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Christophe Jaffrelot, research director at Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales, Paris (CERI) and a specialist in minority issues in India, focused on the Muslim minority and affirmative action. Basing his analysis on the Sachar Committee Report, he said: "The average monthly expenditures of urban Muslims is Rs 800 a month, which matches that for the Dalits and Adivasis, as against Rs 1,469 for upper castes Hindus. The literacy rate among Muslims at 59.1per cent, according to the 2001 census, is lower than the national average of 65.1 per cent. And only 3.6 per cent of Muslims are graduates, as against the national average of 6.7 per cent."
These figures do not, however, show the disparity that exists within the Muslim community. Where the Sachar report has mainly made recommendations that consider the Muslim community as a whole, Jaffrelot asserted, "The Muslim community does not form a homogenous whole."
Indeed, the Muslim community has its own variant of the caste system: "The Ashraf represent the elite group, whereas the Ajlaf are mostly descendents of shudras, who converted to Islam to escape the Hindu caste hierarchy, and Arzals, Dalits who converted for similar reasons," he said.
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