Muslims Must Say No To AMU Reservations

As if the decision to reserve 50% of seats to Muslims was notshameful enough, a large section of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) academic community now wants to hitthe streets against the recent Allahabad High Court order which legallynullified such a move by the university. 

While the legal veracity of thejudgment continues to be debated, it is important to point out that the reasonswhich the AMU authorities have been giving for 50% Muslim reservation arethemselves dubious. In the earlier arrangement, 50% seats were reserved for whatwas called ‘internal students’ while the remaining 50% were open to allirrespective of region or religion. The new measure adopted by the university tampered with this old formula and reserved 50% of the seats exclusively forMuslim students and 20% for its internal students. 

Now, it is well known thatmost of the internal candidates are Muslim, which effectively brings totalreserved seats to a whopping 70%. This clearly becomes illegal according to theSupreme Court judgment which prohibits more than 50% reservation. Moreimportantly, the theoretically secular character of the institution getstarnished once and for all. For while it is true that the campus population waspredominantly Muslim, yet there was no religious discrimination of students inadmission. AMU, a central university, which is already notorious for notimplementing the SC ST quota, is going all out to attach a communal tag toitself.

There are two related reasons which theuniversity authorities are giving in support of Muslim reservation. Firstly they argue thatthe move will attract students from all parts of the country which is currentlyskewed in favour of north Indians. Secondly, they argue, that it will raise theacademic standards of the university since they would be able to attract thebest talents, especially from among the Muslim candidates. 

Both the argumentsare bogus.

It must be kept in mind that the reservation clause isselective. 50% Muslim reservation applies only to 38 select professionaldepartments, the combined strength of which comes to nearly 2000 students only.Now it is illogical to argue that in a campus strength of about 30,000 students,a mere 2000 will radically alter its regional profile and make it morerepresentative. Right from its inception, AMU has always been a north Indianaffair. Syed Ahmad Khan founded it for the education of north Indian Muslimnobles who had fallen on hard times. Moreover, a large number of Muslims comefrom this part of the country and there is no reason why they should not formthe majority in an institution like AMU.

The argument that 50% reservation will raise the academicstandards of the university is a classic example of shifting responsibility onothers, which, over the years, has become symptomatic of Muslim politics in India.Rather than looking inwards and standardising the recruitment of teachers, the universityconveniently shifts the blame on the students for its fallingacademic standards. It seems that the authorities have realized that the universityhas become so rotten from inside that the only way to give it aveneer of central university is to attract good students from outside. But thatis precisely the problem. Why should students study in a university which hassuch low academic standards? Excellence in education is the result of continuousinternal academic reform and expanding expression of divergent opinions, both ofwhich the AMU has in short supply. And till the time this is not rectified, AMUwill never attract the best of talents.

For quite some time now, the Indian Muslim elite have beenraising the bogey of Muslim reservation. AMU’s quest for reservation should beseen against this background of a general consensus which is building up amongthe Muslims that reservation is the panacea for all its ills. While it is truethat Muslims are lagging far behind in education and employment, it is alsoequally true that reservations will further complicate their problems.

Muslims are not a homogenous community. As in any othercommunity, there are deep divisions of caste and class among the Muslims. Forsuch a community, where a large section is poor, the benefits of reservationswill only accrue to a select section of upper class Muslims. Since the AMU isnot even discussing the exclusion of creamy layer Muslims from the ambit ofreservations, one suspects that the prime beneficiaries of such a move will bethose Muslims who are historically and morally in no need of it. In such ascenario, then, there is not much of a benefit for poor and backward Muslims inwhose names the politics of reservation is being carried out.

The political fall out of such a move will also bedetrimental to the Muslim community. Out of power and out of issue, the BJP hasgrabbed the opportunity to breathe life into itself. If the BJP exploits theissue, as it did after Shah Bano, the blame for this would squarely lie on theshoulders of this myopic, parasitic Muslim elite. Ordinary Muslims shouldquestion not only the wisdom with which the AMU sought to reserve seats but thewhole politics of reservation which is going in their name.

Already, Muslims onthe streets have paid a heavy price for their blind reliance on their leaders.Instead of progress, it has brought more madrasas in place of schools, economicbackwardness and much more insecurity. There is an urgent need that Muslims mustdiscard much which goes in the name of Muslim politics. As a first correctivestep, they should say a big no to Muslim reservation in AMU.

Arshad Alam, Department of Muslim Religious and Cultural History, University of Erfurt, Germany