It is a sign of our times that the success of just 44 youths from the Muslim community among a total of 829 recommended for induction into the nation’s civil services has been projected as ‘UPSC Jihad’ by a TV channel. But it is equally comforting that the venomous propaganda has not gone unchallenged. The national conscience has been pricked. While responsible sections of the media have countered the canard, the courts have intervened to stop the virulent campaign.
For a minority community that forms 14% of the population, garnering 5% of positions in the civil services is no great piece of news. But it does constitute a leap for the community which has had just about 2.5% of representation in the elite services, nicknamed the ‘steel frame’ of the nation, since Independence. Two more features stand out. First, the success level has been maintained since 2016. Secondly, the rise has been registered during the very same years that the BJP has been ruling at the Centre and the party has been spreading its wings across the nation. Voices raised from several platforms within the community now acknowledge that the alleged discrimination against Muslims is imaginary and nothing in the system bars their entry merely on the basis of religion. If one is capable, has the talent and shows promise, the selectors are fair and do not wear any coloured glasses. It was Kashmiri youth Shah Faesal who topped the civil services exam in 2009. Last year, it was Junaid Ahmed, a boy from Jamia Milia Islamia, who got the third rank. 2016 was an exceptional year of success when 50 Muslim candidates got through the civil services selection and 10 of them figured among the 100 toppers.
A noticeable shift has been in evidence among Muslim youth for several years now. They are no longer attracted by the emotive ‘Islam in danger’ rhetoric frequently raised from religiopolitical platforms. They realise that there is much good in educating themselves, enhancing livelihood prospects and participating in nation-building rather than engaging with religious zealots.
There have been concerted efforts to groom, polish and prepare young Muslims for civil services, offer them the enabling factors (coaching, scholarships, food and hostels) to succeed academically and in competitive exams. Jamia Milia Islamia’s Residential Coaching Academy and Zakat Foundation of India have focused on picking the sharpest minds and enabling them. Most of these civil services successes come from these two organisations from Delhi. Marginally, Jamia Hamdard, Delhi, and the Central Haj Committee in Mumbai, too, have chipped in. But it is not just Muslim candidates, non-Muslim candidates of these academies also figure in good numbers among the successful candidates. And let it not remain unsaid that a considerable amount of the funding comes from the Ministry of Minority Affairs. Is there scope then to suspect that jihadis are being trained from these funds?
Existing resources within the community have also been mobilised at several levels to coach the youth for competitive exams that could make them reach positions of excellence and leadership. Take the example of the success of ‘Rahmani-30’, a programme initiated by Wali Rahman, a former Speaker of the Bihar Assembly. The centre, headed by Abhayanand, a former Director General of Police, Bihar, has enabled 302 youths to crack the IIT-JEE in the last 12 years.
In Jodhpur, a group of educational activists were able to develop their institutions into Maulana Azad University, all with the help of monthly revenue of Rs 15 lakh coming from the Takia Chandshah Waqf Shopping Complex. The founders of the Marwar Muslim Educational and Welfare Society began their work with a school in 1987. According to the chancellor of the university, Atique Ahmed, today it has 30,000 students and 700 staff members, around 50% of both being non-Muslims. Even more interestingly, 35% are women in a state where the average age for marriage of girls hovers around 15. The same group has set up a 200-bed Mai Khadija Hospital and, more surprisingly, a ‘Gaushala’ for abandoned cattle. Should the plurality of the beneficiaries and the diversity of roles be appreciated or demonised?
Closer home in Karnataka, the Dargah of Khawaja Bandenawaz in Kalaburagi has unveiled a university in the historic city in recent years. At least a dozen mosques and dargahs in Bengaluru run free dialysis units for anyone without means, regardless of faith.
The proof that forces of reform and rejuvenation are taking precedence over rhetoric and reaction is being witnessed during the battle against the raging pandemic in Bengaluru, too. ‘Mercy Mission’, an umbrella organisation of 19 NGOs, a majority of them Muslim organisations, reached out to the poor and the indigent, migrant and stranded labourers, with ration kits and food packets worth over Rs 7 crore between March 25 and August 31. The organisers were clear in their mind that the best antidote to bigotry was to be proactive during a catastrophe like this, regardless of the faith and community of those in need of help. They also acknowledge that they were nudged into action following hate-filled outpourings by certain right-wing TV channels over the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz, which was aimed at tarnishing the image of the community. This change in the language of Muslims’ response to what’s happening around them should be seen as a breaking of fresh ground in the ongoing conversation on secularism and the idea of India, not as some conspiracy against the nation and Hindus – cleverly named ‘Love Jihad’ one day, ‘UPSC Jihad’ on another.
These stirrings of change are welcome and send out positive signals that confrontationist stances and rhetorical positions serve no purpose in a plural society. It is better to build bridges than to erect walls. Yet, the fact remains that the battle against the ‘othering’ of some has to be fought by all Indians. Unless that is done, each of the social components amongst us might be a future candidate for demonisation and targeting.
(The writer is a Bengaluru-based
journalist)