Vol 5, No 01 (2017)

Ruby IJSRE Volume 5 Issue 01 January 2017 Page 6169 Volume||5||Issue||01||January-2017||Pages-6169-6174||ISSN(e):2321-7545 Website: http://ijsae.in Index Copernicus Value- 56.65 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18535/ijsre/v5i01.06

Globalization And Muslim Minority in India

Ruby

Research scholarDepartment of EducationAligarh Muslim University Aligarh E-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

This paper intends to study about the impact of globalisation on Muslim minority especially in reference to India. It will discuss the concept and areas of globalization mentioning its impact on Muslim minority. This paper will deeply account the positive and negative impact of globalization on economic, social, political and cultural status of Muslim minority in India.

Globalization is a buzz word it is differently interpreted by different people in varied contexts. People talk of globalization of culture, communication, information, media, religion, crime, social movement, environmental concerns, conflict and politics etc. So globalization may be thought of as the widening, deepening and speeding up of worldwide interconnectedness in all aspects of contemporary social life from cultural to the criminal, the financial to the spiritual.

On the other hand minorities in any society are generally those groups who live on the margins and due to prejudices and discrimination lag behind the majority group in economic, social, educational and political development.

Globalization is certainly heralding a major change in social, economic, cultural and political spheres in society which is impacting all groups’ people but in different ways. Minorities are generally educationally, financially and technically weak and have limited capacity to respond the demand of globalization. Globalization calls for production of goods and services of high quality at competitive costs. Minority are unable to cope with these demand of globalization and adversely affected in varying degrees and forms. Keywords- Globalization, Muslim minority, Cultural suffocation.

.

INTRODUCTION

This paper intends to study about the impact of globalisation on the Muslim minority in India. Due to very wide impact which globalisation has on Muslim societies and Muslim world, I am here confining my paper only to the Muslim minority in India. To define the relationship between globalisation and Muslim minority in India and on the other hand to assess the impact of globalisation whether it has positive and negative impact on the minorities status in India, we have to talk about globalisation first and also we have to see what are the areas which are covered under the globalisation. Later we have to discuss about minority. Because only after doing this we will be able to assess the relationship and impact of globalisation on Muslim minority in India.

GLOBALISATION

Ruby IJSRE Volume 5 Issue 01 January 2017 Page 6170 porous. Simultaneously power and authority have grown more diffuse involving international, transnational, regional and sub national authorities; market have become regional and even global in scope.

Globalisation is increasingly omnipresent. It is a buzz word, talk of globalisation of culture, communication, information, media, religion, crime, social movements, environmental concerns, conflict, politics and diseases. But at the heart of globalisation are the planned process of trade commerce and finance and all their which globalisation determine the direction of its incidental impact on societies.

So we can sum up that globalisation is a concept, process and above all an existential reality of the contemporary times that is pervading in all societies of the world now. It is a term which has most frequently been used and directly or indirectly affecting the destiny of people in most of the societies.

It can also sum up in four headings:

 The ever increasing power of communication  The rise of a global market place

 The apparent move towards mono culture

 Fourth what appears to be a rise in migration caused by ever increasing ease of travel, wars, other human catastrophes and environmental disasters.

MINORITIES

Minorities in any group are generally those groups who live on the margins and due to prejudices and discrimination lag behind the majority group in economic, educational, social and political development. This weak position of this group forms a vicious circle for them.

A minority group, as the term indicate a category that is differentiated and defined by the social majority, those who hold the majority of positions of social power in a society. The differentiation can be based on one or more observable human characteristics, including, for example, ethnicity, race, gender, wealth, health or sexual orientation. The term is applied to various situations and civilizations within history, despite its popular mis- association with a numerical, statistical minority. Members of minority groups are also prone to different treatment in the countries and societies in which they live, this discrimination may be directly based on an individual's perceived membership of a minority group, without consideration of that individual's personal achievement. It may also occur indirectly, due to social structures that are not equally accessible to all.

Globalisation and Muslim minority in India

Regarding the meaning of globalisation people differ. Some thought it as a threat and refusing the opportunities which it offers, while others have grabbed it as a movement providing potential for their growth and development. Even though it is agreed that globalisation is opportunistic but its benefits unevenly shared and its cost is unevenly distributed. This is truer when it is seen in the context of developing countries and its depriving minorities and marginalised communities. Many developing countries started to feel the impact of globalisation in an unbalanced and manipulated form. People have suffered from the negative impact of the development of free trade and increase economic reforms in various forms. The aggressive entry of foreign investment in the indigenous territory for infrastructure development for energy power transformations among others is made to fall to capitalist profit.

