Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz (, ) is an Indian

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

activist organization based in

Patna Patna (; , ISO 15919, ISO: ''Paṭanā''), historically known as Pataliputra, Pāṭaliputra, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, ...

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

. Founded in 1998, it represents the concerns of the "Pasmanda" Muslims, a new identity that integrates the

Dalit Muslim Dalit Muslim is used to refer to Muslims in the Dalit group. Untouchables, also called Dalits, who have converted to Islam. In theory, converting to Islam takes converts out of the bounds of earlier caste system, but in practice they are often st ...

s (''Arzals'') and backward-caste Muslims (''Ajlafs''). The organization represents the union of several Dalit and backward-caste Muslim organisations under the leadership of Ali Anwar, who is himself a backward-caste Muslim of the Ansari (weaver) caste.Yoginder Sikand
Voice of the Oppressed: Empowering Dalit Muslims
''Communalism Combat'', November 2005.

History

Anwar founded the organization after observing caste oppression by upper caste ''Ashraf'' Muslims on Dalit Muslims, causing him to become a

leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

and associate with the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a Communism in India, communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electora ...

. He assembled a loose coalition of social reform organizations bringing awareness towards the plight of the Dalit Muslims and their complete neglect and discrimination by the upper-caste ''Ashraf'' Muslims in India. The Mahaz is a broad front of several Dalit and Backward Caste Muslim organizations from different states of India, particularly

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in East India, eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north ...

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

and

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

. The position of the Mahaz reflects that of Anwar, who posits that upper-caste Muslims have been trying to marginalize the Badzaat Dalit Muslims by slyly asking for

quotas Quota may refer to: Economics * Import quota, a restriction on the quantity of goods that can be imported into a country * Market Sharing Quota, an economic system used in Canadian agriculture * Milk quota, a quota on milk production in Europe * ...

for "Backward-class Muslims" while excluding the Muslim Dalits from this label. They oppose religion-based reservations on grounds of socio-economic conditions and not religion as the basis of reservation. Ali Anwar has said he has been networking with Muslim members across the political spectrum to raise the issue in the

Parliament of India The Parliament of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Government of India, Government of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok ...

Objectives

The Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz advocates for Dalit Muslims concerning the issues of personal law, reservation and electoral politics, as well as demands of legal action against officials who physically attack Dalit Muslims. They have also advocated for the rights of Dalit Muslims to bury their dead in conventional graveyards instead of segregated ones, as mandated by the prevailing caste norms in regions like Bihar. However, late historian scholar Papiya Ghosh noted that the Mahaz does not address gender issues and expects the Pasanda women to remain in

purdah Pardah or purdah (from Hindi-Urdu , , meaning "curtain") is a religious and social practice of sex segregation prevalent among some Muslim, Zoroastrian and Hindu communities. The purdah garment is the same as a burqa, or yashmak, i.e a veil ...

while the ashraf women feel free to dispense with it.

Reception

As per Pasmanda Muslims, Upper-caste Muslims in India have tried to label the people of the Mahaz as "Badzaat un-Islamic heretics", which the Mahaz protests as a form of propaganda against them.

References

Bibliography

* {{cite book , last=Ansari , first=Khalid Anis , chapter=Pluralism and the Post-Minority Condition , editor1=Boaventura De Sousa Santos , editor2=Bruno Sena Martins , title=The Pluriverse of Human Rights: The Diversity of Struggles for Dignity: The Diversity of Struggles for Dignity , publisher=Routledge , date=2021 , pages=, isbn=978-1-00-039570-9 , chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m8cqEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT86

External links