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The Hindu, Opinion, Wednesday, May 15, 2002
The business of separatism
By Harish Khare
The Hindutva variety of politics of exclusion and
intimidation leads not only to their political isolation but also
results in economic marginalisation of the Muslims.
LAST MONTH. On way to New York via Amsterdam. At Mumbai's
Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, a young man seeks help
in completing the disembarkment form handed out by the KLM staff.
The young man is from Surat and we effortlessly fall into
airport-talk. He tells us he is in the diamond industry and is on
his way to Antwerp. The talk naturally drifts towards the
on-going communal violence in Gujarat. The young man, let us call
him Himanshu Patel, is unambiguous about the culpability for the
eruption: "The Mohammedans". Unhesitant and assertive.
But is the unending violence not harmful to the business
community? "Of course, it has hurt; but the Mohammedans have
no businesses to worry about."
At Amsterdam; in the line for boarding the plane to New York.
Quite a respectable sprinkling of Indian passengers. The
gentleman ahead of us, another Gujarati, is nervous as he watches
the post-September 11 security drill of subjecting passengers to
intimidating questions. The nervous businessman from Rajkot
begins talking about the violence back home; he concedes that all
businessmen find themselves having to fork out not insubstantial
"donations" to VHP volunteers. All for the
"protection" of the Hindus from the enemy, with a
capital M. "Everyone pays it; who wants to say
"no", which businessman wants to risk trouble from
these guys," says the Rajkot man.
The two conversations, away from the communal heat of Gujarat,
perhaps sum up the economic dimension of the divide between
Hindus and Muslims. In the context of Gujarat, a number of
business leaders had spoken up — before and after the recent
CII gathering in New Delhi — against the violence, lamenting
about the erosion in the foreign and domestic investor's
confidence. But none of them talked about the total and
ever-increasing business divide between the Hindus and the
Muslims. For all the talk of political partnership,
electoral equality, even the so-called "appeasement" by
the so-called pseudo-secularists, the Muslim community has been
gradually eased out of productive spheres of economic activity.
This perhaps is more true of Gujarat, but other parts of the
country are no strangers to the divide. It is not a coincidence
that Azim Premji is the only big-time Muslim corporate name.
Apart from a few honourable exceptions, almost all big and
not-so-big corporate houses have an unofficial policy of keeping
the minorities out, especially the Muslims. Not because the
captains of industry are bigots or communal; it is the practical
way of doing things, they will explain. It is all a question of a
comfort level between the employer and the employee. In small
cities, business transactions are not just economic exchanges
between two rational players operating a super-rational
"market", but a trade-off in obligations and trust. Not
surprising that a Hindu businessman in Ahmedabad or Surat prefers
to trade credit or goods or inside information with someone he
explicitly "trusts"; and, since there are no social
linkages with the Muslims or other requisite social sanctions
which can be brought into play in case of a breach of faith, he
finds himself unwilling to undertake an economic transaction with
the Muslims. Perhaps a Muslim can be a consumer of economic goods
but he cannot be a business partner.
Thus we have a situation in cities such as Ahmedabad
where the economy is controlled almost entirely — up to 98
per cent — by the majority community; the Muslims, who
constitute about 14 per cent of the city's population, find
themselves shut out of the economic life of the city, and
confined to extremely low-paying, dead-end business activities.
It is this situation of extreme economic marginalisation that in
the past lured young men into the profitable world of
bootlegging, gambling and other minor vices. And, this flirtation
with the quasi-illegal employment generated a plethora of
negative images, which was easily exploited by the
"defenders" of the majority community.
On the other hand, the lumpens who band themselves into outfits
such as the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad find they
can make a fast buck out of hawking their hatred. The Shiv Sena,
in and around Mumbai, already provides a working model; the
victims of extortion are none other than the petty Hindu
businessmen. Now, because there is a friendly Government in
Gandhinagar, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal have established a
highly profitable network of extortion. Apart from the fact that
a businessman has to make "donations" for the
"Hindu cause", he also instinctively finds himself
having to purge his business and trade links of all Muslim
interactions. Of late, the VHP terror network is reportedly being
used to ease out Muslim employees in the Hindu business
establishments.
In practical terms, this convergence of the BJP's anti-Muslim
politics, the aggressive "frontal organisations", the
growing distance between the overwhelmingly dominant Hindu
businesses and the Muslims means that even in the era of high
economic growth, the economic marginalisation of the minority
community becomes progressively more acute. In times of
violence, someone decides to target even those few activities
such as highway hotels, bakeries etc., the Muslims are allowed to
operate. A large community, thus locked up in economic
marginalisation, becomes an easy prey either to the
"Islamic" brotherhood or to zealous "secular"
defenders. The result is that the Muslim community is practically
denied any opportunity to join the economic mainstream.
Perhaps the most harmful consequence of the irrevocable
distancing between the Hindus and the Muslims in the economic
sphere will be the slow death of the incipient Muslim middle
class. Given the level of distrust of the Muslims — kept
alive by aggressive votaries of Hindutva — the employment
space for the educated or professionally trained Muslim is
increasingly getting shrunk. As it is, even in the best
of the times there is always an on-going struggle over economic
resources and opportunities, and all kinds of prejudices and
biases creep into the employer's calculus; for example, even
after the Mandal revolution, the so-called merit-centric
professions such as law, medicine, journalism etc., continue to
be loaded against the "lower order".
The danger is that the new "modified" mindset would
make it politically acceptable to include the Muslims in the
existing informal arrangement of built-in discrimination in
formal and informal economies. It would mean that the objective
conditions for the growth and consolidation of a Muslim middle
class — progressive, modern, enlightened — get diluted.
This dissipation of a middle class has been hastened now that the
Indian state is no longer an important source of employment; and
the "free and competition-driven" economy is virtually
closed to the Muslims. The minorities are already shut
out of the so-called "mixed" neighbourhood; and, if the
VHP has its way the Muslims students would be eased out of
schools and colleges as well.
The Hindutva variety of politics of exclusion and
intimidation leads not only to their political isolation but also
results in economic marginalisation of the Muslims. Yet,
ironically enough, the Muslims masses are berated for not
rejecting their traditional leaders and for refusing to join the
"mainstream"; whereas in practise, they are gradually
being shut out of the economic partnership. The victim is being
blamed for being the victim.