Ruby IJSRE Volume 5 Issue 01 January 2017 Page 6171 Muslim minorities in India

To country being one of the largest secular democracies of the world is committed to the betterment of the minorities. Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru said once that if India was to be a secular stable and strong state then our first consideration must be to give absolute and fair place to our minorities. However, despite good intentions on the part of the well wishers, it seems that very little could be done for the betterment of the minorities of the country especially the Muslims. Here our main aim is to focus on Muslims we would like to keep the focus on the conditions of Muslims only. Our objective is neither fault finding nor to create ill will between communities and people but to put the case of depressing section of Muslim community as well as its feeling and perceptions before the Indian masses and the leaders of the country so that they may themselves diagnose the disease and prescribe suitable measures.

Historical stigma

Before analyzing the trauma and anguish of Muslims community, it should be kept in mind that there are several factors which have contributed in the worsening of the conditions of Indian Muslims during the period of nearly sixty years. The most important among them is historical stigma. It is most astonishing even many Indians often talk of the preceding one thousand years as a dark period of slavery with disgust which includes the Muslim rule. Many of the Indians have no any soft corner for Muslims as they are the progeny of those Muslim rulers who in their opinion subjugated Indians for centuries and caused immense harm to their culture, institutions and religion. Muslims unfortunately inherited the British time legacy of communal discord between Hindus and Muslims and ironically the blame of creating Pakistan too was wholly and solely put on them. The communal riots during post partition period created ill will between minority and majority communities which in turn closed the doors for Muslims. For example the communal atmosphere that was generated after Shah Bano case which ultimately resulted in the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992 and Mumbai blast in 1993 in retaliation to the demolition of mosque worked as a fuel to fire.

The international anti- Islamic atmosphere and the terrorism emerging from certain radical Muslim countries also affected the fate of Muslims adversely. All these factors and many more finally resulted in their down fall as a consequence of which in several segments Muslims are far behind even schedule castes and schedule tribes and they feel unwanted and second class citizens in their own land.

Educational backwardness

Education is the main source of empowerment and enlightenment. Through proper and meaningful education we can round the sharp corners of one‟s personality. Without education one is dumb deaf and blind. Unfortunately Muslims have forgotten the significance of education and it can be quoted from the time of British period when the Muslims were ignorant about the importance of education and because of the attitude of that time Muslims even today lag behind in the field of education. Sir Sayyed Ahmad khan made many efforts in this regard when he realised that Muslims are lagging behind and will be lag behind if the neglecting attitude of Muslims regarding education continued and the result is in front of us in the form of Aligarh Muslim University and he faced many difficulty even at the hands of Muslims itself and the sad part of this story is that most of the Muslims still continuing this negative and neglecting attitude towards education.

This can be shown with the help of 2001 census the literacy rate among Muslims was below the national average. 25% of Muslims children in the 6-14 age groups have either dropped or have not seen the portals of learning. The dropout rate is higher in Muslims at all level of schools. The conditions of Muslims in higher secondary graduation post graduation in the field of engineering technology management and a medical field is too frustrating.

Cultural suffocation

Ruby IJSRE Volume 5 Issue 01 January 2017 Page 6172 priorities in life, how we behave, how we spend our time money and resources and how we interact with others and what our perceptions about life and death. The moment the culture and values are throttled, the groups and individuals lose their identity and uniqueness. It is highly regrettable that many Muslims strongly feel that their cultural identity is in crisis. Very few people relish seeing them in skull caps lungis, sherwanis, shirts and trousers and their ladies are generally not looked with grace in their veils and burqas. It is also astonished thing that Muslims have lost their soft and sweet smell of their mother tongue due to step motherly treatment to Urdu. The knowledge of Urdu is of no practically use to them through Urdu medium. Neither one can get job nor earn his livelihood.

Unfortunately after 9 September 2001 till 25/26 November 2008 whatever happened in the world and India in the name of terrorism and jihad tarnished the image of Muslims and Islam. Many non Muslims began to blame the whole Muslim community. It is highly frustrating to note that Muslims have lost their cultural penetration.

