Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz ( ur, ) ("Marginalised Muslim Front") is an Indian Muslim activist organization based in

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

. Founded in 1998, it represents the concerns the "Pasanda" Muslims, a new identity that integates the

Dalit Muslim Dalit Muslim are low caste muslim Untouchables, also called Dalits, who have converted to Islam. Background Aftab Alam, a political scientist, states: ''"But caste and untouchability is a lived reality for Muslims living in India and South Asia ...

s (''Arzals'') and backward-caste Muslims (''Ajlafs''), representing about 80 percent of Indian Muslims. The organsisation represents the union of several and Dalit and backward-caste Muslim organisations under the leadership of

Ali Anwar Ali Anwar Ansari (born 16 January 1954) is an Indian journalist, social activist and politician. He is the founder of Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz, concerned with fighting discrimination against lower-caste and Dalit Muslims. He was a two-time Mem ...

, 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 and associate with the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the na ...

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

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in 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 and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . I ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

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, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

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

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

for "Backward-class Muslims" while excluding the Muslim Dalits from this label. They oppose religion-based reservations on the grounds that socio-economic conditions and not religion should be 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 ( IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the ...

Objectives

The Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz advocates for Dalit Muslims in relation to 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, 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 female seclusion prevalent among some Muslim and Hindu communities. It takes two forms: physical segregation of the sexes and the requirement that wom ...

while the ashraf women feel free to dispense with it.

Reception

Upper-caste Muslims in India have tried to label the people of the Mahaz as "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