considering the 2001 census of India shows muslims at 138 mil....total population of India is upwards of a billion..muslims making up 13.5% of the populus.
4% of the Indian army is around 45000.. so that is less than what should have been the actual representation.
Now there are around 1500 or hindus in the Pakistan army but most are in the sindh reigon and none are officers.. that makes up around .2% of the total army population..much less than the 13000 that should be taken if the percentage of population is taken into account.
What is not taken into account.. is whether that percentage of the population really wants to be in the army or not.. do 138000 muslims want join the Indian Army as a profession.. ?.. do 13500 hindus from the Sindh and lower punjab areas want to be part of the Army of Pakistan?.
It would make sense if the population of Muslims was distributed equally across India..and as I am unaware of the Indian selection system and its quotas for different regions.. it might just be that Muslims lag behind by losing out on these restrictions.
But the situation in Pakistan remains a little different... at least in the Army, members of other religions are frequently badgered in the PMA and onwards about converting to Islam. Unfortunately.. this attempt at "tableegh" is presented in a very discriminating manner and usually makes the target very incensed about the system.
Hi,
Presently there is no quotas in IA, and as per stated policy selection process strictly rely on merit. I think the low representation of muslims in army can be somehow explained by martial race theory, which is still in effect for Indian Army as well as Pakistan Army(I don't know if PA's view has been changed after Bangladesh debacle!). Before independence majority of muslim recruits in British Indian Army came from mainly three provinces: Punjab, NWFP, Baluchistan. All are considered as martial races and part of Pakistan now.
Let me show you state wise break up of Indian Army:
State Pct of Population Pct of Soldiers Over Representation Martial Races
Uttar Pradesh/Uttaranchal 17.0% 15.58% -8% Jat, Thakur, Pahari Rajput, Gurjar[24]
Maharashtra/Goa 9.5% 7.64% -20% Maratha, Mahar
Bihar 10.7% 5.13% -52% Bhumihar, Rajput
West Bengal 7.8% 3.63% -53% NA
Andhra Pradesh 7.4% 4.08% -45% NA
Tamil Nadu 6.2% 5.09% -18% Thevar
Madhya Pradesh 7.9% 5.13% -35% Thakur
Rajasthan 5.5% 7.04% +28% Rajput, Gurjar[24], Jat
Karnataka 5.1% 2.81% -45% Coorgese, Bunt
Gujarat 4.9% 1.48% -70% Rajput, Gurjar[24]
Orissa 3.6% 1.27% -65% Khandayat
Kerala 3.1% 5.38% +74% Nair
Assam & North-East India 3.8% 4.05% +7% Gorkha, Meitei
Punjab 2.4% 15.30% +538% Jat, Awan , Dogra, Gujar, Janjua , Kamboh, Khattar, Labana, Mahton, Mughal, Pathan, Saini, Sial , Syed, etc. [24]
Haryana 2.2% 7.82% +255% Jat, Rajput, Gujjar[24]
Delhi 1.4% NA NA Gurjar[24], Jat, Rajput
Jammu and Kashmir 1.0% 2.92% +192% Dogra Rajput
Himachal Pradesh 0.6% 4.68% +680% Thakur
You can see, several states are underrepresented ans some are over-represented. States which are underrepresented : Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra.
Overrepresented states are : Punjab, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Rajastan and Himachal Pradesh, majority of recruits come from these states only.
Muslim population according to 2001 census :
- State Population Percentage
- Lakshadweep Islands 56353 93
- Jammu & Kashmir 6,793,240 66.9700
- Assam 8,240,611 30.9152
- West Bengal 20,240,543 25.2451
- Kerala 7,863,842 24.6969
- Uttar Pradesh 30,740,158 18.4961
- Bihar 13,722,048 16.5329
- Jharkhand 3,731,308 13.8474
- Karnataka 6,463,127 12.2291
- Uttaranchal 1,012,141 11.9225
- Delhi 1,623,520 11.7217
- Maharashtra 10,270,485 10.6014
- Andhra Pradesh 6,986,856 9.1679
- Gujarat 4,592,854 9.0641
- Manipur 190,939 8.8121
- Rajasthan 4,788,227 8.4737
- Andaman & Nicobar Islands 29,265 8.2170
- Tripura 254,442 7.9533
- Daman & Diu 12,281 7.7628
- Goa 92,210 6.8422
- Madhya Pradesh 3,841,449 6.3655
- Pondicherry 59,358 6.0921
- Haryana 1,222,916 5.7836
- Tamil Nadu 3,470,647 5.5614
- Meghalaya 99,169 4.2767
- Chandigarh 35,548 3.9470
- Dadra & Nagar Haveli 6,524 2.9589
- Orissa 761,985 2.0703
- Chhattisgarh 409,615 1.9661
- Himachal Pradesh 119,512 1.9663
- Arunachal Pradesh 20,675 1.8830
- Nagaland 35,005 1.7590
- Punjab 80,045 1.5684
- Sikkim 7,693 1.4224
- Mizoram 10,099 1.1365
According to this list the overrepresented states contribute rather negligibly to Muslim population, majority of muslims live in UP, Bihar, WB, Andhra, Maharashtra and other southern states which are severely underrepresented in IA. So to assume any bias on the basis of religion is to see evil where none exists. If there's any bias at all, that's because of our British legacy of Martial race theory.
