THE BACKGROUND OF CASTE-BASED RESERVATIONS
Dear all Assalam alaikum
The basic need for the Muslim intelligentsia at
present is to make concerted efforts to forestall
these ignorant maulanas from interfering into every
affair of the community, whether they know it or not.
I would like to give the background of this
caste-based reservation as I and our party All India
Muslim Forum have remained deeply associated with the
issue for many years.
The backward castes(both Hindus and Muslims)
which were covered by the Mandal Commission
recommendations as implemented by the then Prime
Minister Mr. VP Singh constituted 54% of the total
population of the country, and provided 27%
reservations for them. Out of this 54% population,
Muslim backward castes comprised nearly 17%, and this
17% constituted nearly 80% Muslim population.
Immediately after the implementation of the Mandal
Commission our demand was that once 27% reservations
are provided for the total of 54% backwards, then in
consonance with the egalitarian ethos a separate quota
of 8.5% must be earmarked for Muslim backwards within
the ambit of 27%, because they( Muslim backwards) are
comparatively so weak that they cannot compete with
the mighty Hindu backwards like Ahir, Lodh and Kurmis.
I do not remember the date but we held the first
convention on this demand sometime in 94 or 95 under
the banner of All India Muslim Forum at Sahkarita
Bhawan, Lucknow. It was participated by late Maulana
Mujahidul Islam Qasmi, (then Secretary General All
India Milli Council, and later on became the President
All India Muslim Personal Law Board), Maulana Kalbe
Sadiq, Maulana Sajjad Naumani, Kuldeep Nayar, Rajendra
Puri, then West Bengal Minister, Kaleemuddin Shams,
Ahmed Saeed Malihabadi and many others. Mr. Kuldeep
Nayar vehemently opposed the very concept of
reservation for Muslims while Maulana Mujahidul Islam
Qasmi opposed the caste based reservation. Ironically
the same Maulana Qasmi after one year at the same
venue passed a resolution under the banner of All
India Milli Council, supporting the demand for
separate quota for Muslim backwards. When he was
reminded by the media that why he was supporting the
same thing which he had opposed under the banner of
Muslim Forum. His reply was that ‘All India Muslim
Forum President Mr. Nehaluddin and General Secretary
Mr. M.K Sherwani are more intelligent than us. They
had understood the basic implication a year ahead of
us’.
To clarify it was not the demand, but the
government had already provided it under Mandal
Commission. The only demand was to ensure that the
Mandal Commission recommendations do not remain a
mirage and fraud for Muslim backwards. Meanwhile in
the series of Judgements the Honourable Supreme Court
had laid down that a separate quota within the ambit
of 27% reservations can be fixed only through
government G.O. and there was not requirement for any
legislative measure. Dozens of times our delegations
met with Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati during
their respective regimes with the same demand, but
they did not concede it. Consequently, the government
on the one hand claims that the Mandal Commission
reservations have covered about 80% Muslim
population, while the reality is that the entire
benefit of 27% reservations is grabbed by Ahir, Lodh
and Kurmis, because Muslim backwards are comparatively
weak and are unable to compete with the former .It is
the reason that the Supreme Court itself has approved
and simplified the norm for the fixation of quota
within quota so that all the castes, Hindu or Muslim,
covered within this ambit of 27% may become equal and
equitable beneficiary of this egalitarian measure.
Let these ignorant Maulanas know that it is not a
caste-based reservation or the demand for that.
Instead it is to ensure the benefit to those Muslim
castes which have already been covered by the Mandal
Commission and are the glaring realities of the
society. I am sure that if these illiterate and
ignorant Maulanas release the community from their
nasty clutches, it will find its own way and its race
for better prospects may be expedited.
Dr. Mustafa Kamal Sherwani
Former President, All India Muslim Forum
Sherwani Nagar, Sitapur Road Lucknow
Presently, Dean, Faculty of Law and Shariah
Zanzibar University, Tanzania