by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
Soroor Ahmed
By Soroor Ahmed | Patna
The constant bombardments of narrative of Muslim backwardness with the help of half-baked figures only lead to despondency and hopelessness among the community, especially its youth. Instead the community leaders should objectively discuss each and every aspect–even its positive achievements, for example, West Bengal, Kerala and Kashmir have done exceptionally well in the last few years. Be it in the medical and engineering entrance examinations or any other field.
“There are three types of lies–lies, damn lies, and statistics,” said former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.
“Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable,” said American English writer Mark Twain.
Yet the importance of statistics cannot be under-estimated in this modern world. We now have a subject called Statistics.
Though the government data and statistics give some idea about development or backwardness of any state, country, community etc. yet very often such figures are misleading, if not lies. They are half-truths and sometimes should be taken with a pinch of salt.
But it seems that Indian Muslims have an obsession for data and statistic. They love to be dubbed as backward. So wherever the Muslim leaders see any study or research work which highlight their backwardness they simply embrace them. Without independently examining and analysing the data the campaign starts to spread its conclusion of such surveys. The self-proclaimed leading lights of the community have been doing this with the help of the Sachar Committee report for the last 14 years. In the process the community leaders have tried to convince the masses that the only sentence written in this 400-odd pages report is “Muslims lag behind Dalits in all walks of life”.
The truth is that the Sachar Committee report is a study done on the status of Muslims in India and in the process it has made comparison with several social groups of the country. It based its report on the data of 2001 Census, NSSO etc. and has not done its own first-hand survey. The figures given in the government surveys may not be hundred per cent correct.
Before the Sachar a similar study was done by Gopal Singh report, but it could not be quoted too much as that was the period of less media publicity.
No doubt the Sachar report said that in some social, economic and educational indicators Muslims lag behind Dalits, but in some they are ahead of them or are on par with the Other Backward Castes, or may be even ahead of them. Yet in some areas Muslims are even ahead of general Hindus. But no one in our seminars or conference is going to highlight the last fact.
For example, in health sector, notwithstanding the government neglect of the community the child mortality rate and infant mortality rate among Muslims are much less than even general category Hindus. The maternal mortality rate among Muslims is less than Hindus even though Muslim women give more birth than their Hindu sisters.
Besides, on an average the life-span of Muslims is one year more than Hindus. These are just a few positive examples cited in the Sachar Committee report yet they hardly find mention in any public discourse for some unknown reasons.
As if that was not enough the community has now discovered in Christophe Jaffrelot another talent. No doubt he is a regular contributor to various journals and newspapers, for example, the Indian Express. Yet, it remained a mystery as to what prompted Bengali Academy for Social Empowerment to organise a webinar on August 8 on the condition of Muslims at the height of Corona Virus. Not only that some community portals even highlighted in great detail whatever Jaffrelot had tried to explain, in this long webinar which once again was largely based on the same Sachar Committee report and similar data. Is it that Muslims are not aware of them?
What needs to be told loud and clear that such non-stop exercises are not only futile but counter-productive as well. The constant bombardments with the help of half-baked figures only lead to despondency and hopelessness among the community, especially its youth. Instead the community leaders should objectively discuss each and every aspect–even its positive achievements, for example, West Bengal, Kerala and Kashmir have done exceptionally well in the last few years. Be it in the medical and engineering entrance examinations or any other field. In civil services examinations the youths of Kashmir, including girls, have been doing remarkably better, more by efforts of the community and less by government policy or action.
Take the example of Kishanganj district of Bihar, about which another prophet of doom, Asaduddin Owaisi of AIMIM, always makes so much hue and cry. What this gentleman does not know, or wants to deliberately hide, is that this district of north-east Bihar had witnessed fastest growth in literacy rate in India between 2001 and 2011–especially in the women’s literacy.
The tragedy is that most of the time the community relies on the lecture by some western social scientists to understand our problem. What the community leaders failed to realize is that any such research can be done by the scholars from within the country who have much larger personal experience of the social, economic and educational milieu. There is nothing like rocket science involved in it.
The compilation of old figures and data would lead to nowhere as the situation keeps changing constantly. Besides it should be also researched as to how the community is not only surviving but even doing better than the upper caste Hindus in some indicators. Very little has been written as to how remittance money has played an important role in keeping the community alive. After all remittance-earning among the Muslims is disproportionately higher.
The absurd way of drawing parallel between Muslims and Dalits should be immediately stopped. One should not be selective in quoting figures to establish that Muslims lag behind Scheduled Castes and Tribes. The truth can be known when Muslim social scientists, researchers or journalists give equal time in the Dalit as well as their own inhabitants. Just make a survey of as to how many SC/STs and Muslims own CBSE schools, apartments, hotels, restaurants, marketing complexes in any city of India. No doubt Muslims may be no match to upper castes or may be even OBCs, but their number would certainly be many times more than SCs or STs.
