Understanding Muslim Employment – The Historical and Political Dimension Khan Javaid Iqbal*, Yasmin Effat** *Sr. Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Kashmir, Hazratbal, Srinagar, India **Head, Department of Economics, University of Kashmir, Hazratbal, Srinagar, India Online published on 23 March, 2017. Abstract This paper is an attempt to place the emergence of Muslim community and their participation in the labor market in a historical context. Available historical information makes us to trace the origin of Islam in Indian sub-continent to around 600 A.D. This paper opens with references to the earliest Muslim settlements and follows the timeline of the rise and fall of the Muslim rule within the framework of politico-economic analysis. The Indian Muslims has a past, so rich and prosperous, that it still forms the cornerstone of the socio-economic and cultural fabric of India. However, of late this community heritage has gone into oblivion and what has come to be debated in the literature on Muslims is a story of misery, economic depravity, and political isolation. What explains this transition of an entire religious community from the seats of power to a state of perpetual economic distress? How far are the statements about religion based deprivation of Indian Muslims true? Does available data suggest religion based economic deprivation of Indian Muslims? Is there a mechanism available in the literature that could help extricate and answer these propositions on empirical lines? Top Keywords British, colonialism, Discrimination, Employment, Muslims. Top |