Individuals, as well as organisations, see the Mandal Commission Report in the same manner as the proverbial six blind men of Hindustan saw an elephant and whose views on the shape of the animal were partly right and wholly wrong. | am a Muslim no doubt but | have penned this article not from a communal point of view but as a student of Muslim minority psychology. | have grappled with the intricacies, profundities and also the idiosyncrasies of the Commission’s Report with an open mind and made an academic and objective study of the reactions of the Muslims about the Commission’s recommendations. Hence, at the outset, tile psychology of the Muslim minority is analyzed.
No religious minority anywhere in the world really feels secure and accepted. It is but natural for no dissatisfaction- proof social system has been so far » evolved to accommodate such dissatisfied groups in a society. The Negroes in America, the Copts in Egypt, the deviationists in communist countries and Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh were and are dissatisfied and afraid for their own reasons. Indian Muslims too are dissatisfied and worried that they might gradually and ultimately become second class citizens in their own motherland. This dissatisfaction and tear have not gripped them overnight but it ‘has been there ever since the question of reservation was decided adversely against them by the Constituent Assembly in 1949. The Constituent Assembly decided in 1949 to do away with the separate electorates but retained the reservation of seats for Muslims on the basis of population for a period of ten years. Unfortunately, after 2 years, the framers of the Constitution-chose to unsetile what had been amicably and sagaciously settled. They took away what had been conceded and guaranteed to them. A careful and dispassionate _ Study of the Report of the Advisory Committee on Minorities presented by Sardar Vallabhai Patel and the discussions on it will throw ample light on the subject. ‘Since what could not be cured had to be nobly endured by the Indian Muslims though they resurrected the demand for reservation now and then, here and there. The murmuring was so feeble that it could be ignored and forgotten easily. Today for the Muslims the recommendations of the Mandal Commission appear to be a manna and hence their vociferous participation in the hullaballoo is but an eruption of a volcano long suppressed.
Muslims support caste criterion; “Caste” is the core of the Mandal Report and the root cause of the conflicting opinions on its recommendations. It would be sheer hypocrisy not to admit the fact that those who cry aloud know the least about the real or. imaginary “inequities” of caste. Their knowledge comes not from direct and unbiased study and Dalit Voice research but from indirect caricatured and exaggerated presentation of the issue by films — documentary and commercial — literature issued by vested interested political and religious groups and further buttressed by newspaper reports about the atrocities of one community on the other. Therefore, the subject was discussed with several Muslims — leaders as well as commoners, installments and ignorant Sia. Some of the questions put to them are: Is caste oppression in India a myth or a reality? have educational and employment opportunity and economic prosperity or adversity any bearing on Casie? Is the status of the Muslims progressively worsening? The answer is in the affirmative. The subject was debated with non-Muslims also, who were questioned as to whether they felt that reservations, as recommended by the Commission, constituted any/or perpetuated an evil? Most of them honestly admitted {though they would not say so openly) that caste has been, is and will be a significant factor in the country, talks about secularism notwithstanding
Yet another argument of the Muslim is: why not treat caste discrimination as a sort of positive and constructive discrimination even as itis accepted as a successful method to uplift those section of society which suffer disadvantages owing to their sex? To substantiate their point, they refer to the case of reservation of jobs in local government and civil service for the Blacks and the Asians in Britain, which initially disturbed the hornet’s nest but eventually the opposition died down when the justice of the measure was realized and appreciated. Similar was the case of America and Europe. Muslims are pained that the members of the “majority community” are making a mountain out of a molehill. Instead of implementing the recommendations of the Commission on an experimental basis, rejecting them would be unsuitable or detrimental to the interests of the minorities or to the country. The findings of this study are that the there is consensus of opinion approving the recommendations of the Commission — may be with slight modifications.
