Caste Among Indian Muslims: Causes And Consequences

By Masood Alam Falahi

[Excerpts from the paper presented by Masood Alam Falahi in Columbia University, New York for “Caste and Contemporary India” conference on 17th Oct. 2009]

Published on the Pasmanda Muslim Forum here

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Prior to independence of India, it was common that low caste Muslims were not allowed to cook good foods and even not allowed to choose good names for their children.

Presently there are three major categories among Indian Muslims, (1) Asharaf (2) Ajlaf (3) Arzal. Among these categories there are many sub-castes and in every category there are low castes and upper castes like Hindu caste system.

* Some 25 years ago there was a sufi “Shah Masood” (pupil of famous sufi Shaikh Abdul Qadir Raipuria) in a village Behat of district Saharanpur. He never allowed low caste Muslims to make Pakka (with cement and brick) house in his village.

* In “ Atki” , “ Hind Paddi” villages of district Ranchi in Jharkhand, the Arzal Muslims used to eat in a separate line in marriage ceremony. The same condition is in Barabanki of U.P state . One of my casteist teacher narrated the same story of his village of Azamgarh district, UP.

* Dr. Azmat Siddiqi from Centre for Women Studies of Jmaia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, told in her speech that in her village “phoolpur” of Allahabd, U.P, ashraf don’t eat food from sweeper / halalkhor community. She was against casteism and once she ate with them. Her cousins boycotted her as she ate with Halalkhor community.
* Professor Imtiaz Ahmad told me the following incident in a meeting, even he writes it in one of his articles:

“We had a Lalbegi woman come to clean the toilets in our house. She was on the best of terms with my mother and would sit for hours together gossiping with my mother. Whenever my mother would offer her pan, she would wrap her hand with her dupatta to receive it. My mother used to drop the pan in her hand, making sure that her hand did not touch the Lalbegi woman’s hand. On occasions of marriage the family would come and sit in a corner and wait until all guests had eaten and left. It would then be given food in vessels they brought with them. They did not eat the food there, but instead took it with them to be eaten at home. On sacrificial eid the family was not given any portion of the meat. It was given the intestines which were kept aside for them. It is possible that some of these forms of discrimination have changed, but there is no evidence to show that they have disappeared.

Some evidence exists to show that there is discrimination against these Muslim castes in the religious spheres. I found during fieldwork in eastern Uttar Pradesh that members of these castes did not go to the mosque for prayers and if they went they had to stand in the back rows. It has been mentioned by many observers that such groups often have their own mosques. N. Jamal Ansari notes that ‘in certain areas of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar there are separate mosques and burial grounds’ for these castes (Paper presented at the seminar on Dalit Muslims organized by Deshkal Society, New Delhi, 2004). Establishment of own mosque would call for a level of prosperity for the groups as a whole. Whether they have attained such levels of prosperity is something on which very little information exists.”

* Once I visted Nakhas Mohallah (street) of Lucknow on 30th of September 2009. This is a Muslim area. I saw a small mosque with a small madrasa, written on the mosque “Masjid-e-Rayeen” ( Mosque of vegetable sellers). In front of this mosque there is an Imam barah of Imam Baqir, belongs to Shait sect of Muslim. This small masques shows that there is discrimination against the vegetable seller caste, so they made the separate mosque.

* Dr. Ghauth Ansari writes same cases of caste based discrimination in U.P. He also adds that even ‘low’ caste Muslims are not allowed to pray in the mosque some time. They pray out side the mosque.

* The former editor of “Qawmi Morcha” Daily (National Front, Urdu News Paper) (Banaras) Mr. Tajuddin Ash’ar Ram Nagri wrote a letter to me after reading my book. He wrote that before independence of India, Muslim sweepers were not allowed to enter into the mosque in Banaras, U.P.

* In “ Desna” village of Nalanda, low castes are not allowed to sit in the first row of the mosque. Even low caste like Ansari and kalal castes do not allow Pamariya caste to sit in the first row while offering Namaz in the “Pandara” village of Lohar Dagga district.

* In “Ouchwa” the village of Gorakhpur, Upper castes wash the mosque in case somebody from low caste Muslim enters into the mosque.

* The famous news paper “Tehelka” New Delhi reports in its issue dated 18 Nov.2006 AD:

“In Bihar, the Bakkho sub-caste- formally a nomadic tribe- is held by other Muslims to be untouchables despite Islam categorically forbidding any such division… when someone in an upper caste family dies; we go to his house to condole, like we would go to any other Muslim home. But when someone from our caste dies, the upper castes people never come for the same.”

* In Rampur Bariya village of Champaran District of Bihar, a low caste groom was insulted and beaten up by upper caste Muslims because he was sitting on horse. In the same village upper caste Muslims broke the mosque built by low caste Muslims. They also burnt their houses.

