Caste system among South Asian Muslims Contrary to the Quranic worldview, Muslims in India have a caste system. Muslim caste system in South Asia is divided into hierarchical stratum such as Ashraf, Ajlaf and Arzal . They practice endogamy, hypergamy, hereditary occupations, avoid social mixing and have been stratified. There is some controversy if these characteristics make them social groups or castes of Islam. Indian Muslims are a mix of Sunni (majority), Shia and other sects of Islam. From the earliest days of Islams arrival in South Asia, the Arabic, Persian and Afghan Muslims have been part of the upper, noble caste. Some upper caste Hindus converted to Islam and became part of the governing group of Sultanates and Mughal Empire. These two came to be known as Ashrafs (or nobles). Below them are Ajlafs, the middle Muslim castes and then the converts from backward or Dalit communities. The Ashrafs have a superior status, while the Ajlafs have a lower status. The Arzal caste among Muslims was regarded as the equivalent of untouchables, by anti-caste activists like Ambedkar, and by the colonial British ethnographer Risley who claimed more than 60 percent of Muslims in British India were of a caste equivalent in status as the Hindu Shudras and Untouchables, While other sources state an estimate between 75 and 80 percent. In the Bengal region of India, some Muslims stratify their society according to Quoms. Castes are known as qaum among Muslims in India, as well as in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Qaums have patrilineal hereditary, with ranked occupations and endogamy. Membership in a qaum is inherited by birth. Barth identifies the origin of the stratification from the historical segregation between pak (pure) and paleed (impure) - the former being lighter complexion Arabic in origin, the later being darker skinned native South Asian Muslims. Endogamy is very common in each Muslim qaum in the form of arranged consanguineous cousin marriages among Muslims in India and Pakistan. Malik states that the lack of religious sanction makes qaum a quasi- caste, and something that is found in Islam outside South Asia. Some assert that the Muslim castes were not as acute in their discrimination as those of the Hindus, while others assert that the discrimination in South Asian Muslim society were worse than those seen in Hindu society.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 04:59:50 +0000