Muslim women in India, a double burden? 1/2

Written by: Mihiri Wijetunge

Translated by: Zoé Llacer

16/10/2023

The 24th of August 2023, footage of a teacher in Uttar Pradesh urging her pupils to take turns beating up a young Muslim classmate went viral on social networks, triggering a heated controversy^[1]Latour, V. (2023, août 27). Inde : un élève musulman frappé par ses camarades souligne l’oppression subie par cette minorité. La Croix. … Continue reading.

This act of violence against a seven-year-old child highlights a society riddled with hostile prejudice towards the Muslim community. Uttar Pradesh, a state under the aegis of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, can be seen as a laboratory for the fabrication of the notion of the “Muslim enemy”, and is at the heart of this concern. It is evident that today India is a powerful actor that cannot be ignored as the balance of power between the global North and the global South continues changing. And regarding internal policy, the largest democracy in the world demonstrates an increasing authoritarianism and establishes an institutionalised persecution of the Muslim community. This institutional and social violence against Muslims is even more brutal when it comes to women. They are confronted with a complex situation, resulting in three interconnected and amplifying factors: gender-based discrimination, religion, and socio-economic inequalities. This makes them the most fragile and precarious group in Indian society. The treatment of Muslim women cannot be examined in isolation; it must be understood in the current socio-cultural and political context of India, which is profoundly phallocentric and hierarchical. Hence, it is necessary to ask: to what extent is the situation of Muslim women in India’s indicative of a pyramid society that is both communitarian and misogynistic? To determine specifically the situation of Indian Muslim women, it seems necessary to comprehend the complexity of the relationship between Muslims and Hindus. To this end, this first article will be devoted to establishing how the Muslim community has become a minority and how it affects women. A second article will focus more specifically on the reasons for the marginalisation of Muslim women and their responses to this discrimination.

An Increasing Institutionalisation of the Persecution Against the Muslim Community

To better understand the specific situation of Muslim women, it is essential to analyse the dynamics between India and the Muslim community. Tensions between the Muslim minority and the Hindu majority are far from recent, and their relationship is one of the most striking features of the founding of contemporary India in 1947, the result of a major historical event known as “Partition”. The Partition is principally the result of a colonialist politic that formed the divide between the two communities. This division was not self-evident, as Muslims were not regarded as a minority. This notion of “minority” was fabricated by the British colonialists, who adopted the stratagem of “divide and rule” by forging and instrumentalizing a division between Muslims and Hindus with the aim of preventing a unity that would be detrimental to their ends. On the contrary, Muslims were at the origin of the feeling of “Indianness”. In fact, at the end of the 18th century, Tipû Sultan, the ruler of Mysore, now the state of Karnataka, was a visionary who saw in the British invasion a threat on an unprecedented scale that could be fatal to his kingdom and, more generally, to India as a whole. “In his eyes, what divided Muslims and Hindus were “still” less important than what pitted them against the British. It is in this “still”, in other words, in this Indianness that was already active on the battlefields, that the crucible of future Indian nationalism resides^[2]Zins, M. (2016). Le mécanisme d’une fabrique coloniale : la minorité musulmane du sous-continent indien. Dans Presses universitaires de Strasbourg eBooks (p. 99‑112). … Continue reading”. However, after being at the forefront of the resistance against the British invaders, which was violently repressed in 1858, “the Muslim community became “religionised” while becoming depoliticised^[3]Zins, M. (2016). Le mécanisme d’une fabrique coloniale : la minorité musulmane du sous-continent indien. Dans Presses universitaires de Strasbourg eBooks (p. … Continue reading”, and prominent Hindus took over the leadership of the resistance. Nonetheless, a strong pan-Islamic politization is noticeable, as proven by the Muslim demonstrations of the 1920s, which took place in reaction to the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire. These demonstrations were aimed at Hindus, as they were unable to reach the British. This adherence to pan-Islamism highlights a form of allegiance to foreign forces perceived as a threat by the Hindu intelligentsia. In reaction to this, Hindu nationalist ideology emerged, notably embodied by V.D. Savarkar in his book Hindutva. Who is a Hindu? published in 1922. This ideology pointed the finger at the Muslim community as the main threat to Indian identity. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a paramilitary group, became the concrete embodiment of this ideology. It promoted the training of minds and bodies, and eventually created a political party called the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is today’s BJP^[4]Meyer-Hilfiger, Manon. (2022, 29 avril)  Depuis l’arrivée au pouvoir de Narendra Modi, les minorités religieuses de l’Inde sont de plus en plus sous tension. National … Continue reading.                

