Part Seven
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Muslims make up only 3.81 percent of Maharashtra’s police force since 2014 while the share of Muslims among convicted prisoners stood at 25.5 percent, the second highest in the country.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — Maharashtra, the second-most populous state with the largest Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) in the country, is not an encouraging position when it comes to the share of Muslims in government jobs and their representation in other socio-economic domains. The state has India’s largest economy with a GDP of US$384 billion, or 15 percent of the country’s total.
The state accounted for 52 percent of the country’s Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) in Q1 2024-25. The state with 36 districts and Mumbai as the state capital contributes 13.8 percent of the country’s industrial output and accounts for 17.3 percent of India’s exports. The state has the highest employable talent at 70 percent as Maharashtra is India’s second most industrialised state contributing 20 percent of national industrial output, according to a new book Muslims in India – Ground Realities Versus Fake Narratives – Achievements & Accomplishments.
Almost 46 percent of the GSDP is contributed by industry. It has a per capita income of Rs2.8 lakh in 2023-24, over 50 percent more than the national average. Maharashtra provides approximately 15 percent of the country’s industrial production and roughly 14 percent of its GDP. In 2024, Maharashtra has become India’s first state to surpass the half-a-trillion-dollar economy mark given its broader economic growth.
The state’s revenue receipts grew to Rs486,116 in 2023-24, while revenue expenditures increased to Rs505,647 crore.
Maharashtra is among the top four states with the highest share of Muslims in their population, along with Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Bihar. In electoral terms, Muslims comprise at least 20 percent of the population in 86 of 543 Lok Sabha constituencies. In 16 such seats, that share in the population is above 50 percent.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Muslims make up only 3.81 percent of Maharashtra’s police force since 2014 while the share of Muslims among convicted prisoners stood at 25.5 percent, the second highest in the country. Muslims make up nearly 11.5 percent of the state’s population, with a higher concentration in regions such as western Vidarbha, Marathwada, northern Konkan, and Khandesh. There are 11 districts with a sizeable Muslim population, including Dhule, Parbhani, Latur, Akola, Mumbai, Nanded, Thane, Bhiwandi and Aurangabad. About 1.3 crore Muslims constitute 11.56 percent of Maharashtra’s 11.24 crore population. Muslims have a slightly higher concentration in northern Konkan, Khandesh, Marathwada, and western Vidarbha.
In September 2022, the Maharashtra government commissioned a study to be conducted by TISS on the “social, educational and economic status of the Muslim community” in “56 cities in six revenue divisions of the state which have a sizeable Muslim population”. In 2009, the Congress-led government set up a five-member committee headed by retired bureaucrat Dr Mahmood-ur-Rahman to study the social, economic, and educational conditions of Muslims. Its report was submitted to the Congress-led government in October 2013, but it has not yet officially been released or tabled in the assembly. The panel recommended an eight percent reservation for the Muslim community in education and jobs.
However, it was revealed that the community has very poor social indices. Maharashtra’s urban Muslims are poorer than even members of the scheduled castes and tribes. They tend to live in ghettos because they can’t find homes anywhere else, and banks are wary of giving them loans. The contents of the report revealed that Maharashtra’s 10.2 million Muslims struggle with the debilitating consequences of poverty, prejudice, and discrimination in almost every aspect of their lives. “The state of Maharashtra has witnessed the highest number of Hindu-Muslim riots post-Independence,” observed the report.
“Displacement and subsequent ghettoisation have been a result of communal riots. Ghettoisation has made it easier for state authorities to neglect Muslim concentration areas and not provide them with adequate services.”
In 2014, the Congress-NCP coalition government announced a five percent reservation for Muslims in government jobs and also in the educational sector. However, before the community could comprehend any of the benefits that were likely to emerge out of the reservation, the Bombay High Court put aside the government notification in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) but concurred that Muslims could be given reservations in education. After the court ruling, the BJP-led government that came to power in 2014 chose not to continue with Muslim reservations claiming it was not in favour of giving reservations based on religion alone.
In this state polls, at least 30 of the 288 assembly segments will be decided primarily by Muslim voters.
There is no Muslim in the Maharashtra Legislative Council for the first time since its inception in 1937 after two Muslim MLCs completed their terms in mid-2024. In the Lok Sabha polls in 2024, none of the 48 seats in the state were won by Muslim candidates, an indication of the community’s diminishing political representation. In the 2019 assembly elections, only 10 Muslims were elected for the 288-seat House. This is despite Muslims making up over two percent of Maharashtra’s population, according to the 2011 census, which translates to more than 1.30 crore individuals.
