The usual argument is that Muslims are polarized on the lines of religious identity, and against the BJP, which is identified as a Hindutva political party. However, during my field study along with a team of researchers on the changing political choices among marginal communities in Uttar Pradesh, I found their political choices to be diverse.
We observed some trends. First, many Muslims admire the BJP but have not yet made up their mind on voting for the party. Second, some admire and will vote for the BJP. Third, in some others there is a clear mobilization in favour of the Samajwadi Party (SP). And fourth, some Muslims admire the Congress but don’t want to waste their votes given the party’s absence at the grassroots.
These observations unsettled my own understanding of Muslims as a homogenous voting bloc, polarized against the BJP in UP politics.
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In Barethi, a village situated 30 kms from Prayagraj (Allahabad), we met a few Muslims who call themselves Baghel Muslims. Many among them admire Prime Minister Narendra Modi and showed an inclination towards the BJP. “Gaon me sadak, muft anaaj aur bank me paise aaye hain. Modi ji achha kaam kar rahe hain (the village has a road, we get free ration and we have received money in our bank account. Modiji is doing good work),” some of them said.
We met few other Muslims, mostly above 50, who introduced themselves as Sheik Muslims. They appreciated the Congress but do not see the party as their political choice in the forthcoming elections and claimed the party was absent at the grassroot level. The older people remembered Indira Gandhi but the young have no memory of the Congress, largely because they have not seen the party in power in Uttar Pradesh.
We found Muslim communities like Behna, Faquir, Dafali and Julaha who come under the OBC cluster admiring the Samajwadi Party and politically mobilized in its favour.
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Mongari, a village in Karchhana tehsil near Prayagraj, has three Muslim hamlets besides those of other castes and communities. Sheik, Faquir, Behna, Julaha and Nat Muslims stay here. Among them too, we found similar trends in political choices—that they are not one bloc mobilized in favour of or against any one political party. Their political choices are different.
In the last Assembly election, they had voted for the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). While documenting their political choices for the 2022 elections, we got multiple opinions—some Muslims liked the BJP, some Congress and some others SP.
Many of them did not clearly express their political choices and said “elections are still far” or “let the elections come” and that they will make up their mind closer to the date.
It is true that polarization exists among a section of Muslims in the villages of rural Uttar Pradesh. But, we did not find homogeneity among Muslim voters. It is also true that their political choices will be consolidated closer to the election date when the campaign gets intense. We also observed that the BJP through its state and central government-sponsored welfarism is trying to make inroads into this difficult electoral constituency and challenge the anti-BJP voting behaviour.
These field visits show that the voting pattern among Muslims in cities and rural Uttar Pradesh may not be the same. Rural life has its own challenges and issues, which are different from urban priorities. Polarization in politics may not be as profound in rural areas as it is in urban centres.
However, slowly the nature of rural areas, especially those closer to cities and towns, is changing. In the coming years, the political trends in cities could penetrate rural areas.
Badri Narayan is professor and director of GB Pant Social Science Institute, Prayagraj, and the author of ‘Republic of Hindutva’. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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