LEFT OUT Muslims in Odisha Have an Unimpressive Presence in Governance

• No Muslim among the 170 Lok Sabha MPs
• One Muslim among 82 judges in high court 
• Only one Muslim among 120 IPS officers
• Out of 451 SPs, 12 had been Muslims
• One Muslim among its 95 IFS officials

Team Clarion

NEW DELHI — Odisha, geographically the eighth-largest state in the country and the 11th-largest by population, is home to India’s third-largest population of Scheduled Tribes. Muslims have one of the most unimpressive levels of presence in government employment and administrative domains as their population stands at only 2.17 percent or 9.12 lakhs in the eastern state.

Bordering Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, and Andhra Pradesh with a Bay of Bengal coastline of 301 miles, Odisha (formerly Orissa) has a minuscule Muslim population who are mostly concentrated in Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur and Puri districts – more than 20 percent according to the Census 2001 data. According to the Census of 1981, there were 422,266 Muslims in the state. A decade later, their population increased to 577,775. The percentage of growth of the Muslim population during the decade 1981–1991 was 36.83, according to a new book Muslims in India – Ground Realities versus Fake Narratives.  

Odisha had an all-time high Muslim population of 911,670 in 2011, up from 761,985 in 2001, a record low, according to the Registrar-General and Census Commissioner of India. A report in 2016 disclosed that between 1961 and 1991, the Muslim population grew by 103 percent faster than Hindus who reported a growth of 83 percent in the same period. Hindus form a majority in all the 30 districts of the state. From the mid-16th century, Odisha was ruled by five successive Muslim kings. Ultimately, the British took over the state from the Marathas even as several indigenous princely states continued to function in some parts of the state. 

In 1936, the British made Odisha into a separate province. After independence, the Odisha princely states completely merged with the Union of India in January 1949. Throughout the seven and a half decades since Independence, Muslims of Odisha have passed through challenging times. Today, over 70 percent of Muslims live below the subsistence level, and most of them are poor farmers and daily wage earners. They are socially and politically unorganised and divided. 

Currently, Odisha ranks 32nd among states in the Human Development Index. They are educationally backward and deprived of the benefits of socio-economic development — Odisha is the 15th largest state economy with Rs5.86 trillion (US$70 billion) in GDP and a per capita GDP of R127,383 (US$1,500).  Few Muslims are in trade and commerce, and the main reason for their backwardness is the lack of knowledge and skills to undertake business ventures on their own.  

There were seven Muslims among the 26 Governors that Odisha had in its history.  The Legislative Assembly Speakers and Deputy Speakers numbered 24 and 20, respectively. Only one had been Odisha’s Deputy Speaker, Moulvi Mohammed Hanif, for a five-year term from 1952. There had been no Muslim among the 170 Lok Sabha MPs that Odisha had till now, including the present 21. Only one of the Raj Sabha members from the state had been a Muslim – Mohammed Haneef of Congress, from 1966 to 1972. Out of the 2,464 MLAs Odisha had since the first assembly polls in 1951, 23 had been Muslims including one woman elected in 2024. Thirty-two-old Sofia Firdous was elected from Barabati-Cuttack on a Congress ticket. Though 141 women have become MLAs in Odisha since 1937, no Muslim woman had won an assembly seat until her election. Out of 147 MLAs in 2024, there were only 11 women.

Between 1947 and 2022, Odisha had a total of 31 Chief Justices of whom three were Muslims and there was o Muslim among the 82 High Court judges. No Muslim had become the chief of prosecution or advocate-general in Odisha’s history. Only one is a Muslim among the 58 Additional AGs, Government Pleaders, and Standing Counsels. No Muslim is among the 65 District Prosecuting Officers (DPOs). No Muslim has occupied the post of Lok Ayukta out of four in the state’s history. None of the 49 senior staff of Lok Ayukta is a Muslim. The State Legal Services Authority has a total of 16 senior officials including one Muslim. Twenty-four among 2,809 lawyers on its panel are Muslims. Five of 549 District and Session judges were Muslims, the last being in 2020.

