Working Title/Tentative: A world in-betweens: The story of Dudekula Muslims and Faith
OR The Politics of Being (but somebody already wrote a science book with that title)
Background/About the
Community:
Dudekula Muslims, a community
from the regions of Andhra
Pradesh and Telangana have
been living a life of ‘not
belonging’ anywhere since their
conversion to Islam from
Hinduism. Dudekula, the name,
Dudi (cotton), Ekatam (carding)
also from their caste profession
which involves cleaning cotton
(the very first process of carding
cotton) with the usage of a thread
made from the intestines of dead
cattle. The community has been
at the brunt of both casteism and
islamophobia for decades not just
at a societal level but also at the
policy level.
The Dudekula Muslim
associations in Telugu states have
revealed that there is no single
Dudekula MLA/MP/MLC/Minister
to date in India where Dalit
Muslims do not exist as a
category. The community is also
often referred to as a symbol of
secularism by progressive scholars
for they practice Islam and
celebrate a few Hindu festivals, whereas Dudekula’s are also referred to by another name, which is
also an infamous slur in Telugu states, Pinjari. Dudekula Muslims do not speak Urdu, as Telugu is their
mother tongue, and this has been one of the key factors for their isolation at Dargahs, and from faith
where upper-caste Urdu-speaking Muslims act as priests. The community is currently part of the
larger Pasmanda movement and is demanding SC status as they were one of the castes that was
removed from the SC list after the 1950 presidential order due to their conversion to Islam.
1. https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/facing-the-worst-of-both-worlds/article38
03785.ece
2. https://www.epw.in/journal/2003/46/special-articles/dudekula-muslims-andhra-pradesh.html
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJOvqBke9NU
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBDPLczuf6c
5. Sachar Committee Report
Proposal:
In this piece, I want to write about my community from a personal/intimate space of being an
inter-caste child parallel to the story of the community in itself, which has also been at the
intersections of caste and religion. The piece will be highlighting the less documented social history
of the community, and their anxieties of not belonging or not getting accepted both by Hindus and
Muslims, and having to be between Telugu and Urdu to get accepted. The piece will also give detail
into the loopholes in the reservation system when it comes to Pasmanda Muslims, especially with
respect to Dudekula Muslims who have been categorised as BC-B (Backward Castes-B category sl.
no. 5) by AP and TG government, and have been abandoned both by the State Minority Commission
for they do not consider them pure Muslims and by the State, for they do not consider a converted
Dalit community to be qualified for Scheduled Caste category.
Through this piece, I want to explore the politics of access - to faith, to community and to love
through personal narratives from my lived experiences, and my family’s interviews, photographs, and
oral narratives that I grew up hearing. I will be exploring the community’s lived reality through mine in
terms of desire - a spiritual desire of wanting to find a home. I will be elaborating on my experiences
of visiting Dargahs, celebrating Peerla Panduga (ancestors festival), the Chapathi festival, our clothes,
our choices that are so naturally intuitive - of donning a Bindi in Hindu spaces, and removing it at
home, covering heads in mosques to not ever wearing a niqab. I want to drive home the point of the
importance of faith for communities that tried to escape the Caste system equating it to me always
wanting to find a home in a community.
Timeline:
First Draft: 27 March 2023
Final Submission: 5 April 2023
Publishing: April 21, 2023 for Ramzaan if possible for the publishers
Resources/poems/songs that I will be referring to/using in the piece:
1. Awwal Kalima « The Shared Mirror
2. Calling given by Dudekula Siddappa, a prominent spiritual figure in the community’s history
who was vehemently anti-caste. Poem titled, “What do I say what my caste is”
3. Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India (Pg. 193)
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPm5cXK0uoQ
5. Read the story of a young boy having to fight with the state as they deny him caste
certificate unless he is registered as Hindu.
6. Ansari, Ashfaq Hussain, Ed. 2007, ‘Basic Problems of OBC & Dalit Muslims’, New Delhi:
Serials Publications.
7. #హర్యాలీ ముస్లింవాద సాహిత్యం - దూదేకుల సాహిత్యం:కవిత్వం,కథ విశ్లేషణ డా.వినోదినిమాదాసు
PS: During my interviews and research, I also found out that some Dudekula Muslims have taken up
playing Sannayi/Naadaswaram, a musical instrument that is also played by my father’s side of the
family as a caste profession. My father’s caste is Mangali (Barbers and Nadaswaram players). This
revelation had me shaken a bit and if the word limit allows I would like to bring in these elements of
intersection that the universe has put me at.
