here's part-1 of an article, being posted to mark the beginning Anniversary on April 14, of Dr. BR Ambedkar (1891-1956).
regarding "an outstanding deal of controversy" related to the starting place of caste, "as as to whether it's as a result of the conscious command of a Supreme Authority, or is an unconscious boom in the lifetime of a human society under strange circumstances," Dr. BR Ambedkar says: "those that dangle the latter view will, i'm hoping, locate some food for thought within the standpoint adopted during this paper."
The above is the concluding para (no.47) of a Thesis of forty seven paras by using Ambedkar: CASTES IN INDIA: Their Mechanism, Genesis and building, a Paper he introduced on 9th may also 1916 at an Anthropology Seminar at Columbia tuition. That was one of his earliest huge works, a scholarly work; written through the student when he become 25, a great deal before he grew to become a baby-kisser.
(emphases added, throughout this aticle, except in any other case indicated.)
Unconscious increase, he wrote. In an past para 34, he explicitly refutes the theories about "aware command of a Supreme Authority" and wrote: "Manu, the legislation-giver of India, if he did exist, was definitely an audacious grownup…One factor I are looking to impress upon you is that Manu did not provide the law of Caste and that he could not accomplish that. Caste existed long before Manu. He became an upholder of it and hence philosophised about it, but actually he didn't and could not ordain the existing order of Hindu Society. His work ended with the codification of current caste suggestions and the preaching of Caste Dharma…"
"The spread and growth of the Caste device is just too gigantic a task to be executed with the aid of the vigour or cunning of someone or of a category. equivalent in argument is the concept that the Brahmins created the Caste. After what I actually have noted involving Manu, i want infrequently say anything else extra, except to point out that it is inaccurate in concept and malicious in intent. The Brahmins can also have been responsible of many things, and i dare say they were, however the imposing of the caste gadget on the non-Brahmin population changed into beyond their mettle. They may have helped the system via their glib philosophy, however they certainly couldn't have pushed their scheme past their own confines. To fashion society after one's own sample! How glorious! How challenging!"
The above traces go towards the normal notions concerning the beginning of caste, ascribed to Ambedkar, and repeated by all and sundry devoid of recognize to his above-stated view.
The familiar suggestion is perhaps rooted in this common fact: on 25 December 1927, the e-book of Manusmriti changed into publicly burnt…see these recorded particulars: Manusmriti become placed on a pyre, in a above all dug pit, and ceremoniously and symbolically burnt, ironically with sandalwood, and with only one picture, of Gandhiji in the pandal, by Ambedkar and his colleagues… burnt at the hands of Sahasrabuddhe, the Brahmin chum of Dr. Ambedkar, who had negated the conception that Brahmins created the Caste…
while reviewing some concepts on caste till then general, Ambedkar concludes his thesis with here strains indicating his scientific system, his conviction, and open-mindedness as an younger scholar:
"The primary object of the paper is to point out what I regard to be the correct route of investigation, with the intention to arrive at a serviceable actuality. We ought to, youngsters, guard in opposition t coming near the area with a bias. Sentiment need to be outlawed from the domain of science and issues may still be judged from an objective standpoint….To conclude, whereas i am ambitious to develop a idea of Caste, if it can also be proven to be untenable I will likely be equally willing to provide it up."
He did not surrender, but persisted to uphold the above views: Ambedkar himself posted his noted work, Annihilation of Caste, in 1936, and its third version in 1944, wherein he protected this Thesis of 1916, and not using a revisions, thus really upholding it, even as a result.
"A Caste is an Enclosed classification," Ambedkar famously stated. Some use him to deny the type foundation of caste. here is the imperative para:
"[31] ….to assert that people make up society is trivial; society is all the time composed of courses. It could be an exaggeration to assert the thought of classification-battle, but the existence of particular courses in a society is a reality. Their groundwork may range. They can be financial or intellectual or social, however someone in a society is always a member of a class. here is a common truth and early Hindu society could not have been an exception to this rule, and, as a depend of reality, we are aware of it turned into not. If we endure this generalization in intellect, our look at of the genesis of caste could be very a whole lot facilitated, for we have most effective to check what turned into the classification that first made itself into a caste, for class and caste, so that you can say, are round the corner neighbours, and it is only a span that separates the two. A Caste is an Enclosed type."
