Author: Jaya Jaitly
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: June 2, 2007
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/32470.html
Introduction: If the Sachar Committee had
studied the preferred occupations of Muslims, it'd have come to different
conclusion
The Sachar Committee report sadly looks as
if it formulated a premise and then created instruments to find empirical
data suiting a pre-ordained picture. This only adds to the unfortunate set
of faulty premises that fuel needless disaffection between communities. The
Sachar report also makes its assessments through a 'class' measure of achievement.
By presenting data through its refracted glasses, it plays into the hands
of elements with divisive versions of secular/communal politics. To address
the report of the Committee, and to create an integrated society, what was
sorely needed was the statesmanship of the confident. What we have instead
is the politicking of the insecure. Thankfully, the National Sample Survey
Organisation findings have put things on a slightly more even keel by finding
Christians worse off than Muslims in certain areas, and unemployment among
Hindus and Muslims differing by only 0.5 per cent.
In its search for material to bolster its
politics, the Sachar Committee misses some important facts that could present
a more accurate, and in some ways, happier picture. Did the Sachar Committee
study the preferred occupations of Muslims and how they were performing in
their jobs of preference? Was there a comparison made with Hindus in the same
occupations to observe whether general economic conditions applied to both
or whether religion played a part? Did they ask the respondents whether they
rigorously attempted to qualify and apply for jobs in which they are today
found under-represented by the Sachar Committee? If so, were they subjected
to neglect, discrimination or unjust rejection? Most importantly, did a large
number of Muslims actually wish to be in the Armed Forces, the bureaucracy,
or other such establishment-oriented professions or did they have a different
set of skills and preferences?
Look at some ground realities. Mughal rule
brought an influx of highly skilled artisans and craftsmen who fused their
talents with their Hindu counterparts. Since those times, Muslim communities
like the Chipas, Ansaris, and Khatris have associated themselves at all levels
of textile production, from dyeing to handblock printing, embroidering and
weaving. There would be no fabulous Varanasi brocades or the famed Ajrakh
prints of Kutch today without Muslim master craftsmen who have continued to
work and build upon their ancestral skills. Maqboolbhai of Resham Silks has
not just nurtured on age-old traditions but has developed fine pashmina weaving
and silk-wool brocades in Varanasi. He has also established a school for 1,500
girls. Spectacular fabric woven out of peacock feathers is sold at Rs 1,500
per metre and goes to Saudi Arabia. Master weavers supply all the Tibetan
monasteries with their shimmering gyaser cloth. Of course, at the low end,
both Hindu and Muslim weavers are equally miserable with market changes, power
cuts and fluctuating yarn prices.
In Bhadohi, UP, a majority of carpet exporters
belong to the Muslim gentry who live in palatial houses. Their carpets are
woven by extreme backward caste Hindus and Muslims alike. Both suffer from
exploitation because of low or delayed wages. The anti-child labour campaign
crippled this industry across the board. In Ujjain, a Hindu temple town, Majid
of Sajida Batik Arts is one of four enterprising brothers whose batik textile
workplace is a flourishing business employing over 40 lower-caste Hindus,
each paid Rs 3,000-4,000 a month.
In Kutch, the legacy of Mohamadbhai Siddiquebhai,
the eminent ajrakh block printer, is continued by his three sons, all national
awardees like their late father. One of the brothers, Ismailbhai, has a doctorate
for his superior knowledge of vegetable dyeing from a British university.
After the 2001 earthquake, they have rebuilt their lives and international
clientele with better facilities from the Gujarat government and Jamait-e-Hind
in a new village they named Ajrakhpur. Shamshad Hussain, a master wood carver
of Pilakhuwa in UP, has passed on his skills to his sons who too have won
national awards. They are invited all over the world for exhibitions. Did
the Sachar Committee think of checking the national awards roster to see how
many Muslim craftsmen and women have been honoured?
I labour on to make a point that goes beyond
craftsmanship. The Sachar Committee should visit the Capital Nursery under
the Safdarjang flyover in Delhi. The proprietors have been in the nursery
business for over 27 years. Apart from their beautiful plants they love to
show a photo album of their home in western UP with its mango groves, cultivated
lawns, artificial streams and duck ponds. They are wealthy, proud, hard-working
and self-made, like any Indian should strive to be. Would the Sachar Committee
ask why they did not join the army? But alas, all these talented and enterprising
Muslims would be among the Sachar Committee's statistics of those who did
not make it to the 'mainstream' world.
The writer is former president, Samata Party
