Today the Muslims of India are reeling under severe economic crisis and lack of job and business opportunities for the Muslim youth. It is needless to emphasise how important economic peace and security is to the mental and physical well-being of a people.
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Impact of Financial Uncertainty on People
There is nothing more degrading than constant financial distress and anxiety for individuals as well as for communities. The impact of continuous financial distress is that it destroys all that is good and noble in people, distorts their sense of values and breeds in them an acute sense of frustration and a perpetual feeling of injustice and eventually crushes them down to the level of backward and depressed people. Their intellectual and spiritual capabilities soon get dried up and they are rendered bereft of all creative impulse and the joy of living.
Sources of Income for Muslims before Independence
The main sources of income among the Muslims till 1947 were the following:
- Zamindari (Land-owning)
- Government services
- Higher branches of trade.
Loss of Livelihood for Muslims after Independence
The Zamindari system was abolished and to a great extent rightly too, after the attainment of independence and as far as Government services are concerned, proportion of Muslims in them is falling day by day. These two factors have brought the community on the verge of economic ruin.
A community-wise analysis of recruitments made to various Government departments after Independence of India, particularly to the Armed Forces the Police and other key services can lead to only two conclusions:
- Either the Muslims have completely migrated from India or
- Muslims are altogether an illiterate community and therefore unfit for Government employment.
Even a person having basic information about India can tell that neither of the above is true. The truth is that there is a thorough and planned systemic discrimination against appointing Muslims in Government Jobs.
It will also explain the fear of Muslims that when in due course the senior Muslim officers will retire from service, it will mean virtually the end of their representation in the bureaucratic and administrate set-up. No Muslim officer will be seen in government offices after that.
Chances of Muslim Employment in Government Offices
We are reproducing some authoritative comments and facts and figures in support of our contention, to begin with, take this extract from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s address to the All-India Congress Committee at Delhi on May 11, 1958.
“I called for statistics from the States to ascertain the percentage of minorities in the recruitments to public services. I found that the representation of Muslims was progressively declining, one of the reasons being the procedure adopted for competitive examinations that are held for recruitment to all-India services.
In these examinations insistence is laid on the knowledge of Hindi and candidates who fail to qualify in it are rejected. Question papers are also required to be answered in Hindi and candidates belonging to minority communities find it hard to come up to the standard of literary Hindi”
There is no denying the fact that Hindi was forcefully made mandatory in government competitive examinations to push Muslim candidates out of government offices.
Condition of Muslims in Government Services
It was admitted officially in the Delhi State Legislature (in 1952) that:
“The strength of Muslims in Delhi Police Force in 1946 was 1470, now it has dwindled to 56.
Since 1946 only two Muslim Constables and one Head Constable have been recruited. The total strength of the Force today is 2058.”
In other words, from 1946 to 1952, only three Muslims had been taken in the Delhi Police Force.
The speech delivered by Mr. Mahavir Tyagi, the then Union Minister of State for Defence at Aligarh Muslim University Union, Aligarh, tells the same tale. The Minister of State observed:
“The percentage of Muslims in the Armed Forces which was 32 at the time of Partition has now come down to 2”.
These extracts speak for themselves. They leave no one in doubt that there is almost no room for Muslims today in higher government services and especially in police, army and intelligence services. Though Muslims still possess the same qualities of head and heart which only a short time ago used to qualify them for highest appointments and one must also not forget that the standard of education among Muslims is also steadily rising.
One of the results of the policy of unconcealed discrimination is that Muslim youth gets frustrated in his attempts to find suitable employment in his motherland even though the Constitution of India has guaranteed equality of opportunity to all citizens whatever their caste or creed.
The Future Ahead!
The hope is bleak that the Muslims will regain the position in the country that is justly theirs. All the schemes for national reconstruction will remain incomplete if Muslims are left to rot and decay. Our message to Muslims is that they will have to produce within them an undying faith in God. They will have to cultivate the virtues of patience and steadfastness of purpose and to give a convincing proof of their worth and merit, and usefulness to the country and the nation.