No quantity of preaching via the priests can create it, he says and adds, no amount of preaching by means of the reformer can unmake it! His approach is based on fabric statistics, materialist outlook. The Indian constitution also preaches, but could not annihilate caste as preferred by using him and other reformers. Even untouchability is not totally eradicated, 70 years after the constitution got here into effect.
( see for extra on this subject matter: Re-analyzing Dr BR Ambedkar's Earliest Paper On Caste one hundred Years Later, by using Dr KS Sharma, June 18, 2016)
https://countercurrents.org/2016/06/re-reading-dr-br-ambedkars-earliest-paper-on-caste-100-years-later/
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The "unconscious increase" didn't spare any neighborhood in British India
in this Thesis he as a sociologist shows how caste changed into a characteristic phenomenon within the then (British) India of 1916, which is with the aid of and big co-terminus with South Asia these days, which comprises Pakistan and Bangladesh with predominantly Muslim inhabitants, Burma (Myanmar) and Ceylon (Srilanka) with Buddhists, apart from the Portuguese colony of Goa, with Christians.
In para 44, he wrote: … "Take India as an entire with its various communities targeted by the numerous creeds to which they owe allegiance, to wit, the Hindus, Mohammedans, Jews, Christians and Parsis. Now, barring the Hindus, the relaxation inside themselves are non-caste communities. but with appreciate to each different they are castes."
though he wrote "inside themselves are non-caste communities," once we probe a bit, we discover many things : Even these days, we can see in lots of villages how individuals of religions other than Hindus are recognized as "one other caste" rather than as (in basic terms) of a unique faith. In selected , Muslims and Christians are treated as one more caste in view of conversions of fresh previous.
you possibly can find some in the same kith and family members being converted as Christians, whereas some others remaining as Hindus; there are marriages too among them, caste being the identical; and put up-marriage, there's casual reconversion too. submit-conversion too, they proceed with customs they inherited from their past as Hindus and often with an brought imprint of their caste. Christians of 1 caste (say Nadar or Reddy) do not consistently marry Christians of an extra caste (say Kapu or vanniar). The matrimonial advertisements are explicit about it. it's, the true identification is more with caste in preference to as Christians.
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Dr. BR Ambedkar on caste and caste discrimination among muslims
Caste in India is awfully a good deal seen also beyond Hinduism, beyond Brahminism, and past Manu. If we see caste as in basic terms linked to Hinduism, Brahminism or Manu, we in reality below-estimate its deep, vicious, divisive and diversionary role in society and polity.
therefore Ambedkar in his Thesis of 1916 laid the foundations for such an approach. "Sentiment should be outlawed from the area of science and issues should still be judged from an purpose standpoint," he referred to. He stressed out endogamy, the key function found among Christians and Muslims too. Caste in Indian Christians, youngsters, is comparatively more express than amongst Muslims.
further Dr Ambedkar opines consequently: "Take the caste device. Islam speaks of brotherhood. everybody infers that Islam need to be free from slavery and caste. involving slavery nothing needs to be pointed out. It stands abolished now by way of legislation…but if slavery has long gone, caste amongst Musalmans has remained…There can consequently be no manner of doubt that the Muslim Society in India is afflicted by using the identical social evils as afflict the Hindu Society".
On the groundwork of the Census report 1901, Dr Ambedkar notes concerning the Dalit Muslims: "With them no other Mahomedan would affiliate, and they are forbidden to enter the mosque or to make use of the general public burial floor".
In contrast to the social reform actions to fight caste among the Hindus, Dr Ambedkar feels that: "The Muslims…don't recognize that they're evils and because of this do not agitate for their removal. indeed, they oppose any exchange of their current practices" (Dr B. R. Ambedkar, Pakistan or the Partition of India, Kalpaz Publications, Delhi, 1945, pp. 218-223).
(Quoted with the aid of Khalid Anis Ansari in his article in theprint.in 13 may additionally, 2019. greater about it later.)
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Dr. Khalid Anis Ansari on Caste in Muslims of India
we will, during this a part of the article, provide a assessment of the examine on caste among Indian Muslims, a taboo subject? we shall at the moment go into caste among Muslims, which exists even in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
here's indispensable if the communal and fascist BJP, a professedly Hindutva birthday celebration, is to be contained and countered without problems.
it is to the credit score of notably Dr. Khalid Anis Ansari (see photo beneath), Director, Dr Ambedkar Centre for Exclusion reviews and Transformative motion, Glocal tuition, Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, to deliver out the caste among muslims. He advanced Ambedkar's observations and formulations.
