Few took note when the senior Pasmanda leader Ali Anwar thundered in 2007: “Hum shuddar hain shuddar; Bharat ke moolniwasi hain. Baad mein musalman hain (We are Shudras first; the indigenous people of India. We are Muslims later).” Fifteen years later, and nearly a century after the launch of the first Pasmanda movement in India, the concept has finally begun dominating public discourse after Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently directed his party members to focus on weaker sections of Muslims. With the Pasmanda (Persian for backward), constituting some 80 per cent of all Muslims in India, the BJP’s move has a potential to upset Muslim politics.