The Struggle for Equality: India's Muslims and Rethinking the UPA Experience

265 Pages·2019·2.137 MB·English

by  Heewon Kim

The Struggle for Equality
The quest for equality in the public sphere by religious minorities in India
remains highly contested. For the Muslims, the largest religious minority,
it continues to define the community’s politics more than seven decades
after Independence. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s
(2004–2014) policies on religious minorities—the Muslim community in
particular—provide a test case for examining why a government committed
to a radical new approach for equality of opportunity for religious minorities
was unable to deliver on its promises. The author focuses on probing the
deeply entrenched systemic reasons that help explain the UPA’s lack of
success. Drawing on empirical sources that include official data, parliamentary
proceedings and commission reports, the book discusses in detail the
underlying modes of institutional resistance to UPA policies that rendered
them ineffective or non-implementable, especially against policies targeted at
disadvantaged Muslims.
It presents a rich, comprehensive, and nuanced understanding of the policy
process in India. Significantly, it is an understanding that locates the role of
history and institutions in continuing to shape policies for religious minorities.
Heewon Kim is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department
of Religions and Philosophies, SOAS, University of London. Her research
focuses on religion and politics in modern India, with particular reference to
the post-1947 management of religious diversity, India’s Muslim community,
and the post-9/11 state responses to demands from religious minorities for
equal opportunities.
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The Struggle for Equality
India’s Muslims and Rethinking the UPA Experience
Heewon Kim
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© Heewon Kim 2019
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2019
Printed in India
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-108-41610-8 Hardback
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accurate or appropriate.
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To my parents
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Contents
List of Tables and Figures ix
List of Abbreviations xi
Acknowledgements xv
Introduction 1
1. Opening Up the ‘Black Box’ of Public Policy: Towards an
Institutional Analysis of India’s Policies on Religious Minorities 16
2. Constitution-Making, Equality of Opportunity and Religious
Minorities: Reassessing the Critical Juncture 39
3. The UPA in Power: The New Equal Opportunities Framework,
Religious Minorities and the Limits of Change 65
4. UPA, Muslims and Public Sector Employment: Assessing
the Record 93
5. UPA, Muslims and Service Delivery 127
6. UPA, Muslims and the Communal Violence Bill 171
Conclusion 195
Appendix 208
Bibliography 210
Index 236
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Tables and Figures
Tables
2.1 ‘Competing equalities’: SCs, STs, OBCs and religious 48
minorities
2.2 Muslim employees in government sector employment 60
2.3 Percentage of Muslims in senior civil service posts 61
3.1 A summary of the UPA’s policy initiatives on religious 69
minorities
4.1 Central government and departments with high 115
recruitment of minorities, 2006–2013
4.2 Central government and departments with medium 117
recruitment of minorities, 2006–2013
4.3 Central government and departments with low 119
recruitment of minorities, 2006–2013
5.1 Some of the main recommendations of the SCR and 130
RMCR on education, finance and infrastructure
5.2 The multitude of schemes and initiatives for minorities 133
under the UPA
5.3 States and political parties in distribution of scholarships 144
(mid 2007–mid 2014)
5.4 Provision of PSL to minority communities 150
5.5 Degree of implementation in provision of PSL against 151
targets to religious minorities (2007–2014) by state
5.6 Proportion of minorities in 121 MCDs as per Census 2001 158
5.7 Share of minority in total minority population in MCD 161
5.8 Budget allocation by the Union government for minorities 162
in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan
5.9 Fund utilisation by the Union government for minorities 165
in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan
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x Tables and Figures
Figures
1.1 Stages of the policy process 20
1.2 UPA and Muslims: actors and institutions 26
1.3 A summary of the analytical approach: institutional policy 33
analysis
3.1 MoMA and organisational dependence: ministries and 86
other structures
5.1 PSA in 121 MCDs by scheduled banks 155
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