Dalits & Muslims: Who is worse off?

Saba Naqvi

Saba  Naqvi

A neighbour I recently ran into complained about the news: all I hear is about Dalits and Muslims and rape and protests, she said, declaring she’s going to stop reading the papers, having switched off TV news for a while now. I quite get it, if I was a typical middle class upper caste Hindu professional, who thinks she treats her staff well, I too may have been put off by protesting Dalits and constant talk of Muslims (now top of the mind because of what happened to the little girl of Kathua). I may have imagined a more peaceful eco-system, the notion of being a country of good people who do not brutalise each other but build something positive. 

That remark got me thinking about comparisons although I concede they are odious. Who, I wondered, are worse off in contemporary India: Muslims or Dalits, and to avoid additional depression I’m not even venturing to address the question of adivasis.

First, let me concede that I belong to the school of thought that had believed that the long-drawn Hindu-Muslim discourse was actually a grand diversion from the more complex but brutal realities confronted by Dalits and adivasis. The real story, largely invisible though it remained in terms of media coverage, lay in Adivasis being thrown off their lands, Dalits being historically brutalised and ostracised. I remember telling people that this Hindu-Muslim discourse is orchestrated theatre, to hide the real problems in the belly of our nation.

Now I wonder if I had it wrong or has the situation just changed? Adivasis remain the forgotten people in our narrative, but Dalits are quite organised today, articulate and forceful. If there is an atrocity or hate speech based on caste lines there is the SC/ST Act they can turn to and kudos to them for protesting loudly against the judicial whittling down of the law. What’s more, in an electoral democracy, everyone wants their votes, from the major national parties to regional parties. That is a great protection.    

Of the two national parties, the BJP does not want or seek Muslim votes and the Congress would like these votes to come their way without being seen to ask for them or more specifically, minimise photographs with the community. Both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi have either stated this or acted in ways that suggests this quite clearly. True, there are regional parties that openly court Muslim voters, but there is now a huge counter polarisation against these parties for doing just that. 

The Muslim community has different social strata and there is a historical and intellectual elite that’s produced wondrous poetry, literature and fine works of letters. There are prominent Muslims in cinema, engaged in the writing, the music composition to the directing and acting. Hindi cinema is one field where the talent of this minority has found expression. But they lag behind in every other sphere, especially government services, and there is no hope of anything like affirmative action coming their way. 

The community also excels in handicrafts, weaving, tailoring, carpentry and many make functional and beautiful things with their hands. Yet the politics that is unfolding in parts of India has only added to the sense of insecurity in the hamlets where traditional crafts persons live and work. The fact is that Muslims are either presented as a burden on the nation or they are seen as the figures against whom others must mobilise, thereby papering over traditional differences of caste. Electoral democracy, therefore, no longer provides any protection to the community as it does to Dalits. 

That is why an act of unspeakable brutality in Jammu has been almost condoned by the political class there. Although the local BJP has been attacked quite rightly for seeking to defend the child rapists/murderers, (in spite of the corrective of getting its ministers to resign) let’s recognise that the local Congress in Jammu too drinks from the same poisoned well of communal hate. The members of the bar council that protested so loudly (not for the dead child) are linked to the Congress as is the BJP MLA Lal Singh, who set off to defend the accused. He only shifted to the BJP in 2014 after a successful career in the Congress. As I said, it’s the same poisoned well of hatred.     

I, therefore, have no answers to the question that I posited at the start of the piece. Perhaps rightly so as there is no fair and just answer to such a question. In recent times we have seen visuals of Dalits being flogged, Muslims being lynched and both disturb us equally. The child horror from Jammu has however disturbed by equilibrium and penetrated my barricades.  

From a very personal perspective I have learnt to dismiss the trolling that mediapersons are subjected to. But I would like to flag the communal abuse that comes my way day in and day out. There are unprintable suggestions that are an incitement to violence because I have a Muslim name. But there is no law to address hate speech (beyond the SC-ST Act). So I just have to lump it, get over a bad day, and take it in my stride tomorrow.