The communal composition of the Royal Indian Army (Raj days) was heavily tilted towards Muslims. B.R. Ambedkar, in his book Pakistan or The Partition of India (1940), observes, “Whatever be the explanation, two glaring facts stand out…. One is that the Indian army today is predominantly Muslim in its composition. The other is that the Musalmans who predominate are the Musalmans from the Punjab and the NWFP.” (B.R. Ambedkar, Writings and Speeches, Vol-8, Pg 95). However, the high recruitment of Hindu youths during World War II, after Veer Savarkar’s whirlwind propaganda, saw the Muslim proportion whittled down to 25 per cent of the whole by 1945.

The Muslims in the British Indian Army mostly migrated to Pakistan after Partition. The recruiting fields of Muslim soldiers viz. the NWFP and Punjab (West) are now in Pakistan. The Muslims who remained in India, say in UP, Bihar, West Bengal or Kerala, have a history of reluctance to serve in the army. This is despite any bias against Muslims or any other community in the forces. It is only a matter of their willingness to join and qualifying in the physical tests. That said, one-tenth of soldiers who laid down their lives in Operation Vijay in Kargil were Muslims.

Although British-era names like the Sikh Regiment and Gorkha Regiment persist, the government stopped raising ethnically named regiments back in the 1950s. The result: almost all regiments are of mixed ethnicity and religion today. The Indian army has its priests, granthis and maulvis to administer the religious schedule. There is no ‘religious indoctrination’ unlike in Pakistan and other Islamic states. All places of worship, be it temple, gurudwara, chaplain or mosque, are known by their generic name ‘dharamsthan’ (religious site). Recruits are groomed in such a rigorous manner that nationalism becomes their only religion. Every soldier participates in all religious functions.
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Patriotism and nationalism are better kept outside the periphery of religion-based quotas. Suffice to say, we are proud of our Abdul Hamids, Albert Ekkas and J.F.R. Jacobs as much our Somnath Sharmas, Subroto Mukherjees and Padmanabhans.

New Delhi, Oct. 9: The Centre will ask public and private sector companies to do a religion-based headcount of their employees as part of an effort to end discrimination.

The companies will be requested to prepare a database that will have all details of their staff, including religion and caste, minority affairs ministry sources said.

…The current move is part of the build-up towards the constitution of an Equal Opportunity Commission to stop discrimination. “Although this is being done with really good intentions, this can be easily misunderstood. So we are being very cautious,’’ a ministry official said.

…“We are going to make it mandatory for all corporate houses to maintain a database of their staff. This would give the government, and particularly the Equal Opportunity Commission, which is going to be set up, a clear idea about the social and religious diversity among the workforce.”

The ministry is now lending the final touches to the Equal Opportunity Commission Bill, to be tabled in the next session of Parliament. The commission will check discrimination based on sex, religion, caste, race, birthplace, descent and language, and will have court-like powers.

Hat Tip: Varnam

Madhya Pradesh has topped the figure with 60.1 per cent literacy among the Muslim women which was much better than other states including Assam, West Bengal, U P, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Rajasthan as per the census of population 2001.

The Muslim population in Madhya Pradesh is only 6.4 per cent of the total population and the literacy percent for Muslims in the State was 70.3 and this was achieved only by the active participation of women in the state, he said.

Jammu and Kashmir has a maximum Muslim population of 67.0 per cent but the women literacy rate was only 34.9 per cent

And, we need to reinforce and help these commentators.