The Rajasthan government has on May 19 re- included five castes, including Gujjars, in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. This decision has been taken on the eve of the ninth anniversary of the first agitation of the Gujjars for inclusion in reservation that took place on May 23, 2008.  This is after the state High Court had struck down the Special Backward Class (SBC) Reservation Act, 2015, which provided special backward class status to Gujjar and four other castes, in December just last year.
The states Social Justice and Empowerment Department on Friday issued a notification declaring that the five castes -? Banjara/Baldia/Labana, Gadia-Lohar/Gadalia, Gujjar/Gurjar, Raika/Rebari and Gadaria (Gaadri) — have again been included in the OCB list.

There is a background to this entire affair, these castes were first included in the OBC list in 1994. A law was enacted in 2008 to grant five per cent quota in government jobs and educational institutions under the SBC category to four castes/communities. It was implemented in 2009 and a separate government notification was issued in 2012 to include Gadaria (Gaadri) in the SBC list. However, this government decision ran into legal issues and the high court stayed the reservation in 2009 as it had exceeded the legal ceiling of 50 per cent.
Finally six years later, in September 2015, the state assembly passed the Rajasthan Special Backward Classes (reservation of seats in educational institutions in the state and of appointments and posts in services under the state) Bill to give 5 per cent reservation to the five castes and issued a notification on October 16, 2015 to bring the act into effect. Following the notification, the overall reservation in the state had reached 54 per cent.

However, the high court had scrapped the Act last year, saying there were no extraordinary circumstances to allow that overall reservation in government jobs and education institutes in various states should be allowed to go beyond the 50 per cent cap set by the Supreme Court.
"The Act was struck down by the high court on December 9, 2016. As a result, all five castes have again been included in the OBC list," the notification issued by ACS, Social Justice and Empowerment, Ashok Jain said. The notification is effective from December 9, 2016.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan Gujjar Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti spokesperson Himmat Singh Gujjar has said the community will protest against the decision. The decision to protest has always a threat to turn violent given the recent history of Gujjar protests.

Background of Protests: Violent
The Gurjar agitation in Rajasthan had seen a series of protests in the state of Rajastan, India, beginning 2008 and then most significantly in 2015.

Nine years ago, violence erupted in the state of Rajasthan on May 23, 2008 when police fired on protesters belonging to the Gurjar caste who were demanding a higher scheduled tribe status, instead of their current OBC (Other Backward Class) status. The agitation turned violent and in retaliation, the protesters lynched a policeman in the Bharatpur district of Rajasthan. The spiral continued and in response, police shot at protesters as they tried to damage railway lines and government property. At least 15 were killed on the spot.

It was on May 24 of 2008 that the Indian army was called in to help calm the violence as another 15 people were killed when police shot at a mob of protesters trying to torch a police station in Sikandra. Many thousands of protesters blocked a rail route between Delhi and Mumbai. Highways had also been blocked, and state authorities cancelled many buses. Getting almost nothing from the government for their demand of a 5% quota for government jobs, Gurjars again went on to agitate, this time in 2010. This time there was an Ashok-Gehlot run Congress government in the state. They jammed trains on the Jaipur-Delhi and Mumbai-Delhi routes. Unlike the unrest in 2008, there was no violence in 2010. In May 2015, a similar protest was organized and over thousands of Gujjars blocked railway tracks halting train traffic.

The state government, however, has so far declined to change their status. Instead, it has announced that Rs. 2.82 billion ($ 67 million)will be spent to improve schools, clinics, roads and other infrastructure in Gurjar-dominated areas. However, Gurjar leaders have said that they "do not want money". Kirori Singh Bhainsla, the head of the main Gurjar protest organisation issued a statement — "We do not accept the economic package."

In 2007, Gurjars in Rajasthan fought police and members of the Meena tribe that had already qualified for Scheduled Tribe benefits and is opposed to Gurjars sharing the benefits it has cornered for itself. At least 26 people were killed in that violence. In the wake of the ongoing Gurjar agitation in neighbouring Rajasthan, high alert had been sounded in the border districts of Madhya Pradesh to check any spread of violence. The agitation finally ended after Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasnundhara Raje agreed on a 5% reservation under a new special category.

Violence

Soon after the Modi government assumed power in Delhi in May 2014, Gujjars demonstrated their caste might. In 2015, in an agitation that saw the widespread destruction of public property and also the utter paralysis of roads and communciations that led to the national capital, Gujjars mainly targeted the Jaipur-Delhi, Jaipur-Agra, and the Mumbai-Delhi transport routes as they believed it would capture the attention of the government and media altogether and resorted to violence when security forces tried to clear the roads and railways.

