There is no denying, however, that while arts and crafts, a sector where Muslims were traditionally skilled at, has declined, there certainly is a second wave of opportunity with new areas opening up. Most fashion designers, for instance, swear by their nearly 100% Muslim workers. The bulk of the embroidery done for top fashion names like Emmanuel Ungaro is by mostly Indian Muslim tailors.

Several Bollywood stars as well have Muslim tailors working on their clothes.

Lubna Khan manages the two best known names in fashion business today, the Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla line. A niece of Dilip Kumar’s, Lubna looks after the factory behind the business as well. “Despite the fact that the number of Muslims at a higher or executive level in our factory can be counted on our fingertips, about 90 per cent of our skilled craftsmen are Muslim. In the industry, my guess would be they constitute 80 % of all kaarigars.”

But this isn’t enough, that’s the consensus of community leaders. For, the India success story over the past few years has been premised on services growing at an average annual rate of 12-15 per cent. In Mumbai, too, this rapid growth rate has sustained and even helped employment. And many young Muslim men and women have not been able to ride this wave because it needs access to formal education.

One area where many of them are finding jobs is the unorganised sector, tiny outlets fixing things and in the seconds market. That explains why the fate of the nearly 3 lakh hawkers of Mumbai is first-time MP Priya Dutt’s biggest worry these days. “There are so many of them, largely Muslim and the underprivileged from other religions, and we have only 3000 licenses to offer. The Supreme Court says we have to clear and clean these areas but we must provide for them in regulated areas like what has happened in South-East Asia. Otherwise, we will be killing their only source of employment. Then we shouldn’t grumble about the rise in petty crimes or terror. Where will the narial pani and the pao-vada wallah go?”