Ghettoisation is a grave and complex part of the communalism problem plaguing this country. The ghettoisation of Muslims has a decisive bearing on communalism but, unfortunately, it remains a theme ignored in public discourse. It is common knowledge that during the last two decades, Muslim families have faced enormous difficulties in renting houses in Hindu-majority areas in India, as Hindu landlords tend to shun Muslim tenants even if they belong to the same social class and enjoy an equal or better footing in society.
In Mumbai, for instance, some housing societies refuse membership to Muslims openly. In other cities too it is difficult for a Muslim to get an apartment in a housing society. In cities like Delhi, housing societies generally do not say no to Muslims openly but adopt various subterfuges.
Muslim ghettoisation began in the mid-1970s, gathered pace in the 1980s and is now a well-established and worrying phenomenon. The Muslim population in many north Indian villages has been forced to migrate to Muslim localities in nearby towns. The situation is such that at present even new settlements and illegal and irregular colonies in urban India are ghettoised.
In general, Muslims today are forced to settle in Muslim-predominant areas, where poor infrastructure and civic facilities pose immense problems, for which only the government is to blame. Until the early 1990s, one could find Muslim government servants occupying government housing in areas where the majority of the population was not Muslim. But even here, a reverse trend has been visible lately. Take just one example: Muslim teachers in Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, reputedly an enlightened place with a liberal outlook, prefer to live in Muslim-dominated colonies rather than on the university campus.
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