* In my village there is only one graveyard and every caste has specific place for burial purpose. I don’t know the exact reason. But there are various reports that upper castes Muslims don’t allow low caste Muslims to bury dead bodies in the common graveyard for community. This is the reason low caste Muslims have separate graveyards.

* In “ Mohabbat Pur” village of Vaishali District in Bihar, Jugal Khalifa died. His dead body was not allowed by Shaikh caste to be buried in the common graveyard as he was a Nat, a low caste Muslim. Police took action and arrested many of upper caste members then only his dead body got buried.

* This is not enough, even in some places the low caste Muslims are not considered as Muslims by upper caste people. I have seen in my district Sitamarhi, Bihar, Shaikh castes consider them only as Muslim and others as non muslims. They use the term “we Muslims” for themselves and for others ‘low castes’ and used to call them with bad names like Julaha, Dhuniya, Kujda, Kasai, Nai etc.

* In some places Upper caste Muslims are taking “badhuwa Mazdoori” (work without pay) by low caste Muslims. Sometimes they have abused their women. They are destroying their houses etc.
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Read more here

Marrying for love – II

Priya* works as domestic help. She washes vessels and clothes, sweeps and swabs floors, chops vegetables and performs other housekeeping chores daily in three houses in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. In conversation, she shares her experience of marrying outside caste. Translated excerpts from an interview dated 15.07.2011. Read the first part here

We moved to the area next to one my parents were in. They would look at me but they wouldn’t talk. After I became pregnant, a year later, my father would come and talk to me. My father-in-law wouldn’t accept us. ‘They filed a complaint in the police station,’ he said, about my parents, and refused to let us into the house. Then I said, ‘I had a reason to write and give that I don’t want my parents, if I hadn’t given in writing, they would have beaten you up. Now when my parents come of their own accord and talk to me, I can’t refuse them. When I said this, he asked ‘Don’t you want your husband?’ Both of them started fighting. I said, ‘I won’t visit them if you don’t want me to but I definitely will talk to my parents.’ After my oldest son was born, they started visiting and talking. My mother-in-law would also talk a little. After a year, these problems were solved.

People appreciated that I had taken a stand at this young age. ‘Others would have been afraid and given up their love,’ people told me and started encouraging me. Friends were good to me. Only my parents’ relatives refused to accept me. They would stand on the road and talk to me but they won’t come into the house, they won’t eat, they won’t even drink water because we were SC. When we went to their house, they would take care of us. But they would never eat in our house.

My mother’s friend’s daughter was also my friend. She fell in love and ran away with her lover. They came and asked me, ‘Where is Manjula? She was your friend. Did she tell you anything?’ I hadn’t even known that she was in love. She had loved within her Parayar  caste only but they didn’t accept it. They said, ‘Why should she choose that boy?’ She refused to come home and married that boy. Her in-laws looked after her well. She started going to work and she is happy now.
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Please ask all parents to let their children marry whoever they want. Please write that very strongly. If they give their consent, there will be no problems. Most of the problems that happen in love marriages are because the parents don’t consent. Tell parents to stop clinging to caste.

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Now my oldest son is studying for his degree by correspondence. He is also a photographer in a studio. He is of marriagable age and he is also in love. We know about it. We told him about all the difficulties we faced. We told him to marry the girl we find.

After we married, there was opposition on both sides. My father-in-law chased us away. ‘Let me see how you will survive, I cannot give you food,’ he said. They caused lot of difficulties. My son says, ‘What would you have known at 15? I am 22. I can take my decisions. That girl is also 19.’ I told him, they would face difficulties. The girl is Servar caste (a Thevar sub-caste), we are SC. We cannot face any problems if they should arise. I told the girl this also. She said, ‘I can face any problems that come. I know you are SC. Its not like I  didn’t know when we were in love.’

I have told my children these things, they should know the problems I faced. The other three are in school.

If people should fall in love, they should have parental consent. Running away is difficult. You will only have the clothes on your back. My younger mother-in-law and I were pregnant at the same time. They would not make food in the morning. I would have to starve till evening. I was struggling for a few years. They did not feel that I had come away from home, that they should look after me. They felt that they should give food only when we give money. My husband was plying a rickshaw then. I was 15, working in a school as an aayah.
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Earlier work used to be divided by caste – people who wash clothes have to come only by the back door. They could not drink water in the same tumbler, employers would ask them to drink water from the tap. Now it’s not like that – people of all castes – Konar, Servar, Nadar, – all come for housework. Employers are also better now. In some places, work is still divided by caste. In the 15-20 years since I started doing housework, people have also started treating us as human beings.
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The area I lived – Ponnaandi Veethi – was an SC street only. It was supposed to be for the people who burned corpses. There was also a ‘Nadar Compound’ on the same street – the really poor people lived there, mostly SC people like Sakkiliar, Parayar, Kuravar, also Nadar and Muslim were all there – but it was called Nadar Compound only.

