Author: Tahseen Fatima
Author Affiliation: Centre for Political Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Abstract: The term Pasmanda has suddenly become a buzz-word in media and politics as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at the party‟s two-day national executive meet in Hyderabad on the 2nd and 3rd of July, 2022, asked BJP leaders to extend a hand of “affection” towards the community‟ (Tripathi, 2022). Although not for the first time, this incident brought out the plight and the unequal status of Pasmanda Muslims in the national discourse. This paper aims to understand the social stratification system among Muslims, the debates surrounding the existence of caste, inequalities faced due to inequality within the community and the way such inequalities translate themselves into a larger socio-political arena, the historical inequality faced by the Pasmanda community, their strife for equality through a long-prolonged movement, and their politics of building horizontal solidarities with communities who have faced and continue facing similar inequalities and the recent displacement of the Pasmanda discourse.
Keywords: Pasmanda, Caste, Community, Inequality, Pasmanda-Bahujan Davedari