THE data on the population of religious communities released by the Census of India has fuelled a vicious campaign by right wing intellectuals and the Sangh Parivar. Saffron demographers are quick to use the flawed newspaper analysis of Census 2011 in order to argue that if this trend continues then Muslims will not only catch-up with the Hindus in terms of their population growth rate, but in half a century the Hindus are likely to become a minority in their own country. This alarmist position has fueled a vicious diatribe by the Sangh Parivar, an example of which is Praveen Togadia’s recent statement that the two child norm should be implemented for Muslims if they are to receive the benefits of development. While the theory of a burgeoning Muslim population growth rate has been effectively countered by scholars and activists, other aspects of the structural inequalities affecting minority communities need more attention. In fact this undue importance to population growth rates for narrow political gains glosses over and hides the larger questions of development of minorities in the political discourse.

MINORITIES AND

ACCESS TO LAND

Land ownership and access to cultivated land has structured the structural inequalities in India in the post independence era. While the focus has largely been on the deprivation of land of the Scheduled Tribes and Castes, the ownership and access to cultivable land of different religious communities deserves far more attention for at least two reasons. First, it shows the interface between religion and class and the way in which it can influence class relations. Second, it also shows that religious communities have class formations within them and are not homogeneous in character. This is particularly important for the democratic movement as it can build alliances between the most deprived sections of the minorities and the larger class-based mass organisations.

Keeping this in mind it is important to analyse the trends of access to land as shown in various rounds of the NSSO in terms of religious communities. The trends of the last decade reveal the following picture in Table 1:

Table 1: Land Possessed by Religion, 2010-11

NSSO, Employment and Unemployment amongst Religious Socio-Economic Groups 2009-10, Report 552, New Delhi 2013, Table 3.

Table 1 shows that almost all the Muslim minorities possess lands of less than one hectare and even though this percentage has come down from 96 percent in 1999-2000, the number of Muslim minorities with marginal holdings and small size of homesteads is enormous. Apart from this, the other striking feature is that about 80 percent of the Christians also have marginal holdings. However the greatest differentiation is seen amongst Sikhs, whose marginal landholders are even lesser than the Hindu majority in percentage. They also have the maximum number of large landholders thereby signifying a great degree of class formation. It is also to be noted that the Hindu majority cannot be considered as a homogenous whole as a majority of the landless and marginal land holders belong to historically deprived castes. Further the average size of homestead lands is smallest amongst the Muslims even though they have one of the largest family sizes. This implies that the Muslim minorities live in more cramped and small houses than others reflecting the state of their living conditions.

This conclusion is further strengthened if the access to cultivated land is analysed. The following picture emerges from Table 2:

Table 2: Access to Cultivated Land by Religion 2009-10

NSSO, Employment and Unemployment amongst Religious Socio-Economic Groups 2009-10, Report 552, New Delhi 2013, Table 4

Table 2 shows that the percentages of landless people are more in Muslim and Sikh communities. But the two communities cannot be seen as being in the same situation, because the numbers of marginal holdings are the least in the Sikhs amongst all religious groups. Further they also have the highest number of large and medium, holdings. In fact the Hindus and the Sikhs display a much higher degree of differentiation than the Muslims and the Christians who not only have a smaller size of average land holdings but, also appear to be the most deprived to cultivated land. Between these two communities however, it is the Muslims who seem to be worse off because they have the smallest number of small and medium holdings as well. In fact more than 95 percent of the Muslim minorities have access to less than 2 hectares of cultivated land, having an impact over their overall status of livelihood security.

LABOUR MARKETS

AND THE MINORITIES

The participation of different religious communities in the labour market also needs to be seen in this context.  Table 3 shows that the labour force participation rate gives the following picture: