It's an Indian army

The person heading the Prime Minister's High Level committee on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community, Rajinder Sachar, has eminently secular credentials.

The person heading the Prime Minister's High Level committee on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community, Rajinder Sachar, has eminently secular credentials. So it's unlikely that the committee harbours any sort of 'communal' masterplan while asking for a numerical break-up of Muslims in the armed forces. The aim of the committee seems to be benign: to get a measure of the problem of Muslim backwardness, there is a need to have some idea of the numbers one is dealing with. But we are unable to see why the committee wants details of alleged Muslim desertion in the army in 1948 during the operation to liberate Hyderabad. Under trying circumstances in the 1962 and 1965 wars, there were several instances when units belonging to other castes and religious persuasion, sadly, deserted.

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But getting into the exercise of counting the number of Muslims in the Indian Army as part of the larger exercise is somewhat gauche because it could open up a faultline where none exists. This danger is evident from the reaction of the BJP which has condemned the move as an attempt to communalise the armed forces. Since the time of British rule, the Indian armed forces, especially the army, have been sensitive about the balance of caste, religion and community in their ranks, especially in some of the infantry units like the Rajputs, Kumaonis, Jats and Dogras. But in recent decades, whenever newer formations such as the mechanised infantry have been created, it has decided to be purposefully blind to the caste and religious identity of the recruits.

Nevertheless, for men who are called on occasion to lay down their lives, religion is a serious affair and the armed forces treat this as so. They have a tradition of having priests of all faiths in their units, and have them bless any undertaking — a regimental function, or the inaugural of a new school or theatre. As a result they have an enviable reputation for upholding Indian-style secularism — which is not blind to religion, but stresses equal respect for all. The result is that the forces have a high level of credibility among the public and play an invaluable role in times of crisis, especially communal violence. For this reason alone, the committee would be well advised to let matters be.