ABSTRACT
One of the most remarkable aspects of the debate about Muslims in India is the inverse relation between the intensity of the discussion and the paucity of empirical facts. The fundamental tension that sustains 'the Muslim' as a category of public thought is that it is precisely its absence as a formal category of citizenship that creates a space for the 'lawless,' unrestrained dynamic of the concepts in the political, economic and social domains. The problem of the Muslim in India, then, is not so much an intellectual or scholarly or social one, but rather a political one. The concept of 'development' plays a critical role as it interweaves the State's moral development, its institutional development and its economic development. The emphasis within Islam on the equality of all Muslims has mitigated the excesses of caste discrimination among Muslims, but it has neither eradicated nor prevented it entirely.
