Posts from — September 2004

Wikipedia, the world’s largest and the fastest growing encyclopedia, has reached the ‘one million‘ mark with the addition of the millionth article yesterday.

While it is convenient to say that Muslims are not doing enough to promote religious reforms within Islam, it’s impossible to turn a blind eye to the archaic customs and practices prevalent among Hinduism.

It is shameful to note that even in this day and age, people are not allowed to run for elections just because they are ‘Dalits’. And the irony is that the post for which they were de-barred from running is reserved exclusively for the scheduled castes!

‘VHP vows to demolish Muslim tomb‘… screams a headline in Indian Express.

Now who would pass up such a news item?! Who would ignore the potential controversy that it suggests?!

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The analysis of the 2001 Indian census is throwing up interesting tidbits of data (one of which was the subject of my last post). The latest piece of information is the distribution of population, based on religion, engaged in economic activities.

On an average, 39% of all Indians are engaged in some economic activity or the other. In case of Hindus 40% of whom are economically active, the percentage is above the national average. But in comparison, only 31% of Indian muslims are actually workers… which is well below the national level.

This statistic, combined with the fact that the population growth of Muslims has been increasing all the time, does not make for very optimistic reading. This should be a cause for concern… not because it implies that unemployment is high among the Muslims, but because it implies that given the low levels of literacy among Muslims, there is a higher chance of them turning to crime for earning a few quick bucks.

This also is a nudge to the Muslim leaders and clerics, to get their acts together and expedite the reforms to aim for a progressive Muslim community.

Last but not the least, I hope the idiot, reservation-happy and vote-banking politicians do not see this statistic as another opportunity to carry out their minority appeasement agendas.

The data on the population growth rates of the various communities/religions in India, released today, makes for interesting reading.