KA Ansari (see his image beneath) is among the few who did deep and consistent analyze on caste among India's Muslims, a taboo area for a lot of. He labored on minority and caste reports, and social histories of the marginalized. He has labored on collaborative research and developmental initiatives with associations in UK, the Netherlands, Portugal and so on. He has delivered talks in leading overseas & national associations like the Harvard tuition (us of a), university of Michigan (u . s .), school for Humanistic reviews (the Netherlands), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (India). He writes always in tutorial and regular areas and has been associated with democratic actions in North India as an interlocutor and abilities activist. (his mail identification : khalidanisansari@gmail.com)
Momin conference, 1939 Gorakhpur: "the heritage of caste movements among Muslims can be traced back to the graduation of the Momin flow," says k.A. Ansari.
The caste characteristic is discovered, much less obviously, rather more subtly, amongst some "lower" communities of Muslims also. as an instance, a Khan would now not consistently marry a Quereshi. The Muslim matrimonial ads additionally replicate this to an extent.
there have been more than one hundred castes, yes castes, listed amongst muslims of UP, Bihar, Maharashtra and so on. a couple of decades in the past. Reservations have been prolonged and applied to a few of these castes among muslims as backward communities in all of the states of South as additionally in Bengal (OBC A and B), regardless of some felony hitches. Mulayam's Samajvadi celebration promised reservations for muslims. There are demands in different states too from sections of muslims. The Uttar Pradesh-based mostly Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (JUH) introduced to launch a protest rally in Mumbai on April 26, 2015 in opposition t the BJP-led Maharashtra executive for its selections similar to red meat ban and scrapping 5 per cent reservation to Muslims.
k.A. Ansari wrote in an article in indianexpress.com, March 29, 2018. titled , It's not simply faith, It's also Caste :
"What one needs to stress is that there can be no majorities (Hinduness) with out minorities (Muslimness) and the mutual conflicts between them at last end in accommodations that exclude the subordinated castes."
Identities of religion, and extra so of caste, are normally linked with state and its patronage. He writes:
"allow us to keep in mind how the modernising colonial state at last settled on faith as the overarching identity to control the irreducible socio-cultural range in the Subcontinent via strategic repression of competing markers — caste, type, gender, language, location, sect and the like. In specific, caste approximates the closest to distribution of cloth and symbolic power. as soon as this is conceded, it turns into less complicated to appreciate how the excessive-caste elite throughout religions, a micro-minority in quantity, found it constructive to access the evolving democratic online game as non secular majorities or minorities so as to offset their numerical deficit. In a method, the notions of "Hinduness" or "Muslimness" were systematically arrived at through repression of the cultural lifestyles-worlds of a big variety of subordinated caste communities."
Ansari goes into the theoretical and political features worried in the extracts given beneath:
while the left-liberals from time to time do note that Hindu and Muslim nationalisms share a symbiotic relationship, they seldom take cognisance of the constitutive position of caste during this conflict. Caste, in typical, has been a blind spot for left-liberals; extra so in the case of Indian Islam.
The moment one inserts caste into the "Muslim query", the terms of the debate exchange. most of the issues raised by way of the majoritarian correct just like the appeasement of Muslims, their portrayal as fifth columnists, Muslim communalism, instant triple divorce, reservations, AMU, Babri Mosque, Urdu, and so on. lose their impact once the position of Ashraf interests involves the fore.
Sans the caste category, left-liberal bickering on the decline of "Muslimness" does not go past formal rhetoric. once the conflation of Muslim politics with Ashraf interests is clear, it isn't be tricky to peer why the Pasmanda sections may now not bask in mourning the so-called demise of Muslimness however rather see this moment as a rupture pregnant with multiple democratic percentages.
What one needs to stress is that there will also be no majorities (Hinduness) with out minorities (Muslimness) and the mutual conflicts between them ultimately end in lodgings that exclude the subordinated castes.
that is why the Pasmanda ideologues have advocated a counter-hegemonic harmony of subordinated castes across religions. Ideally, the left-liberals would have revisited their closures with admire to the caste question inside Indian Islam in the event that they have been interested in contesting toxic majoritarianism.
