While there are undoubtedly anti-Muslim prejudices that are inbuilt in Indian society, Muslims themselves cannot escape all the blame. The ulema (clergy) of India, the pampered darlings of Indian secularists, are in large part to blame for the pitiful condition of Muslims. They have kept them mired in non-issues such as personal law. The ulema and their religious causes were always the preferred handmaidens of the Indian ruling classes when it came to denying Muslims their economic opportunities. Consider, for example, the much-touted Hajj subsidy in India, presented by some as evidence of India’s secularism. In actual reality, the Hajj subsidy is really nothing but a government bailout for Air India. The Hajj subsidy was essentially introduced to cover the difference between sea fare and air fare after, in 1973, the government ended Mogul Line Shipping’s monopoly over Hajj travel, which had existed since British colonial times.
Today, the subsidy benefits Air India (which has overpriced tickets to Saudi Arabia) more than it benefits the Muslim community, if at all it benefits them. Thus, a religious issue is being exploited to give Muslims a ‘benefit’ that they do not need or even want, except a few. Would it not make much more sense to invest this money in the uplift of the Muslim community as a whole through education? Very few Muslim leaders have presented this as an alternative. The solution for the plight of Muslims lies in economic uplift and not tokenism but, unfortunately, even the Indian left and secular forces have engaged in tokenism vis-à-vis the Muslims. This tokenism has a long history that goes back to the Khilafat Movement in the 1920s. It is a trick by politicians to win Muslim votes and nothing else. Muslims who ask for socio-economic development and economic affirmative action are without exception denounced as communal but the ulema who raise religious demands are appeased in the name of secularism.
The other side of the coin is the Hindu nationalists who denounce all such subsidies as “appeasement of Muslims”. As shown above, the Hajj subsidy is not so much an appeasement of Muslims as it is a bailout for Air India but this charge needs to be discussed in detail. If the so-called Hajj subsidy is “appeasement of Muslims”, then clearly the billions spent on Hindu pilgrimages within India and outside of it to places such as Mansarovar in China are an “appeasement of Hindus”?
Indians Muslims are living like Arabians living on Indian soil who have Indian citizenship. This factor contributes immensely for the separation of Muslims from the rest of Indian society. Moreover,they are trained to believe that Muslims alone are wise, intelligent,upright… and loved by God/Allah and the others are blunt Kafirs,who have no goodness. This mind set up is responsible for backwardness terrorism etc.