Bengal’s Muslim OBCs: A Reservation Struggle Caught Between Politics and Prejudice
Government data from 2019 and 2020 highlights a noticeable rise in OBC Muslim representation in police recruitment, with over 11% of selected candidates from OBC A and nearly 7% from OBC B. Improved access to education and jobs brought progress to marginalized communities. However, the High Court verdict has stalled this progress, depriving thousands of opportunities

Kolkata: How Muslims were included in West Bengal’s OBC list has been a contentious question troubling many, including the Indian judiciary. With the Supreme Court all set to hear the case on January 28, the bigger question that needs to be asked is: did these communities need the OBC reservation? And if they do need the reservations, then why call it appeasement?
The High Court’s Verdict and Its Fallout
The Calcutta High Court’s order on May 22, during the 2024 General Elections, highlighted the commission’s “undue haste” in recommending the classification of 77 classes to fulfill the then Chief Minister’s public announcement. It also noted that classifying the majority of the 77 groups, who were Muslims, as backward is “an affront to the Muslim community as a whole,” making it appear that the “community has been treated as a commodity for political ends.”
In response to the verdict, the Molla and Mondal communities have filed respective intervention applications seeking permission to make submissions before the court, as the Calcutta High Court had not heard from the denotified groups before canceling their OBC status.
Social activist Md Pasarul Alam, who is also one of the applicants seeking submission, told eNewsroom, “The High Court’s May 23, 2024, judgment on OBC reservation in Bengal has sparked controversy and criticism. As a result, there is a possibility of damage to the backward Muslim society.”
A Decade-Long Struggle for Muslim Representation
According to experts, the OBC certificates for the denotified communities were issued using a procedure prescribed by Buddhadev Bhattacharya’s Left Front regime.
Explaining the woes of the backward Muslims in Bengal, Professor SAH Moinuddin, head of the Department of Sociology at Vidyasagar University, said, “OBC reservations were implemented across India immediately after the Mandal Commission report in 1980, and a survey was conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation. However, till 2010, the Left Front refused to accept that Bengal had a sizable population belonging to the backward class. After seeing how other states were benefiting from the reservation, the Left Front government implemented its reservation policy for Muslims in Bengal.”
Sabir Ahamed, National Research Coordinator at the Pratichi Institute and founder of the ‘Know Your Neighbour’ initiative at the Sabar Institute, added, “A large section of Muslims in Bengal falls in the backward community, and it has nothing to do with religion but their socio-economic condition.”
A Muslim academic, who didn’t wish to be named, expressed frustration with the OBC reservation controversy, saying, “The 77 communities that have been denotified by the HC verdict are the real sufferers. Post-verdict, students from these communities face difficulties gaining admission to colleges and universities.”
The Present Government’s Role in Muslim OBC Marginalization
The Bengal government not announcing any vacancies under the OBC category has made Bengali Muslim intellectuals fearful. “Whatever progress Bengali Muslims from the remote villages of the state have made in these few years will go down the drain if these 77 communities are brought under the ambit of the general category,” said Saifulla, professor of Bengali at Aliah University.
Annoyed with the present Trinamool government, he said, “What are the benchmarks for getting included in the OBC list? Why weren’t the documents produced by the state before the high court? Why was it left for the Court to state that ‘religion’ was the basis of these reservations?”
Echoing a similar sentiment, Ahamed said, “We won’t deny the fact that there has been an improvement in Muslim representation in colleges, universities, and government jobs. But still, more needs to be done to improve the socio-economic condition of Muslims in Bengal.”
According to some RTI queries filed by Ahamed, the maximum number of recruitments in the years 2019 and 2020 has been for the post of constable in West Bengal Police. In 2019, around 8,419 candidates were selected for the declared vacancies, of which 11.08 percent were from OBC A and 5.6 percent from OBC B categories. SC and ST had a representation of 22.04 percent and 6.39 percent, respectively.
In 2020, for the same category, 8,624 candidates were selected, with OBC A and B representation at 10.74 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively.
Data provided for various job categories created by the Bengal government reveal that despite the rise in Muslim representation, there still lies ample scope to boost their number in various categories of government jobs.
Misconceptions About OBC Reservations and Muslim Inclusion
“Across India, OBCs are granted 27 percent reservation, and in some places, this figure is even higher. However, Bengal still limits OBC reservations to 17 percent, and no one has raised concerns about the community being deprived of 10 percent of government jobs,” said Alam.
Right after the implementation of the Mandal Commission, OBC reservation was introduced across the country, except in Bengal. Incidentally, while 27 percent reservation was introduced nationwide, Bengal offered only 7 percent to OBCs. “This 7 percent reservation was given to OBCs who were Hindu. However, belief in Hinduism was never the criterion for inclusion in the OBC category. OBCs are listed under special communities. Similarly, those who claim Muslims are listed as OBCs due to religion are incorrect. The truth is that all backward communities among Muslims are listed as OBCs,” he explained.
Subsequently, in 2010, Buddhadev’s government introduced 10 percent reservation for Category A and 7 percent for Category B among OBCs. However, this sub-categorisation was propagated as if only Muslims were considered under OBC.
“The Muslims listed in these OBC sub-categories indeed follow Islam, but that doesn’t mean their inclusion is some form of appeasement. Their inclusion is not due to their religious affiliation but because of their social, political, and economic deprivation and under-representation,” said Prof. Moinuddin.
According to the Sachar Committee report, people from minority communities represent just 2 percent of government jobs in West Bengal.
However, many accepted that there might have been procedural errors on the government’s part, which can certainly be rectified.
The Bengali Muslims (OBCs), however, have been left all by themselves. Following the May 2024 judgment, the castes listed as OBCs after 2010 were declared void. Candidates from these castes are no longer being issued fresh OBC certificates.
Admissions for such candidates in central schools, colleges, and universities have also stopped.
Interestingly, Saifulla points out that these OBC certificates without the non-creamy layer certificate issued by the SDO are of no use. He also noted that since the HC judgment, most job vacancies listed by the state government no longer include the OBC category. For instance, a recently announced vacancy for a librarian post listed on the College Service Commission’s website had all categories listed except for OBC. He maintained that if this case doesn’t get a judgment soon, many from the community will be deprived of a chance to uplift themselves socio-economically.
So, does that mean Muslim OBCs are hopeful of the ruling coming in their favor? “We have faith in the apex court,” said Alam. And what about the certification, being labeled as ‘appeasement politics’?
“Well, if they are poor, then why not? I also fail to understand why the inclusion of these 77 communities is seen as appeasement. Hindu OBCs were included long before the government began thinking about Muslim representation in various sectors, particularly following the Sachar Committee Report,” summed up visual artist Subhajit Naskar.