Caste hierarchy operates among Indian Muslims, with a 1998 movement contesting it.

Evidence

There has been a lot of recent research on caste among Muslims in India. Besides Imtiaz Ahmad (1978), see Ali Anwar’s Masawat ki Jung [Battle for equality] (2005) and Masood Alam Falahi’s Hindustan mein zaat-paat aur Musalman [Casteism in India and Muslims] (2007). For a quick overview, see Khalid Anis Ansari (2013) who chronicles the contemporary pasmanda movement: ” ‘Pasmanda’, a Persian term meaning ‘those who have fallen behind’, refers to Muslims belonging to the Shudra (backward) and Ati-Shudra (Dalit) castes. It was adopted as an oppositional identity to that of the dominant ashraf Muslims (forward castes) in 1998 by the Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz, a group which mainly worked in Bihar. Since then, however, the pasmanda discourse has found resonance elsewhere too.” — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1135

Categorization

• XREF: Extends the caste-annihilation thesis into a religious community often assumed outside it; connects to the reader’s cross-religious dimension of caste analysis.
• QUESTION: Worth noting that a 1998 organization naming itself after those who ‘fell behind’ parallels Dalit naming strategies and deserves comparison.