A quota scrapped without thought

With the stay order that the Supreme Court passed against implementing the faulty reservation policy that scrapped the 4% reservation for Muslims under the 2b category, the issue should have taken a backseat this election season, but it has not. It remains a campaign issue. The government’s move exhibited ambiguities, bias, and prejudice more than social justice to a community historically treated as "OBC" by different Backward Class commissions or committees, beginning with the Nagana Gowda Committee right up to the time the Bommai government quashed the reservations to Muslims under the 2b category and pushed them to the EWS category.

Before independence, Muslims were clubbed under the "Depressed Class", particularly since 1874, and continued to be so even after the Leslie Miller Committee report provided for reservation in the government sector during the 1920s. The Old Mysore state was one of the first states to provide reservations to Muslims in the Representative Assembly and Legislative Council.

The scrapping of 4% Muslim quota and redistributing the same among the two dominant castes in the state exhibited three kinds of ambiguities that the government had vis-à-vis Muslims and reservations.

The first ambiguity is derived from the overlapping of religion and community and treating the community as a homogeneous, undifferentiated lot. The argument that Muslims are only a religious category is a misunderstanding. Herein lies the project of "othering" the community, which is quite apparent.

Colonial census reports, including the Backward Class Commission reports, have demarcated the line between the two. Even within religion, there were multiple social practices that led many to conceptualise Islam as folk Islam, tribal Islam, political Islam and religious Islam. While traversing different parts of the world, the religion has indeed co-opted the local social practices and structures. In India, the negotiation between Hinduism and Islam through Sufism, trade, military conquests, and syncretic culture has paved the way for large-scale conversion and, subsequently, the co-option of different castes and their attendant social practices.

The argument of Muslims as a homogenous and monolithic religious community in India becomes irrelevant when colonial documents, such as census reports and gazetteers, provide evidence of caste among Muslims. The 1911 census of Old Mysore enlisted such castes as Dhobis, Kapus, Madigas, Mochi Oddes, Pariyans, Rangers, Rajputs, Gujjars, Awans, Labbai Jats, Mopillas, Janjuva, and Jam. The 1891 census of Coorg divided the "Musalman" category into 13 sub-categories: Bhatkali, Gauliga, Kakari, Kanata, Labbai, Mopillas, Mughals, Pathan, Pindari, Sayyad, Shafi, Sheikh, Yenne Galiga.

Similarly, in the census of the Bombay Presidency areas during the same period, Karnataka enlisted 16 occupational castes: Chapperband, Momin, Pinjars, Halvai, Pindaris, Maniari, Sutar, Asadi, Katik, Atari Khoja, Rangari Dhobi Tamboli, Navayats. Paradoxically, these categories were not enlisted under the 2b category, nor was a detailed study of each category conducted by the Backward Class Commission. As a result, many have disappeared from history, and even census reports still need to trace their existence. Without such a detailed list, the government projected them as a single homogeneous religious group that could not be given reservation. The Presidential Order of 1950 forbade reservation on religious grounds, thus restricting reservations only to Hindus, followed by Sikhs and Buddhists.

The second ambiguity pertains to pushing Muslims to the EWS category without rationality or logical explanation. EWS is an economic category, not a social category. Any mention of religion under it – as would need to be done if the ‘Muslim quota’ were pushed under it -- would go against the spirit of the Act and the constitutional spirit. Commission after commission has pinpointed the growing disparity between upper caste/class and minorities. The EWS replaces the tag of "OBC" permanently for Muslims, which would have a cascading effect on their everyday life practices.

Also Read | No action to be taken on decision to scrap Muslim quota, Karnataka again tells Supreme Court

Lastly, while advancing the argument of undifferentiated Muslims, the state government overlooked the presence of Muslims under the Most Backward or Relatively Backward categories. Category 1 and Category 2 reflect the diversity of Muslims practicing many Hindu traditions, including that a few of them were once denounced as “criminal tribes”. Interestingly, some of them demand the repositioning of their caste – from the existing one to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe status.

Does the move to scrap the quota for Muslims reflect the obsession to create Muslims as the "other" or push them to marginality for the historical baggage they carry? It seems it reflects both.

(The writer is Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of Mysore)