[Reader-list] Irshadul Haque--Muslim Dalits Denied Justice

[Yogi Sikand]

*Muslim Dalits Denied Justice*

* By **Irshadul Haque*

* *

*A* number of people are attending a unique marriage ceremony, being held in
a public space in a remote village in central Bihar. The bride and the
bridegroom move around the fire, a Hindu religious symbol, supervised by a
Pandit who recites Vedic mantras. The relatives and friends of the couple
are seated around them. As soon as the bride and the bridegroom complete the
seventh round of movement of fire, the priest declares, 'Now you are
attached with the unbreakable bond of marriage. You are now a couple
according to the Hindu religion'.

But shortly after, the situation takes a new turn and the environment
changes like a scene from a traditional Indian drama. The same bride and the
bridegroom are seated clandestinely in a locked house with only a few near
relatives with them, under the supervision of a Qazi, a Muslim priest who is
responsible for performing Muslim marriage ceremonies. The Qazi recites some
verses of the Quran and then asks the bridegroom in the presence of three
witnesses, 'Do you accept this girl as your life partner'?  The bridegroom
replies, 'Yes, I accept'. The Qazi declares the nikah, the Muslim marriage,
to have been completed and the couple to have been legally married under
Islamic law.

Is it possible for a person to be follower of Hinduism and Islam at the same
time, particularly in such a society like India, where one's religious
identity is given such importance? Why did this couple follow the marital
rituals of both religions?

In fact, as it emerged, the family of the bride and bridegroom used to be
Muslim. However, they found that certain constitutional rights and benefits
are reserved by law for Dalits or members of 'low' caste or socially
marginalised communities, like themselves, only if they declare themselves
officially as Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist. Hence, in order to be able to access
these rights, the couple had a formal Hindu marriage, declaring themselves
as 'Hindus'.  The head of the family, who is in his early sixties, also
changed his Islamic name, and adopted a Hindu name. His wife did so too,
after formally declaring herself a Hindu. She keeps pictures of Hindu
deities in her sitting room, so that outsiders think of her family as Hindu,
which she says she is not. If the officials come to know that she is wrongly
claiming to be a Hindu, the family will be denied all Scheduled
Caste-related benefits.

A vital question is that if they have declared themselves as 'Hindus', why
did they follow the Hindu as well as the Islamic way of marriage? Why did
they not follow only the Hindu way, as they had declared themselves 'Hindu'?
Why did they follow the Islamic way of marriage clandestinely, whereas they
got married the Hindu way in public? I asked this question to Dr Ejaz Ali,
head of the All-India Muslim Morcha, a Patna-based organisation working for
marginalized Muslims. He explained it as a result of economic compulsion,
although, he said, the couple still were emotionally attached to Islam,
evidence of which was the fact that they had also married the Muslim way
clandestinely. As he put it, "By officially declaring themselves as Hindu
Dalits in public, although still retaining their affection for Islam, these
poor people can get special constitutional rights to government employment
and reservations. But as Muslims they cannot'.

This family belongs to the Nat caste. The Nats are considered to be
'untouchables' by caste Hindus. They are an impoverished nomadic community.
Many of them survive through begging. There are both Muslim as well as Hindu
Nats. The Nats were traditionally treated as 'untouchables' and so many of
them converted to Islam over the centuries, to escape caste oppression and
in search of social equality.  After embracing Islam, the Muslim Nats
changed only marginally, in terms of religious beliefs, but their social,
economical as well as educational background remained the same.

As a Muslim, the Nat groom referred to above had been observing various
Islamic rituals. But one day he formally declared himself a 'Hindu', because
unlike Muslim Nats, Hindu Nats are recognised as a Scheduled Caste by the
state and can, accordingly, benefit from various government programmes and
schemes, which Muslim Nats are legally denied, simply because of their
religion .Hence, the groom's conversion was tactical, not because of any
religious reason, but simply in the hope of some economic advancement. The
man's wife thinks that the law is iniquitous. 'If our brethren, the Hindu
Nats, can get special constitutional rights and on that basis can get
employment, then why not fellow Nats who are Muslims?. We are equally, if
not more, poor than them', she asserts.

According to a special provision in article 341 of the Indian Constitution,
'untouchable' or Dalit communities, termed as Scheduled Castes (SCs), get
several special rights, including reservations in education, employment and
membership of Parliament as well as states assemblies. But this special
right has been extended to only those who declare themselves to be Hindus,
Buddhists or Sikhs, while Muslim and Christian Dalits are denied these
rights.

As Ejaz Ali argues, "This constitutional provision compels Hindu Dalits not
to embrace Islam or Christianity. If they do they would lose the special
constitutional rights as well as several other benefits given by the states
and the union government."  On the other hand, as the case of the Nat couple
shows, many Dalits who had historically converted to Islam feel that it is
better to declare themselves as Hindus and thereby access special
constitutional rights for Scheduled Castes'. As Ali Anwar, a veteran
journalist and member of the Rajya Sabha, who has written several books on
the socio-economic condition of marginalized Muslims, puts it, "This
constitutional provision is a violation of the Constitutional principle of
secularism'.

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Irshadul Haque is a social activist and writer based in Bihar. He can be
contacted on irshadulhaque786 at googlemail.com
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