When we look for houses for rent, they ask for caste. SC people could only ask SC houseowners. Things are changing now. In the house I am in now, the owner is Kallar. Recently when we went house hunting, I told the house-owner that I was Nadar. That house-owner is Konar. He said ok. He knew my husband, knew he was SC. AFTER we came and set up house there, he made it a caste issue. We had to vacate the house. The older people are like that, middle-aged people like us don’t bother much. The older people cling to caste. My relatives still won’t take food from us.

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*Name changed on request

Discrimination against Adivasis in Orissa

Edited excerpts from this blog post titled ‘Oriya Vs Adivasi – Discrimination of tribal population in Orissa State of India‘ by Kartik Ekka on the Adivasis.com site

The adivasis of Sundergarh districts have been tormented and subjected to all sorts of discrimination by the same people whom they have welcomed openly into their sacred places.

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1) The first of the racial discrimination is : In many homes of Oriyas even today the Adivasis are subjected to untouchability and they are discouraged to visit their houses. They are looked down and treated as outcaste. Even today the non-christian tribals who do not practice the sarna dharam are subjected to discrimination and they are discouraged – not prevented – to visit the temples of Oriyas (of coure this is another way of preventing)

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4) The Oriyas have refused to recognise the tribal languages as the official language of Orissa, except the language Santhali (ol chicki). Even though most of the tribal languages are written in devnagiri script, instead they have pressed Oriya language maximum to the hilt. Some rogue organisations like the Nila Chakra are quite offensive to the tribal language and are hard core in pressing Oriya language.

5) One can clearly see the difference in ratios of tribals versus non-tribals in industries, which are in Rourkela as well as near Rourkela. Take the case of Rourkela steel plant – the majority of Oriyas have got jobs, nobody knows how. Majority of tribals here work as contract labours. Nobody cares what may happen if any accident happens, no trade union of whatever affliction, do not bother as majority have been dominated by the Oriyas. This trade unions oppose any sort of tribal recruitment in the executive / non-executive posts. Permanent employees also face discrimination in the times of promotion, with the majority of Oriyas getting preferences. This is the case in all sectors .

6) Tribals are discriminated in the times of job recruitment, there are many cases that the oriyas have teared off the list of employments where the tribals get recruitment. They fiercely oppose the tribals who are getting /or about to join their jobs. They even destroy their letter of joining.

7) There is also discrimination going on in schools where the schools are dominated by the Oriya teachers . The students have faced daring statements of “you quota people” or “adivasi students” which is clearly a violation of SC/ST atrocity act, but unfortunately the young students do not understand. The internal marks given to students are enjoyed by certain section of students only, after matric (ssc) many students have opted out of C.H.S.E (board of orissa 10+2) due to discriminatory marks given to students .

8 ) Atrocity cases filed against non tribals are minimum, one has to check the police records to see the truth. Many cases have come of refusal of lodging an F.I.R by the police. Tribals who are jailed stay and hope to get out miraculously as they have no means to fight the cases with no money. The judges, the police mechanisms, administrative officers all are handpicked and brought here to carry out their goals.

9) Planned displacement of Adivasis by Oriyas and pre-planned greater Rourkela development plan to settle Oriyas, plan to deschedule Rourkela and to make it a district, so that the rights of tribals can be suppressed.

10) The tribal lands have been taken by the govt to make and set up industries. How many people (tribals ) have got jobs in this private industries? Not even 5%. Instead the tribals who protest the pollution are severely dealt with by the police, even the childrens are not spared. Pre-planned crackdowns term them as M.C.C sympathisers and put them behind bars.

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Read the full post here

Caste discrimination in AIIMS

Excerpts from Anoop Kumar’s analysis of the Prof. Thorat Committee report on caste discrimination at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, published on the Death of Merit blog.

Who Killed Dr. Balmukund Bharti in AIIMS?

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Prof  Thorat Committee was constituted by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, on 12th September, 2006.  It was given the mandate to look into all matters connected with the caste-harassment and included following as its members -

1. Prof S.K. Thorat (Chairman, University Grant Commission)

2. Dr K.M. Shyam Prasad (Vice President, National Board of Examinations)

3. Dr. R.K. Srivastava (Director General of Health Services)

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About 88 percent of Dalit and Adivasi students, in their responses to Prof Thorat Committee, told that the teachers do not give them marks that they deserve in written exams and their papers are not examined properly.

