People's Democracy

Minority Development, Reservations

and Bengal Left Front Govt

Moinul Hassan

IN the recent past, there has been lot of discussion regarding the socio economic conditions of the Indian minorities and their development. This is a welcome shift as the discussions will definitely determine the positive role of the State, society and the individual in the coming days. Moreover, we will be able to know the minorities better. Greater information about the daily livelihood, the struggles, sorrows, ecstasy can be gathered by us. The intensity with which the society will open up, the eagerness with which it will express, the due prestige it will usher, will surely help in cementing the democratic roots. Therefore, a liberal social approach and understanding can be developed towards the issues of minority development and their social status. It’s not a question of the minorities benefitting alone but the society as a whole will reap the harvest. Two pre-conceived notions will also cease to exist. The sense of being deprived within the minorities and the notion of the majorities to be at the helm of all affairs will die a gradual death. These discussions are very essential and the ongoing process is the reason for us being optimistic about this.

INTEGRAL ISSUE OF

MASS MOVEMENT

One more thing needs to be clarified at the outset. Who will be fighting for the development of the minorities? Is this a battle for equal rights that has to be waged by the minorities alone or is it a war wherein the entire cross section of the society needs to participate.  The CPI(M) believes that the challenge of minority development is an integral issue of the entire democratic mass movement. A partial outlook cannot ensure the development of a state or of a particular area. One of the basic tasks awaiting our party is to change the correlation of class forces. The natural allies of the Left are scattered in different parts of the country. Being poor and deprived for long, the majority of the minorities have been the traditional supporters of the Left. However, there has been recently a shift in support base. This support has to be won back through protracted class struggles and by giving special emphasis on the developmental question. This fight has to be an integral part of the class struggle. The problems faced by the dalits, minorities and women are to specially emphasised. Otherwise, the society will be facing a hard division which will be hampering the class struggle in the long run, and the Left by any chance cannot let this happen. From this point of view and commitment the question of minority development is to be addressed.

Some facts and data are well known but still we mention them here once more to record that West Bengal is among the four states in India which has a high percentage of Muslim population. According to 2001 census, a total of 2.31 crore Muslims  reside in West Bengal. But already there is a change in that number and the census of 2011 would confirm that. Overall, there is an estimate that one fourth of the entire Bengal population comprise Muslim minorities. They constitute 96 per cent of the total minority population in the state. In 12 districts of the state, Muslims  constitute  25 per cent of the total population. In the three districts – Murshidabad, Malda and North Dinajpur – the  Muslims constitute more than 50 per cent of the total population. The majority of these Muslims speak Bengali. The few Urdu-speaking Muslims mainly reside at three places namely  Kolkata, Asansol and Islampur.

A large section of the Muslim minorities in West Bengal have remained socially, economically and educationally backward. Several steps are necessary to eradicate the backwardness of these sections, namely legal measures, government policy decisions and the flourishing of mass movement.  Otherwise, there will be no change in situation.  The three decades of the Left Front rule in West Bengal have witnessed various government policies giving economic assistance and prestige to the poor.  Since a major number of the poor people belong to Muslim community so the Left front government has played its natural role while deciding on minorities' development. The Muslims in general are poorer and it is not at all unnatural that the Left Front government had taken decisions in their favour. Theoretical debates continue over the reasons behind the backwardness of the Muslims and the trend is going to continue in coming days. Not going into the details of those discussions, I need to throw light upon some essential matters.

IMPACT OF

PARTITION

There cannot be any doubt  that the partition played havoc upon the Muslim community in our state. Lakhs of Muslims crossed the border with the belief that “this is not my country”. They left back everything. Their abode, belongings, dreams, hopes, sorrows, joy everything was left back as they left their land amidst the campaign of why they will remain in India despite of Pakistan being created. Echoes of such campaign were there in the air in the then rural Bengal. A section of the  middle class left in the hope of availing better facilities. The main motive behind the exit of that educated enlighted middle class was the availability of government jobs in the newly established Muslim state of Pakistan.

Beneficiaries of Patta/Barga under Land Reforms

Loans from Banks to minorities

The primary stigma of the partition was cured with a huge ‘exchange’ of Muslims beyond the frontier, and the migration continued. The number was increasing radically. Riots, insecurity, and the absence of equal opportunity here had not left any option open except to cross the border. That was the time when most of the densely Muslim populated areas in West Bengal were affected by religious riots for small and petty reasons. Even incidents like the procession of Hindu idols, passing through the road in front of a mosque or distribution of the meat after qurbani, evoked confrontation between the two religions. However, it can be noted that these confrontations were always not caused by pure social reasons but sometime just for the shuffling of the religious trump cards by the political parties. That was the time when Congress was the ruling party in West Bengal as well at the centre. Many of the Congress leaders and workers were found to be associated with these communal riots in a direct or indirect fashion. The Left always stood firmly against such attempts to create communal riots, sometimes even at the cost of their supporters and activists getting killed in the process. Though the Left did not have that much mass base during that time, it used that limited force to tackle the disturbances, to regain the self-confidence and self-reliance of the people. It is another matter that this glorious role of the Left had also consolidated the mass base in due course. The minorities have always considered the leftists to be their friends. In 1964, a huge communal riot took place in and around Kolkata. The minorities were attacked significantly. The riot did not spread to the nook and corner of the state geographically but it ensued ripples of insecurity among the general mass of minorities. The terrorised population started to cross the borders in large numbers. The tiny middle class of Muslims left in Bengal gradually vacated the state for their new abode. Recently, a research work 'The Spoils of Partition' by historian Jaya Chatterjee has shown how the Muslims crossed borders at that time. Boys and girls belonging to Muslim families left school and colleges in a dangerous social environment of misbelief and confusion. The then administration was not in a mood to tackle the problems which had by and large increased the mental tension of the entire Muslim cross section of the population. Political efforts in this regard were never taken up. The Congress governments both at centre and the state kept their silence in this regard while the police administration made the situation more complex by indulging in partial activities. So, the natural corollary was there - the Muslims left the country.