Some Gujjars alleged that the role of home minister and chief minister as provocative and oppressive. They blamed the government for giving the agitation a violent turn by firing at people gathering around patoli village whose bodies were then preserved using salt and ice for the duration of the entire period of agitation. The demand for punishment for those responsible for killing the villagers was added to that of gaining the reservation. The news of dead bodies lying without cremation attracted many gurjars from far off areas and even other states which added to the numbers of agitators who were now beyond the control of the police or the rapid action force and thus the Indian Army was called in.
However, the violence only stopped after some assurances from the government. Police in Sikandra town fired at protesters who torched a police station and two buses and shot and wounded a policeman, said Amanjit Singh Gill, Rajasthan's director-general of police. Protesters also burned down a police station in the nearby village of Chandra Guddaji, Gill said. Fifteen demonstrators died Friday when police fired live ammunition and tear gas to halt rioting, said Singh. A police officer was also beaten to death. At least 70 injured people were hospitalized in Jaipur, the state capital, and the town of Dosa.

Demonstrators blocked a major highway linking Jaipur to Agra — site of the world famous Taj Mahal monument — stranding thousands of people. Thousands of army, police, and paramilitary forces patrolled villages to control the violence.

Sporadic violence began again on 26 May when more than 36 towns observed a bandh to protest the police firing into the crowds. Six wagons of a goods train on its way to Agra derailed near Bandikui station in Dausa district due to tampering of rail tracks, allegedly by the Gurjars. Northern railway cancelled nine trains passing through Rajasthan and diverted several others to different routes.

Home Page Image Courtesy: Indian Express

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On a sunny afternoon in  Kapurthalla town of east  Punjab, in the famous ‘Moroccan’ mosque, a man  looking every inch a Sikh – with turban, beard, and kada – looks over his shoulder, then with a quick movement of hands does what appeared to be wuzu, and joins me for Zuhr prayers. Being a stranger, I was immediately recognised by the rest of the four namaazis. Then followed an animated conversation about the state of the Muslims in the area. Of the namaazis, two were Bihari labourers, the other two were Kashmiri merchants. As I conversed with them, the absence of Punjabi Muslims struck me. Where are they? Instead of an answer, a meaningful silence stopped the conversation.

Meanwhile, the ‘Sikh’ joined us. Making sure that no non-Muslim was around, he told me, “Janab I am a Muslim, my real name is Allah Ditta, son of Piran Ditta, Arun Singh is my fake name. I belong to a village in Amritsar district. When the partition disturbances took place, we were too poor to travel to Pakistan. Our family of potters was so well integrated in the village that we did not think of migrating hoping that the dark nights of killings would end. Soon, surrounding villages were emptied as a large number of Muslims did cross the border. When the massacres stopped in late 1947, the social pressure of our Hindu and Sikh neighbours and the arrival of the refugees compelled us to hide our faith. Men and women adopted Sikh and Hindu appearances: turbans, beards, bindis, names, and the like.”  The story of Allah Ditta/Arun Singh and thousands of others like him forms a tragic chapter in the history of modern India.

One of the recurring themes in the context of the partition of India is the “virtual exchange of population” between east and west Punjab, meaning that all the Hindus and the Sikhs left the west seeking refuge in the east, as all the Muslims supposedly did so in the opposite direction. Leaving aside the question of Sikhs and Hindus in Pakistan, let us consider the case of Muslims in post-1947 East Punjab.

Did in fact all Muslims migrate to Pakistan, regardless of class and location? A closer examination of the contemporary east Punjab’s religious demography casts serious doubts about the accuracy of “virtual exchange of population.” Conversations with the mosque imams, Punjab Waqf Board (PWB) staff and policemen reveal that there are thousands of “Muslims in disguise” throughout Punjab. 

In the summer of 1947, thousands of Muslims were persuaded by their Hindu/Sikh neighbours not to migrate to Pakistan as they hoped that the disturbances would be over before too long. In any case, these villagers provided protection to the Muslims as the Muslims had a role in the village economy as potters, brick layers, iron smiths, mirasis, singers and dancers. Thus, many thousand Muslims decided to stay back. But soon village after village was emptied leaving Muslims as a vulnerable minority. Though the violence stopped, societal pressure set in, leading most Muslims to adopt  Hindu, Sikh ways. However, some remained Muslim inwardly, praying and  fasting secretly.