At the lowest level, just collect a data on the figures of those dying of starvation, committing suicide due to hunger or compelled to eat rats and roots in the jungles of east and central India. One would soon know the fact as to how bad the SCs and STs are doing.
What the Muslim researchers often do is they take up only the localities and villages dominated by their own community and come to faulty conclusion. They do not dare to spend a few nights in the hutments of Valmikis, Musahars, even Ravidas who are considered slightly better off among the SCs.
A few years back a prominent doctor, while taking part in a function where a couple of foreign dignitaries were also present on the stage, sketched a very depressing picture of Muslims. He was not exaggerating as his lecture was based on his personal experience.
Yet, I on the basis of a long journalistic experience objected to some of his remarks as it was just a one-sided version with no comparison with Dalits or any other social groups. The problem with this gentleman was that the government medical college and hospital where he was the head of Surgery department was situated in front of a big Muslim locality. His own nursing home is also located in a Muslim-dominated mohalla. So a majority of patients he treats daily are Muslims–and thus he comes to this conclusion. As if that was not enough the surgeon in question had spent quite a long time in a Middle Eastern country.
How come he make a comparison with any Dalit or backward caste inhabitants.
In contrast I tried to challenge him (but failed to get opportunity on the basis of my spending a night in a Dalit bustee, covering a number of massacres of both Scheduled Castes and Muslims, and caste and communal riots. On the basis of first-hand experience I can openly claim that all these talks of “Muslims lag behind the Dalits” should be immediately stopped.
As it has become a sort of fashion to get scholarship to do research on the backwardness of Muslims–or even Dalits–such studies would come out regularly. Many of them are just compilation of statistics.
True, Dalits have an edge over Muslims on one count–that is, on the government-sponsored schemes. But Muslims have shown resilience. They have their own system of Zakat–though it is also true that it is not properly utilised.
Lastly, it must be explained clearly that such fear of Muslim backwardness was raised even at the time of Partition. Some of the elite of the community, rather unnecessarily, raked up this issue as they wanted to justify their demand of Pakistan. The truth is that in many fields, especially the army, Muslims were over-represented.
It is after the creation of Pakistan that an overwhelming number of elite went to Pakistan. The lower middle class and poor Muslims, especially of North India, remained here.
Naturally the Hindus were bound to fill this vacuum. Thus the gap increased sharply after the Partition and Muslims started lagging behind. It is not so easy to make up for this loss suffered after 1947, though in the last couple of decades the community has covered some grounds.
Instead of parroting the old figures the coming generation should be urged to see the larger picture and make an objective study. It should be told what actually they should do, rather than keep beating the chest.
(Soroor Ahmed is a senior journalist based in Patna. The views are personal.)
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Ram Puniyani
Kerala has been in the news from last few months for all the right reasons. After the attempts to curtail the impact of Covid 19 came to be undertaken, Kerala led the path with humane, competent and effective measures. These ensured the best possible results and minimum suffering to the people of the state. Kerala is one state where the public health services are more organized and accessible to most people. It is also the state where the forces representing nationalism in the name of religion have not been able to get the electoral success in substantial way. This despite large network of RSS Shakhas and their consistent efforts to communalize issue like Sabrimala women’s entry issue. There is a running battle of physical violence between the cadres of RSS and CPM in Kannur. Both blaming the other and presenting the figures where those killed due to this violence are shown to be larger on their side.
To add to the opportunities of polarizing the society, the forthcoming centenary of the Malabar rebellion also called Mappila rebellion in 2021 may provide another occasion to the communal forces. Recently a film director Aashiq Abu declared a film project Variyamkunnan on the life of Variyamkunnath Kunhamded Haji, a leader of the rebellion, who was executed by the British. His struggle was mainly around the issues of peasantry, who were suffering severe oppression at the hands of the landlords and their minions. These landlords, Janmis, mostly upper caste Hindus, were well protected by the British. Interestingly the problem arose as the landlords were Hindus and the peasants were Muslims.
As we know Islam first came to India on the Malabar Coast through Arab traders and many of those who were victims of caste, Varna system took to Islam due to this interaction. As a symbol of this initial entry of Islam in India, we cherish the Cheraman Juma mosque, the first one in India, being located in Malabar region.
