Are Muslims a more unequal society in India?

The question one can answer on the basis of data is whether Muslims are a more unequal society in India than other religions

Speaking to BJP workers in Bhopal on June 27, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated his Pasmanda Muslim outreach. “A section of their own religion has exploited Pasmanda Muslims, something that hasn’t been discussed in the country. Several generations have had to suffer”, Modi said.

People shop at a market ahead of Eid

To be sure, this is not the first time someone is raising the question of socially driven economic inequality within the Muslims. The question of social stratification among Muslims, like caste among Hindus, was discussed by sociologists such as Imtiaz Ahmad (he died earlier this month) in the 1970s itself. Even in politics, Muslim leaders such as Ali Anwar who was a Janata Dal (United) MP from Bihar, have played a key role in championing Pasmanda – the term refers to the socially backward groups among Muslims – politics.

Whether or not the Prime Minister’s outreach will bring political dividends for the BJP is a question which cannot be answered. However, the question one can answer on the basis of data is whether Muslims are a more unequal society in India than other religions, which is what Modi’s statement seems to suggest. This two-part data series, which is based on official statistics, will seek to do exactly that. The first part will look into the question of intra-religion inequality and the second part, the economic status of Muslims vis-a-vis other religions in India.

The charts that matter

• 
  The simplest measure of inequality shows that Muslims are as unequal a society as Hindus

  While there are no official statistics on income in India, it is possible to look at the question of interpersonal inequality from the asset and expenditure side. HT has looked at asset and consumption spending data from the latest All India Debt and Investment Survey (AIDIS) and Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) to answer the question whether Muslims are a more unequal society than others in India. The simplest, yet most effective, statistical measure of inequality is the Gini coefficient, which takes a value between zero to one for any given distribution (assets and monthly per capita expenditure or MPCE in our case) where zero signifies perfect equality and one signifies perfect inequality. A simple comparison of asset and MPCE Gini coefficients shows that it is the same for Hindus and Muslims in India. In fact, religious groups other than Hindus and Muslims show a higher Gini coefficient (and therefore inequality). It needs to be underlined that the Gini coefficient does not tell us anything about the absolute wealth levels within a group. For example, group A and B could have the same Gini coefficient even if wealth levels for everyone in group B are exactly half of those in group A. Consumption levels are typically measured using a Consumption Expenditure Survey (CES but the 2021-22 PLFS has been used to measure spending in this analysis because the last CES was conducted in 2011-12 and the government junked the 2017-18 one.
• 
  Even the richest sections among Hindus and Muslims seem to be doing equally well

  While the Gini coefficient is a slightly abstract measure, what about the relative privilege of the richest sections within Muslims in India? Do they enjoy a disproportionate advantage vis-a-vis other Muslims? HT has looked at the asset and MPCE share of top 10% and top 5% of the all religious groups in India to answer this question. The data reiterates the findings shown by the Gini coefficient and Muslims do not appear to be an outlier in terms of economic inequality. To be sure, there is good reason to believe that the NSSO surveys undercount the rich in India. To give an example, the household with the most assets in the asset survey had assets worth ₹114.81 crore as on June 30, 2018, which is clearly not the case.
• Does social identity matter for economic well-being among Muslims

  Caste is almost always a good predictor of economic status in India. While Muslims do not feature among the Scheduled Castes in India, they do have Other Backward Class (OBC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) households. Households self-report caste in NSSO surveys. A small share of Muslims reported belonging to SC and ST groups (around 1% each) in the surveys used for this analysis, Is caste a disproportionate driver of economic inequality among Muslims in India? A simple way to answer this question is to look at the ratio of average asset/MPCE level for SC/ST/OBC and non-SC/ST/OBC groups across major religious groups in India. Data shows that non-SC/ST/OBC population among Muslims does not have a significantly big advantage vis-a-vis Pasmanda Muslims when compared to a similar classification among Hindus. This is the first of a two-part data journalism series looking at inequality within Muslims and vis-a-vis other religions in India. The second part will look at how Muslims are placed vis-a-vis other religions in India