NEW Typology

            First we considered an “action-reaction” typology in which we sorted the historical events based on how the Hindus and Muslims tried to unify and divide themselves. For example, in the political realm, Akbar implemented religious toleration policies, but a subsequent ruler reacted against the policies with fervor. Some trends, however, were not included in this action-reaction typology. Trends like cultural syncretism and religious tension were, in fact, organic results of coexistence. So, in the cultural and religious realms, we realized that we could not simply divide history into action and reactions, but needed to use a more inclusive typology.

            We realized that “unifying” and “dividing” were not so much categories of historical events as much as they were constant forces that shaped history. We wanted to identify the unifying and dividing forces between the two groups from which emerged a dynamic tension. That tension produced what we identified as the Indian-Islamic tradition.

            Because we took a historical approach in our research, we found it necessary to subdivide the unifying and dividing forces into four major time periods: Middle Period, Mughal Empire, British Empire, and Post-Partition. In the Middle Period, minority Muslims slowly moved in and adapted to the majority Hindu land. In the Mughal Empire, the Muslim minority became the elite ruling class for about 300 years. During the British Empire, European imperialism subordinated both groups to their rule and complicated the Hindu-Muslim relationship. Finally, after Partition, Hindus found power as a majority through the secular democratic system. While part of the Muslim minority population was separated from India through the creation of Pakistan, the Muslims remaining in India became an oppressed minority. We found that by dividing history into these four periods, we represented the four main shifts in power dynamics, which define Hindu-Muslim tensions. So while they are historically based, we see them as a main part of our typology, helping us to understand the Hindu-Muslim consciousness over time.

            The cultural, religious, historiographical, and political conclusions that we came to also contributed to our typology; the tensions, born from the unifying and dividing forces, are manifest in these four realms. (See Section X in our Group Paper for further analysis of these four themes.)

NEW Annotated Biblography

Academic Works, Books, and Writings:

Ahmad, Aziz. An Intellectual History of Islam in India. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1969. Print.
           

The first five chapters describe various Islamic sects, including Muslim interactions with Hindus.  The first chapter entitled “Sunni Orthodoxy” contains a subsection called “Modernity,” describing how Ahmad Khan started the modernist movement in India.   The subsection “Popular and Syncretic Beliefs” in chapter five delineates common beliefs and cultural synchronism between Muslims and Hindus during the time of the Mughal Empire. Our group used this book to understand the religious and cultural influences of both Muslims and Hindus on Indian society.

Ahmad, Syed Nesar. Origins of Muslim Consciousness in India: A World-system Perspective. New York: Greenwood, 1991. Print.
           

This book presents the effects of colonialism and global conflict throughout the 19th and 20th centuries on Hindus and Muslims in India, and the growth of conflict between them. Nesar describes how British Imperialism in India heightened the division between Hindus and Muslims, despite their shared Indian heritage.  This book also portrays many of the positions taken by Hindus and Muslims before the partition: Revivalists, nationalists, traditionalists, and more.  We used this source to develop a typology of various Indian opinions during the colonial period.

Desika Char, S.V. Hinduism and Islam in India: Caste, Religion, and Society from Antiquity to Early Modern times. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1997. Print.
           

This book covers a wide variety of comparisons of Hinduism and Islam in India including the caste system, economics, and politics throughout India’s history. This book takes the Hindu perspective of how Hindus reacted to the infiltration of Islam in India.  It reveals specific traditions, practices, and beliefs of Hindus and Muslims in India that caused rifts between the two groups.

Gottschalk, Peter. Beyond Hindu and Muslim: Mulitple Identity in Narratives from Village India. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print.

            This book helped our group take an anthropological look at the cultural connection between Hindus and Muslims in India by focusing in on one locality in India, Arampur Nexus.  The book emphasized how researchers tend to look for divisions between the two groups while forgetting their shared Indian heritage.  The ethnographer interpreted the landscape of the town with a less divisive perspective, noting many of the nuances of Indian identity and history.

Ikram, S.M. Muslim Civilization in India. New York: Columbia University Press, 1969. Print.
           

This book helped our group understand Muslim Indian history from the 8^th century until the rise of British colonialism in India.  Chapter nine of this book entitled “The Interaction of Islam and Hinduism” outlined the presence of Islam in India from the pre-modern era of 712-1526 A.D.  The book described the influence of Akbar’s court on the Mughal Empire as well as other political, economic, and social developments in India under Mughal rule.  The book concluded with a description of the deterioration of the Mughal Empire during the nineteenth century.  This source helped our group create a typology of the Muslim-Hindu interactions during the time of the Mughal Empire.

“India as a World Power.” Foreign Affairs 27.4 (1949): 540. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

This source described the conflict over the partition of India. It provided our group with important statistics concerning the number of refugees in India and Pakistan after the partition.  The source also highlights Ghandi’s negative view on the separation of India and Pakistan.

Islam, Arshad. “Babri Mosque: A Historic Bone of Contention.” The Muslim World 97 (2007): 259-286.  ProQuest. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.

This source described the role the British Empire played in aggravating the tensions between the Hindus and Muslims living in India.  This article drew special attention to the Babri Mosque legend.  This legend that the Muslims destroyed a Hindu temple to build the Babri Mosque was actually a British smear campaign to enrage and separate the Indian people based on religious guidelines.

Izetbegović, Aljia. Islam between East and West. Plainfield, IN: American Trust Publications, 1994. Print.         
           

This book compares Islam in the East and West, through a social, legal, political, cultural, and psychological perspective. This source helped us understand the different viewpoints of the East and West overall instead of in a specific region such as India.

Mawdudi, Sayyid Abu’l-A‘la. “Chapter 3: Sayyid Abu'l-A 'la Mawdudi. Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought: Texts and Contexts from Al-Banna to Bin Laden. Ed. Roxanne L. Euben and Muhammad Qasim Zaman. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton UP, 2009. 79-85. Print.

This chapter provides a broad sketch of the political tensions in India during the first half of the 20th century preceding independence. While describing the context in which the influential Islamist thinker Mawdudi grew up, the chapter identified the key players: the Hindu majority, Muslim minority, and predominantly Hindu but avowedly secular Indian National Congress. At this time, two opposing Muslim perspectives arose, reflecting many of the political and cultural implications of plurality in India. While some supported uniting with the Hindus against the common enemy of colonialism, Mawdudi and his contemporaries such as the Muslim League feared how such unity would compromise the integrity of the Muslim community. This source helped our group understand the culmination of Muslim-Hindu tensions at the moment of independence.

Siraj, Maqbool Ahmed. “India: A Laborartory of Inter-religious Experiment.” Religion and the Arts 12 (2008): 319-328. Ebsco Host. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

This source provided a broad summary of misconceptions about religion in India from the time of Kabir and Nanak to the present day.  This source helped our group better see the formation of various religious movements and then reactions against these movements.  Key to our research, this source pointed out that robust cultural exchange occurred between Hindus and Muslims during the 650 years of Muslim rule in India.

Multimedia: Images, Audio, and Videos:

                                                                                       

Christian Colson, movie producer. “Slumdog Millionaire (Hindu Attack).” Online video clip. Youtube. 25 April 2012. Web. 21 April 2013.

This video clip corroborates our evidence that Western media and Hollywood depict the violence between Hindus and Muslims with only one dimension and without historical context.  Because millions of Western viewers watched Slumdog Millionaire, they left the movie with a superficial understanding of Hindu-Muslim relations.  While the movie clip accurately conveys reality of violence between Muslims and Hindus, it takes a distinctly modern approach: A minute long scene attack scene to convey hundreds of years of history.

"Rabbi Shergill - Bulla Ki Jaana Maen Kaun." YouTube. YouTube, 16 Mar. 2006. Web. 20 Apr. 2013.

            This video of Rabbi, a current Indian singer who incorporates 18^th century Sufi poetry into his music, is a prime example of cultural syncretism in India today and a desire to transcend boundaries. We learned from reading the comments on the YouTube page because Indians discussed the beauty of his work. This allowed us to see the shared history of a religiously unified India that is shared among some today.

Popular Stuff, Newspaper Articles, and Non-Academic Books:

Guha, Ramachandra. “Two Indias.” The National Interest July/August (2009): Ebsco Host. Web. 20 Apr. 2013.

This source helped our group understand the recent political history of India.  The source described the various political actors fighting in India, which includes one group fighting for secularism and another fighting for politics guided by Hindu orthodoxy.  Importantly, this source frames Indian politics within the context of modernity.

