Rising Inequality and Challenges for Democracy in Twenty-first Century India: Muslims and Dalits

‘What is radically wrong with our rulers is this: they are fully aware that they do not know us, and yet they do not care to know us’. Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) said once. Sadly, it is still true for our times and politics.

There is an attempt in this paper to highlight the growing inequality among Muslims and Dalits, which is continuously rising in spite of many measures undertaken by the government of India since seven decades of Independence. It further shows that Muslims’ condition is worse than Dalits. There is an attempt in seeking plausible explanations from communalism, denial of free political participation, basic health services, education, food security programmes, land rights, housing and residential pattern and economic and cultural alienation as exclusionary process.