The current social common sense rides on many a misconceptions. These
myths form the base of 'Hate other' ideology and has started creating
the emotional and physical walls amongst the communities in big measure in
recent years. One of these myths which makes merry rounds, with lots of
spices added to it is that Muslims marry four number of times and
produce twenty children. This is also expressed as the sigh of a poor Hindu
male, Ham Do Hamare Do- Wo Panch Unke pachis (We two, husband and a wife, our
two children, they five, one husband-four wives and have twenty children).
This might have been one of the most powerful constructs of the myth
making machinery installed by the RSS. In the prevailing scenario the
Census Commission's observation that the rate of rise of Hindu population
has declined from 25.1% in the decades of 81 to 91 to 20.3% during
91-2001 and the rate of Muslim growth has gone up from 34.5% during 81-91% to
36% during 91-2001, came as the Gods gift to the myth manufacturing
machinery.
Without wasting a minute various functionaries of this machine started
pouring their venom out in the open. Mr.Venkaiah Naidu, BJP President,
stated that it is a matter of deep concern for the unity and integrity
of the nation, Mr. Jaitly went on to demand a National debate on the
population growth as per religions, while Mr. Ram Madhav the spokesperson
of RSS asserted that this has been the RSS fear all through and the
first report on religion by census commission has confirmed the same. The
adoption of two child norm by Hindu middle class is the culprit of this
demographic danger looming over the country. Not to be left behind Shiv
Sena branch of Dharampur in Bijnor, UP, went on to declare Jagrook
(Aware person) award to few Hindu women who have more than five children. The
idea simply put is that these are the persons who are aware to the
Hindu cause, and by producing more Hindu children they are trying to offset
the evil designs of Muslims in converting this Hindu Rashtra into an
Islamic state. VHP votaries like Chinubhai Patel of Gujarat saw it as the
conspiracy of Muslims.
Right next day a National newspaper came out with the news that Census
commission has goofed and goofed badly. In the first ever Report on
religions, it forgot that the previous data, that of 1991 did not have
Muslim majority Jammu and Kashmir in the data. So the comparison
and the supposed rate of rise sounded bigger. In real fact there is a
decline in the Muslim rate of growth to 29.3 i.e. a decline of 3.7%. The total
population of Muslims remains 13.4% while the Hindu population is
80.5%.
At the time of Partition the Muslim population was 11.6%. Even in the
current data there are some holes. To begin with many an Adiviasis have
now got themselves registered in the category, 'other religions',
rather than the previous Hindu which was automatically put in front of their
names. This time Jains have also been put as a separate category so
this decline in the rate of rise of Hindu population is not as big as it
appears. These intricacies of the data analysis were not highlighted by
the National Census commission, and it changes the interpretation in a
very serious manner. Was this lopsided presentation deliberate? Is it
that the people in charge cannot handle this simple analysis?
It is also understood that this data was ready before the elections but
BJP preferred not to publish it that time, as at that time it was
operating in the Shinning India mode and this might have disturbed
their apple cart. It is also understood that like the communalization of
other bodies, census commission was also the victim of 'trishul diksha'
and there were motives in the analysis of the data. Its very difficult to
believe that the learned demographers could not decipher such simple
facts, which make such a serious difference in the interpretation of
results.
As such one is also amazed by the correlation of the population and
religion. The rise of population is more an index of poverty and lack
of education rather than the teachings of any religion. And no religious
community is uniform all over India. The population growth rate amongst
Kerala Muslims is very low compared to Muslims in other parts of the
country. As Muslims have been a discriminated against lot their overall
rate of population growth is higher. As awareness is spreading it is
coming down uniformly. On the top of this by what stretch of imagination
can a Muslim male marry four number of times when as per the sex
ratio there are just 936 Muslim women for every 1000 Muslim men. But it has
come to stick on their forehead that they marry four number of times.
As such last two decades in particular have seen an
increased intimidation and ghettoisation of Muslim community due to the communal
violence the worst of which was seen first in Mumbai riots in 1992-93
and in Gujarat in 2002. In such an adverse situation the social reforms and
progress take a back seat. The need is to provide an atmosphere where
the community can live the social and political life with security and
dignity. Despite such an adverse situation a decline in the rate of rise of
population does suggest the work of social workers who are consciously
focusing their efforts for education and progress in the community.
This goof of Census commission has given a a big handle to the 'Hate
mongers' to intensify their efforts to demonize Muslims for their political
purposes. The religion based census data can serve different types of
purposes. If this opens our eyes to the plight of this community,
poverty, illiteracy and insecurity and if we aim to redress it as a nation , the
data will be worth its while. One hopes that the Government takes
suitable remedial efforts to undo the damage done by this goof of
census commission and to recognise that population control cannot be done without
social progress and spread of literacy.