"India's Muslims: Growing, Neglected." The Economist. N.p., 2 Mar. 2013. Web.      10 Apr. 2013.

            This recent article from The Economist discusses the demographic state of Indian Muslims, whose population continues to rise despite the gradual decline in Indian growth rate. This paints a poignant picture of urban and rural poverty among Muslims, whose “social backwardness” (i.e. resistance to use contraception and tradition gender roles) exacerbates their “economic backwardness.” Thus the article proposes a relatively orientalist view of Muslims, portraying them as “backwards” victims of the capitalist system. The data and views expressed in this article support our historiographical and political theories about Muslims in India.

Mishra, Pankaj. "India’s Fantasy of Disloyal Muslims May Come      True." Bloomberg View. Bloomberg, 19 Mar. 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.

Mishra, a modernist Indian scholar, writes about the Islamaphobic discrimination affecting Indian Muslims today. He addresses terrorism and the misconceptions and realities surrounding Indian Muslims’ involvement—or lack thereof. Most importantly, he addresses the impact of modernity and its conceptions of democracy and pluralism as a cause of Indian Muslims’ detachment from mainstream Muslim terrorism like Al Qaeda. Despite this, Muslims are often the innocent scapegoat when terrorism occurs in India, and Mishra proposes that the resentment from such prejudice is slowly causing the radicalization of Indian Muslims, which he calls a “self-fulfilling prophecy” of the anti-Muslim Indian majority. The article illustrates our findings about political prejudice well.

“Santan Jât Na Pûcho Nirguniyân.” Songs of Kabir. Trans. Rabindranath Tagore. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1915. Web.

This primary source is a translated version of one of Kabir’s poems.  Kabir, who lived in India from 1440 to 1518, believed in the sacred teachings found in both Hinduism and Islam.  This particular poem describes how people of various occupations and religious viewpoints look for God in their lives.  Our group researched Kabir and his followers to understand how some Indians believed in the beautiful unity of Hinduism and Islam.

Seager, Richard Hughes. The Dawn of Religious Pluralism: Voices from the World's Parliament of Religions, 1893. La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1993. Print.

This primary source provided a snapshot of one western perspective on pluralism. It included a brief section entitled “Three Views of Islam” with essays by authors of both Arab and western descent.  While our group gained a valuable understanding of pluralism by reading this source, the source did not end up matching the final theme of our project: Hindu-Muslim interaction.  The source did, however, help our group contextualize the plurality within a modern framework. 

Sharma, Betwa. “Kashmir Is on the Boil, Once Again.” The New York Times. 14 Mar. 2013. Web. 22 April 2013.

This month-old article described the large amount violence and unrest in Kashmir due to land disputes.  This article captured how modern media sources depict the confusion, violence, and conflict between Pakistanis and Indians over Kashmir.  Our group gained a better understanding of the real implications of political decisions like drawing national boundaries: Violence and chaos.

Statistical Date, Surveys, and Polls:

We found statistics in other sites, but our historical approach did not necessitate this category. 

Eaton, Richard. India's Islamic Traditions

·         Double-movement between the local cultures of South Asia and the universal norms of Islam

·         The religious traditions of Muslim newcomers were really not so foreign—thus they were actually conceived simply as another ethnicity, incorporated into the organic social/ethnic strata (caste system)

o   Thus the ease and interplay of conversions

o   Thus the organic religious and cultural syncretism

·         Despite this, colonial and post-colonial discourse view them strictly as religiously and culturally foreign

o   This would influence the discourse among Muslims and Hindus themselves

·         Islam in India cannot be separated from its Indian context—it is distinct from the Islam of any other context

o   The desire of Indian Muslims to ground themselves in the middle east is born of the colonial discourse; the failure of them to truly connect to the geographical home of Islam is born of their history

·         Orientalist scholars, colonial administrators, religious reformers, and nationalist historians—each with their own agenda—have made strenuous efforts to establish such dichotomies and project them backwards in time

o   The two-nation approach assumes too much fixedness

·         The particularity of the Indo-Islamic  tradition: cannot be properly understood outside of its historical context

working outline

Below is our working outline that helped us form our typology and shaped our prezi. It draws from all our research. 

Question: How have Muslims interacted with Hindus living throughout the history of India? How has Indian-Muslims’ understanding of pluralism transformed from the pre-modern to the contemporary era?