Exactly how many such “Muslims in disguise” might there be all over east Punjab? A thorough village by village survey may reveal the actual number but it is nearly impossible given the possible adverse consequences: re-opening of the wounds of partition in a state with a tense international border and barely recovering from the Sikh insurgency of the 1980s and early 1990s.

What is the Shariah status of these men and women, now in their late sixties or seventies? Are they murtid, apostates? Are they in perpetual taqiya, dissimulation? I posed this question to many ulema in India, none had a clear answer. Like many other sensitive issues, Muslim leadership is silent on this question. Unlike the rest of Punjab, a Muslim enclave survived the horrors of 1947 in Malerkotla, Sangrur. In early 18th century, Nawab Sher Muhammad Khan – the founder of the Malerkotla princely state — had disagreed with the decision to kill the sons of the 10th Sikh guru. The nawab’s disagreement with his Mughal overlords pleased the Sikhs so much that since then Malerkotla has remained immune from inter-religious violence — even during the partition.

Thus at the dawn of the 21st century, Malerkotla is the only Muslim island in the land of five rivers! Of its nearly one lakh population, the majority are Muslim. The minarets of the town’s many mosques dominate the skyline. There are several madrassas, Urdu is widely read and signs in the language are everywhere. Apart from Malerkotla, Muslims are present in almost all parts of the state though in smaller numbers. Ludhiana, Jullundhar, Patiala, Amritsar and Kapurthalla are significant centres of their population. But most Muslims in all these towns have come from outside Punjab: itinerant Afghan traders plying between Amritsar and Kabul, Kashmiri merchants, and Bihari agricultural labourers.

Like Malerkotla, the Mewat region spanning the districts of Gurgaon and Faridabad in Haryana, a state carved out of east Punjab, and the districts of Alwar and Bharatpur in Rajasthan, is also predominantly Muslim. The Mewatis are an Islamicised section of the Meo tribe, a Hindu warrior group. Inhabiting the dry Aravalli hill region, the Meos are mainly landless cultivators. The Meos were severely affected by the partition, as most were massacred in Alwar and Bharatpur or were driven away. Some, however, did return in 1948.

The 1991 census shows that the Muslims are 4.6 per cent of the total Haryana population. Now in 2000, there are probably a million Muslims, as many as there are Sikhs in Haryana! Like Malerkotla, there are mosques and madrassas everywhere in Gurgaon and Urdu is widely taught in schools. Since the 1930s, the Tablighi Jamaat has worked in the Mewat region as part of a reform and return to Islam movement. In fact Maulana Muhammad Ilyas (died 1944) began his movement from this area. The Tablighi success or failure in achieving their goal is a matter of debate — whether and to what degrees the Meos are Islamised. In addition to the Muslims in Malerkotla and Mewat, there are some Muslims in Himachal Pradesh, once part of the old Punjab. Less than one lakh (89, 134), they constituted 1.7 per cent of the state  population in 1991. Most of the Himachal Muslims are Gujjars, a scheduled tribe. They are akin to the Gujjars of Kashmir. They lead a pastoral life, moving with their cattle from the higher altitudes in the summer and return to the lower hills and plains in winter in anticipation of the snow. The Gujjars basically lead a subsistence existence, there is little economic development in the areas they live. Nor is education widespread, though there are signs that some children are going to schools and some even learning Urdu. There are mosques in Shimla, Solan, and other towns of Himachal Pradesh.

East Punjab has a large number of forts (Bhatinda and Fardikot for example), tombs (Ustad and Shagird, Nakodar), caravan serais (Serai Amanat Khan, Amritsar), mosques (Moorish mosque, Kapurthalla), eidgahs, dargahs (Sarhind Sharif) and cemeteries. These structures are the most tangible signs of the departed Muslims. It took the government more than a decade to establish a waqf board in 1960 to look after the Muslim public property — as distinct from the private property which was taken over by the state for distribution among the refugees from the West Punjab.

The Muslims of the east Punjab are now slowly recovering from the shocks of partition. Hence the subsequent societal pressure to reclaim their places. The events of 1947 are now a receding memory, replaced by the tragic events of the 1980s, in which the Muslims played no part. This has helped the insignificant Muslim minority regain some confidence as a neutral third party. But living as they are in a state bordering Pakistan, they remain vulnerable due to the continuing India-Pakistan stand-off on Kashmir. A resolution of that conflict will have a positive impact on the Muslim situation all over India, including of course, East Punjab. 

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