In other words, different segments could develop common interests in political, economic, social, cultural and foreign affairs, which has unfortunately not happened. Religious identities and ascriptive features have dominated over civic identity of a citizen. Lucian W. Pye says: “The fundamental framework of non-Western politics is a communal one, and all political behaviour is strongly colored by considerations of communal identification”.56 As a result, prevailing communal structure of society could not be dismantled after the free Indians entered into a ‘social contract’ by agreeing to the Indian Constitution. It is like another ground reality, i.e., caste-structured society which necessitated political safeguards and reservations for the Scheduled Castes. Similarly, such policies were adopted to integrate isolated tribal people in different parts of the country. Our political culture could not suppress strict Caste consciousness within the Hindu society and Communalism between the communities. On the one hand, the government has been consistently engaged in protecting the interests of the Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Castes. On the other, it has not yet envisaged any remedy for the bulk of Muslims who are educationally, socially and economically backward.

There are not even strict implementation of the Rule of Law could have controlled over 14000 communal riots in the last fifty years. It is more important who implements the law. In other words, who is the watching towers? Have they performed their duties by rising above the communal consciousness? Whether it is the matter of employment, promotion, transfers, nominations, distribution of government lands, housings, shops, licenses for gasoline, cooking gas, transport, fair-price shops and many other areas, share of the Muslims are very less. The recent findings of the Asian Development Research Institute, Patna, on the Muslims of Bihar clearly show their educational, economic, and social backwardness. Various visits by the members of the Prime Minister Committee to examine social, economic and educational status of the Muslims in the 2005 to the Muslim localities and States have shown the level of backwardness surpassing various data available to us.

The report of the High Power Panel on Minorities, SC, ST and Weaker Sections headed by Dr. Gopal Singh (14 June 1983) which was constituted by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, found many problems of the Muslims when it inquired into the benefits of governmental policies achieved by the minorities. It surveyed 80 out of 500 districts. It found, “In the field of education and public employment, the Muslims for example suffer from peculiar maladies”. He detected discriminations against the Muslims by examining the flow of bank and other credit loans to handicraft and small-scale industries in which Muslims are largely engaged. The report mentioned, “Unfortunately a great psychological barrier exists today between the majority and minorities. Some religions are considered ‘extra-territorial’ not only by the masses but also by some of our State Governments”. The report stressed on the importance of education in economic and social betterment. He also found the importance of the community background of the personnel deployed in particular departments in the context of its response to the needs of group of citizens. Further, globalisation is going to further cut the share of the Muslims in the corporate, which requires highly professionally educated class of students. The Gopal Singh Report said, “Universities in India … have a very poor representation of minorities on their faculties. This lacuna should be addressed as early as possible”.