Political Representation of Muslims in India

Abstract

The Muslims in spite of being a major section of India’s population are lagging behind in the development process of the country specifically in the post-independence period. Majority of Muslims are heterogeneous in terms of socio- economic characteristics and have low income as well as literacy level besides several other socio-economic, political and cultural disadvantages. Set against the Hindu Nationalist BJP’s political ascendency, this article focuses on the topic of Indian Muslims’ political participation in the legislative arena. This research also focuses on the previous two parliamentary elections in order to draw conclusions about the general trend and trends in Muslim representation. This paper analyzes the gathered data and aligns in a systematic fashion so that one can easily understand the plight of the community who is the victims of the process of invidious discrimination in Indian society and Muslims have remained underrepresented in the legislative arena since independence. The attempt here is to flag out systematic shifts in Indian politics and what they mean for Indian Muslims.