This omission, and the Opposition’s absence from the Pasmanda situation is moderately shocking as it’s consequential for a number of causes. First, the Muslim politics of the Opposition revolves round labelling the BJP as “anti-Muslim”. Second, Opposition events have been beneficiaries of the Muslim vote of their electoral successes. Third, the Pasmanda situation is essential to advancing social justice throughout the Muslim group. Fourth, it seeks to impact a change within the political behaviour of the Muslim group. Fifth, it represents the axis level by way of which the BJP is attempting to interact with Muslims. Sixth, it represents a uncommon prevalence in Muslim politics {that a} sub-group, and never Muslims en bloc, is within the highlight.

So what explains the Opposition’s (in)motion on the BJP’s engagement with Pasmanda Muslims ?

Muslims in India are categorised underneath three heads — Ashrafs, Ajlafs and Arzals — comparable to ahead, backward and most backward. Pasmanda, a blanket time period for the latter two marginalised teams, has greater than 40 castes comprising round four-fifths of the Muslim inhabitants of India, with Ashrafs forming the remainder.

In their political outlook, the Opposition events have displayed a common apathy to understanding the Muslim caste system. Through grant of disproportionately increased political illustration to minority Ashrafs, the Opposition has prolonged the socio-economic disparities of Muslims to the political sphere. Recent tendencies amplify this. Of the 25 Muslim MPs in Lok Sabha, 18 are Ashrafs and 7 are Pasmandas. In Uttar Pradesh, the place Pasmandas account for 65-70 per cent of the Muslim inhabitants, within the earlier Lok Sabha election, solely one-fourth of the Muslim candidates of Samajwadi Party and one-ninth from the Congress had been Pasmandas. In Bihar, the place the Pasmanda inhabitants is highest, nearly all of Muslim legislators from the Mahagathbandhan are Ashrafs. Besides, the Pasmandas have by no means figured in election speeches or manifestos of the Opposition events.

In distinction, the BJP, currently, has displayed extra inclusiveness vis-à-vis Pasmandas. In the 2023 city native physique polls in UP, the Pasmandas accounted for 299 of the full 395 Muslims allotted tickets by BJP. Fifty-one of the 61 victorious Muslim candidates belonged to the Pasmanda class. In the UP Legislative Council, the 2 newest nominees of the federal government are Pasmandas.

The Ashraf domination within the Opposition events additionally resonates within the points integrated by these events of their political agendas. The Ashrafs, being extra advantaged in comparison with the Pasmandas, have been fixated on points of non secular and cultural purity which deflect problems with socio-economic disabilities of the Pasmandas. This explains why problems with Muslim private regulation, Babri Mosque, state patronage to mosques and many others. have been politicised throughout the regimes of the Congress within the centre, SP in UP and TMC in Bengal, respectively.

The BJP’s method differs as it’s selecting to interact with Muslims on the plank of “development without discrimination”. For occasion, underneath the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the Muslim beneficiaries in UP account for 22 per cent, though their inhabitants is eighteen per cent. The figures are increased for the PM Awas Yojana. This is as a result of Muslims, as a marginalised class, are eligible for a similar. Further, since many Pasmanda castes are engaged in low-wage occupations reminiscent of weavers (Ansari), printers (Darzi Chhipi), cotton carders (Mansuri) and many others., they stand to be beneficiaries of the just lately launched PM Vishwakarma Yojana which gives talent and monetary help to small artisans and craftsmen.

These elements display that the silence of the Opposition on problems with Pasmanda Muslims is by design. The absence of Pasmanda management in these events shapes their view of Muslim politics by way of the slim optics of elite Muslims. The Pasmandas are taking a look at options. Against this backdrop, the BJP senses a possibility to make inroads locally. The common election of 2024 shall reveal whether or not the 2 ends meet.

The author, former vice-chancellor, Aligarh Muslim University, is BJP Member of Legislative Council in UP meeting