Muslim tenants facing rejection from Hindu landlords in Delhi
Submitted by kamran on 6 July 2008 - 5:22pm.
By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Is being a Muslim itself a cause of suspicion? Yes, at least in Delhi where Muslims are suspected not only by the police but also a majority of the majority community. The case becomes crystal clear when it comes to renting flats in the city where Muslim ruled for about 1,000 years.
Meet Naqueeb Ahmad, 24, a promising IT engineer. He works with HCL, a premier computer software company. His office is in Noida, some 15 km from New Delhi’s Jamia Nagar area where he lives in a two-room flat. With good salary and a well-known company tag, he wanted to reside in some posh areas but he landed in Jamia Nagar, one of the largest Muslim ghettoes in Delhi.
Why? “I tried to get a two-room flat in Chirag Dilli area, got one and had the first meeting with owner of the flat over rental,” says Ahmad, a bachelor planning to be engaged this year talking to TwoCircles.net. Everything was going well. “The flat was fine and the rate was affordable, too. The owner offered me tea and during conversation he absent-mindedly asked my name. When he knew I am a Muslim that was enough to seal the deal. He said he would rent to a family, not bachelors. He forgot that in the beginning of the talks he had said he had no problem with bachelors,” recounts Ahmad.
Ahmad also tried to get a rented flat in Pushp Vihar, Connaught Place and South Extension localities but everywhere his application was turned down on one ground or the other. Shocked by the discrimination, he went to Connaught Place area, not alone but with a Hindu friend. But in vain. In South Extension area which is more popular for markets but has some residential flats, Ahmad had a Sikh friend Manpreet Singh. He wanted to share his room. His friend agreed but when the lady owner of the flat came to know about it, she denied saying that the Muslim would be a non-vegetarian.
Not only Naqueeb Ahmad, there are many Ahmads who are facing humiliation from Hindu homeowners in Delhi.
Ahmad’s friend Faheem is a System Administrator at an MNC. He lived in Sarita Vihar area that is near the Apollo Hospital where his elder brother works as a physician. In the wake of growing anti-Muslim feeling following terrorist bombings for which Muslims are accused by default, Faheem and his brother were asked by the flat owner to vacate it without giving any reason.
Not only a particular area but entire Delhi is playing stranger to Muslims. To gauge the situation, Abhishek Sharan of Hindustan Times set out for a flat in posh colonies. He assumed the identity of one Imran Sheikh, a software professional from Aligarh. Wherever he went with this identity for a rented accommodation, be it Malviya Nagar, Vasant Kunj or Model Town, he failed. He revealed it in an article.
In Malviya Nagar he got a flat and over final talks when he revealed his identity, the owner had a quick, furtive look at him and denied. The broker later told him that the owner is a conservative and does not want to give flat to a Muslim.
In Vasant Kunj area the broker grilled him on the phone about his education, background and company and when he came to know he was Imran Sheikh he tried to cut the line instantly but being persisted for the reason he said he would have to get his identity particulars verified by the local police, by the Aligarh police and also by the employer.
This is not the process in practice. Generally a tenant has to fill a single form comprising his identity particulars which are meant to be verified by local police.
In Model Town, the flat owner after knowing he is a Muslim asked about passport. When Imran Sheikh (Abhishek Sharan) said he did not one, the owner said he had to get one.
Notwithstanding what politicians say and how many welfare programs the government announces, the ground reality is that Muslims are being victimized. And this is resulting in ghettoisation.
According to 2001 Census, 16,23,520 Muslims are in Delhi. An overwhelming majority of them are living in ghettoes like Jamia Nagar, Okhla, Nizamuddin and Seelampur. A sizeable chunk of the Muslim community lives in the Walled City area that includes Jama Masjid ara, Chandni Chowk, Ballimaran, Darya Ganj and Matia Mahal.
The Muslim legislators who are in the Delhi government today represent these ghettoes: Perwez Hashmi (Okhla), Chaudhry Mateen Ahmad (Seelampur), Shoaib Iqbal (Matia Mahal) and Haroon Yusuf (Ballimaran).
The hatred Muslim tenants facing at the hands of Hindu landlords is mainly because of the anti-Muslim atmosphere created in the wake of terror attacks in Delhi and other parts of the country. For this credit should go to the police and media, particularly electronic media which present suspects as convict.
Like this article? share it with the world:
reason why muslims are not
reason why muslims are not invited to live in hindu areas from my experience is
1. they eat non-veg which most of the hindu dont eat for example i dont rent my house to even those hindu which eat non-veg.
2. in my cousin bldg there in one muslim family and on some occasion they cut goat right in the premise which I think is perfectly right from there side as it is there festival but hindu\jain families leaving there cant take that , mind u jains are very strict when it come to killing.Even after repeated request not to cut goat in the premise they do it and no one can do anything including society.
3. see what happened in hyd. where 2 doctor brothers were involved in Glasgow attack , now if i am a landlord for the family i will be hounded by the police for sure so why to take trouble.
The fact that you ruled for
The fact that you ruled for 1000 Years and still have such living standards says a lot of where you went wrong , you were the ruler and now a liability . Now dont say thay you need reservation et. al. to improve because you have ruled on India.
solution:pakistan and bangladesh becoming democratic.
one may ask how come the rejection of a muslim in delhi has to do with the two islamic republics pakistan and bangladesh.the mohammedanism did an irreparable damage to the country by dividing on communal lines which is the root cause for all misapprehenions between hindus and muslims.islam and its adherents completely ignored the fact that religion was a personal affair and unduly experimented with state craft dividing india. the power of cultural nationalism was ignored by islam.the effects came in the form of the emergence of bangladesh.as long as the theocratic nature of islam prevails the world would always suspect it and its adherents.
false
Salaam!
