CONSTITUTIONAL, LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE DIMENSION OF MUSLIM EMPOWERMENT IN INDIA

This volume is one among the various volumes on the project “Empowerment of Muslims in India” undertaken by Institute of Objective Studies.

There is no denying fact that the Muslim community in India has experienced extensive marginalization and disempowerment since Independence. This is manifested in grossly disproportionate representation of the community in Parliament and state legislatures, in the Central and the state governments, in the police and Para-military forces, in the judiciary and bureaucracy, in the public private sectors and in the higher professions and in institutions of higher learning.

The constitution of India guarantees to all citizens and all sections of society the freedom to profess their religious beliefs, to preserve their religious educational and cultural institutions and traditions and to safeguard their ethnic identity. However, this constitutional guarantee is often flouted and subverted in practice, especially in the case of Indian Muslims. Since independence thousands of mosques and shrines have been illegally usurped by people belonging to the majority community and even converted, with the connivance of the local administration, into temples. Hundreds of Awqaf properties attached to Muslim shrines are under illegal occupation and litigations against encroachment have been pending in the courts for decades.

Keeping this in mind, this project is undertaken by Institute of Objective Studies, to examine the constitutional and legal provisions that have a bearing on the empowerment of Muslims in India and to examine the causes of non-compliance with them and to evaluate the role of the judiciary in regard to the empowerment of Muslims.