Being Muslim in Hindu India

Anyone who follows the news knows that the Muslims of India are under siege. They face what author Ziya Us Salam calls the gravest challenge to the community, and to the definition of a secular India enshrined in India’s Constitution, since independence. To be a Muslim in India today is to live with the reality of daily stigmatization and ever-increasing threats of violence. In several places, Muslims are expected to abide by the preferences of the majority community. At others, they might be killed on mere suspicion of cow slaughter, or much worse, just because they ‘look’ Muslim. There are attacks on their attire, language and culture.

Being Muslim in Hindu India is an impassioned cry for attention, an attempt to highlight just what has gone wrong with our polity and society in recent years. Painstakingly researched, the book talks of the constant ‘othering’ of Muslims, using tactics of both peace and violence. Starting from a denial of tickets to Muslim candidates by political parties or missing names from electoral rolls, the book goes on to talk of attempts to wipe out complete passages of the history of medieval India, as if the period from 1206 to 1857 existed in a vacuum.

Amidst these grave challenges, the book ends on a note of hope. This stems from the fact that even as the community faces political marginalization, the success of many of its young men and women gives India’s Muslims hope for a better tomorrow.