You're wrong. The British divided India. Nobody wanted to divide India. also Mahatma Gandhi was against it.
And in The Quran it is written that religion is a personal affair. You think u know about this relgion, but u do not know about it!
I could also not say for example which existed: A Hindu (from the right winged party Hindutva) killed Mahatma Gandhi. Now I say all hindus are Killers. they are against freedom and peace and are intolerant infront other religions." i can not say that. Why? because God (Allah) gave me a brain to use it and I read also the Holy Vedas which quite interesting. Now I know that this kind of acting was wrong a sin well when u r religious (i mean in Hinduism). But also when not, I mean also without religion a human could behave as a tolerant and good one, but you, NO!
Think about it!
Best regards
ei muslim terrorist beware- not british; muslims divided india.
though it pains me also to call u as an islamic terrorist, but ihave no other option but to call u as such.just before that let me say goodmorning to u. i am a hindu fundementalist but that doesnt mean i am antimuslim. all my views may be against islam and such other things. but as far as this rivalry goes in terms of words then it is allowable. the matters would turn ugly only if they turn violent. the world listened to yasser arafat,the palestinian leader though he was initially dubbed as a terrorist. the bonds of cultural inheritance of a group of people is as great as a religion which islam severely ignores it.i m not at all worried about the physical division of india. that is not my conception.only with the emergence of two nation theory under jinah that the demand for an islamic state gained momentum as days for independent india came close.how could u say that division of india was britisher's plan. islam and statecraft are indivisible, once u are muslim religion fails to be of apersonal choice.it enslaves ur free thinking, u truely would become a slave to the dictates of political ideology of islam.in 1905 when bengal was divided india was not an indepenent state.they divided it for their administrative purposes and to curb the growing bengali nationalism.and also religion as one of their cards. if islam opines faith as a personal affair then why had pakistani muslim army butchered twenty five lakh hindu bengalis and only a less number of muslim bengalis. such is the hypocrisy of islam and mohammedanism. the decreasing percentage of hindus both in pakistan and bangladesh who were almost fifty percent of the total population is itself a testimony that islam is worse than nazizm.which eats up greedily all other noble cultures, faiths, for her expanism. during the partition time itwas muslims idiots who butchered hindus while leaving or while throwing out hindus. go to history and study the facts of naokali muslim butchery of hindus during the emergence of east pakistn. if islam believes in tolerance why would kashmeeri hindus woud run away from their own home land. a hindu kills only if he is provoked or endangered of his life, but for a fanatic muslim jihad is his career to eat away other religions by hook or cranny. if a masjid comes down like babari it come as a reaction of baburs anti hindu policy of destroying the faiths of native hindus. if a gandhi is killed it comes as a reaction for his undue support for the culprit muslims who divided india.u cannot dub the assasin as a hindu fundementalist. in the gujarat riots the muslims of godhra were the first to be accused. in every sphere of action u would see muslims as prime culprits.no where in the history u see hindus every destroyed masjids.it is only after the advent of arabian islam into the hindu land that the real trouble began. if u keep arguing against hindus,hindusim,indian culture,coming into hindu land having forcibly converted,killed hindus for over 800 years. the tolerance is over. u would soon see as a reaction the emergence of hindu militancy striking terror in the countries of pakistan, bangladesh, in our indian kashmeer.
More tolerance not a condescending attitude
The staement at the begining of the article 'in the city where Muslim ruled for about 1,000 years', was not required. Such condescending statements will only antagonise the non-Muslims furthur. It is time that the Hindus and Muslims of this country stopped reffering to the past to solve the present problems.
However, I agree with the writer that, not only in Delhi, but even in Gujarat, where I am presently living in a government accomodation, Muslims are increasingly finding it difficult to get rented accomodation when the land-lord is a non-Muslim. Even when it comes to buying land or building a house, majority of the housing colonies and societies do not welcome Muslim families. To some extent, Christians and Dalits also face similar problems but to a lesser extent.
I would not blame the Hindu tenants entirely, it is the right wing organisations in this country who have brain washed them systematically. This has geen going on for years. Instead of reacting to such false propganda with violence, what sensible Muslims can do is prove the stereotypes created by these groups and the media wrong. This will not be easy, and it will take some time. But a non-violent and sustained form of protest will eventually succeed. Greater tolerance and interaction with the non-Muslims and not allowing the fanatic elements to hijack the entire Muslim community is required.
Try to develop your own posh area
when you have such situation then try to make your own muslim areas as a posh area.Thats enough.and you not need to face such humiliation.
Minorities should exercise their fundamental rights
This will only lead to elite ghettos. I do not think this will solve the situation. Perhaps one way could be by exercising their fundamental rights, those Muslims who can afford to buy land and build their own houses should do so in main stream areas. If refused, they should go to court. The elite Muslims should mobilise a movement consisting of Muslims as well as like minded Hindus, demanding residential space for Muslims in main stream colonies. There should be no'Hindu' and 'Muslim' colonies, but mixed colonies. This process will lead to greater interaction among the two communities, and dispelling of prejudices, fears and misconceptions.
Post new comment