Only one Muslim out of 42 Chief Secretaries has been a Muslim – SMH Burney way back in 1979 for a year. Currently, none of the 31 collectors is Muslim as had been the case with with 31 SPs. Historically, Odisha had 11 Muslims as District Collectors out of 624. Muslims are also low in numbers in the IAS and the State Administrative Service domains; two Muslims among 185 IAS officials. The State Administrative Service has 698 officials including five Muslims. Currently, there are no Muslims among the 55 SPs and ASPs. Similar is the case with SDPOs and DSPs who number 101. Only three are Muslims among the 937 Inspectors and SIs of Law and Order and Crimes. The number of Muslim officials is also low in government departments. Eleven out of 624 District Collectors in the state’s history had been Muslims, the highest of three in Sundargarh out of 49 – M Ahamad (1955-56); PS Habeeb Mohammed (1961-62), and Mohammed Sarwar (1986). 

Out of 60 Collectors of Ganjam, two were Muslims – SM Hassan (1943-44) and SMH Burney (1953-55). Out of the 13 management team members of Odisha Tourism, there is not a single Muslim. There are no Muslim officials in Drug Control and Inspection team members of 40. Muslims have a very low presence in the police forces. Only one is a Muslim among the 120 IPS officers. The state’s only Police Commissionerate, set up in 2007, with 43 Law and Order (L&O) police stations has seen seven police commissioners of whom none was a Muslim. Out of 451 SPs the state had till now, only 12 had been Muslims. Three out of 56 SPS in Balangir since 1949 had been Muslims, the last being in 1969. The Puri district had seen a total of 69 SPs since 1934 of which only two had been Muslims, twice in 1937 and 1938.  

The State Police Service has currently a total of 493 officials without any Muslims. Also, there is one Muslim among the 95 Indian Forest Service (IFS) officials. The Revenue Department too has no Muslim among its 101 officials. Only one is a Muslim in the Management Team of the Department of Commercial Taxes out of 498 members. There is zero Muslim presence in the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) which has 37 officials. The Public Works Department (PWD) has three Muslim officials among a total of 378. Officials in the Forest Department number 822 including five Muslims.  

There is no Muslim in the Management and Inspection Teams of the Excise/Prohibition Department out of 732 officials. No Muslim is among the 45 Road Transport Corporation (RTC) officials. No Muslim woman had headed its State Women Commission formed in 1993. However, two were Muslims out of its 47 members. All the eight chairpersons and nine out of 10 Secretaries/Registrars of Odisha Urdu Academy have been Muslims since its establishment in 1987. 

All the 14 chairpersons and Secretaries/CEOs of the Odisha Waqf Board have been Muslims. As of February 2022, Odisha had 8,510 immovable waqf properties registered on the WAMSI Registration Module. Data from the Waqf Management System of India (WAMSI) revealed that Waqf Boards in India currently oversee 8,54,509 properties, spanning over eight lakh acres of land, making Waqf the third-largest landowner in the country.

No Muslim became the chairperson of the State Public Service Commission while one Muslim had been its member out of a total of 58 – Mohammed Fida Rasool in 1993 for five years. The eastern state has a total of 24,337 MBBS doctors between 1960 and 2022 including 415 Muslims, one of the lowest in the country. Fifteen Muslims are among its 4765 Ayurveda doctors while all the 13 Unani practitioners have been Muslims. Forty-four homeopathic doctors have been Muslims out of the total of 2980. Forty of the 2004 dental doctors have been Muslims.

No Muslim had been the Vice-Chancellor of Odisha’s only Central university till now. Nineteen state universities have seen a total of 209 Vice-Chancellors, of which only three were Muslims. Prof MQ Khan was one of the 41 VCs of Berhampur University in 1995 for a three-year term. Prof Dr Karamat Ali became the VC from 1990-91 at Khallikote Unitary University out of the total 40 who occupied this post. Prof Faizan Mustafa was one of the four VCs at the National Law University, Odisha.  

Five cities – Berhampur, Bhubaneshwar, Cuttack, Rourkela, and Sambalpur – had a total of 26 Mayors of which 12 were Muslims, the highest of eight in Bhubaneshwar. Two Muslims each became mayors in Berhampur out of four and 10 in Cuttuck. No Muslim had been the Rourkela and Sambalpur mayors.  In March 2022, 31-year-old hijab-wearing Gulmaki Habib scripted history in the state after voters directly elected the Muslim as the chairperson of the Bhadrak Municipality, consisting of 30 wards covering an area of 30.72 square kilometres, after fighting the polls as an independent. 

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