This communal divide changed the nature of the violence between the Muslim and Hindu communities, with particular repercussions for women. The massacres that took place between 1946 and 1947 were perpetrated by young men who were “politically aware, […] rather educated^[5]Zins, M. (2016). Le mécanisme d’une fabrique coloniale : la minorité musulmane du sous-continent indien. Dans Presses universitaires de Strasbourg eBooks (p. 99‑112). … Continue reading”, which gave their actions a highly political (and not thoughtless) significance. On the other hand, this political violence is also illustrated by the fact that it does not spare women and children, who represent 75% of the victims, whereas before they were relatively rare victims of violence, being considered as non-political individuals^[6]Zins, M. (2016). Le mécanisme d’une fabrique coloniale : la minorité musulmane du sous-continent indien. Dans Presses universitaires de Strasbourg eBooks (p. 99‑112). … Continue reading. There was a change at the time of Partition: “In 1946-1947, women were individual targets as significant as men, since they were, like men, citizen members of nascent nation states (Indian women had begun to vote as early as 1921 under the voting census), with one difference, however: as it was easier to attack a woman and it was men who did the killing, women were frequently martyred (raped, sexually mutilated, tattooed, sold…)^[7]Zins, M. (2016). Le mécanisme d’une fabrique coloniale : la minorité musulmane du sous-continent indien. Dans Presses universitaires de Strasbourg eBooks (p. 99‑112). … Continue reading…)”. There was a noticeable upsurge in acts of violence against Muslim women, such as the Garhmukteshwar massacre in November 1946, one of the high points of anti-Muslim violence, where Muslim women were stripped naked and raped by Hindu mobs.

As a result, Muslim women have become political beings although second-class ones, and they are also more victims of violence because of the systemic violence directed against them. This pattern of using women as political targets to reach out to the community continues as illustrated by the riots in Delhi in February 2020 following protests against India’s new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), passed in December 2019. During the riots against the amendment, there were reports of violent attacks on Muslim women, including sexual assault and rape^[8]Bose, R., & Bose, R. (2020, 1 mars). Beaten, Molested and homeless : How women became worst victims of Delhi riots. News18. … Continue reading. Muslim women were particularly vulnerable during the riots, as they were often targeted because of their religious identity. These attacks were widely condemned nationally and internationally.

The conquest of Muslim women’s bodies: a new political object

It is becoming clear that India maintains a social and political model marked by violence and misogyny, and this is clearly reflected in its treatment of Muslim women. The Indian government sees itself as the protector of the rights of Muslim women, who are allegedly victims of the straitjacket of Islamic law applied within their community. As a result, several measures have been introduced that would appear to represent advances in women’s rights under the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act 2019. There is, for example, the ban on the practice of “triple talaq”, which, according to a certain interpretation of Sharia law, can speed up the divorce process, and the protection of women in inheritance matters. However, in the current Indian socio-political context, the nature of this measure appears less as a desire to strengthen women’s rights than “illustrates the determination of Hindu nationalists to arrive at a uniform civil code^[9]Moran, A. (2017, août 22). « Le combat du gouvernement indien pour les droits des femmes sert à attaquer la minorité musulmane » . Libération. … Continue reading”.  Ultimately, all this conceals a desire to use women’s bodies as tools to attack the whole community. Rather than protecting women, this leads to their marginalisation, so that they can no longer access to essential services such as healthcare or education. In February 2022, for example, the government decided to ban the wearing of the hijab in schools and universities. Young Muslim girls challenged the decision before the High Court of Karnataka, which rejected their complaint. The Indian government issued a directive stating that “clothing that is likely to undermine equality, integrity, public law and order must not be worn^[10]Courrier International. (2022, 15 mars). Un tribunal de l’État indien du Karnataka interdit le hidjab dans les salles de classe. Courrier … Continue reading”.

