Multiculturalism, a dominant stream of thought and action in the political and social domains, is highly relevant for South Asia which is a salad bowl of ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities. Multiculturalism underscores that races, ethnicities and religious groups, especially minorities, deserve special acknowledgment of their differences and protection of their rights within a dominant political culture.
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy says, “Multiculturalism is closely associated with “identity politics,” “the politics of difference,” and “the politics of recognition,” all of which share a commitment to revaluing disrespected identities and changing dominant patterns of representation and communication that marginalize certain groups. Multiculturalism involves not only claims of identity and culture as some critics of it suggest. It is also a matter of economic interests and political power: it includes demands for remedying economic and political disadvantages that people suffer as a result of their marginalized group identities.”
Minority politics is an effective tool for furthering multiculturalism in a plural society where minority groups are politically marginalized. Countries where minorities are politically well-accommodated are more sustainable than countries where they are sidelined. The trajectory of minority politics in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka validates this theorem.
The PNC tragedy
The stark difference in treating minorities in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka is palpable from the annals of three parties, one in each country -- the Pakistan National Congress, Indian Union Muslim League and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress that stood for the political mobilization of minorities in their respective countries. The PNC mainly represented the Hindus and other religious minorities in Pakistan. The party traces its roots to the Indian National Congress. After the partition, the communal paranoia and mass exodus significantly reduced the Hindu, Sikh and non-Muslim populations in Pakistan.
The leaders and activists of the Indian National Congress who continued to live in Pakistan joined with the representatives of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, and Christian communities to form a new political party -- the Pakistan National Congress. Although most of them had opposed the Partition, the members of the new party accepted the reality of Pakistan and did not maintain any organizational links with the Indian National Congress. The Party had 11 members in Pakistan’s first Constituent Assembly.
The Pakistan National Congress stood for secularism, equality of all religions and citizens, and protection of religious and ethnic minorities. The party was one of many that opposed the suppression of democracy and civil rights by successive military regimes. The Pakistan National Congress also stood against the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistani society, politics, and government. In the 1954 East Bengal Legislative Assembly elections, the Pakistan National Congress won 24 seats.
The Pakistan National Congress supported the Bangladesh Liberation Movement. After the Liberation, the party briefly survived as the Bangladesh National Congress. The party was dissolved in 1975 after the formation of the Bangladesh Krishik Sramik Awami League as the sole political party of Bangladesh and all other political parties were outlawed. In West Pakistan, the PNC was branded as an Indian fifth column and was forced to vanish into oblivion. According to Bangladesh's census 2022, Hindus form around 7.95% of the total population, that is, a little over 13 million. Still, they have no prominent political party to voice their interests and concerns.
The IUML survival
Meanwhile, the Indian Union Muslim League, which never disowned its All India Muslim League lineage, survived in pluralist and accommodative India. The Indian members of the League formed the Indian Union Muslim League at Madras in 1948 and M. Muhammad Ismail (better known by his honorific Quaid-e-Millat) was elected as the first President of the Indian Union Muslim League. Like the Pakistan National Congress, the IUML stood for secularism, equality of all religions and citizens, and protection of religious and ethnic minorities.
Muhammad Ismail served as a member of the Constituent Assembly, Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. The Tamil Nadu government even renamed Nagapattinam district as Nagai Quaid-e-Millat District in his honour. The IUML belongs to the elite club of political parties in India that have always been represented in Parliament. The party was ushered into the corridors of power by the Seven Party Alliance led by the CPI-M in 1967 in Kerala. C. H. Muhammad Koya, an IUML stalwart, even served as the Chief Minister of Kerala in 1979.
The SLMC feat
Muslims form 8% of the population in Sri Lanka. But to their disadvantage, they are a scattered minority except in the Ampara district where they constitute 41%. The Sri Lankan Tamils and Muslims had a cordial relationship till the 1970s as both shared common interests due to a commonality of language. They were united under the umbrella of the Federal Party. However, with the rise of Tamil militancy, Tamil nationalists began to exclude the Muslims from their fold. It made them the weakest minority in the island nation. Meanwhile, the LTTE branded Muslims as collaborators of the Sinhalese; and unleashed violence on them.
Against this backdrop, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress was floated in 1981 by M.H.M. Ashraff who represented non-elite Muslim social segments of the eastern province of the island nation. Ashraff projected his party as a vanguard of the Muslim masses and rejected the elite influence on Muslim politics. The SLMC simultaneously opposed LTTE violence and Sinhalese majoritarianism. The party won four parliamentary seats in 1989 and seven in 1994.
The SLMC soon emerged as the sole arbiter of the relationship between the local Muslim peasantry and the state. The party combined religious and class identities to forge a more self-conscious and assertive Muslim community. Smart coalition making with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the United National Party enabled the SLMC to leverage its political dominance as the IUML did in India (Ashraff and his successor Rauff Hakeem served as cabinet minister in various governments). This strategy was crucial for the party to champion its voters’ identity-based rights and to practise patronage politics. It even advocated a Muslim-administered district in the eastern province. The SLMC has been successful as a pressure group to negotiate with the state and, at times, to agitate for the identity rights of Sri Lankan Muslims.
The antonymous annals of the Pakistan National Congress, Indian Union Muslim League and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress expose contrasting mindsets -- Pakistan’s theocratic and totalitarian system purged out the minorities and their political aspirations; India’s liberal and constitutional order duly accommodated minority politics; and Sri Lanka, despite its tumultuous ethnic strife, allowed the religious-based minority politics to navigate smoothly. India and Sri Lanka, where minority politics sailed smoothly, attained relative political stability whereas Pakistan and Bangladesh, where parochialism ruled the roost, were thrust into political bedlam.
(Faisal C.K. is Deputy Law Secretary to the Government of Kerala. Views are personal. Email: faisal.chelengara10@gmail.com)
