Column

By Shariq Adeeb Ansari

History does not announce itself. It accumulates through quiet struggles, patient advocacy, and the gradual accumulation of conviction across generations until one day the world looks different.

Only then does one trace the path to understand how such change became possible.

For those of us who have dedicated decades to the Pasmanda movement, the political developments unfolding in India today possess precisely that quality – the quiet arrival of a transformation that has long been overdue.

The appointments of Pasmanda Muslims, including Danish Azad Ansari, Kaiful Wara, Methab Saifi, and others to positions of meaningful political responsibility are not isolated events.

They are the visible expression of a much deeper historical current.

They represent the gradual and hard-earned entry of the artisan, the weaver, the labourer, and the craftsman into the corridors of political decision-making from which they had, for far too long, been excluded.

The fact that political parties have begun entrusting individuals from these communities with important responsibilities, individuals who only a generation ago might scarcely have been considered for such positions, is itself evidence of how profoundly the political discourse surrounding Indian Muslims has changed.

A Transformation Built Through Persistence

Conversations of this magnitude do not transform themselves. They require individuals who are willing to speak even when no one appears willing to listen.

In 2017, when the Pasmanda question had virtually disappeared from mainstream political discourse, and when the very existence of Pasmanda Muslims as a distinct and numerically overwhelming social reality within Indian Islam remained largely invisible to policymakers, political parties, and the media, I wrote a formal letter to the Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi, presenting a detailed account of the condition of Pasmanda Muslims and the urgent necessity of recognising their legitimate concerns.

This was not a politically convenient moment. There was no reward to anticipate and no wave of public opinion to ride.

It was an act of conviction rooted in the belief that nearly 88 percent of Indian Muslims belong to backward, artisanal, and Dalit communities, and that this social reality deserved to be placed before the highest constitutional office in the country, regardless of whether the political establishment was prepared to acknowledge it.

To my considerable surprise, and to Prime Minister Modi’s credit, that representation was not ignored.

During a BJP Parliamentary Party meeting in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, the Prime Minister publicly referred to Pasmanda Muslims, naming a community that the political establishment had long treated as invisible.

It was a moment of considerable historical significance. For the first time in recent memory, the highest levels of Indian political leadership were seriously engaging with a social reality that activists such as my late father, Abdul Majid Adeeb Ansari, had devoted their lives to bringing into public consciousness.

Sustained Dialogue and Policy Engagement

I did not regard that moment as a conclusion.

I continued writing to the Prime Minister’s Office, continued updating it about the realities of Pasmanda life, and continued presenting the argument that 88 percent of Indian Muslims – weavers, cobblers, farmers, labourers, and artisans whose hands have shaped much of this nation’s material culture – cannot remain peripheral to any serious conversation about Muslim welfare or political representation.

These communications were not merely petitions. They constituted sustained intellectual and civic engagement, grounded in empirical data, constitutional principles, and the historical record painstakingly assembled by my father’s generation at great personal sacrifice.

The Structure of Exclusion

The exclusion of Pasmanda Muslims was never formally codified in law. Rather, it functioned through the cumulative weight of social hierarchy and through the unspoken assumption that political representation of Muslims naturally belonged to the Ashraf elite.

Many distinguished individuals from Ashraf communities have made significant contributions to public life, and this deserves fair acknowledgment.

Yet the remarkable diversity of Indian Muslim society, including its artisan communities, Dalit communities, and numerically dominant backward-class populations, has rarely been reflected in political leadership.

For decades, democracy claimed to speak on behalf of Indian Muslims while leaving much of their internal social diversity politically invisible.

The Central Argument of the Pasmanda Movement

The Pasmanda movement emerged to confront this contradiction.

Its foundational argument was both simple and transformative: the majority of Indian Muslims are Pasmanda, and any politics that claims to represent Muslims while ignoring Pasmanda realities rests upon an incomplete understanding of Indian Muslim society.

This was never a call for division. Rather, it was a demand for intellectual honesty and democratic fairness. Genuine inclusion must be grounded in social reality rather than symbolic representation alone.

The All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz has consistently advanced this argument through public campaigns, intellectual engagement, grassroots organisation, and sustained dialogue with policymakers, maintaining its commitment even during years when the movement received little recognition from mainstream institutions.

A New Political Recognition

Today, that recognition is steadily expanding.

Political parties across ideological lines increasingly recognise that Pasmanda participation is not merely an act of inclusion but a democratic necessity.

The recent decision of the Uttar Pradesh unit of the Indian National Congress to assign organisational responsibility to a Pasmanda leader represents one among several encouraging developments.

Such steps deserve appreciation irrespective of political affiliation because every genuine expansion of representation strengthens democratic institutions.

Any serious discussion of the growing visibility of Pasmanda concerns would be incomplete without acknowledging Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role.

Whether one agrees or disagrees with his broader political positions, the historical record is clear. His public engagement with the Pasmanda question compelled political parties, journalists, academics, and administrators to engage with a social reality that had long remained confined to activist circles.

As a result, the scope of political debate widened, making it increasingly difficult to dismiss Pasmanda concerns as peripheral. It is equally important that history honestly records the role played by years of sustained correspondence and documentation submitted by this organization in shaping that dialogue.

Representation Must Lead to Policy

This moment should not be mistaken for the completion of a journey. It should be understood as the beginning of a new phase.

Appointments are meaningful, but they are not sufficient.

Representation that does not translate into public policy ultimately remains symbolic.

Symbolism, however encouraging, cannot feed families, improve educational opportunities, create employment, or expand opportunities for the young Pasmanda Muslims who have waited far too long for full recognition within their own country.

The challenges that remain in education, skill development, employment, social mobility, and the structural dismantling of caste-based disadvantage within Muslim society are immense. Addressing them will require the same seriousness, patience, and determination that have carried the movement to its present stage.

A Personal Commitment

I write these words not merely as a political observer but as someone whose life has been profoundly shaped by the Pasmanda movement.

My late father, Abdul Majid Adeeb Ansari, devoted his life to this cause. He popularised the term “Pasmanda,” built the institutional foundations of the movement, and sustained its intellectual vision through years when few outside the movement paid attention.

To witness his life’s work bearing fruit, and to see a conversation that he helped initiate from the margins, and that I sought to carry into the highest offices of political power, now occupy a place within the national political discourse, is deeply meaningful.

This is not simply political satisfaction. It is a moral vindication that belongs not to any individual but to the countless ordinary men and women who continued believing in this cause long before it became politically fashionable.

The Road Ahead

That moment has arrived. Yet it demands far more than celebration. It demands continued vigilance, sustained advocacy, and an unwavering commitment not to mistake symbolic progress for structural transformation.

The Pasmanda movement was founded upon the refusal to accept partial truths as complete truths. That conviction must continue to define its future.

The winds of change are undoubtedly real. However, lasting institutions are not built by favourable winds alone. They are built through sustained effort, thoughtful advocacy, and unwavering commitment.

The foundation has already been laid through years of patient correspondence, public engagement, and an enduring faith in the constitutional promise of the Republic of India.

The responsibility before us now is to build upon that foundation with the same patience, courage, and conviction, ensuring a more just, more representative, and more inclusive democratic future for Pasmanda Muslims.

Ends

(Shariq Adeeb Ansari is the National Working President of the All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz. He has been actively engaged in advocating political representation, social justice, educational advancement, and institutional inclusion for the Pasmanda Muslim community, which constitutes the numerical majority of Indian Muslims yet remains historically underrepresented within many Muslim institutional structures.)