Indian Muslims: Varieties of Discriminations and What Affirmative Action Can Do

Christophe Jaffrelot () and Kalaiyarasan A.
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Christophe Jaffrelot: CERI-Sciences Po/CNRS
Kalaiyarasan A.: Brown University

Chapter 23 in Handbook on Economics of Discrimination and Affirmative Action, 2023, pp 543-564 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Social inequalities are found to have risen in India. Religion is one such axis of inequality. Muslims – the largest minority in India – is its first victim. The Sachar Committee Report (SCR) submitted in 2006 showed that Muslims were on the margins in terms of political, economic, and social indicators and that their average condition was comparable to, or even worse than, the country’s backward communities including Dalits in certain indicators. The condition of Muslims since then has only worsened in the context of Hindu majoritarianism. However, Muslims are differentiated by region. They still fare better in development indicators in South India vis-à-vis the rest of India. This is partly due to the implementation of affirmative action schemes for Muslims in the South: Muslims do better where they are given reservation and lost to others including SCs and OBCs where they are excluded from positive discrimination framework. In South India, policies of affirmative action work better where they are supported by complementary politics and policies. The case of Indian Muslims enables us to engage with the prevalent contention around religion being the basis for affirmative action, whereas class, caste, and gender have assumed to be the only legitimate claimants.

Keywords: Affirmative action; Muslims; Education and Inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/978-981-19-4166-5_26

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