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OPINION COMMENT

March 31, 2014

Updated: March 31, 2014 00:52 IST

A diversified Muslim identity

HILAL AHMED
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TOPICS
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religion and belief

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The voting preference of Muslims in States is not an outcome of any national

strategy; rather it is constituted at the grassroots level
The electoral behaviour of Indias Muslims is often presented as one of the most inscrutable
aspects of Indian politics. We are told that Indias Muslims form a closed, homogeneous social
group. As rational political agents, they are fully aware of their legal-constitutional status as a
religious minority and they always evaluate the ideologies of political parties and the statements
and acts of political players. Eventually, they make certain strategic political choices.
This interesting formulation leads us to two obvious conclusions: (a) Muslims of India constitute
a political community, and therefore, (b) there is a clear market-type political relationship
between Muslims and various political parties which revolves around a much talked about
phenomenon the Muslim vote bank. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singhs
so-called apology to Muslims, the Congress election hoarding depicting a skullcap-wearing
Muslim face with Rahul Gandhi, along with a slogan Main nahi, hum, and Lok Janshakti Party
president Ram Vilas Paswans issue based support to the Narendra Modi-led BJP can be seen
as relevant examples in this regard.
This dominant portrayal of Muslim political responses needs to be evaluated more critically. We
may ask three fundamental questions: Do Muslims vote only on the basis of religion? Do
Muslims vote strategically at an all-India level? Does the Muslim caste structure affect Muslim
political behaviour? These questions might help us in deconstructing the established image of
Muslim electoral politics.
Only on the basis of religion?
It is important to note that although Islam as a religion provides a unifying religious identity to
various Indian Muslim communities, Muslims tend to follow various sect-based interpretations
of religious texts and region-based rituals and customs. It is this religious-cultural distinctiveness
which makes Indian Islam a highly diversified phenomenon. The question of politics, especially
electoral politics, is inextricably linked to this unique Muslim diversity. This has been the reason
why the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS)-Loknitis National Election Studies
(NES) does not ask this question directly. Instead, the question is reformulated as: While voting,
do you give more importance to the party, to the candidate, to your caste community or to
something else?
In the 1999 Lok Sabha election, most of the Muslim respondents (around 52 per cent) said that
they gave more importance to parties while voting in elections. In contrast, only eight per cent of
Muslim respondents said that they found caste and community considerations to be important.
This response is not at all a deviation from the general attitude of the voters. A majority of Hindu
respondents (55 per cent) also said that they gave importance to the party in elections in
comparison to caste and community affiliation (around seven per cent). This trend continued to
dominate the preference of Muslim electorates in 2004 and 2009 respectively (though in 2009,
the question was asked only in relation to candidate and party).
Broadly speaking, all this evidence suggests that caste and community affiliations remained a
relatively less important concern for Muslims in the last three Lok Sabha elections. However, this
inference should not be overgeneralised. It is possible that the consideration of community
might be employed by a respondent to assess a candidate or a political party at the constituency
level. In addition, the meanings of the term community can also be interpreted in various ways.
Despite these possible limitations, one can certainly suggest that Muslim voting preferences are
not entirely different from those of Hindus. As a result, political parties emerge as the most

preferred and acceptable factor in voting. This takes us to our second question, which is related to
the idea of strategic voting by Muslims.
Do Muslims vote strategically?
NES data suggests that the Congress is the first choice for Muslims at the all-India level, followed
by the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Left parties and the BJP. This trend is quite consistent.
This national picture needs to be seen in relation to State-specific data. The BJP, which turns out
to be the third choice for Muslim voters at the all-India level, gets a very different response in
States. For the sake of clarity, we may compare the BJPs performance in Uttar Pradesh and
Gujarat.
In the 2004 election in U.P., 2.50 per cent voted for the BJP. This rose to 5 per cent in 2009. On
the contrary, the BJPs performance in Gujarat is very different. In 2004, 18.60 per cent voted for
the BJP; this went down to 12.40 per cent in 2009. In Gujarat, we
found a very clear polarisation of Muslim votes between the Congress and the BJP. U.P.,
therefore, has virtually failed to get Muslim support in the last three general elections. In fact, the
party could not maintain its national average in the State.
This inference need not to be exaggerated. The performance of political parties in a State depends
on State-specific political configurations. The availability of viable political alternatives
determines the voting behaviour of electorates.
Politics in U.P. is dominated by a number of strong political players, who associate themselves
with various caste-religious communities in the State. On the other hand, politics in Gujarat is
quite polarised where regional parties have not yet carved out a space for themselves. In this
sense, the constituency-level configuration of party and candidate plays a more significant role
for the Muslim electorate in Gujarat. Thus, Muslim voting to any particular party in States is not
an outcome of any national strategy; rather, the voting preferences of Muslims, it seems, are
constituted at the grassroots level.
Does caste affect voting?
The Muslim caste is not taken as a serious political factor by political observers. In fact, the
increasing role of Pasmanda Muslim politics, which has been quite active in mobilising various
marginalised Muslim communities, especially in U.P. and Bihar, has not been given adequate
attention. NES has tried to look at the impact of Muslim caste in electoral politics.
The difference between the voting behaviour of Muslim Other Backward Classes (OBC) and other
Muslims is not very significant; yet, the plurality of Muslim political attitude is quite apparent.
We also find that Muslim caste groups change their political preferences quite considerably. For
instance, in 1999, other Muslims (read as non-OBCs, or Ashrafs) overwhelmingly voted for the
Congress (45 per cent) in comparison to Muslim OBCs. But, in 2004 and 2009, this equation
changed almost completely and the Congress managed to win over the Muslim OBC support. The
case of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is more revealing. As a political party, it is officially
committed to the political ideology of Bahujan that seeks to fight against caste-based
discrimination. The party, however, does not evince any interest in the Muslim caste question.
Yet, data suggests that Muslim OBCs (which includes Dalit Muslims as well) are more inclined
toward the BSP in comparison to other Muslims.

Muslim caste-based voting patterns, we must note, becomes more complicated at the State level.
The case of Bihar is very relevant, where the Janata Dal (United) has offered a space to Pasmanda
political groups in order to consolidate itself among marginalised Muslims. This trend is quite
relevant because a number of Pasmanda Muslim organisations have already passed the
resolution (Political Agenda of Pasmanda Muslims in Lok Sabha Elections, 2014) seeking direct
political support for caste-based Muslim reservation and other demands.
This discussion offers us a rather complex picture. Muslim communities, like any other social
group, participate in electoral politics and follow established norms and patterns. Yet, the
distinctiveness of Muslim identities is always asserted in political terms. This is the reason why
anti-Muslim violence (Gujarat 2002, Assam and, more recently, the Muzaffarnagar riots)
emerges as a serious political issue for Muslim electorates, at least in the region-specific sense.
And, at the same time, the inclusion of Muslims Dalits in the list of Scheduled Castes,
reformulation of OBCs to accommodate more Muslim castes, and economic safeguards for
Muslims artisans and small businesses have become equally powerful Muslim concerns.
Interestingly, political analysts as well as political parties still evoke the old idioms of secularismcommunalism to deal with this discursively constituted and highly diversified Muslim political
identity.
This kind of political-intellectual apathy cannot help us in appreciating the fluctuating patterns of
Muslim electoral behaviour. There is a need to give up the top to bottom approach. Instead, we
have to pay close attention to Muslim engagements at the local and regional levels to make sense
of the role of Muslim votes in the 2014 election.
(Hilal Ahmed is assistant professor, CSDS. )
Keywords: Electoral behaviour of Indias Muslims, Indian politics, Muslim vote bank