07-03-2007, 03:05 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Caste in Islam </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Muslim students shun Dalit cook
A deplorable manifestation of caste prejudice in a Bihar village comes from an unexpected quarter. For, in this instance, it has been committed by Muslim students of a Government-run Urdu school - and not the much-maligned Hindu upper castes - who have refused to eat a mid-day meal cooked by a Dalit woman. This is all the more lamentable because it has happened in an educational institution that should have imparted appropriate values to its students. While reports of discrimination or atrocities against Dalits emerge from the countryside with sickening regularity, what makes it more hideous this time is that it comes from the practitioners of a faith with egalitarian tenets. <b>It is a shocking commentary on the deep penetration and acceptance of discriminatory hierarchical caste norms within the Muslim community, which has not been able to escape the malady of this form of social categorisation.</b> While it has created a structure within itself that includes some of the worst flaws of the caste system, <b>the Muslim community within India was hitherto believed to have been more open with regard to commensality and endogamy. Yet, as this incident of discrimination against a Dalit cook suggests, there has been a further closing of the mind. </b>In part, this is reflective of the failure of the Indian state, which, despite high sounding constitutional principles and anti-atrocity laws, has floundered in efforts to further the egalitarian cause. This noble experiment in modernity has been sabotaged by a political establishment that, in its quest for votes, has continually made sectional appeals and played the caste card, thereby providing sustenance to casteism, a tendency that has only worsened under UPA rule. An example is the setting up of the Sachar Committee to study Muslim backwardness and suggest solutions.
What is interesting is that this incident of Muslim prejudice against Dalits puts paid to the thesis of the Sachar Committee's report that the status of Indian Muslims is below that of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and they, therefore, deserve reservation. It is quite obvious that large sections within the Muslim community do not share this perception of their station but see themselves as privileged, which only goes on to show some of the fallacies on which contemporary policy is sought to be based. Meanwhile, it remains deeply unfortunate that entrenched caste prejudices ensure gross abuses by whatever community against Dalits despite safeguards. It is unfortunate that authority tends to be lax in cases involving atrocities against Dalits. <b>For instance, no official has yet visited the school in Bihar despite the complaint by the Dalit woman.</b> Therefore, it is imperative that the matter is inquired into and corrective action taken.
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Here Muslims are involved so no officials went to this school to listen to poor Hindu Dalit woman voice.
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Muslim students shun Dalit cook
A deplorable manifestation of caste prejudice in a Bihar village comes from an unexpected quarter. For, in this instance, it has been committed by Muslim students of a Government-run Urdu school - and not the much-maligned Hindu upper castes - who have refused to eat a mid-day meal cooked by a Dalit woman. This is all the more lamentable because it has happened in an educational institution that should have imparted appropriate values to its students. While reports of discrimination or atrocities against Dalits emerge from the countryside with sickening regularity, what makes it more hideous this time is that it comes from the practitioners of a faith with egalitarian tenets. <b>It is a shocking commentary on the deep penetration and acceptance of discriminatory hierarchical caste norms within the Muslim community, which has not been able to escape the malady of this form of social categorisation.</b> While it has created a structure within itself that includes some of the worst flaws of the caste system, <b>the Muslim community within India was hitherto believed to have been more open with regard to commensality and endogamy. Yet, as this incident of discrimination against a Dalit cook suggests, there has been a further closing of the mind. </b>In part, this is reflective of the failure of the Indian state, which, despite high sounding constitutional principles and anti-atrocity laws, has floundered in efforts to further the egalitarian cause. This noble experiment in modernity has been sabotaged by a political establishment that, in its quest for votes, has continually made sectional appeals and played the caste card, thereby providing sustenance to casteism, a tendency that has only worsened under UPA rule. An example is the setting up of the Sachar Committee to study Muslim backwardness and suggest solutions.
What is interesting is that this incident of Muslim prejudice against Dalits puts paid to the thesis of the Sachar Committee's report that the status of Indian Muslims is below that of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and they, therefore, deserve reservation. It is quite obvious that large sections within the Muslim community do not share this perception of their station but see themselves as privileged, which only goes on to show some of the fallacies on which contemporary policy is sought to be based. Meanwhile, it remains deeply unfortunate that entrenched caste prejudices ensure gross abuses by whatever community against Dalits despite safeguards. It is unfortunate that authority tends to be lax in cases involving atrocities against Dalits. <b>For instance, no official has yet visited the school in Bihar despite the complaint by the Dalit woman.</b> Therefore, it is imperative that the matter is inquired into and corrective action taken.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Here Muslims are involved so no officials went to this school to listen to poor Hindu Dalit woman voice.