Muslim backward groups have long had sub-quotas in reservation regimes designed by southern states. As the debate on Muslim reservations takes centre-stage, a look at the existing patterns of inclusion and categorisation
The overwhelming majority of India?s Muslim population belongs to the same castes/communities which have been subsequently classified as Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Backward Classes (BCs) among Hindus. Socially advanced Muslim communities constitute a small minority.
In the country?s north, the groups that moved to Islam were mostly artisans and other ?occupational? communities. In the south, conversions were mainly from the ?untouchable? castes and other ?low? castes, consisting of agricultural labour etc. These Muslim groups have continued their pre-conversion traditional occupations and their low social status/backwardness continues to attach to them.
There has been some recognition by the state of these social realities based on the historic origins of Muslim society in India. It has been the practice from the beginning in reservation regimes designed in the south before Independence, and after the Constitution came into operation in the north and at the Centre, to include Muslim social groups in the lists of the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (BCs). The basis of this inclusion has been social backwardness, and not religion.
This practice of inclusion and categorisation of Muslim Backward Classes falls into at least four identifiable patterns:
n The Kerala and Karnataka pattern: In both these states, from the times of the maharajahs, Muslims have been perceived as a collectivity drawn from the ?untouchable? and other ?low? castes and included in the BC list. After the Constitution came into operation, in Travancore-Cochin/Kerala, the BCs have been sub-classified since 1951 into eight sub-categories, one of which is ?Muslim, Mappila? with a sub-quota of 12%, out of the total 40% BC quota.
In Karnataka, a few Muslim groups are included in one of the sub-categories of BCs, largely of those without assets or skills, along with a number of other communities. The rest of the Muslims were included in another sub-category. Taking note of the fact that the Muslims were not able to compete with some of the other communities in their group, in 1994, they were constituted into a separate sub-category of BCs with a reservation of 4%.
In both these states, the central list, on the basis of the advice of the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC), has excluded certain specific communities of Muslims which are not socially backward. Those who remain included in the central list constitute the overwhelming majority of the Muslim population, but the Centre has not introduced sub-categorisation of its BC list for each state.
n The Tamil Nadu pattern: Tamil Nadu?s list covers more than 90% of its Muslim population. The central list for Tamil Nadu does not include certain small socially advanced communities which the state has later included. Unlike the other three southern states, Tamil Nadu was late in introducing the categorisation of BCs; it did so only in 1989.
None of the Muslim communities were included in the sub-category of Most Backward Classes (20% sub-quota out of the total 50% BC quota). Taking note of the complaint that the Muslim groups were not able to compete with some of those in the Backward Classes sub-category, the state government in 2007 created a new sub-group of these Muslim groups in a separate sub-category with a 3.5% sub-quota carved out of the 30% sub-quota of BCs.
n The Bihar pattern: When BCs were recognised and reservation was provided for them in 1978 in Bihar, the list was ab initio divided into Backward Classes and Most Backward Classes with separate sub-quotas. The Most Backward Classes list includes most of the Muslim Backward Classes, so that they, and the Hindu MBCs, do not have to face unequal competition with the Bania castes (most of whom figure in the state list but have been excluded from the central list on the advice of the NCBC) and peasant BC castes, and have to face competition mostly with comparable artisan and other occupational castes of Hindus.
n The Andhra Pradesh pattern: Unlike the other three southern states, Andhra Pradesh had failed to recognise most of the backward social groups of Muslims till recently. Only one small group (inherited from the Madras List) and one very small social group found place in two of the four sub-categories of BCs. In 2007, based on the PS Krishnan Report and the statutory recommendations of the AP Commission for Backward Classes, the state legislature enacted legislation recognising 14 social groups and one residuary group of Muslims, specifically excluding 10 advanced social groups. Taking into account the obvious inability of the newly included social groups of Muslims to compete with castes having reservation since decades, the Act constituted these social groups into a new Group E with a 4% sub-quota (out of the total 29% BC quota). This was shortly before Tamil Nadu introduced the new sub-category of its Muslim BCs.
The Centre and most northern states are yet to adopt any pattern or model of sub-categorisation of the backward classes.
The writer, a former secretary, Government of India, has long experience in government of the identification of backward castes