One remembers right here Dalwai's collapsing of the big difference between "nationalist" and "communalist" Muslims, or Ambedkar's conflation of the classes of "priestly" and "secular" Brahmins in explaining the function of social courses in politics. "Muslim communalists in India and Indian communists have at all times remained unusual, however inseparable, bedfellows," is what Dalwai wrote in the 1960s. whether the fresh debate has completed anything to dispel this influence is a moot question.
(indianexpress.com, March 29, 2018.)
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/hindu-muslims-the-minority-space-caste-device-in-india-5115108/
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Dr. Ansari in 2009 on Pasmanda circulation
Indian Muslims have about seven hundred caste corporations, says Ansari. He dealt with the linked century-ancient history and politics past in another article of 2009, titled, Rethinking the Pasmanda move, in the famous journal, EPW. Extracts from it are given beneath:
"The Pasmanda circulation (PM) refers back to the contemporary caste/category movement among Indian Muslims. notwithstanding the heritage of caste actions among Muslims can be traced returned to the graduation of the Momin circulation within the 2d decade of the twentieth century (see photograph above), it's the Mandal decade (the Nineties) that noticed it getting a fresh lease of existence. That decade witnessed the formation of two frontline businesses in Bihar – the All India United Muslim Morcha (1993) led by means of Ejaz Ali and the All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz (1998) led by means of Ali Anwar – and various different firms else-the place.
"Pasmanda, a note of Persian beginning, actually skill "those who have fallen in the back of", "broken" or "oppressed". For our functions right here it refers back to the dalit and backward caste Indian Muslims who constitute, according to most estimates, 85% of the Muslim inhabitants and about 10% of India's inhabitants. by invoking the class of "caste", the PM interrogates the proposal of a monolithic Muslim id and in consequence a good deal of "mainstream" Muslim politics in line with it.
"by using and massive, mainstream Muslim politics reflects the elite-driven symbolic/ emotive/ id politics (Babri Mosque, Uniform Civil Code, repute of Urdu, the Aligarh Muslim college and so on) which entirely discounts the developmental considerations and aspirations of regular Muslim masses.
"through emphasising that the Muslim id is segmented into as a minimum three caste/type blocks – specifically, ashraf (elite upper caste), ajlaf (core caste or shudra) and arzal (lowest castes or dalit) – the PM dislodges the ordinary-region assumption of any putative uniform neighborhood sentiment or interests of Indian Muslims. It means that identical to another neighborhood, Muslims too are a divided condo with distinctive sections harbouring diverse hobbies. It stresses that the emotive considerations raised by means of elite Muslims engineer a "false consciousness" (to make use of a Marxian term) and that this euphoria around Muslim identification is frequently generated as a way to bag benefits from the state as wages for the ensuing de-politicisation of the Muslim hundreds.
"When the PM raises the problem of social justice and proportional representation in vigor structures (each neighborhood and state controlled), for the pasmanda Muslims it lends momentum to the method of democratisation of Muslim society in certain and the Indian state and society in ordinary. anyway, the PM additionally takes the forces of non secular communalism head on: one, via privileging caste over non secular identity it crafts the floor for cementing solidarities with corresponding caste/type blocks in different religious communities, and, two, by using combating the idea of a monolithic Muslim identification it unsettles the symbiotic relationship between "majority" and "minority" fundamentalism. in brief, the PM holds the promise of bringing Muslim politics lower back from the summary to the concrete, from the imaginary to the actual, from the heavens to the earth!"
Then he provides: "but despite these courageous promises the PM has been unable to create the impact that become anticipated of it." that's a area by using itself, beyond the scope of this article. He states: "appropriate from the days of the All India Momin conference (its pre-eminent leader being Abdul Qayyum Ansari) approach back within the Nineteen Thirties to its present submit-Mandal avatars, the PM has singularly targeting affirmative motion (now the politics around Article 341 of the charter) and electoral politics at the rate of alternative pressing considerations."
(Rethinking the Pasmanda movement, EPW Commentary, Vol. 44, situation No. 13, 28 Mar, 2009)
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"Caste-based discrimination frequent in the Muslim society"
A poster of the Pasmanda Kranti Abhiyan,2012-13. Slogan on correct reads – Dalit & Backwards are same – even if Hindu or Muslim.
