Over the years, Muslims in India have been parts of serious discussion at several forums for many reasons. In political terms, they remained the subject-matter of political parties which have taken differential stands sometimes contradictory over them. It was soon after the adoption of the Indian Constitution in 1950, with particular emphasis on the provisions of the Fundamental Rights and others, some political and non-political forces began to express their communal preferences in terms of the distribution of national resources and governmental priorities. Moreover, they began to reinstate their communal narratives in defining the constitutional priorities, nationalism, national integration, national culture, nation building, concept and purpose of democracy. Their basic problem in terms of deliberative and inclusive democracy, is about the possibility of their solutions within the constitutional premise, and his concluding remarks.

It is also important to mention that the country made a positive political move to multiparty system resulting in the formation of coalition governments both at the levels of the Constituent Units and the Federal Government. However, it is also important to note that this political journey, some political forces, which advocated non-centralization and anti-Congress System, extended their communal agenda under the carpet of federalism, coalitions, and India Shining. As a result of the triumph of the communal forces in the states and the Union, the Muslim minority group began to loose confidence in the enforcement agencies faster than any period of the history of Independent India. No doubt, coalition became the order of the day, many social segments were benefited but certainly the Muslims’ problems grew in their proportion, which include mainly exclusion in public life, security, identity and equity. These issues have been raised by the Sachhar Committee (November 2006) and earlier the Gopal Singh Committee (June 1983). Some of these issues were highlighted by the reports of the national Committee of Minorities and other committees set up by the state governments.

In other words, Indian democracy and consequent developments benefited many people except the Muslims irrespective of the regions and the states. Shining examples have been very few states which made some reservations for the Muslims in their states. In fact, the problems of ‘protection’ (security/law and order) and ‘participation’ (share in public life and effective engagements in decision making process) of the Muslims have been alarming in those states and constituencies where they are in large numbers than other communities. It is known to everyone that democratic space has widened its surface at many levels to accommodate needs and demands of many people. On the contrary, it failed to deliver corresponding results to the Muslims community from top to bottom. Similarly the numerical capacity of the enforcement agencies and other institutions in private and public sectors increased in the last 58 years but this expansion didn’t accommodate/engage the Muslims as the final result.

Similarly, number of political parties grew in large number since the Ninth General Elections but the political engagements of the Muslims, in terms of their representative capacity in almost all elected agencies, have remained tragic. We can find similar trends in many institutions--educational, technical, professional and others. It is quite transparent in the extension of civic amenities to the residential areas of the Muslims irrespective of the states and regions. It is also true that many constitutional reforms and executive orders were made for the backward classes of citizens but they failed to benefit the Muslims in any terms. There was an expectation that the enlargement of the Secular Establishment would negate communal considerations in order to provide fair opportunities to the Muslims with corresponding results. Fast developing economy and technical revolution in the country have further widened the surface of inequality, backwardness and deprivation in the case of the Muslims. Similarly, the expansion and growth of electronic and print media in the country failed to build opinion for the social justice of the Muslims. They have focused more on Madrasa, Terrorism, Burqa, Jihad and Talaq. In other words, their concerns on the exclusion of the Muslims have almost been nil with few exceptions.