Muslims to be included in caste census in a first in India: What it means, why is it significant?

Muslims will be included in the caste census when it is taken up along with the next population census. (Representative Image: PTI)

India is set to witness a caste-wise enumeration of Muslims for the first time when the Centre undertakes the exercise as part of the next population Census. The development assumes significance since Muslims until now were counted as a single religious entity and not as per their caste.

This will be the first time that the government will have concrete data on the socio-economic and educational status of Muslims and their sub-castes, including the Pasmanda Muslims. The Indian Express reports that Pasmanda Muslims as a whole may feature in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.

The Centre had announced on Tuesday that caste enumeration will be part of the next population census. This had been a recurring demand of the Congress over the past two years. The BJP, by announcing the decision, has deprived Congress of one of its biggest poll planks.

Caste system among Muslims in India

The decision to include Muslims in the process of caste enumeration will once and for all dispel the notion that Muslims are a castles society. Caste-based surveys carried out by several states has shown the presence of castes among Muslims, with many Pasmanda Muslims registering their caste during the surveys.

In his 1973 study titled 'Caste and social stratification among Muslims in India', noted social scientist and professor of sociology at the Jawaharlal Nehru University Imtiaz Ahmad, who has written extensively on caste system in Muslims, argued the existence of an "ethnic hierarchy" among Muslims and how this model of social hierarchy was inconsistent with the "ideal Islamic view" of social life and had created confusion within the community.

Muslims across India engage in various forms of hierarchical practices, despite their gargantuan claims of Islam being an egalitarian religion, he argued and enumerated various practices such as endogamy, occupational distinctions, hierarchy and notions of impurity existing amongst Muslims.

Reservations for Muslims in India

Since the Constitution bars providing reservations on the basis of religion, there are several Muslim communities who have been recognized as OBCs owing to their backwardness. The Centre and state governments, have different lists of communities under which they are provided reservations under the OBC quota.

Several Muslim communities in India get reservations in the Central OBC and several state OBC lists. According to a 2005 National Sample Survey Organisation survey, Muslim OBCs constitute around 41% of the total Muslim population.

Kerala: has OBC reservations for the entire Muslim community (8% in educational institutions and 10% in government jobs).

Tamil Nadu: provides reservations to close to 95% of Muslim communities.

Bihar: has bifurcated OBCs into backward and most backward classes and most of the Muslim communities fall under the most backward category.

Karnataka: Out of the 32% of reservations carved out for OBCs in the state, a sub-category comprising 4% was reserved for all Muslims. However, the BJP government struck that down and distributed the 4% among Vokkaligas and Lingayats, the dominant Hindu castes.

Where BJP stands

The BJP has had a standard response to attempts by several non BJP-ruled states that attempted to roll out religion-based reservations. The BJP has held that reservations cannot be given to an entire community on the basis of religion.

The move to include Muslims in the caste census is set to benefit the BJP which has been wooing the Pasmanda Muslims for some time now. With an overwhelming majority of Muslims in India believed to be Pasmanda Muslims (over 70%), their inclusion in the OBC category will give them significant representation on the basis of their backwardness.

This development is also being viewed by political experts as a bid to splinter the Muslim vote bank that is believed to have traditionally voted as a bloc.

Besides, the BJP has often raised the issue of lack of representation of Pasmanda Muslims in various facets and hopes that a caste count will help this community climb up the hierarchical ladder once there is concrete data on their numbers.

Largely seen as a backward community, the BJP claims that Pasmanda Muslims have been long ignored in the social and political arenas. Even the All India Muslim Personal Law Board has no Pasmanda Muslim representative on it.