In a piece of writing in theprint.in , 13 might also, 2019, titled India's Muslim group beneath a churn: 85% backward Pasmandas up in opposition t 15% Ashrafs, Ansari brought out many social and political aspects. Given beneath are extracts from it:
"Indian Muslims, too, are victims of caste-based stratification, and are divided into three main courses and hundreds of biradaris. at the correct of the hierarchy are the 'Ashraf' Muslims who hint their origin both to western or relevant Asia (as an example Syed, Sheikh, Mughal, Pathan, and so on or native upper caste converts like Rangad or Muslim Rajput, Taga or Tyagi Muslims, Garhe or Gaur Muslims, and so on). Syed biradari is enormously revered and their popularity is well-nigh symmetrical to the Brahmins in Hinduism.
"The philosophy of social inequality inside Muslims is termed Syedism, and actions towards the Ashraf dominance had been led by means of the 'lower' ones — Ajlaf (backward Muslims) and Arzal (Dalit Muslims)—at the least when you consider that the beginning of the twentieth century."
Pasmandas' slogan of 85% vs 15% towards Syedwad is making backward Muslims talk about rights as an alternative of advantage, dawa instead of dua.
The savarna Muslims constitute about 15 per cent of the complete Muslim population in India, while the relaxation contain the backward, Dalit and tribal Muslims.
The Nineteen Nineties noticed the rise of a few social movements that gave voice and a brand new course to abolish casteism within the Muslim society with a number of businesses leading from the front — the All India Backward Muslim Morcha of Dr Ejaz Ali, and the All India Pasmanda Muslims Mahaj of Ali Anwar from Bihar, and the All India Muslim OBC employer of Shabbir Ansari from Maharashtra.
Two books – Ali Anwar's Masawat Ki Jung (2001) and Masood Alam Falahi's Hindustan Mein Jaat Pat aur Musalman (2007) – have been particularly instrumental in exposing the caste-based mostly discrimination typical in the Muslim society. These books proven how the Ashraf Muslims had hegemonised and had been over-represented in Islamic businesses and associations (Jamat-e-Ulema-e-Hind, Jamat-e-Islami, All India Muslim own legislation Board, Idaar-e-Sharia and so on.), executive-run institutions for minorities (Aligarh Muslim school, Jamia Milia Islamia, Maulana Azad tutorial foundation, Urdu Academy and so forth.) and energy constructions commonly.
The books also illustrate the numerous layers and styles of caste-based mostly discrimination it's practised within the Muslim society — caste-primarily based endogamy and commentary of social distance, the mocking or taunting of subordinate caste Muslims, the existence of separate burial grounds, the follow of forcing lower Muslims to stand within the returned rows throughout Namaz prayers in certain regions, and the follow of untouchability towards Dalit Muslims among others.
it is the outcomes of such literature and efforts of the aforementioned organisations that the backward, Dalit and tribal Muslim communities — Kunjre (Raeen), Julahe (Ansari), Dhunia (Mansuri), Kasai (Qureishi), Fakir (Alvi), Hajjam (Salmani), Mehtar (Halalkhor), Gwala (Ghosi), Dhobi (Hawari), Lohar-Badhai (Saifi), Manihar (Siddiqui), Darzi (Idrisi), Vangujjar, and so on. — are actually organising under the id of 'Pasmanda': the ones who have been left in the back of.
The politics arranged around the axis of faith is frequently employed through the Brahminical and Syedist forces to give protection to their own interests and social dominance.
Incidents of mob lynching and communal riots are often subsidized and orchestrated by means of these forces to entice the subordinate caste communities within the net of emotional concerns, thereby suppressing the way more pressing concerns of the latter's social and financial upliftment.
In a means, the Hindu and Muslim communal forces are hand in glove and feed on each and every other. The victims in pretty much all communal incidents are almost always the subordinate castes whereas the beneficiaries are the forward caste sections.
it is a bit perplexing that a inhabitants in any other case divided into tons of of castes and communities is precipitously transformed into "Hindu" and "Muslim" all the way through communal incidents and riots.
The real numerical minority – the higher caste Hindus and Muslims – has efficaciously captured Indian democracy by deploying the secular-communal and majority-minority binaries according to spiritual identity. it is why the Pasmanda stream insists on social identification in its place of non secular identification.
