Indian Muslims and preferential quotas: The saffronization of the social justice paradigm

Abstract

In recent years, the legitimacy of Muslims to benefit from preferential quotas in India appears under growing scrutiny. Public statements by sitting politicians and officers heading government institutions, as well as judicial decisions, have challenged the inclusion of Muslims in reservation policies meant to counter deprivation due to caste-based exclusion. Yet at the same time, there seems to be across the political spectrum an increasing recognition of caste-based inequalities among Muslims. The recognition of caste inequality among Muslims and the concomitant reconsideration of their inclusion in reservation policies raise a series of questions that the presentation seeks to address. How have Muslims been included in the system of positive discrimination designed to counterbalance caste inequalities? How does this inclusion fit in with the rights accorded to Muslims as a minority? To what extent are the benefits granted to Muslims through affirmative action policies now being called into question? To answer these questions, we will first look at the distinct institutional regimes that govern religious minorities and caste inequalities, to show that the inclusion of Muslims in preferential quotas constituted a move away from the framework of minority politics. Instead, it reflected a shift to the dynamics of inclusion under the broader “social justice” paradigm that culminated in the 1980 Mandal commission report and continued to evolve afterwards. The presentation will then analyze the dynamics of exclusion now calling such benefits into question, at the crossroads of political statements, institutional and bureaucratic decisions, and court cases. We suggest that the “saffronization” of reservation policies operates through three complementary logics. These include attempts to “Hinduize” the historical basis of reservations by extending the logic of religious exclusivity that defines provisions for Scheduled Castes to the category of Other Backward Classes, under which Muslims were included. Second, the saffronization of the social justice paradigm operates by portraying Muslim inclusion in reservations as a form of “religious quota”, which would contravene the Indian Constitution’s secularism principle. Third, the dynamics of exclusion seek to paint the incorporation of Muslims as a form of corrupt clientelism driven by opportunistic electoral calculation and bereft of any intention of social justice. Together, these three complementary logics seek to delegitimize Muslim—and more broadly, religious minority—inclusion in India’s preferential quotas today.