Economic boycott of Muslims: All of us lose in the long run

Can a country that uses democracy as its calling card and aspires to be a global manufacturing hub persist with the domestic politics of exclusion?

The politics of polarisation in India leaves nothing untouched. The pulpy, delectable mango—India's national fruit—has now been weaponised. Hindutva groups in Karnataka have asked their co-religionists to boycott Muslim mango farmers and sellers. Muslims, they claim, unfairly "monopolise" the mango trade; they want Hindus to take over.

Last week, far-right Hindu groups were running an online campaign to take back the mango wholesale trade dominated by Muslim businessmen. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government has tried to distance itself from the campaign. But to anyone following the ongoing toxic narrative of an economic boycott of working-class Muslims in Karnataka and many other states, the targeting of Muslim mango sellers comes as no surprise.

Last year, Muslim scrap dealers, bangle sellers, dosa hawkers and tangawallas hit the headlines. This year, it is the turn of Muslim fruit sellers, street vendors, tour operators, cabbies, and meat shopowners.

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In recent weeks, in Karnataka's Dharwad district, men in saffron scarves have also destroyed watermelons belonging to Muslim pushcart vendors outside a temple. In one video clip circulating on social media, one of the miscreants is heard telling a policeman about an ultimatum given to Muslim fruit sellers. Hindutva groups want to ban Muslims from doing any business around temples during Hindu religious festivals.

The tactic of economic boycott is not new. Boycotts have changed history. Mahatma Gandhi called for mass boycotts of British goods and institutions and urged civil servants to stop working for the British. In the United States, the arrest of civil rights activist Rosa Parks sparked the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott, during which black residents of Montgomery, Alabama, refused to ride the city's buses in protest over the bus system's policy of racial segregation. It led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling that outlawed segregation on Alabama's intra-state buses.

But what we are witnessing in India today is one set of Indians using boycotts to try to economically marginalise another set of Indians. The targets in recent times have been some of the most vulnerable among minority communities.

Karnataka has been in the eye of the storm, but such intimidatory tactics are not confined to the state.

What explains the frequent incidents of attacks on Muslim livelihoods in BJP bastions like Karnataka and elsewhere?

"The economic boycott has been an old design of othering any community," says Khalid Khan, an economist and co-author of a 2017 study, Muslims in Urban Informal Employment: A Scoping Study of Experiences of Discrimination. Khan, who is currently an Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, points out that even in caste-based discrimination, "the economic boycott in the form of untouchability and caste-based occupational segregation is a central part of this system." By virtue of this design, he argues, Dalits have been historically pushed to low-paid occupations permanently. "A similar trend is visible against Muslims. Karnataka calls for boycotting Muslim fruit vendors, cab and tour operators… There is a pattern observed since 2002 in Gujarat also. Karnataka is a new laboratory for the old experiment."

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In the popular discourse around the ban on meat consumption and sale during Navratra in Delhi and elsewhere, the focus has been on the violation of the right to choose what one eats. What is less discussed is the impact of such steps on the livelihoods of people who depend on daily earnings and have no social security.

Unfortunately, there is scant data on the economic losses being suffered by those bearing the brunt of calls for economic boycotts by hardline Hindu groups.

One key reason is that "Muslims are largely concentrated in the informal sector, which is hardly reported in surveys," says Khan. "The high concentration in self-employment itself is an indication of the vulnerable condition of Muslims. The target of such boycott calls is these self-employed workers as they depend on their customers for their livelihood. If such calls for boycotts succeed, these small businesses will be forced to sell their products only in Muslim localities. This will further intensify the existing religion-based occupational segregation."

In Delhi, fear-mongering and intimidatory calls to meat sellers to close shop for nine days during Navratra did not hit top-end restaurants or online sales. Those who suffered were the poorest of the meat-sellers, including many Muslims. As Khan told me, "Shutting shops for one week means a huge loss for them. The organised meat-based activities are undertaken by economically well-off groups who are not necessarily Muslims. Getting a licence and supplying on a large scale demands capital which the small sellers in the informal sector can hardly afford."

While there are only limited studies examining the existence of religion-based discrimination in the country's labour market, the few studies that do exist indicate prevalent prejudices and discrimination against Muslims. "A 2010 study by Thorat and Newman based on the responses against jobs advertised by private companies in several newspapers in Delhi examined discrimination in urban labour markets in hiring. The result shows that job applicants with Muslim names were significantly less likely to have a positive application outcome in the form of interview calls than equivalently qualified persons with a Hindu High Caste name," Khan wrote in a 2021 essay.

Abdul Waheed, professor of sociology at Aligarh Muslim University, sees the recent attacks on small businesses run by Muslims as a strategy to "curb the liberty of Muslims doing business outside Muslim-dominated neighbourhoods." The end result is deepening the feelings of "exclusion" that many Muslims already feel in parts of the country. This, Waheed told me, is "low-intensity but consistent harassment. The idea is to make them feel as insecure as possible." In the past, there were communal riots, but now the drip-drip of harassment and intimidation, including economic boycotts, seem like "psychological attacks."

What is the likely impact of these efforts to further economically ghettoise poor Muslims?

Unfortunately, no serious official effort has been made to assess the lot of India's Muslims since the publication of the Sachar Report in 2006. That landmark report showed Muslims to be stuck at the bottom of almost every economic or social heap. "There are very few empirical studies about the economic condition of Muslims," says Waheed

The sense of siege is not confined to Muslims who are suffering economic boycotts. It is traumatising many middle-class Muslims who fear its long-term impact not only on themselves but also on their children. "I am a first-generation learner… I come from a traditional, rural family where people were not educated. My children are pursuing higher studies …I am concerned about their future. The perception of insecurity is growing every day… Where will this end?" Waheed asks.

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Typically, whether in Karnataka or elsewhere in India, the state does not officially endorse economic boycotts. There have been FIRs and arrests of miscreants. But the intimidation of vulnerable communities goes on with monotonous regularity, raising questions about political will and intent.

But violence, whether psychological or physical, is never cost-free. The destruction of social harmony comes at a steep social and economic cost.

Adaguru H Vishwanath, a BJP MLC and a former minister in Karnataka, has spoken out against attempts to economically boycott Muslims. Interestingly, Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has urged the state Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to resolve the growing religious divides.

Other states are watching.

Recently, Telangana extended an open invitation to an entrepreneur to come to Hyderabad as it has better infrastructure, both physical and social. Tamil Nadu has also said that it is ready to welcome companies that want to move out of Karnataka amid the growing tension there.

Can a country that uses democracy as its calling card and aspires to be an inclusive global manufacturing hub continue with a domestic politics of exclusion of a section of its people?

India aspires to be an inclusive global manufacturing hub. There have been efforts to attract foreign companies to India. However, India's foreign direct investment (FDI) has gone down in 2021. Total FDI inflow to India declined to $74.01 billion in the calendar year 2021, 15 per cent lower than the $87.55 billion recorded in the previous year.

The political environment in the country plays an important role in attracting foreign investment. "No investor will be interested in investing in a situation where there is a risk of such disturbances," says Khalid Khan. Many among the majority community are also beginning to realise the corrosive impact all this is having on social harmony and the economy at large.

Denial of the rights of Muslims to do business on equal footing with other communities is a denial of their equal citizenship, as Maitreyi Krishnan, coordinator of All India Lawyers Association for Justice, says.

The bottom line—there are no winners in this game in the long run. If the Hindutva brigade persists with the agenda of pitting Indians against Indians and the majority against minorities through economic boycotts, no one will emerge unscathed.

(Patralekha Chatterjee is an independent journalist and columnist)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.

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