The political reality of being Muslim in India

http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/jul/23/indian-muslims-experiencing-political-awakening.htm
http://oxford.academia.edu/documents/0038/6615/Social_Action-paper.pdf

Indian Muslims have mobilized for political power since the creation of modern day India in 1947. However, thus far the political will to create an inclusive, plural and secular India has been weak. The Sachar Report commissioned by the Indian government in November, 2006, showed that the majority of Muslims in India lacked access to economic opportunities, employment, education, health care, and other resources, and were underrepresented in all facets of political and social life in India. This deprivation, according to Maidul Islam, affects Muslims more than people of any other socio-religious category, including Dalits. Yet, in the current highly charged political environment of India, Muslims continue to be vilified as communities are polarized by "communalism."
It is important not to be swayed by political ideology that emphasizes socio-religious differences for short term gain. My grandfather told an amazing story of being in Sindh during partition with my grandmother, mother, and her siblings. Their Muslim neighbor warned them that the mobs were on their way to burn down the house in which my grandfather's family had lived in for generations because the land was now part of Pakistan and my family was not Muslim. This neighbor then took my grandather to his home, gave him his clothes, asked him to sit on his verandah with him, and spoke to the mobs when they came and convinced them even though they were frenzied to spare my grandfather and his family. He then helped my grandparents flee to the Indian side of the border. Millions of others were not as fortunate as both sides collapsed into communal riots fueled by a deep division characterized by historic inequalities that continues to plague India.
It is time now for the Indian government to remedy this inequality by putting into place recommendations from the Sachar report and other such studies, and for Indian Muslims to assert their rights, and be supported by their fellow Indians.