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Most liberal and secular scholars and newspaper editorials have predicted a bleak future and isolation for India's 15 crore Muslims after the massive electoral victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Out of 303 members of the Lok Sabha from the BJP there is not a single Muslim, though the Opposition will have 27 Muslim members. Some of the fears of liberals may be real but many are not only unfounded but may be counter-productive, which might lead Muslims to go into a shell. In the last three centuries, Indian Muslims have faced several existential crises but each time, they survived and received huge support from enlightened sections of Hindus.
The first event was the end of the Mughal empire in 1857. The so-called Muslim rule of seven centuries had ended and since Bahadur Shah Zafar was the symbolic leader of the revolt, Muslims had to face the wrath of the British. Hundreds of Muslims were publicly executed in Delhi. After the failure of the revolt, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan founded MAO College which was later converted into the great Aligarh Muslim University. Every Muslim family in the Indian Subcontinent has at least one or two members who had received modern western education at this citadel of learning. In 1885, the Indian National Congress was founded and in 1887, it elected a Muslim Badruddin Tyabji as its third president.
In 1918, the British and French armies occupied Istanbul, ending the Ottoman Empire. The Muslim community across the world was in shock. Indian Muslims came forward in the fight for the restoration of the Caliphate. The Khilafat movement of 1919-1924 was supported by Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress. The Khilafat was not restored but Islam continued to flourish.