That Muslim Vote

Secularists and sangh parivar sustain a myth

India’s politicians, whether from the Hindutva or secular camp, are staunch believers in the idea of a ‘Muslim vote’. It was only natural that they should cast the India-US nuclear deal too in these terms. The Congress is worried about losing the Muslim vote if it pushes the deal through and is preparing sops for Muslims to counteract this effect. The Left hopes to sway Muslims with its polemic against the deal. Recent opinion polls released this week show, however, that they needn’t have bothered. Most people don’t have a strong opinion on the deal either way. Of those that do, there is no discernible difference between Muslims and non-Muslims. As a matter of fact, more Muslims (35 per cent) than non-Muslims (31 per cent) say they would oppose the Left if it brings down the government on the deal. The usual lines on which the political class divides up the electorate don’t show on the ground. We have only to examine certain underlying assumptions behind the Muslim vote idea to realise how offensive it is. It not only assumes that all Muslims are swayed by the same questions of religious identity, it’s based on an old model of patronage politics whereby the diktat of a Muslim cleric or self-styled leader of the community will deliver the votes of his religious compatriots. Secularists who subscribe to this line of thinking perpetuate one of the worst communal stereotypes, that of the Indian Muslim as an unthinking tool of his leaders. ‘Secular’ then becomes shorthand for doing what you need to grab the Muslim vote, never mind that this is a subversion of secularism. The Muslim vote generates its own counter-myths, that of the Hindu vote, for example, which the sangh parivar is keen to mobilise. To be sure there can be moments of great national anxiety, such as the demolition of the Babri masjid or the Gujarat pogroms, where Muslim votes will cluster around candidates who oppose such policies. In a democracy, however, that’s a natural corrective to extremist forces. Beyond that there’s no reason to believe that issues that matter most to all citizens — such as poverty, employment, education and health — aren’t also issues that affect Muslims. That politicians are buffeted by successive anti-incumbency waves shows they are quite often out of touch with the electorate. The idea of the monolithic Muslim vote is one myth they ought to revisit. It’s best to think of the Muslim citizen as just that, a citizen of a secular republic.