Write short note: Caste among Muslims. (2003, 1994)
Islam admits no birth-ranked groups, yet Indian Muslims marry and bury within hereditary, ranked, endogamous circles. That gap between doctrine and practice makes Muslim stratification a test case for theories of caste.
The threefold order
| Stratum | Composition | Basis of claim |
|---|---|---|
| Ashraf | Sayyid, Sheikh, Mughal, Pathan; Muslim Rajputs | Claimed foreign descent, or descent from high Hindu castes |
| Ajlaf | Julaha (weaver), Darzi (tailor), Qassab (butcher), Nai, Dhobi, Kunjra | Converted “clean” occupational groups of local origin |
| Arzal | Halalkhor, Bhangi, Mehtar and similar | Scavenging and other stigmatised work; treated as polluting |
Ghaus Ansari (Muslim Caste in Uttar Pradesh, 1960) first set this out systematically. The working unit below it is the biradari — an endogamous kin-group that arranges marriage, enforces status and settles disputes, doing what a caste panchayat does among Hindus.
The debate: is it caste, or only stratification?
- Imtiaz Ahmad’s edited volume on caste and social stratification among Muslims (1973) argued from village and town studies that the groups are effectively castes: hereditary, endogamous, ranked and occupation-linked.
- Against this, Louis Dumont held that without the purity–pollution ideology of Homo Hierarchicus (1966) only an attenuated, imitative form can exist; theologians and many community spokesmen deny caste altogether, treating the divisions as mere khandan pride.
- The weight of evidence favours Ahmad. Endogamy is near-total, Arzal groups face untouchability-like exclusion from mosques and graveyards in parts of north India, and the ranking is publicly acted on even while it is verbally denied. What is missing is legitimation, not structure.
Deprivation and mobilisation
- The Sachar Committee (2006) found Muslims near the bottom on most development indicators, close to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, holding under five per cent of central government posts while forming about thirteen per cent of the population. Its deprivation is concentrated in the Ajlaf and Arzal strata.
- The Ranganath Misra Commission (2007) recommended a minority quota and a religion-neutral Scheduled Caste category; it was never implemented.
- The Pasmanda movement — “those left behind” — politicises exactly this internal hierarchy, arguing that “the Muslim community” as a single interest is a fiction. A petition seeking a distinct Other Backward Classes sub-quota for them is before the Supreme Court.
- Dalit Muslims remain outside Scheduled Caste status under paragraph 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, which covers only Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists; the commission appointed in 2022 to examine the exclusion has repeatedly had its term extended without reporting.
Conclusion
Caste among Muslims is structurally real and doctrinally illegitimate. That combination makes it politically explosive, and it confirms that caste in India is a social order that outlives the religion which first justified it.