Questions are being raised about the illustration of Pasmanda Muslims within the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. As per one evaluation, of the 7,500 elected representatives from the primary to the fourteenth Lok Sabha, four hundred have been Muslims — of which 340 were from Ashraf (upper caste) group. handiest 60 Muslims from the Pasmanda heritage had been elected in fourteen Lok Sabhas. As per 2011 Census, Muslims constitute about 14.2 per cent of India's population. This capacity that Ashrafs would have a 2.1 per cent share within the nation's population. but their representation in the Lok Sabha was round four.5 per cent. in spite of this, Pasmandas' share within the population was round 11.four per cent and nonetheless that they had a mere 0.8 per cent illustration in Parliament.
every time Pasmanda Muslims try to contest an election, the Ashraf Muslims taunt them as Dhunia, Julaha, Kalal, Kunjra or Kasai. They make all efforts to be sure their defeat. having said that, every time an Ashraf candidate is fielded, vote casting for him and guaranteeing his victory is termed as an Islamic accountability and virtue.
Manyawar Kanshi Ram had as soon as narrated his journey of working with Indian Muslims:
"i believed it was stronger to contact Muslims through their management. After assembly about 50 Muslim leaders i used to be astonished to witness their Brahmanism. Islam teaches us to establish equality and battle towards injustice but the leadership of Muslims is dominated via so-known as excessive castes like Syeds, Sheikhs, Mughals and Pathans. The latter do not desire the [subordinated Muslim castes like] Ansaris, Dhuniyas, Qureshis to upward thrust to their degrees…I determined to groom handiest those Muslims who had transformed from Hindu SC communities [Pasmanda Muslims] for leadership" (Satnam Singh, Kanshi Ram ki Nek Kamai Jisne Soti Qaum Jagai, Samyak Prakashan, New Delhi, 2007, p. 132). Even Ambedkar and Ram Manohar Lohia have categorically acknowledged casteism inside Muslim society.
within the equal vein, Ram Manohar Lohia suggests: "India's politicians have hitherto no longer cared to advertise the pursuits of the basically oppressed minorities of the nation, the numberless backward castes among Hindus as well as Muslims. they've served the reason for the amazing on the pretext of their being a minority, the Parsi, the Christians, the excessive castes amongst Muslims as additionally among Hindus" (Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, guilty guys of India's Partition, B. R. Publishing corporation, 2000, Delhi, p. forty seven).
The Pasmanda neighborhood is now speaking about politics of rights as an alternative of sawab (advantage/piety), and dawa (medication/healthcare) instead of dua (supplication)… The politics of marginalised communities is comparable to lava burning for hundreds of years below the earth's floor.
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Abhay Kumar on the history and politics of the Pasmanda
Dr. Abhay Kumar of JNU, regular to readers of countercurrents.org, is yet another scholar who wrote greater on the discipline. Citing Khalid Anis Ansari, Kumar in an article of 2015-sixteen, titled Bahujan first, then Muslim, briefly sketched the background and politics of the PM. Following are extracts from it:
via making usual cause with other Dalits and Backwards and adopting new icons, the Pasmandas have damaged free from the grip of elite and casteist minority politics..Ever due to the fact that the emergence of Pasmanda circulation on the gigantic political scene within the 1990s, natural minority politics has are available for sharp criticism from the brand new cultural imaginary. Influenced by Mandal politics (1990s), the Pasmanda move has not simplest questioned the hegemony of ashraf (upper-caste) Muslims however additionally succeeded in rewriting historical past and changing the symbols and idioms of "elite" minority politics…
Examples of some established Pasmanda castes are Lalbegi, Halalkhor, Monchi, Pasi, Bhant, Bhatiyara, Pamriya, Nat, Bakkho, Dafali, Nalband, Dhobi, Sai, Rangrez, Chik, Mirshikar and Darzi.
with ease put, Pasmanda Muslims are Backwards (Shudra) and Dalits (Ati-shudra) who embraced Islam centuries ago to free themselves from caste atrocities. however the alternate of religion didn't liberate them from caste discrimination and cloth deprivation.
however that Islam underscores equality and brotherhood, there are often media reports of Dalit Muslims being denied entry to mosques and graveyards by means of ashraf Muslims. anyway, inter-caste marriages in Muslim society are also not average.