The similar fate awaits them in practical and viva voice exams. The students alleged that during practical and viva voice, the discrimination is quite blatant and open. About 92 percent of SC and ST students who deposed before the Committee mentioned about casteist behaviours of faculties and told of being routinely humiliated in practicals and viva exams.

84 percent of the SC and ST student respondents reported that the examiners had asked about the caste background of the students either directly or indirectly and their grades were affected because of it.

Personal testimonies of Dalit and Adivasi students on the discriminatory behaviours of AIIMS faculties

The Committee report carries many personal testimonies from Dalit and Adivasi students on this. Two of them are as follows:

Case I (Page 23 of the report)

After the final professional examination, one of the professors asked me as to which place I came from. I told him that, I am from Ghaziabad. In front of a senior resident (doing DM in IRCH), he said that, this fellow is a bad character (badmas) and he need to be stopped from clearing the examinations. Thereafter I was continuously failed in medicine. I may mention that I had never failed in that subject during the preceding three semesters. I had also scored 60 percent marks in this course in pre-final examination.

When I checked my question paper, I felt that nobody had probably checked my examination copy. Then I repeated this examination after six months in which I again failed and also failed in subsequent examination. I kept on giving examination for next one year and finally cleared after one year. In the end I passed and cleared four papers including this paper in one attempt. This was possible because the concern doctor had gone on a leave and the examination was taken by another faculty. The repeated failure had damaged my image and affected me psychology.

Case II (Page 23-24 of the report)

The students belonging to reserve category are failed always. Last year no scheduled caste students were allowed to clear in first year final professional examination. For instance Sujo had got 70 percent in 1^st professional and 55 percent in 2^nd professional examination, but was not cleared in last professional examination. Due to this he suffered from mental depression and received psychological treatment.

Many students from first year were not cleared in the final examination. In fact those who did well in earlier examinations were kept hanging in last examination. It appeared that by not clearing the deserving SC and ST students, the institute used them as buffer, under the pretension that in any case nobody will raise any objection as there is stereotype about the under-performance of reserved category students.

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One of the transcripts of such testimonies (Annexure 3.2, page 7) belongs to the above case that clearly debunks the reasons given by the AIIMS administration for Dalit students shifting their rooms due to ‘seepage’ etc and tells us clearly on what was happening inside AIIMS hostels with the Dalit students.

Some parts of that transcript is posted below.

What are your experiences here please tell us?

My room was in shambles. So I shifted my room to 1 UG hostel but in 4-5 days my room started getting locked.

For how long it was locked?

Someone would lock it and go and then I will call my friends to get it unbolted. This continued for some time and in weekends I will go to home.

On one Saturday I had gone home and when I came back on Sunday evening a lot of abusive words were written on my door/

What was written?

It was written ‘Fuck off from this wing –bastard leave this wing’.

Did you complain?

I complained to the office in Hostel section, gave a written complaint.

Then?

There was no action. Then I went to them. Then they were called and asked why they have done this. No other action was taken.

Did they know who had done it?

I had mentioned the boys whom I suspected. I had told the probability of these boys being the culprits.

Even then they took no action?

No action was taken.

So then you were compelled to shift here?

Yes. There was always tension there … could not study

Are Dalits here more in numbers?

Yes. There are many.

Was there any physical violence?

Yes, physical violence was present when I had gone to complain again. They came to my room, when I was eating my food and manhandled me. They caught my collar and pushed me onto the bed, sir.

Was it because you had complained?

Yes sir.

Did you inform this to the administration?

Yes sir.

In writing?

Yes sir.

After that what did they do? No action was taken.

How many students are there who have similar experiences?

There are many junior students. All of them have to face all this in different ways.

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Read the entire analysis here.

More from the Death of Merit blog:

Malarvizhi Jayanth writes: “The deaths of young people, the hopes of their parents and their communities, has forced the festering casteism and anti-democracy of the ‘prestigious’ educational institution into the public realm.

Their deaths remind us again that Merit has blood on its hands, that bloody Merit is the offspring of generations of privilege and exploitation, that Merit was fed on blood.

This is why we must read these suicides as protest, why we must reclaim these lives within the struggle against caste.”

Read the full post here.

Drawing caste

These are pictures taken at an art show organised by Save the Children at Gulmohar Park, Ahmedabad, on Children’s Day in 2010. Children have portrayed the various forms of discrimination they see and face in these drawings.

The description is a set of questions that follow after this 13-year-old artist says how ashamed he feels when he is made to sit separately during the mid-day meal. "What if I was not a a dalit?"

This drawing is by a 15-year-old child labourer who picks cotton. It shows a Patel family inside the temple, while the Solanki family is standing far away.

The Patels have bigger and sturdier houses, while the Solankis have smaller ones. The well is full of water but out of reach for the Solanki community, whose women go far away to fetch water

These pictures are from vmallya’s Flickr photostream.