Jailed Muslim scholar's interview sparks debate on minority's place in Indian democracy
Sharjeel Imam, a 38-year-old Muslim scholar jailed in India, said from prison that Muslims have practically no say in the country's democracy. His remarks have set off a polarised debate over Muslim representation and secularism.
A polarised debate is under way in India, a country of about 1.4 billion people, over whether its democracy has failed the largest minority, Muslims, who make up roughly 14 percent of the population. The discussion was triggered by Sharjeel Imam, a 38-year-old Muslim scholar, who gave a lengthy interview from his prison cell in New Delhi to the news website The Quint on September 29.
In the interview, Imam said around 210 million Muslims live in India with practically no say in its democracy. He criticised the constitution for concentrating power, called the country's secularism Islamophobic and parochial, and argued that democracy serves as a tool to deny Muslims political representation and rights. He proposed "constitutional republicanism" with decentralised power and more community rights, and called for proportional representation instead of the first-past-the-post voting system.
Who is Sharjeel Imam
Imam comes from Bihar state, graduated in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, worked as a software engineer, and later pursued a doctorate at Jawaharlal Nehru University, researching the political history of Indian Muslims. He was a chief organiser of the Shaheen Bagh sit-in in New Delhi against the 2019 citizenship law, which the United Nations called fundamentally discriminatory against Muslims. He was arrested in January 2020 for inciting violence through speeches. Riots broke out in northeast New Delhi the following month, when he was already in custody, yet he was charged in connection with them, including under a stringent anti-terror law. Along with nearly a dozen other Muslim students and activists, among them Umar Khalid, he remains in jail without trial.
Responses and criticism
Imam also criticised Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and India's secular liberals, arguing that secular and Hindutva frameworks share the same core ideas. Legal scholar Mohd Zeeshan Ahmad said Imam raises serious questions but that equating secularism with Hindutva is unpersuasive. Columnist Ibn-e-Khaldun Bharati described Imam's views as an Islamist agenda. Political analyst Asim Ali pointed to the Kafkaesque nature of the case while calling Imam's reading of history warped. Professor Irfan Ahmad agreed that there is little difference between the Congress party and the governing BJP on secularism.