As the film project was announced, it seemed another opportunity for communal elements to polarize the society along the lines of religion. One Hindu Aikya Vedi came forward with a program of campaign to oppose the film makers goal to ‘glorify’ Haji along with other leaders who were at the forefront of the Mappila rebellion, also referred to as Moplah uprising. This rebellion had broken out in August 1921 in Southern region of Malabar and Haji was captured in January 1922. The rebellion failed and was ruthlessly suppressed by the British. There crept in Muslims versus Hindu angle though the main leadership of the rebellion kept it as a rebellion to address agrarian grievances. Few marginal elements did make it anti Hindu tirade. As per Arya Samaj (Quoted in Sumit Sarkar’s book on Modern India) nearly 2500 Hindus were converted and 600 of them were killed.
The rebellion occurred at a time when the movement for restoration of Khilafat in Turkey was on. In India under the leadership of Gandhi, Indian National Congress supported the Khilafat movement, the primary aim of Gandhi led Congress being to ensure that Muslims also become part of the anti-British movement. During the rebellion, Haji led many attacks on individuals, including against Muslims, who had been loyal to the British. This rebellion also gave the opportunity to some rabid fundamentalist elements who presented the rebellion to look be against Hindus. As such in the rebellion many non Muslims also participated and many Muslims did not support the anti Hindu stance of those elements.
As such the deeper issue of the rebellion was the severe oppression of the poor peasants. The rebellion of peasantry had a long history in the area prior to 1921. As the Janmi landlords, backed by the police, the law courts and the revenue officials; became more oppressive on the subordinate classes, the Moplah peasantry in its turn started to revolt against them. There were series of these uprisings first such outbreak took place in 1836 and later between 1836 and 1854, 22 similar uprisings occurred, of which the one of 1841 and 1849 were very serious.
Sociologist D N Dhanagare’s summary of the rebellion is very apt. As per him it was due to, “gross neglect of the basic tenurial security, the deterioration of landlord-tenant relations and the political alienation of the poor peasantry were the important formative conditions” of the rebellion. He further observes that the basic movement around tenancy issues got intermixed with the Khilafat movement and non cooperation movement. The Khilafat movement launched in 1919 was instrumental in providing a new stimulus to the grievances of Muslim peasants. As Khilafat Movement created pan Islamic sentiments, the local grievances got linked up with the global one’s, giving it a new vigor. Later the collapse of Khilafat gave a feeling of utter frustration and intensification of violence.
In this complex scenario, the Haji, on whom the film is being planned; was firmly against giving a religious color to the rebellion, while a small section tried to give it a communal turn, mainly due to the fact the Janmis (Landlords) against whom the rebellion was directed were primarily Hindu, upper caste. British rule was great protector of atrocities and severe exploitation by the landlords. Haji during the rebellion; led many attacks on individuals, including against Muslims, who had been loyal to the British.
The Malabar rebellion to an extent did create the intercommunity strife, which was unintended and nowhere on the agenda of leaders of rebellion like Haji, on whom the film has been planned. British, who were looking at furthering their ‘divide and rule’ policy through every mechanism, did present it as being an attack by Muslims against Hindus.
The Hindu communal forces have been presenting it as genocide of Hindus. Rebellion was suppressed ruthlessly by British with nearly 10000 Muslims killed and a larger number exiled to Andmans. A rebellion which was primarily a peasant rebellion unfortunately got mired by complex situation. A proper evaluation of the rebellion will help us see the totality of the societal phenomenon in a better light.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Business Ideas, Economy, Entrepreneurship, Investing, Medium Enterprise, News, Politics, SMEs
Pinarayi Vijayan
Kochi : Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday launched an online mechanism to ensure clearance to investment proposals within 30 days of the application, while calling for more industrial production to take place in the state.
K-SWIFT (Kerala Single Window Interface for Fast, Transparent Clearances), a cutting-edge software application to simplify and speed up approval of government clearances for those looking to launch enterprises in the state, was unveiled at the ASCEND Kerala 2019 – an initiative of the government to position the state as an investment hotspot.
In his address, Vijayan urged the officials to change their attitude towards entrepreneurs.
“The 30 day time limit, which is applicable from village to secretariat level, may be reduced to even 15 days in future. You should not have the wrong belief that advent of industries means exploitation of people,” he said.
“Kerala’s economy has been consumerist where lots of products have buyers, but not much of production is happening in the state. This has to change. We have to increase MSMEs (micro, small, medium enterprises) in the state. Through them, the government aims to provide jobs to around 50,000 people this year,” Vijayan added.
State Industries Minister E.P. Jayarajan said ASCEND Kerala 2019 was part of the government’s efforts to form an industry network in the state.
“A new era has dawned upon Kerala’s industry sector. Any delay in taking steps in the online applications would attract serious steps against the departments and officials.