Since the state came into existence, 567 MPs have been elected from Maharashtra, out of which only 15 (2.5 percent) were Muslims. Maharashtra had its first Muslim chief minister, Abdul Rahman Antulay who served for two years, from June 1980 to January 1982. India has seen Muslim chief ministers in five other states since Independence – Kerala, Maharashtra, Bihar, Assam, and Manipur. Antulay became the first to head the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs after it was carved out of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in January 2006 in the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
Since Maharashtra came into being in the 1960s, a total of 566 Members of Parliament (MPs) have been elected from the state. In a state where one out of every 10th person is a Muslim, only 14, or less than 2.47 percent of them were Muslim MPs. In the previous three Lok Sabha polls held in Maharashtra, major political parties fielded only four Muslim candidates. The number of Muslim MPs and MLAs has never been proportional to the population. In 1999, Maharashtra had seen the highest number of Muslim MLAs in the 288-member Vidhan Sabha with 13 Muslims getting elected. The year 2019 witnessed Maharashtra’s 14th Legislative Assembly having 10 Muslim MLAs, slightly better than in 2014 when only nine MLAs were elected. Muslim community votes played a key role in the polls to at least a dozen of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra.
However, by November 2021, there was only one Muslim among the 151 ministers in BJP-ruled states including Maharashtra. For this month’s assembly polls, the AIMIM has fielded 14 candidates, including three in Mumbai. Among them, three are Muslim candidates and three candidates from the Backward Class. There are 24-25 seats where Muslim votes are likely to be divided as 4-5 Muslim candidates are given tickets by different parties. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) fielded 11 Muslim candidates, NCP (Ajit Pawar) four candidates, and 11 by AIMIM, and the names of a dozen candidates were announced by the VBA. There are also little-known parties and alliances which have fielded Muslim candidates.
In Maharashtra, Muslims in nine seats account for around or more than 40 percent of the total population. There are 15 seats where Muslims make up around 30 percent of the population. There are 38 seats where Muslims are between 10-20 percent of the population. This poll will see whether the lack of Muslim representation in the assembly will end or continue. In October 2019, AIMIM bagged two seats — Dhule City and Malegaon Central — though it contested 44 seats. It was in 2014 that the Majlis made its maiden entry into the Maharashtra Assembly polls and pocketed two seats.
Only three of 72 SPs and ASPs are Muslims in Maharashtra Police while a similar number are among the 210 SDPs and DSPs. Out of 1,018 Inspectors and Sub-Inspectors in Law and Order and Crime divisions, 10 are Muslims. Maharashtra Administrative Service has 156 officials of whom one is a Muslim while a lone Muslim works among 215 State Police Service officials. Four of the 125 officials in Drug Control and Inspection teams are Muslims. In the State Human Rights Commission, one of the 10 members is a Muslim. The State Women Commission has no Muslim on any of its staff and panels. Similarly, there is no Muslim official among the 21 in the Labour Department.
The State Legal Services Authority has 4,110 lawyers on its panel of which 165 are Muslims. Among 1,762 officials in the Commercial Taxes department, only 26 are Muslims. No Muslim official is there among 53 in the Revenue Department. Only two Muslims are among 252 officials in the Anti-Corruption Bureau. Among the 75 officials in the Prosecution Department, only four are Muslims. No Muslim is on the rolls of the management and inspection officials at the Excise and Prohibition Department. Among the 812 officials in the Indian Customs at three ports in Maharashtra, only 13 are Muslims.
During 1960-2021, Maharashtra had a total of 183,373 MBBS doctors of whom 14,680 were Muslims. Fourteen of 801 officials in the Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation – Pune and Nagpur Metros – are Muslims while the Mumbai Metro Rail has 10 Muslim officials a total of 443. Only one Muslim is among 148 at the Public Works Department (PWD). In the management teams of two ports, only six are Muslims a total of 302. There is not a single Muslim official in the 43 senior management team in the Forests Department. Only one of the 47 Directors-General of Maharashtra Police had been a Muslim way back in 1968. Similarly, four of the 23 Governors of Maharashtra had been Muslims. Only one had been the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court among the total 44 while 11 Muslims became judges from among the total of 492. Twenty-four of the total 797 martyrs in the police forces had been Muslims.
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