By Dr Wasim Ahmad,
Thanks to God Almighty, I don’t have the latest data on Indian Muslims. I don’t have the statistics about each constituency and the population of Muslims in it. I do not have the data about the Muslim MPs and MLAs who have fought and won or lost elections so far. I don’t know which constituencies witnessed the splitting or non-splitting of their votes and how and why. Praise be to Allah that I don’t know which place can I get these and many more data from. I don’t know which places I should contact for the most reliable database on Indian Muslims. Al-hamdu lillah I don’t know the individuals who are an authority on this subject and whom I should never seek any information from.
Al-hamdu lillah I do not have the exact number of Muslim periodicals in various languages – regional and national – and the total number of their circulation as well as readership – within the country and overseas. Also, I am not aware of their impact on the society. Al-hamdu lillah I don’t know exactly which of these periodicals are the organs of which specific Muslim organizations and what is the total number of these organizations as well as their names. Al-hamdu lillah I am nobody to talk about how much pakar they have in ‘awaam. How much is the pakar of ,em>‘awaam’ is obviously irrelevant and immaterial.
Al-hamdu lillah I do not know anything about the clauses under which our Institutions are granted their minority character or are deprived thereof. Thank God, I have no idea about when the minority character has been granted or revoked over the years. I have no plans to seek minority character for any Institutions. This is because I am under the impression that the minority character is not to be sought or fought for. It is to be adopted, undertaken and discharged. The option probably lies with the person and not with the Government.
Luckily I am not sure about the total budget earmarked by the Government for the development of minorities and am not able to organize any conventions for protesting against the unutilized budgetary allocations. Happily I do not have any statistical data in this regard and am not able to assess the trend in the past few years. Not being able to do so I cannot devise any strategic plans for the next couple of years and the projected growth in certain areas. Fortunately, I haven’t read the Sachar Committee Report and haven’t convened or attended any sessions for reviewing its recommendations as well as the callous attitude that the Government has adopted towards these.
Al-hamdu lillah I am not aware of the total number of Muslims who have obtained employment through reservations and how many of them were refused. Thanks to Allah the Almighty I do not know the number of Muslim students who appeared in interviews last year and how many among them were selected or rejected. Al-hamdu lillah I do not have graphic information about the performance of Muslim candidates in the Civil Services and the trend in the last few years and the total count of Coaching Centres as well as their comparative performance.
I am very pleased that I don’t know the various strata among Indian Muslims and haven’t memorized the various names with which they are known (except the fact that we want to remove and reinforce them – both at the same time). I am not aware of the conventions of any of these categories among Muslims. Fortunately, I am not sure how many more of these strata are in the pipeline and we will be able to see them in due course of time and then include them in the statistics so that the statutory bodies could do something about them.
Al-hamdu lillah I am not aware of the exact number of graduates each year both from the ‘traditional’ and the ‘modern’ institutions from all the departments of studies. Fortunately, I could never conduct any such surveys and could not collect some very useful information about the current numbers and how it compares with the past few decades. Thanks to God Almighty I do not have an exact count of the engineers and doctors as well as scientists among Muslims and the engineering and medical colleges run by them.
Thanks to Allah the Almighty I have lost the count of Muslim political parties in India. Haven’t analyzed the latest trend in this regard and the future prospects. Happily I don’t know the names of all the political parties of Muslims. I am not aware of all those affairs which are included under the Minority Affairs, Al-hamdu lillah lah.
(The author is Dept Head of Islamic Studies, Preston University, Ajman, UAE)