What's new

India’s Muslims. Growing, and neglected.

IndoCarib

ELITE MEMBER
Joined
Jul 12, 2011
Messages
10,784
Reaction score
-14
Country
India
Location
Antigua And Barbuda
IT TELLS you something hopeful perhaps that, for all the horror unleashed when two bombs laid by presumed militant Islamists ripped through a crowd in Hyderabad on February 21st, India’s public response has been muted. The blasts killed 16 and injured 117. Both the method of the attack (bombs in metal tiffin boxes strapped to bicycles) and its location (near a Hindu temple) point to a home-grown Islamic group, the Indian Mujahideen.

Apart from a brief debate about policing and about the competence of the home minister, Indians responded phlegmatically. Terror is not novel, and bombings have grown less frequent and bloody of late. Muslims broadly, including politicians in Hyderabad, were quick to call the latest violence an assault on all Indians; Hindu politicians echoed them. Two days later, in the goat-filled lanes of Taj Ganj, a Muslim quarter in Agra, south of Delhi, the capital, descendants of workers who built the Taj Mahal cheerily said India’s faiths rub along fine. There was no reason to change now.

The moderation is encouraging, especially in the context of a steady rise in India’s Muslim numbers. An official analysis of data by religion from the 2011 census is not yet out. Any delay might be deliberate: to avoid a fuss ahead of general elections, due next year. Higher fertility rates among Muslims might be seen as politically sensitive. Private studies guess that India has about 177m Muslims, comprising 14.6% of the total population. It marks a rise of nearly 40m, or a percentage point, on a decade before. Higher fertility will ensure the upward trend continues. Overall, India’s fertility rate is falling, but among Muslims it is dropping most slowly. Old habits persist. Few Muslim women work outside the home. Contraception is not much used.

Crucially, fertility tends to fall only as poverty drops. Muslims are poorer than average and are heavily present in the big, poor, northern states. According to a study by the Pew Research Centre, India will probably have 236m Muslims in two decades’ time, on a par with Indonesia (which has the world’s biggest Muslim population). That is a lot, but is still under a fifth of India’s total population. In certain states, however, change is more dramatic. In Assam, in the north-east, Muslims now make up a third of the population, a sharp rise in the past two decades (though immigration accounts for some of it).

Where population change is fast, instability may follow. Last year 77 people were killed and 400,000 were displaced in Assam, amid clashes between Muslim settlers and Bodo tribal groups who feel their land is under threat. Still, growing populations alone did not provoke the violence in Assam. Shifting political loyalties were also a factor.

Elsewhere, resentment among Muslims may grow if not enough is done to redress their economic backwardness. No serious official effort has been made to assess the lot of India’s Muslims since the publication in 2006 of a study ordered by the prime minister, Manmohan Singh. Called the Sachar report, it broadly showed Muslims to be stuck at the bottom of almost every economic or social heap. Though heavily urban, Muslims had a particularly low share of public (or any formal) jobs, school and university places, and seats in politics. They earned less than other groups, were more excluded from banks and other finance, spent fewer years in school and had lower literacy rates. Pitifully few entered the army or the police force.

Seven years and an economic boom later, are Muslims better off? Wajahat Habibullah, who heads the National Commission for Minorities in Delhi, sees only faint reasons for cheer. Muslims in India outperform their neighbours in Pakistan on some social indicators, such as having lower fertility rates and infant mortality, and higher literacy and life expectancy.

He also sees a strong yearning among Muslims for education, including for girls, that was absent before. That matters, especially learning English, which can offer a path to better jobs at a time when employment is fading in the traditional Muslim crafts of weaving, leather and metal working, and small-scale manufacturing. The slums of east Delhi, with many Muslims, are now home to some excellent new schools for boys and girls.

Yet much else is discouraging. A new study by an American think-tank, the US-India Policy Institute, assessing progress since the Sachar report, bluntly concludes that Muslims have “not shown any measurable improvement”. Even in education, Muslims’ gains are typically more modest than other groups’.

Too many official efforts to direct help, for example by spending more on schools in Muslim districts, also fail. Funds get stolen or diverted to non-Muslim recipients, Mr Habibullah says. Just as telling, far more is done to tackle rural poverty, with job-creation schemes, subsidies for farmers, and prices set above market levels for much farm produce. Muslims, predominantly in the cities, suffer relative neglect.

