http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/special-report/Being-Muslim-in-India-means-Syeds-spit-on-Julahas-in-an-egalitarian-community/articleshow/5935797.cms
Being Muslim in India means Syeds spit on Julahas in an 'egalitarian community'
Mohammed Wajihuddin , TNN, May 16, 2010, 12.45am IST
There is no escape from caste in India. Even the Indian Muslim
practises it. Mohammed Shabbir Ansari of Jalna, Maharashtra, should
know. He founded the All-India Muslim OBC Front, which is leading the
battle against Ashraaf or upper-caste discrimination against Ajlaaf or
lower-caste Muslims.
Ansari recalls how the "Jamaat-e-Islami and other Muslim bodies would
attack me when I said casteism existed among Muslims a decade ago." He
says even highly-educated Muslims practise caste. "A syed family from
Hyderabad called off my second daughter's marriage proposal once the
boy's mother learnt that I belonged to the julaha (weaver's
community)," Ansari says.
Ansari's experience illustrates the basic truths in the seminal study
"Hindustan Mein Zaat-Paat Aur Musalman" (Casteism in India and
Muslims) written by the Lucknow-based scholar Masood Alam Falahi in
2008. Falahi traced the origin of caste practices among Muslims and
named the noted ulema who winked at it. He said the caste system took
root among Indian Muslims after Qutbuddin Aibak founded the Delhi
Sultanate in the 13th century. Sultanate scholars divided Muslims into
Ashraaf and Ajlaaf.
The Ashraaf are Syed, Shaikh, Mughal and Pathan and the Ajlaaf are
Qasai (butcher), Nai (barber), Julaha (weaver). The very lowest
Ajlaafs were Arzaals (sweepers, shoe-makers, etc). Hundreds of years
later, the Sultanate's categorization would be given extra legitimacy
by respected 20th century clerics such as Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi,
who extolled the supremacy of Syeds.
In fact, Muslims' caste-consciousness runs so deep Allama Iqbal
reprimanded them in a couplet: "Yun to Syed bhi ho, Mirza bhi ho
Afghan bhi ho/Tum sabhi kuchch ho batao ke Musalman bhi ho (You are
Syed, Mirza and Afghan/You are everything but Muslim)".
The paradox of Muslim casteism can give rise to extraordinary
situations. Falahi recalls Muslim speakers asking dalit Hindus in
Azamgarh to embrace Islam a few years ago because "everyone is treated
equally here. But a man stood up and said 'there might be no castes in
Islam, there are castes among Indian Muslims'. The speakers had no
answer to that."
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