By Danish Khan for TwoCircles.net,
Dr Christophe Jaffrelot spoke to twocirles.net about the book “Muslim in Indian cities – Trajectories of Marginalisation” that he co-edited with Dr. Laurent Gayer. Review of the book is here.
DK: How did you choose the cities for your book?
CJ: My co-editor and I wanted a selection of cities that would meet two criteria: they should be metropolis and megalopolis – not towns or even smaller cities – and they had to represent different regions of India. In fact, we planned to present more cities from the South and the East, including Kolkata and Chennai, but that was not possible because of the (lack of) potential contributors and also because the book was already 400 page long…
Mushirul Hasan and Dr. Jafferelot at the book launch in London on March 15, 2012
DK: How long did it take to compile the book?
CJ: We commissioned papers in 2009. They were presented at a conference in Paris in June 2010. The book came out 18 months later.
DK: What do you think are the important findings of this book?
CJ: Since the Sachar Committee Report, everybody knows that Indian Muslims are lagging behind in socio-economic terms. We wanted to examine how this evolution translates at the local level. Each chapter, therefore, had to answer two questions: where are the Indian Muslims among the local elite groups (political leaders, business milieus, bar associations …) and where do they live – in which parts of the cities (In fact, each contributor, especially in the case of megalopolis like Mumbai or Delhi had to deal with one locality only). The main findings are of two kinds: first, the Muslims are on a trajectory of marginalisation whatever the indicators and places we look at but, second, this evolution – which culminates in processes of ghettoisation in a place like Ahmedabad – is much more pronounced in western and northern cities.
DK: Safety and sense of security or protecting one’s culture are often cited for communities coming together. In your view is the coming together of communities at the expense of mixed localities desirable or avoidable?
CJ: In the book we often use the expression “(self-) segregation” to suggest that the coming together of Muslims in homogenous enclaves is not only due to the quest for safety and discrimination on the housing market, but also to the desire to share a common space for cultural reasons. As a scholar, I’m not supposed to offer personal judgement, but the interviewees whose testimonies are cited in the book make clear that they would have preferred to stay in the mixed neighbourhoods – usually old towns – where their families used to live for generations when they have had to leave. And those who stay in the old urban core also long for development since these places are not maintained as properly as they would be if they were mixed neighbourhood. Last but not least, how do you know the other and relate to him peacefully if you do not encounter him any more on a daily basis?
DK: Where do you think are the Indian Muslims headed?
CJ: It is a very difficult question. The trajectories of marginalisation we describe do not suggest a bright future. At the same time, in many places – not only in the South and in the East – we have made three observations. First, there is a formidable will to educate children in the best way – families run into heavy debts, even in a ghetto like Juhapura in Ahmedabad, to get English-medium education. Second, the economic liberalisation is perceived as a great opportunity by the still small but expanding Muslim middle class whose members consider that the state has traditionally treated them badly – something evident from the low percentage of Muslims in the PSUs and the administrations. Third, the Gulf connection is a resource that Muslims will use more than other Indian communities: the booming economies of Saudi Arabia and the UAE can help. These three developments will have interesting consequences, something contradictory. Some of them will be conducive to a modernisation process; others will have more conservative effects. That’s why we’ll have to revisit the cities studied in this book, again, in a decade or so!
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Danish Khan is a London-based journalist. He blogs at http://urdufigures.blogspot.com/