hence the Pasmanda leaders lay extra emphasis on their Dalit and backward id than their Muslim id, questioning the concept of Muslims being a "monolithic" group. In consciousness of the caste discrimination among Muslims, Pasmanda politics aims at arriving at a broader "Bahujan harmony" of Dalits and Backwards across religions…
Pasmanda intellectual Khalid Anis Ansari has divided the Pasmanda stream into two phases. whereas the 2d section changed into the byproduct of Mandal politics (Nineteen Nineties), the first section goes returned to the period of the Momin convention in Bihar. The Momin convention (Nineteen Thirties and Nineteen Forties) changed into fashioned by nationalist actions and the politics of the Congress.
based in Kolkata by means of Bihari Muslims, the Momin convention rejected both Hindu and Muslim nationalisms. besides the fact that children, the corporation could not remain lively after Independence when its suitable leader Qaiyum Ansari (1905-1974) became a minister within the Congress-led Bihar executive.
Qaiyum Ansari is considered to be one of the most frequent icons of the Pasmanda circulate. The Indian govt has even issued a postal stamp in his identify.
He emerged on the wider political scene in Bihar in the early 1940s, writes historian Mohammad Sajjad in Muslim Politics in Bihar (2014).
Qaiyum Ansari turned into additionally the president of the Bihar Provincial Jamiat-ul-Momineen. He joined the freedom struggle all through the Khilafat move when he came involved with the Ali Brothers in Sasaram, Bihar. His "assertive" politics in the Nineteen Thirties and the Forties hostile the Muslim League and both-nation conception. After Independence, he became a minister in a variety of Congress state governments (1946-52, 1955-fifty seven and 1962-sixty seven) and later the president of the party's Bihar Pradesh Committee, a member of Congress Working Committee and a Rajya Sabha member (1970-72).
decades after the loss of life of Ansari, the 2nd phase of Pasmanda move resumed below the affect of politics of social justice in Bihar..
(After bringing up how a number of parties linked themselves with PM, he continues:)
…this team spirit between the oppressed from the Hindu and Muslim folds is based on their "shared suffering", "dard ka rishta", normal "event", "occupation" and "humiliation" inflicted on them with the aid of contributors of the higher castes.
The Pasmanda flow's slogan "pichhra pichhra ek saman, Hindu ho ya Musalman" (Dalits and backwards are the equal no matter if they are Hindus or Muslims) brilliantly encapsulates this element…
a change in political equation and id requires reinterpretation of heritage too. while common Muslim scholarship had often unnoticed the question of caste, the Pasmanda Muslim intellectuals supply it primacy. as an instance, Masood Alam Falahi [Hindustan Mein Zaat-Paat Aur Musalman (2007)] argues that lessen-caste Muslims have been discriminated towards and denied access to vigor considering that the medieval period. Mughal emperors Aurangzeb (1618-1707) and Bahadur Shah Zafar (1775-1862) all started to be seen as casteist. Even Muslim icons of contemporary India corresponding to Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (1817-1898), the founder of Aligarh Muslim school, used, it changed into cited, derogatory language in opposition t lessen-caste Muslims (badzat jolha) and was a protector of upper-caste pursuits.
by using demolishing the ashraf icons, the Pasmanda Muslims built new icons, which belonged to the Kabir-Phule-Ambedkar way of life. while they adopted Babasaheb Ambedkar as an icon as a result of his battle against the caste equipment, they put OBC chief Karpoori Thakur appropriate up there with Ambedkar. When he served as Bihar's chief minister, Thakur gave 26 per cent reservation to the backward castes by which many Dalit Muslim castes have been also protected.
besides them, the Pasmanda stream has additionally adopted new icons from lower-caste Muslim agencies. they're Veer Abdul Hamid (1933-1965), who became conferred Paramveer Chakra for his heroic combat all through the 1965 Pakistan conflict; Bismillah Khan (1913-2006), well-known shehnai participant and the 2001 Bharat Ratna awardee; Qaiyum Ansari; and Maulana Atikurraham Aarvi, who become a scholar of Darul Uloom Deoband and a nationalist freedom fighter.
by way of adopting these icons, Pasmanda Muslims have challenged the hegemony of the higher castes within the sphere of culture and civil society. This invention of a new cultural imaginary is a welcome development within the intensifying Dalitization of public tradition.
(First published forward Press (print version October 2015), published on-line January 20, 2016)
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(The creator is a media adult who contributed to countercurrents.org.)
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