MIRED IN

POVERTY

The people who stayed back were mainly poor. Agricultural workers, craftsmen and daily wage workers constituted the bulk. Some upper class Muslim families were there in a very small number in each district but the middle class completely disappeared. The entire mood was akin to that of a deserted defeated soldier. All colours vanished from the life of the community. It will be easy for a social scientist to understand how difficult it was to crave their mode and path of development. Politicians are also social scientists in a way and they also have to understand the problems. At that time majority of the people in Bengal were poor. The majority of the Muslims were associated with agriculture and naturally they were very poor. The word “aakal” (scarcity) was a very common word to be used in the then Bengal. The agrarian production was very less. Food crisis was there. Irrigation facilities were poor. Developed seeds were not available. On top of this, the all powerful money lenders dominated the scene. All poor people were always aprehensive   and the Muslims naturally had the lion’s share of the fear too. With poverty of this sort prevailing, thinking of having proper education was a matter of day dreaming. Wards were sent to work at other places not for money but at the cost of ensuring one square meal for them. Does social development happen in such conditions? The first priority was to feed the people. In various districts, documents explaining the socio-economic conditions are being published. We may look at the presence of the Muslims in the field of education after 1947. Let us furnish one example. Recently the celebrated Krishnanath College had its 150 years celebration. During the centenary and also now special numbers to commemorate the anniversary have been published. The lists of students yearwise have been furnished. The number of Muslim students is almost microscopic. If such is the condition in a Muslim dominated district of Murshidabad, it can be well understood what the situation in other parts of the state is.

(B) Total number of madrasahs in Bengal

Madrasah Service Commission (Founded in 2008)

Teachers recruited by the Commission:

Total: 990 in the year 2007

Total: 1750 (1655 Assistant Teachers, 79 Head Masters and 16 undergraduate teachers in

the year 2008)

Total:  1332 (HM- 76, AT- 1236, UG -20)in the year 2009

Grand Total : 4072 candidates.

Out of the total candidates 93% are of Minority communities

So, where is the reality behind the campaign of educated Muslim youths being continuously deprived in jobs? It is true that there has been a change in situation now. The change did not take place all of a sudden. There have been long drawn struggles to restore peaceful democratic environment in the state. Both Hindus and Muslims have been an integral part of this struggle. The Left played a glorious role in cementing this  bonding and waging a united fight. The working class and the peasantry had also played their role irrespective of religious affiliations. The hard drawn struggles paved the way for the creation of the Left Front government in the state. Innumerable comrades laid down their lives in order to ensure the establishment of the Left Front government. The establishment of the government was welcomed with huge exuberance in the villages and cities of Bengal. When we look back, we can clearly see that eradication of poverty was one of the main agenda of the new government. The minorities were comparatively poorer so naturally their development was prioritised. The same formulation holds true for schedule tribes, schedule castes and adivasis.

LF GOVT'S

ACHIEVEMENTS

The first task undertaken by the Left Front government in West Bengal was to stop violence of all sorts. Along with political violence, the religious violence was also stopped thus helping the minorities to regain their lost confidence.  The sense that there is no need to shift to Bangladesh or Pakistan started to gather momentum among them. The belief of India being their own country was strengthened. Government decisions alone were not capable of achieving this. The overall education, the strengthened democratic environment and the urge to safeguard the culture had also been responsible in accelerating this process. Another very important factor was the decentralisation of governance through elections to autonomous bodies. For long, there was no election in the municipalities and the panchayats. Common people were not even aware about the election process. The Left Front government kept its pre-election promise and devloved power to local bodies. Huge number of people participated in the process and naturally a large section of Muslims too became part of the administrative process. This is matter of great significance in independent India.  Never have Muslims in such large numbers either contested or got elected in elections. The campaign about Muslims not being part of the mainstream of the society was shattered thus giving the minorities a renewed self confidence.

The government was committed to the mass movement for achieving land reforms. The work began and West Bengal became became the best advertisement of land reforms in our country. Out of the total beneficiaries through land reforms in the country, 54 per cent were from Bengal alone. According to  a report published on February 28, 2010 a  total of  11.277 lakh acres of land in West Bengal have been distributed through land reforms, which has directly benefited 30.106 lakh farmers, 55 per cent of who belonged to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. This percentage will reach upto 75 per cent if we include the minorities benefeciaries. Another outcome of the land reforms was to provide the succession rights to the bargadars (sharecroppers) and  record  the names of daily wage workers in the fields. Till November 2009, a total of 15.37 lakh names have been recorded as bargadars.The total land amounted to 4.56 lakh acres. Out of the total recorded names, SC benefeciaries were 4.73 lakh, STs were 1.67 lakh and minorities 1.86 lakh. The distribution of the excess lands among the landless people is a regular process practiced by the state government, which has provided the maximum benefit to the downtrodden people of the state, and especially the minorities in huge numbers. Till the end of the year 2009, 4.56 lakh hectares of excess land was distributed among 29.89 lakh people. Among these benefeciaries, 11.03 lakh people belonged to the Scheduled Castes, 5.47 lakh to the Scheduled Tribes and 3.62 lakh to the minority community. (Source: The Economic Survey 2009-2010 and financial budget speech 2010-1011 delivered by the state finance minister)

[To be continued]