A Policy of Gradual Removal of Muslims From the Public Sphere

Increasingly, the state is adopting a nationalist policy that compromises the rights of Muslim people. The dominant party, the BJP, is tending towards illiberalism by challenging the rule of law and attacking secularism, which it ostensibly embodies, and the civil rights of Muslims. In some areas, members of one religion can only sell or rent property to people of the same religion. These laws have created a legal basis for those who want to prevent Hindu landlords from renting or selling property to Muslims in predominantly Hindu areas^[11]Christophe Jaffrelot. From Hindu Rashtra to Hindu Raj? A de facto or a de jure ethnic democracy?. Sten Widmalm (ed.). Routledge Handbook of Autocratization in South Asia, Routledge, pp.127-138, 2022, … Continue reading. The Muslim community is seeing its mosques destroyed, sometimes to be replaced by Hindu temples. The most emblematic event in this regard is the destruction of the Babri Masjid mosque in 1992 by Hindu extremists in Ayodhya, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, on the grounds that it was the birthplace of the god Ram^[12]Dieterich, C. (2020, 1 octobre). Démolition de la mosquée de Babri en Inde : « Personne n’est coupable » . Les … Continue reading. The exact number of mosques destroyed has not been precisely quantified, but their frequency remains a cause for concern. In 2022, a sixteenth-century Shahi Masjid mosque in Prayagraj, also in Uttar Pradesh, was demolished as part of a road-widening project^[13]Ather, S. (2023, 3 avril). Politics of Ruin : Why Modi wants to demolish India’s mosques. Politics | Al … Continue reading. These anti-Muslim measures also have considerable economic repercussions for this community. The most illustrative example is the multiplication of legislative measures since 2005^[14]La protection bovine en Inde : pratique extrême ? – le flagrant délit. (s. … Continue reading.

In constitutional terms, the abolition of the autonomy of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the only state with a Muslim majority, is not only problematic but constitutes a new way of repressing Muslims. By becoming a Union Territory, it allows New Delhi to exercise its sovereign power there; the police are now controlled by the central government, which has its own directives. Finally, this “Hinduisation” of public space has led to the ghettoization of the Muslim community. In turn, this ghettoization is becoming a survival strategy that is increasing the marginalisation of women. This “insecurity of space” also stems from the collusion of the federal and state governments^[15] Thomas, C. (2021). Territorialiser la domination ethnique : le ghetto musulman de Juhapura à Ahmedabad (Inde). L’Espace Politique, 42. https://doi.org/10.4000/espacepolitique.9055.

Such segregation further reduces the autonomy of women, who are subject to double confinement in both private and public spaces. The strategy of invisibilization by the Muslim community aims to protect itself from violence, and in particular women, who are the first victims, as explained by political scientist Thomas Charlotte, a specialist on the Muslim minority in India: “The barbarity inflicted on the body is part of the terrorisation of the lived space, this time intimate. But analysed here, it bears witness to the demographic invisibilization of the Muslim population, through physical ablation^[16] Thomas, C. (2021). Territorialiser la domination ethnique : le ghetto musulman de Juhapura à Ahmedabad (Inde). L’Espace Politique, 42. https://doi.org/10.4000/espacepolitique.9055”.

Marginalisation of the Muslim Community in India: Historical Perspectives and repercussions on Women

The marginalisation of the Muslim community in India has its roots in a process that stretches back to the time of colonisation and continues to the present day, mainly because of political considerations. This long trajectory of marginalisation has manifested itself through several aspects: the gradual exclusion from shared public spaces, acts of violence targeting this community and the adoption of patterns of social hierarchisation within the Muslim community itself. These dynamics reveal the extent of inequalities between social groups within Indian society. However, women, who find themselves at the convergence of these various forms of discrimination, bear a disproportionate share of the consequences of a society deeply marked by misogyny. They are subject both to the violence perpetrated by the hyper-nationalists and to the restrictions imposed by their own community. The implications of these power relations and inequalities for women will be analysed in greater depth in a second article.

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To cite this article: Mihiri Wijetunge. (2023) Muslim women in India, a double burden? 1/2. Gender in Geopolitics Institute. https://igg-geo.org/?p=18359&lang=en(ouvre un nouvel onglet)