Posted on 08/24/2007 10:51:13 PM PDT by Ghayyour
CALCUTTA, India, Aug 24--Institutionalized discrimination against Muslims in India is promoting many Muslims to adopt Hindu names and identities just to be able to eke out a living.
"Fifteen years ago, when I came to Calcutta in search of a job, almost all street restaurants in the city refused to employ me because I was a Muslim," Shaikh Salim told the Washington Times on Tuesday, August 21.
"But soon I met a Muslim man who worked as a cook in a Hindu-owned restaurant under a Hindu identity. I followed his advice, picked up a Hindu identity, and soon an upper-class Hindu employed me to run a food stall."
Salim, who goes by the common Hindu name Shankar Maity, now runs a food stall in a busy street in Calcutta, which he calls "Shankar's Fast Food."
Nearly all of his customers are Hindus and he fears his business would suffer disastrously if they found out about his Muslim identity.
"I know that [many Hindus] hate Muslims simply because of their religion. So, I have done nothing wrong by lying about my religious identity."
There are nearly 140 million Muslims in India, constituting over 13 percent of its billion-strong population.
Muslims have for decades complained of social and economic neglect and oppression.
They account for less than seven percent of public service employees, only five percent of railways workers, around four percent of banking employees and there are only 29,000 Muslims in India's 1.3 million-strong military.
Moreover, Shaokat Ali, who came to Calcutta to complete his master's degree in English, was forced to hide behind a fake name to ovoid the discrimination in a Hindu-dominated society.
He can never tell any of his English language students his big secret of being a Muslim.
To them he is Saikat Das, a famous Hindu name.
He even keeps a large picture of the popular Hindu goddess Kali hanging on the wall in his room in a guesthouse complex, which accepted him as Das after 29 others refused him as Ali.
"It pains me that I cannot tell people that I am a Muslim," lamented 24-year-old Ali.
"I am restlessly waiting for the day when I shall be able to get out of this religious guise."
Official figures show Muslims log lower educational levels and higher unemployment rates than the Hindu majority and other minorities like Christians and Sikhs.
Ali is not alone in the identity trap.
Every day as she prepares to go to work, Jahanara Begum takes off her silver talisman embossed with the word "Allah" and puts vermillion powder on her forehead.
She has to maintain a Hindu appearance among her customers in the fish market where she is known as Parvati -- the name of a Hindu goddess.
Analysts admit that the need for fake identities is a natural outcome of the institutionalized anti-Muslim prejudice in India.
"In everyday life, Muslims in almost all spheres of life face a communal discrimination by powerful Hindus," Anjan Basu, a veteran social analyst and executive editor of the Bengali daily Pratidin, told the Times.
"They are denied many of their basic rights and freedom in an unjustified way."
Basu, a Hindu, said many Hindus believe that Pakistan was created for Muslims and they do not have right to live in India.
Six decades after the partition, Basu added, Indian Muslims still face deep-seated discrimination.
He warned against the repercussions for such a situation.
"As Indian Muslims strongly feel they are being unjustifiably denied their share in developing India, their grievances could snowball into severe anger against the state and society, forcing many to resort to terrorism one day."
Institutionalized discrimination against Muslims in India is promoting many Muslims to adopt Hindu names and identities just to be able to eke out a living.
Infiltrating by assuming a different identity could have a purpose beyond getting a job as a dishwasher.
I wonder how tough it is for Hindus in Riyadh.
Institutionalised? So, there are official laws to promote this? What blatant liars!
As opposed to the carnivals of peaceful joy that they've indulged in so far?
Lol!
To any Indian, this is not news.
Whaaaa, pity poor the Muslims.
Where AREN’T they oppressed?
The way Arab Muslim media reports it, Muslims are severely oppressed all over the West.
Blackmail. Threaten. Hold us over a barrel until you get your way.
Whining terrorist bastards.
Do they just go to the countries of other people, looking for a way to have “severe anger against the state and society” in order to implement their preplanned terrorism? Because that’s what I think they do. This is all a plan. I hope the Indians are smarter than we’ve been calling their bluff.
"He warned against the repercussions for such a situation."
The fact that Hindus were ruthlessly driven out of Pakistan, unmentioned by our intrepid reporter, may have had something to do with it.
If they didn’t have ulterior motives, that would give them a clue to not go to other countries.
I’d love to hear one be forced to answer for how they treat people of other religions in Islamic states.
Do ya think? Sheesh. It’s very clear where their loyalties are isn’t it. They resent their plight. And who is forcing that plight on them.
Okay, if you’re a Muslim then why not move to a Muslim state, live life on honest terms and leave the Indians in peace.
These folks don’t feel at home anywhere. They bitch and moan, woa is me, they’re so mean to me... then they demand the host nation make concessions.
Nobody forced them to live in a non-Muslim state.
Nope, the goal here is to change India. They can’t wait until they can live in India openly as a Muslim. And that will not happen until they are the majority.
He is lying to infidels. Protected speech in the ROP.
I’m not sure if the one law cancels out the other — in terms of what the Koran and Shariah dictate, that is. But yeah, I know that this is the way they justify it in their own minds.
Yes, and I can only hope that over generations more and more follow his example, and that gradually the religion withers away, in fact as well as in name, in India.
That would be at least a start. Anotherplace that islam could decline over time is in Java, where there is a slow, but steady draining away of Muslims back to their Java Hindu cultural roots. Every single thing of value that remains in Javanese culture is there only because it managed to survive Muslim cultural imperialism. Even today Islam tries to discredit Javanese tradtions in attempt to convert Javanese into coconut arabs - make them culturally the same as Yemenis.
Islam has been a plague and a blight in every land and culture it has infested.
Without exception, there is no place, location, land or culture on the planet that would not be better off today if Mohammad had never been born.
I suspect that if Muslims weren’t so busy in India trying to muscle out Hindus (generally by foul means), the Hindus of India wouldn’t hate them so much.
I won’t say it, but I’ll bet you know what I’m thinking...
LOL
I’m lousy at guessing games, but I don’t hear about the same level of trouble befalling Christians in India. When Hindus in India do wicked things to Christians it’s usually because they’re kicking back against the idea of being evangelized. Christians offer other people a choice. Muslims aren’t so subtle about how they intend to “spread the faith.”
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