brihaspati wrote:ravi_ku wrote
For example in hyderabad, until recently there was not much difference in social condition of hindus and muslims. Yet the MIM(a clone of Mulayam, except muslim at head) was the party in power. Wouldnt kerala's example with 85%+ more literacy be the same? These are examples from India. I am sure we can give many more from outside too.
I am writing slightly extensively here - for I believe that the MIM case would be illustrative of the background to many of the myths about IM being proposed here.
MIM derived its influence by reviving the myths of "police action" during the incorporation of the Nizam Shahi by Indian troops, of course conveniently suppressing the corresponding narratives of activities of the "rajakars" in the lead-up to the Indian military action. However, its revival was only allowed when the Congress began to face the spectre of communist gains.
Ratna Naidu notes, "As in the case of all feudal cities, its growth was propelled by the constant appropriation of revenue from the peasantry by the royalty and the nobility, who spent large chunks of it on building palaces and making their lives more luxurious. The city thus owed its development largely to the presence of its ruler and his nobles. The major sources of employment were linked to the feudal administration. There were feudal privileges like jagirs, mansabs, and imams as well as government and quasi-government posts in the revenue, civil, judicial, police, municipality, city improvement, education and ecclesiastical departments.. . . The city of Hyderabad was thus primarily an administrative centre. It had no self-generating, autonomously growing economic base and its growth was propelled by the exogenous factor of surplus extraction from rural fiefdoms." [Naidu, Ratna. Old Cities, New Predicaments - A study of Hyderabad. New Delhi: Sage, 1990]
The feudal aristocrats as well as the few big industrialists who were essentially hand-picked by the State were mostly Muslim, as were the majority of high and low-ranking government servants. Moreover, majority of the Hindus recruited into the administration, were not from the majority native Telugu-speakers, but belonged to the immigrant Kayasth and Khatri communities from North India who dressed and dined closer to Islamic fashion, compared to the Telugu population. Offiicial language of the Nizam administration, Urdu, was not popular among native Telugu-speakers.
This elite Muslim and immigrant Hindu "minority" lorded as the ruling class, and the state saw to it that "poor Muslims" got a share in the extraction of surplus, infused Hyderabad with "a distinctive and deliberate Islamic tinge," [ Smith, Wilfred Cantwell. "Hyderabad: Muslim Tragedy." Hyderabad: After the Fall. ed. Omar Khalidi. Wichita: Hyderabad Historical Society, 1988, 3-4.] many of Hyderabad's Hindus felt alienated by the dominance of Muslim and immigrant elites. [Varshney, Ashutosh. Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life.]. This led to the formation of a branch of the Arya Samaj, and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, (in the 20's and 30's) then claimed to be a "non-political, cultural-preservation organization".
The Hyderabad state Congress, (later tied to the National Congress) was formed in 1938 who publicly set the dual aim of wrenching of power from local autocrats and the ejection of the British Raj from India as "interwoven". The composition also reflected the demography of Hyderabad state more than the Nizam's administration, abecoming therefore more "Hindu". It was banned by the Nizam within months and arrested their leaders. The satyagraha movement was taken up by the Hindu Mahasabha and the Arya Samaj. According to Varshney - the Nizam's backing of the MIM along with his decision to ban Congress, was "epoch-making. It shaped Hindu-Muslim relations for decades to come".
During the tussle over accession, an armed militant wing of the MIM known as the 'Razakar' gained strength in Hyderabad. It was created by MIM leader Qasim Razvi, a "fanatically communal lawyer.. ..ostensibly [as] a sort of Home Guard to counteract Communist depredations, but in fact a major private army" whose purpose was to "fight to the last to maintain the supremacy of Muslim power in the Deccan." The Razakars were financed by the Nizam created an atmosphere of terror among Hyderabad's Hindus, and partially justified their actions by claiming that their victims were communists. [Smith, Wilfred Cantwell. "Hyderabad: Muslim Tragedy."] Muslims critical of Nizam's stance were branded as traitors by both the Razakars and the government. One observer, self-described as 'one of the seven Muslims who had openly advised the Nizam to accede to the Indian union,' described "At many places they had looted the property and burnt the houses of Hindus. At some places they had killed them. General harassment of Hindus was spreading. Whenever the Hindus went from one place to another they were searched by Razakars. Some times their valuables were taken. Panic-stricken but mostly well-to-do Hindus were rushing across the border. Razakars had taken the law into their own hands and were searching the luggage of every Hindu in trains. At this time some Hindus traveled in Muslim garb." [Mirza, Fareed. Pre and Post Police Action Days in the erstwhile Hyderabad State: What I saw, felt and did", 1976]
After accession, the Jagirdari Abolition Regulation of 1949 removed the sources of revenue for the elite. Large numbers of Muslims, many of whom were previously employed as servants of either the government or feudal gentry or as soldiers in the Nizam's military forces, became unemployed. The proficiency in Urdu, became a disadvantage in when English became the medium of instruction in Osmania University and Telugu, the majority language became official state language. Most elite and middle class Muslim fled to Pakistan, leaving the inner city open to in-migration from outer regions of both poor Muslims and Hindus. The economic deprivation was equally suffered by both communities and not just the Muslims who settled in the inner city.
The leader of the Razakar movement, Qasim Razvi, was arrested during the police action of September 1948. His pleadership of the MIM prior to Hyderabad's accession to India associated MIM with an anti-accession-ism. MIM became defunct for many years after accession. CPI had been gaining strength here and in the first state legislative assembly elections for Andhra Pradesh, they got 31% percent of the votes polled, second only to the Congress's 39% percent. [Wright, Theodore Paul Jr. "Revival of the Majlis Ittihad-ul-Muslimin of Hyderabad." Hyderabad:
After the Fall, ed. Omar Khalidi.] The success of the CPI here was because of CPI's representing itself as champion of "minority" cause. In September of 1957, Qasim Razvi's 9 year jail-term ended. Before leaving for Pakistan, the Congress government allowed him to reorganize the leadership of the MIM and restore the dormant party once more under Abdul Wahid 0waisi. [Theodore Paul Wright]
The MIM revived quickly, and in the first municipal corporation elections after their revival, MIM nominees won 19 of the 30 seats that they contested out of 64 total seats in the city. The MIM set out to reclaim for Muslims many of the rights and privileges that had been lost during the dismantling of the Nizam state, including the "securing of a
'legitimate place' for the Urdu language"; "proportional representation for Muslims in scientific and technical education institutions and on Public Service Commissions"; "high posts for Muslims in defence and police"; "restoration of mosques, dargahs and other properties of Muslims occupied after the 'police action"'; and "true representation for minorities in the legislatures." [MIM election manifesto of October 1961 quoted in Theodore Paul]
It was this consolidation of Muslim vote that has been seen as the boost behind the Jana Sanghas rise by several researchers. [Note that the Muslim vote consolodation came before and not after "Hindu" reaction/consolidation]
It is like TSP talking against terrorism !