PASMANDA MUSLIMS

1.Context

2.Who are Pasmanda Muslims?

• Pasmanda, a Persian word, means the "Ones left behind" and is used to describe depressed classes among Muslims who have been deliberately or consciously excluded.
• Pasmanda has become an umbrella identity used by backward, Dalit and tribal Muslims to push back against caste-based discrimination within the community.
• The term Pasmanda Muslim was first used in 1998 by Ali Anwar Ansari when he founded the Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz.
• Pasmandas include Dalits as of now, but all Pasmandas are not Dalits. Constitutionally speaking, they are OBC.
• But going forward, They want Dalit Muslims to be recognised Separately. 

3.Are Muslims divided along caste lines?

• Muslim society in India can be broadly classified into Ashrafs (the Noble elite or honourable ones), Ajiafs (Backward Muslims) and Arzals (Dalit Muslims).
• Ashrafs claim to be either descendant of Muslims from Arabia, Persia, Turkey, or Afghanistan (Syeds, Sheikhs, Mughals and Pathans) or upper-caste Hindu converts (Rajput, Gaur, Tyagi Muslims etc).
• Ajlafs are middle-caste converts who were into ritually "Clean occupations, they include Momins or Julahas (Weavers), Darzi or idiris (Tailors) and rayeens or kunjaras (Vegetable sellers).
• Arzals was first recorded in the 1901 census are from the lowest, "Untouchable" castes like halalkhors, heals, lalbegis or bhangis (Scavengers), dhobis (Washermen), Nais or Hajjams (barbers), chiks (butchers) and faqirs (beggars).
• While Islam does not mandate the creation of such groups these caste categories are a lived reality for Muslims across the country.

1. Those without any social disabilities, the Ashrafs
2. Those equivalents to Hindu OBCs, the Ajlafs and 
3. Those equivalents to Hindu SCs, the Arzals.

4.What percentage of Indian Muslims are Pasmanda and where do they live?

• In the absence of a caste census, no specific numbers are available.
• The Schar Committee put the share of OBC and SC/ST Muslims at 40 per cent (All India 2004-05).
• But the Pasmanda activists and scholars say they make up 80-85 per cent of India's Muslim population.
• This broadly tallies with the 1871 census that said only 19 per cent of Muslims in India were upper caste.
• "Ashraf and Pasmanda ideologues agree that an 80;20 (lower caste-upper caste) ratio is an accepted estimate. But during Partition, many Muslim elites migrated, so those numbers could be 85/15 now." according to Prof Khalid Anis Ansari.
• Ali Anwar Ansari also stated that the 80: 20 ballpark is largely agreed upon within the community. On where Pasmandas live. They are present in all states. Their names may differ, but, there are Muslims, there are Pasmandas.

5.What do Pasmanda Muslims want?

• They point out that despite their overwhelming numbers within the community.
• Pasmandas are under-represented in jobs, legislatures and government-run minority institutions, as well as community-run Muslim organisations.
• The Pasmanda-Ashraf divide stems from a feeling of being deliberately ignored amid the ruling elites' focus on Muslimness.
• Pasmandass oppose the demand for religion-based reservation for all Muslims, arguing that it ignores the unequal access to state resources within the community.
• The Major Pasmanda demands include conducting a caste census, restructuring existing reservation categories and state support for artisans, craftspersons and agricultural labourers, who are among the most impoverished of Muslims.
• Ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, several Pasmanda outfits demanded that Dalit Muslims should be included in the SC list and the OBC quota should be redesigned to create an Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs) category at the central and state levels for both most backward Hindus and Muslims.
• The Pasmandas point to the Bihar model, where a separate MBC category was created within the OBC list and most backward Muslim castes-27 as per Sachar was included in it.
• Pasmanda leaders say that including Dalit Muslims in the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is against religious targeting.
• In all their demands, the Pasmanda narrative focuses on caste and socio-economic backwardness rather than religious identity.

6.Pasmanda Movement

• The use of the term Pasmanda and the movement to ensure social justice for them gathered pace in the post -Mandal years, but these demands had been made even in the pre-independence era by the most important two Julaha (Weaver) leaders, Abdul Qayyum Ansari and Maulana Ali Hussain Asim Bihari.
• These leaders opposed the communal politics of the Muslim League and challenged the League's claim to represent all Muslims.
• These leaders were the pillars of the movement. Their other contemporaries fighting a similar fight were Maulana Atiqur Rehman Arvi (of the Mansoori community) and Mian Abdul Malik Tanapuri (of the rayeen community).
• The early leaders of the Pasmanda movement were leading an anti-colonial, anti-Ashraf, Anti-Mulim League fight.
• In the 1980s, the All India Muslim OBC Organisation (AIMOBCO) in Maharashtra spearheaded the fight for Pasmanda rights and went on to enlist the support of Bollywood thespian Dilip Kumar, a Pathan.
• The 1990s saw the rise of the All-India Backward Muslim Morcha (AIBMM) set up by Dr Ejaz Ali and Ali Anwar's Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz, besides other, smaller outfits in several states.
• Ali Anwar's book Masawat ki Jung (Fight for Equality) published in 2000 played a pivotal role in expanding the ambit of the movement beyond reservations by focusing on culture, social reform and the need to form a new identity.