It has become commonplace in some circles for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to be attacked for seeming to appease Muslims in West Bengal. While some of that criticism is justified, it is more accurate to read Banerjee’s politics under two different rubrics: there’s Muslim appeasement but there’s also Muslim empowerment.

Banerjee’s decision to pay a monthly remuneration to imams is certainly an act of appeasement. However, giving scholarships to Muslim students and to include the community in Other Backward Classes should be seen as an act of empowerment. Such affirmative action is vital: according to the Sachar Committee’s report of 2006, Muslims in Bengal are the poorest in India after their counterparts in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Distinguishing between acts of empowerment and acts of appeasement has become especially relevant because the recent spurt in violence in Bengal is interpreted in some quarters as being the result of a fundamentalist community having been emboldened by a friendly government.

A recent report, titled “Living Reality of Muslims in West Bengal” and prepared by the Social Network for Assistance to People, Guidance Guild and Amartya Sen’s Pratichi Trust, states that nearly 80% rural Muslim households in the state have a monthly income of Rs 5,000…

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