Thereare some genuine problems with this figure of 41 percent. For one it is nearly10 percent short of the Mandal Commission estimate. Moreover, if one looksclosely at the tables provided by the Sachar Report, it is clear that in twostates having considerable Muslim population -- Bengal and Assam -- the OBCMuslim population is only 3 percent of the states’ total Muslim population.This is simply inconceivable. Let’s take the case of Bengal as an example.Studies have shown that Muslim presence in this region has been a result ofconversions from low caste Hindus. Over a period of time, the process ofAshrafization, akin to Sanskritization among Hindus, has seen many of these lowMuslim castes taking on caste titles of upper Muslim castes. The most commongroup to which Ashrafizing low Muslim castes joined was the Sheikhs, making thissocial category very numerous and fluid. Thus in the Census of 1872, the totalMuslim population of Bengal was 17.6 million, out of which only 232,189 werereturned as Sheikhs. However, by 1901, out of a total Muslim population of over21.5 million, 19.5 million were returned as Sheikhs! Partly due to the way theupper caste Muslims have been defined in the Sachar Report, the caste of Sheikhshas been included among the category called General Muslims. This means thatnumerous low caste Muslims are treated in the Report as belonging to upper casteor General Muslim category. It is for this reason that OBC Muslims in Bengalconstitute only 3 percent of Muslim population while in reality they wouldconstitute the overwhelming majority of Muslim population in Bengal.