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This article begins with a set of statistics and thereafter
proceeds to discuss these. The Platinum Jubilee issue of the
magazine of the Indian Military Academy, published in 2007, has
some revealing tidbits of information. From the lists of various
officer alumni who have done the Academy proud, it is obvious that
Muslims are few and far between. Only six Muslim officers, who
have passed out of the IMA, have made the supreme sacrifice for
the country since the 1971 War. Only one, late Captain Haneefuddin
of Kargil fame, has been awarded a higher gallantry medal, a Vir
Chakra, ever since then. Only one Muslim Gentleman Cadet has won
the Academy’s Sword of Honour post-independence, with the award
being won way back in 1973.
These achievements appear somewhat meagre in the light of the
Indian Muslims forming the country’s largest minority numbering
over 175 million. It naturally raises the question: Why?
An answer can be seen in a further set of statistics gleaned from the
biannual magazines of the Indian Military Academy, published at
the end of the Spring and the Autumn terms respectively. In the
magazines a one-line pen-portrait is given of each Gentleman Cadet
(GC) passing out, below the course photo of each company
(equivalent of a House in schools). From the two magazine issues
in 2005, it is evident that only eight Muslims passed out of the
portals of the institution to become commissioned officers. In the
Spring Term 2006, there were eight Muslims commissioned. In the
Spring Term 2007, nine Muslims took the ‘Antim Pag’ or ‘Last Step’
as GCs but their first step as commissioned officers out of the
555 taking commission that term. The following Spring Term, 11
Muslim GCs passed out of 611. In the Autumn Term 2011, the latest
one for which the magazine is available, 14 Muslims passed out.
However, this last figure includes those from friendly foreign
countries such as Afghanistan, the numbers for which have gone up
since the strategic agreement with that country.
In other words, of the six magazines perused for ascertaining the
numbers of Muslims gaining the officer commission from the IMA, 45
have made the grade. Assuming some were from foreign countries,
less than 40 Indian Muslims have made it over two-and-a-half years
into the Army from the IMA, that commissions more than 1200
officers a year. This compares somewhat poorly with the civil
services yearly list on which 30 Muslims figured this year amongst
about 900 who ‘made it’. Admittedly, there are other routes for
officer commission these days into the Army, such as through the
Officers Training Academy and through the Technical Officer 12th
class entry stream. This means that the numbers making it into the
Army are marginally higher and must be viewed against the total
getting commissioned in a year, which a back-of-the-envelope
calculation puts at 1800 plus a year.
Clearly, the overall number can only be as abysmal as the
statistics accessed here reveal. While reckonings elsewhere place
the percentage of Muslims at three per cent of the overall total
of Muslims in the Army, the statistics in regard to officer
numbers have been uninformed guesses at best. It is perhaps for
the first time here that a figure of about 1.1 per cent of officer
commissions being of Indian Muslims has been arrived at. The
numbers of Muslim women officers can easily be imagined, with the
OTA magazine being the right place to look for exact numbers in
the absence of the government owing up to a problem.
The absence of information suggests that the statistics that are
no doubt known to the government are somewhat embarrassing to
reveal from the point of view of India’s and its Army’s secular
credentials. It is no wonder then that a former Chief, General J.J.
Singh, had put his foot down in revealing the details of Muslim
representation in the Army when approached by the Sachar Committee
for its report. The laconic answer given then was that the Army,
being a secular institution, does not maintain such records. This
explanation begged the question of how the mortal remains of dead
soldiers were to be disposed-off in a war if the community to
which a dead soldier belonged was not known?!
The intake being so limited into the commissioned ranks, it is no
wonder then that the martial achievements of Muslim officers can
be covered in less than a paragraph as in the first paragraph
here. The Autumn Term 2011 issue can be mined for more telling
statistics. For instance, not a single Muslim name occurs in the
list of names below the group photos of the Academy faculty, the
administrative staff, the training team and, worse, even the
academic department. This is the same case in the Spring Term
2008. Among the non-officer instructor staff in the drill,
physical training, weapons training and equitation sections, there
are nine Muslim instructors. Incidentally, even at this
non-officer level there are no Muslims in the consequential
Training section. The relative absence of Muslims is of a piece
with the fact given in the Platinum Number that the IMA has had
only one Muslim Commandant and one Muslim Subedar Major
post-independence. (For the record the National Defence Academy, a
feeder institution to the IMA, has had two Muslim Commandants.)
•
WHILE the numbers are few, the performance of Muslims at the
Academy is also revealing. All six magazines carry photos and
write-ups of the 34 top GC appointments, no doubt as incentive. Of
the 136 appointments scanned only one was Muslim. Beginning with
this leadership deficit, it is easy to reckon as to why there were
no officer instructors in the two terms examined, 2008 and 2011.