Things could yet change, through politics. The ruling Congress Party has traditionally relied on the votes of villagers, as well as on the unwavering support of Muslims, to flourish at elections. But if India’s biggest party takes Muslims for granted, they will leave in search of other parties where they can have political clout. In Uttar Pradesh the ruling Samajwadi Party has peeled away Muslim votes. Elsewhere, as in Hyderabad, Muslims now fall in behind parties which appeal explicitly to their interests. Better political organisation may, in time, bring economic reward.

India
 
very nice thread @IndoCarib.

i have read that muslim poulation in india will reach about 18% in india till 2050,and after that it will stabilise(hindus will be around 70).

so at max,we can expect it to stabilise at 20%.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I dont believe Muslims are only 14.6% or 177 million in the total population.

Its more like greater than 200 million on a conservative estimate to 250 million upper threshold.

14.6% is according to private census done in 2011. Where is the govt census?? India always has shown Muslims as only 160 - 170 million and never done an honest census of muslims!
 
I dont believe Muslims are only 14.6% or 177 million in the total population.

Its more like greater than 200 million on a conservative estimate to 250 million upper threshold.

You are right, on one hand GOI says the population of Muslims are 14.6% (177 million) on the other hand they also say India has more Muslims than Pakistan. Pakistan's population is 180 million but that is probably an old estimate so I would say around 190-200 million by now so Indian Muslims are probably more like 200-220 million by now.
 
14.6% is according to private census done in 2011. Where is the govt census?? India always has shown Muslims as only 160 - 170 million and never done an honest census of muslims!

Govt census 2011 will be released soon.

You are right, on one hand GOI says the population of Muslims are 14.6% (177 million) on the other hand they also say India has more Muslims than Pakistan.

GoI does not claim that India has more muslims than Pakistan.
 
You are right, on one hand GOI says the population of Muslims are 14.6% (177 million) on the other hand they also say India has more Muslims than Pakistan. Pakistan's population is 180 million but that is probably an old estimate so I would say around 190-200 million by now so Indian Muslims are probably more like 200-220 million by now.


India has the 3rd largest Muslim population after Indonesia and Pakistan.
 
You are right, on one hand GOI says the population of Muslims are 14.6% (177 million) on the other hand they also say India has more Muslims than Pakistan. Pakistan's population is 180 million but that is probably an old estimate so I would say around 190-200 million by now so Indian Muslims are probably more like 200-220 million by now.

we had more muslims than pakistan and west pakistan till 1990's now their poulation is more.

many indians still use the earlier notion.

You are right, on one hand GOI says the population of Muslims are 14.6% (177 million) on the other hand they also say India has more Muslims than Pakistan. Pakistan's population is 180 million but that is probably an old estimate so I would say around 190-200 million by now so Indian Muslims are probably more like 200-220 million by now.

we had more muslims than pakistan and west pakistan till 1990's now their poulation is more.

many indians still use the earlier notion.
 
Indian Muslims should be given an option, if they want to go to Pakistan, they should be allowed to settle in Pakistan.
 
Indian Muslims should be given an option, if they want to go to Pakistan, they should be allowed to settle in Pakistan.

Those are Indians and have no right over Pakistan because they didn't opted for Pakistan. If you don't like them do another partition and give them country but don't troll by bringing Pakistan
 
Those are Indians and have no right over Pakistan because they didn't opted for Pakistan. If you don't like them do another partition and give them country but don't troll by bringing Pakistan

Islamic Republic of Pakistan was set up for Indian Muslims. The ball will always be in the court of Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

It is obligation o part of Islamic Republic of Pakistan to cuddle any Muslims from sub continent who wants Peace.

"Shias are being attacked, shot and bombed. This is extremely serious," he said, urging the Indian government to take up the issue in international forums.

They still feel for the Brothers set apart by an artificial border.

Islamic scholars condemn killing of Shia Muslims in Pakistan - The Times of India
 
Islamic Republic of Pakistan was set up for Indian Muslims. The ball will always be in the court of Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

It is obligation o part of Islamic Republic of Pakistan to cuddle any Muslims from sub continent who wants Peace.



They still feel for the Brothers set apart by an artificial border.

Islamic scholars condemn killing of Shia Muslims in Pakistan - The Times of India

First admit that Hindus hate Indian Muslims and don't want them in India only than you can talk about responsibility of Pakistan.
 

Pakistan Affairs Latest Posts

Back
Top Bottom