then where (if anywhere) will they ever come-up to the level of others? How will mere whining help them? High time Muslims realised this.

In 21 co-educational colleges the number of non-Muslim girls (only 63) is too small a sample. Still, let us gloat a little over the fact that, at least here, 182 out of 233 or 78 per cent Muslim girls passed while 43 or only 68 per cent non-Muslim girls could pass. This tiny sample of better show by Muslims at least proves that Muslims can do better, that they are not ordained to lag behind others everywhere and forever. However, even here, the proportion of first division of Muslim girls (2 per cent) is lower than 3 per cent of non-Muslim girls.

Now let us look at the boys. In three purely Muslim boys colleges our of 149 appeared 67 or 45 percent passed and three or just 2 per cent got first division. Pathetic! Yes, most. From the other 36 boys colleges 2497 Muslims appeared and 1882 or 75 per cent passed and 109 or 4 per cent got first division while 1630 non-Muslim boys appeared and 1089 or 67 per cent passed and 93 or 6 per cent got first division. The pass percent of Muslims is higher but the proportion of first division among Muslims 4 per cent-is much lower than 6 per cent among non-Muslims. Moreover, in 21 co-education colleges, out of the 630 Muslim boys that appeared 478 or 76 per cent passed while 754 out of 922 non-Muslim boys passed which comes to 82 per cent or higher than the 76 per cent pass of Muslim boys. Still more, 43 or 7 per cent Muslims got first division while 84 or 9 per cent non-Muslims got first division. Thus, all in all, Muslim boys are quite behind non-Muslim boys.

Let all sections, all parts of the great Indian Nation, compete in a healthy spirit and try to excel over others as indeed each Indian student should try. This healthy competition will help them all to go forward and to take our beloved country forward faster. Both Muslim girls and boys are lagging behind their non-Muslim classmates even in Muslim colleges. This state of affairs is not satisfactory and Muslims must earnestly try to catch-up with their countrymen so that all of us may march forward faster towards the goal of making our India better, richer, stronger. Let not the Muslims lag behind and be a drag on the rest of the nation.

Have Muslims progressed? If so, how much?

To measure how much progress Muslims have made at the level of the Inter Board Examination we have to see the position as it was twenty years ago when our scheme was launched. In 1979 from 18 girls colleges (16 Muslim girls colleges and 2 government colleges of Rampur) 1026 Muslim girls had appeared for the Inter Board Exam and 605 or about 60 per cent had passed and, believe it or not, one had attained a first division! One out of more than a thousand is less than 0.1 per cent. Sad? Hardly a word apt enough. Pathetic, miserable, wretched-would be more appropriate.

From 12 of the above-said mostly Muslim girls colleges 387 non-Muslim girls had also appeared for the same exam and 260 or 67 per cent had passed and 8 or 2.1 per cent had got first division. The difference between the respective pass-percents of Muslim and non-Muslim girls was quite a bit but it was nothing compared to the difference in the respective proportion of first-division among both. Mere 2.1 per cent first division of non-Muslim girls of these colleges was also low enough but it was twenty-one times the shocking 0.1 per cent of Muslim girls. It is with this that we started and the progress till date has to be measured there from.

The number of colleges has since increased to at least 36. Muslim girls colleges have increased from 16 to 32. Another government girls college has come up in Rampur and yet another government college has come-up in Hasanpur, a town with substantial Muslim population. This makes the number 36.

Another remarkable thing has happened. Till twenty years ago there were either Muslim girls colleges or boys colleges in UP. A Muslim co-educational college was hardly heard of. In the whole of UP (with a larger Muslim population than each of about a dozen so-called Muslim countries) there were only 16 Muslim girls colleges. That is all. It was virtually taboo for a Muslim girl to study in a boys (even a Muslim boys) college. A welcome change has come about in many places. Now Muslim girls are studying in many erstwhile boys colleges. At least 21 such newly-become co-educational colleges have so far sent us their 1996 results. The total number of Muslim girls in these colleges at the Inter level is still very small-just 233 or less than 22 per college on an average-still, at least a start has been made. It could not have been easy for Muslims in such conservative places as Palaula, Sirsi, Kunderki and Thakurdwara in District Moradabad, Nihtaur and Seohara in District Bijnor and Sahaswan in District Budaun (Shri Mulayam Singh’s constituency) to allow their daughters to study in co-educational colleges. That some of them boldly took this difficult decision goes to show that Muslims have (yes, at last) begun to realise that they just cannot go on ignoring the education of their daughters. Where they cannot afford or arrange to have a Muslim girls inter college, they have to open the doors of their boys inter college for their daughters.

So, from 36 girls and 21 co-education colleges, 3713 Muslim girls appeared in the Inter Board Exam 1996, more than three-and-half times as many as the 1026 in 1976. The number of Muslim girls passing increased from 605 in 1976 to 3447 in 1996, more than five-and-half times. Still more. The number of Muslim girls getting first division increased from just one in 1976 to two-hundred-and-sixty-five in 1996. No one, not even the severest critics of Muslims (we, for instance) can deny that this is some progress.

However, Muslim girls were and still are educationally the most backward of the backward-most section of the Indian nation. They have to strive even harder to come forward in education.
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