Some authors claim that the general reaction to globalization has been a negative or a defensive one. The key reason of the Muslims for the rejection of globalisation because they thought it as a form of surrender to a dominant, non-indigenous standpoint. Islam, a religion governed by its own set of laws, developed an alternate world view with many of the elements of globalization contradicting it. It has a powerful and cohesive community which at times acts like a cultural defence wall against the western influence. In his book „The West and the Rest: Globalisation and the Terrorist Threat‟, Roger Scruton contests that by imposing itself and its values on the entire world through the globalization process, the West is creating the conditions for conflict to occur between other cultures. It has made itself impossible to ignore and was at the very cause of an anti-western movement and an international jihad. Globalization brought face to face two very confident and incompatible ideas and the battle for dominance has been transformed into what is known as terrorism or “the dark side of globalization”.

Political marginalisation of Indian Muslims

Politics is a game of power and majority in general sense will ultimately hold the power and who is in the power can hold mobilise and manipulate the things in their interest easily. Minority lies at the mercy of the majority‟s will. The same thing is happened with the Muslim in India. Muslims feel that they are politically divided and marginalized despite being a force to reckon with they have no say in political game plan of a country. They have been living in fear and a sense of guilt for the last sixty years. The politicians have been faithfully feeding them with their choicest diet. Reservation is provided to the Hindus schedule castes purely on the basis of religion but the schedule castes from among the Christians Muslims Sikhs and neo Buddhists were not included in the category of reservation later on Sikhs and neo Buddhists were included but Muslims and Christians were excluded.

Muslims representation in parliament and states assemblies is also meagre. Only 22 mp‟s in 16 lok sabha, this time Muslim representation has hit an all time low at 22. This is the worst in the history of parliament with the previous low being in 1957 when there were only 23 Muslim M.Ps in Parliament.

Economic inequality

Ruby IJSRE Volume 5 Issue 01 January 2017 Page 6173 Also due to globalisation there has been a lack of employment opportunity in the organised sector. Though it has been claimed that after trade liberalisation in 1991 the proportion of people living below poverty line in India has come down from 36 per cent to 26 per cent, critics feel that this reduction was not really caused by any advantage of globalisation rather it is due to fudging of poverty related data by the concerned organisation. In other words economic inequality can not only be taken now a days only in economic terms but it has also taken in the name of denial of access of power, to resources, educational opportunities, to a humane existence or in short equality of existence.

CONCLUSION

Globalisation is a very big idea. We are all affected by it yet its meaning and consequences remain subjects of heated debate. As it is a complex idea, defining it is challenging. Understanding its impact is made more difficult owing to the growing velocity with which ever more things, people, and ideas move around the world.

As much as there is no consensus as to what globalisation is, it is hardly surprising that there is no consensus as to what is causing it or what its consequences are. Globalisation is said to be driven by forces as diverse as technology, market capitalism, democracy, corporate growth, transnational linkages, economic interdependence, western culture and modernity itself. The consequences attributed to it are equally diverse. Globalisation is inescapable phenomena of the modern world and its impact positive as well as negative is being felt in societies differently by various segments of societies.

The weaker sections and minorities of the society who are already suffering educationally economically culturally at the hand of majority are affected heatedly. Minorities are being generally engaged in the informal sector of the economy unable to bear the burden of globalisation. They suffer economically more than any section of the society.

Hence they need discriminatory attention of state for their empowerment to face the challenges of this global activity and with this safeguard and support themselves. Most importantly minorities should be guaranteed for ensured access to education through policy measures and they should also be financially supported so as to be able to take up any economic enterprise. Then finally we can say that minorities or specifically Muslim minorities in India can be able to succeed in isolating themselves from the adverse socio-economic impact of globalisation and also enable themselves in benefitting the opportunities offered by it.

REFERENCES

1. Ritzer, George. (2010). “Globalization: A Basic Text” A John Willey & Sons, Ltd, Publication. 2. Jogband P.G., Bansode P. Prashant & Meshram N.G. (2008). “Globalisation and Social Justice”

Rawat Publications.

3. Rehman, Habibur.(2012) “ Plight of Indian Muslims After Partition” ATLANTIC Publishers & distributors (P) Ltd.

4. Mansbach W. Richard & Rhodes Edward. (2013). “Introducing Globalisation: Analysis and Readings” SAGE Publications Ltd.

5. Siddqui. Mohd. Akhtar. (August 4, 2011).Education in India: Globalization and issues. Retrieved fromMohdakhtarsiddiqui.blogspot.com/.globalisation-and-issues-of -minority

6. V. Naidu. (2013). [PDF] Fiji: the challenges and opportunities of diversity- Minority Rights Group. Retrieved from www.minorityrights.org/.Challenges-and-opportunities-for-minority-rights

Ruby IJSRE Volume 5 Issue 01 January 2017 Page 6174 8. E. Ozdemir. (2008). Globalization and its impact on Middle East. Retrieved from