Not tenanting such prestigious appointments early on, the problem
persists with very few making it to the higher ranks. This is
accentuated by the steep pyramidal structure that the Army has. In
other words, there is a cascading effect of the deficit of Muslim
youth making it to the Indian Military Academy and beyond. The
Army’s stock answer to this can be anticipated. The Army merely
selects from those self-selecting to it as a profession. The onus
is on India’s various communities to offer up their best youth for
the noble profession of arms. This could easily have been accepted
but for two facts. One is that General V.K. Singh’s exertions over
the past year suggest that ‘community’ is a consequential factor,
at least in the higher ranks. The second is that, given this
under-representation, it is clear that this is compensated by
over-representation of some other communities. What are the
effects of such under/over-representation?
In case the answer to this question is found to be negative and
consequential, then there is a case for correction. This is a
controversial point to make since it is suggestive of affirmative
action. This is not how this article recommends corrective action.
But, first, it is necessary to ascertain whether a diverse country
such as India is better off with its Army reflecting its
diversity. The reflexive answer of a traditionalist would be, ‘Why
fix what ain’t broke?’ In other words, if the Army is working as
an apolitical and secular organisation, there is no need to tinker
with it. The answer offered here is an impressionistic one to the
contrary. It is that the internal health of the Army does not give
ground for complacence. The Army officer corps is from the lower
middle class and confined geographically to North India and more
narrowly to a certain set of communities traditionally advantaged
by the recruitment patterns over at least a century-and-a-half.
The officer corps will therefore reflect the opinions and
attitudes of the social class to which it belongs. It is no secret
that there has been a churning in Indian society over the past two
decades, brought about by liberalisation and the ascendance of
cultural nationalism. This influence has been in the face of the
Army’s involvement in counter-insurgency and anti-terrorism in
J&K. While, as is the wont of armies universally, the Indian Army
can be expected to exhibit a conservative-realist bias, this is
accentuated by the social origin of the officer class. The
discourse in this social space has the Muslim ‘Other’ taking on
greater dimensions, the proportions of which have been enhanced by
the global security discourse centred on Muslim extremism. A
terror-based ‘inside-outside’ linkage between the Muslim Indian
and Pakistani intelligence, sought to be established by the media
and some political formations, has greater play than otherwise
would be the case. A content analysis of in-service publications
can prove this to an extent. (That is not gone in here for want of
space.) The absence of Muslims from an officer’s social space as
colleagues and peers does little to dispel misinterpretations. The
problem that occurs is in the perception of the social class in
which the officer corps is anchored being elevated to the
institutional threat perception and at one remove that of the
state.
The disadvantage for under-represented communities is that they
are unable to take advantage of the expansion in the security
sector, incidentally the only sector growing in neoliberal climes.
The Sixth Pay Commission bonanza thus gets channelled narrowly to
those advantaged, reinforcing the inequity. Given that Muslims
have been shown up as under-represented here and knowing that most
are from the equivalent of backward classes, it can be surmised
that the problem afflicts the backward classes in general as well
as SC/STs, given that the military does not have reservations (and
rightly so). This means that the only government sector that is
expanding caters for a certain section of society. (The Army has
expanded by two divisions over the past three years and is set to
add 86,000 men as part of a mountain strike corps over the next
five year plan.) Continuing with the present intake pattern can
deepen divides.
It is therefore with a view to correcting this perceptual and
attitudinal bias that it is recommended here that the telling
statistic of a mere one-to-two per cent of officers being Muslim
be taken seriously by both the state and Muslim community. As a
first step, the pattern of intake must be ascertained in-house to
find out if what is surmised here carries water. Its implications,
as discussed, can also be thought through. The Army, if the
reasoning given in the previous paragraph is persuasive, must for
its own reasons carry out a campaign to make itself attractive to
a whole host of communities that are under-represented. These
include those from the North-East and South India, leave alone
Muslims. Civil-military liaison conferences in these States must
be geared to energising the State administration to take
corrective measures. This could include establishing Sainik
Schools, increasing the representativeness of Sainik and Military
school intake etc.
Additionally, communities, such as India’s various Muslim
communities across the country, can rig up swotting classes to
help its youth qualify and clear the induction hurdles. This is
how States over-represented in the officer cadre prepare the
youth. The Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia and the
Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim Universities, coincidentally
being military men, can guide the community’s reaction.
Affirmative action is not being suggested here, only targeted
advertisement campaigns being followed up suitably by state and
civil society action.
Ali Ahmad, Ph.D, is an Assistant Professor, Nelson Mandela Centre
for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia, New
Delhi.
The above article
appeared in the June 23-27, 2012 issue of
New Delhi based
MAINSTREAM weekly.
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