“Specific industrial parks will be set up in private and public sector as per the types of industry. In rural areas, the area limit will be 25 acres. The urban parks will have 15 acres. The government will provide the same facilities to the public sector and private sector parks,” Jayarajan added.
The meet was to showcase Kerala as a top-notch investment destination, where entrepreneurs from India and abroad can set up a wide array of enterprises in a speedy and hassle-free manner with minimum of bureaucratic interventions.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Thiruvananthapuram : The dawn-to-dusk Kerala shutdown called by a few Hindu groups on Saturday was peaceful, barring a few clashes, police sources said.
The shutdown was called following “detention” of a few religious leaders the previous night from the Sabarimala temple premises.
Among the detained on Friday night was Hindu Iykavedi (HI) President and senior BJP leader K.P. Sasikala, who was proceeding towards the Lord Ayyappa shrine.
Following her detention, Hindu Iykavedi leaders called for a shutdown backed by the state BJP.
Sources said Sasikala, carrying the customary holy kit ‘Irumudi Kettu’ on her head, was stopped by the police near the temple and was told not to proceed further as the temple had closed at 10 p.m. But she refused.
She was taken into preventive custody and till Saturday afternoon she was lodged at the Ranni police station, sources said.
Over a thousand of her supporters cordoned off the police station and chanted Lord Ayyappa’s hymns as conciliation talks progressed.
Shops and other businesses were forced to down their shutters by HI, BJP and Sangh Parivar activists.
Barring private vehicles, public transport vehicles stayed off the roads. Schools and educational institutes were closed for the day.
At Kozhikode the husband of a woman TV journalist, who is also the son of a top CPI-M leader, was injured in an attack allegedly by Sangh Parivar supporters.
In another incident, angry CPI-M and Sangh Parivar supporters clashed in a village near the state capital.
The intensity of the shutdown came down by late afternoon after Sasikala was given bail, and as per her demand, the police dropped her back to the temple town.
Kadakampally Surendran, State Devasom Minister, said it was “shameful” that a shutdown was called on an important day of the Sabarimala pilgrimage.
“Generally, protestors during the festival season of the Sabarimala temple spare Pathanamthitta district (where Sabarimala is situated) from the shutdown because it causes difficulties for the pilgrims. This shutdown was called by those who are trying to create trouble in the temple town,” said the CPI-M Minister.
State Congress president Mulapally Ramachandran alleged the CPI-M-led government had a secret deal with Sangh Parivar forces.
“Sasikala has a few cases involving inflammatory speeches registered against her. The police chose to arrest her at Sabarimala to glorify her. The Sangh Parivar successfully used the Ayodhya issue and is now trying to exploit the Sabarimala temple on similar lines,” said Ramachandran.
State BJP President P.S. Sreedharan Pillai told the media in Kozhikode on Saturday that no one knew why Sasikala was detained.
“Things are becoming clear that the Pinarayi Vijayan government wants to destroy Sabarimala by coming out with rules that will affect the traditions of the temple,” said Pillai.
“We are talking with leaders of other states. There will be a huge protest against this, not just here, but everywhere else,” warned Pillai.
The Sabarimala temple opened its doors at 5 p.m. on Friday for two months.
The temple town has witnessed protests by Hindu groups since September 28 when the Supreme Court allowed women of all ages to enter the temple that hitherto banned girls and women aged between 10 and 50.
The apex court this week refused to stay its earlier verdict.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Corporate Governance, Entrepreneurship, Medium Enterprise, Startup Basics, Startup Financing
Thiruvananthapuram : Kerala’s start-up ecosystem got a major fillip as the state government on Saturday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Airbus BizLab, a global aerospace accelerator which is part of the Airbus group.
The MoU was inked between Siddharth Balachandran, Airbus Bizlab India and Saji Gopinath, CEO, Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), in the presence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Under the MoU, an Innovation Centre will be set up here which will be the nodal body for planning and executing all the activities to help start-ups.
“We are confident that this partnership with Airbus Bizlab will help the industrial ecosystem of Kerala. It will up-skill the local youth and enhance employability,” said Vijayan.
Airbus BizLab will also provide support and mentoring for start-ups in Kerala and conduct regular workshops and discussions with experts from the aerospace and defence sectors.
Further, the France-headquartered company, which has set up facilities in Bengaluru, Toulouse (France), Hamburg (Germany) and Madrid (Spain) to create a global network of business accelerators, is to run training programmes to acquaint participants with aerospace technologies.
“The initiative aims to foster local talent in the aerospace domain and help promising start-ups to contribute towards shaping the future of flying not only in India but the world,” said Anand E. Stanley, president and managing director, Airbus India and South Asia.
—IANS