Introduction

What’s the difference between Islam and Hinduism?

·         Monotheistic vs. polytheistic

·         Arabic origins vs. sub-continental origins

·         Relatively egalitarian (unity through tawhid) vs. hierarchical (caste system)

Why are Indian Muslims significant?

·         Muslims make up about 15% in India

·         Roughly 180 million total Muslims

·         India is home to about 1/5 of the total world population

What divides Muslims and Hindus in India?

·         Politics and power dynamics—from Muslims ruling Hindus, to British ruling the two, to Hindus taking control after Independence

·         Economics: relative wealth and success

·         Social structures and stigma: a Hindu caste system which relegates Muslims to the lowest rung; discouragement of intermarriage

·         Ethnic differences: Arabic immigrants to sub-continent; this difference will gradually degrade over time as Muslims become ethnically Indian

·         Religious differences: see above

There’s a long history of cultural exchange at every level: political, social, economic, religious. We can trace the exchange between Hindus and Muslims as a series of unification and division efforts, both passive and active, over time and sometimes occurring simultaeously:

·         Passive Unification (Cultural synchronism)

·         Active Unification (Political campaigns for unity; religious universalist movement)

·         Passive Division (Social caste system; ethnic prejudice)

·         Active Division (Political partition; religious prejudice within government; revivalist/fundamentalist movements)

Action and Reaction:

·         Call for unity always followed by immediate call for division

Conqueror vs. the Conquered and Minority vs. Majority (shifts over time)

·         Centuries of minority Muslim rule over Hindu majority

·         Minority British conquest of both Hindus and Muslims: naturally led to active unification, which the British anticipated and worked against with active division efforts

·         Independence and Partition empowered the Hindu majority for the first time since Mughal empire in 1526

Middle Period (7^th century until Mughal rule in 1526)

How did Muslims and Hindus come together in India?

• Hindu origins: Aryans of Central Asia came and drove off the Dravidians, indigenous to north Indian plains, to South Indian peninsula
• Muslim origins: arrived as merchants from Arabia 7^th century AD; Muslim population in India grew gradually conquering and gained control over provinces until the establishment of the Delhi sultanate in 13^th century; after that, Muslim control over the sub-continent endured until 1857

Hindu Conversion to Islam (1100s) and Cultural Syncretism

·         Low castes and untouchables attracted to Islam’s focus on equality

·         Sufism orthodoxy was familiar to Hindus, further facilitated conversion

·         In Bengal during the twelfth century, the Pala dynasty supported Buddhism while the Sena dynasty in the twelfth century supported Hinduism. During this time of unrest, Muslim missionaries converted people in Bengal to Islam.

o   Like the British, the Muslims capitalized on chaos; but there’s something essentially different between the two—Islamic missionaries apparently never intentionally exacerbated tensions like the British did, and their religious message was relatively separate from their political ambition, since they never depended on having a Muslim majority for their own power

·         Muslim missionaries often transferred Hindu stories of miracles to Muslim saints, fusing old religion into new on a level comprehendible to the masses

·         Many conversions resulted from desire for social mobility

o   However, a large number of converts were unable to shake their view of social structure/caste.

·         Hindu folklore adopted by Muslims, especially among the uneducated masses

o   Example: Hindu moon-cult practices adopted by Muslims

o   Example: Shi’a commemoration of Ali and Fatima’s wedding on 12^th of Rajab is probably related to Hindu celebration of Krishna and Radha

·         While many Hindus were transforming their religious identity via conversion, many Muslims were transforming their cultural identity via folk lore

o   Middle eastern and Indian influences blend Muslims and Hindus into distinct Indo-Muslim culture

Kabir (1440-1518)

·         Spoke in universalist terms to create a blended spiritualism drawing from both Hinduism and Islam

·         Rejected hypocrisy of both religions and set forth on a purely spiritual mission

o   However, his challenge of conventional social and religious boundaries inspired others to view him as a reformer

·         His student Nanak would go on to found Sikhism

·         Hindu and Muslim disagreement

o   Hindus claim he was born of a Hindu woman, demonstrating their priority of blood relations/nature

o   Muslims emphasize his upbringing in a Muslim family, demonstrating their priority of environment/nurture

·         Would become a Hindu saint, especially for the lowest castes

·         Orthodox Muslims would reject him; orthodox Hindus would accept him but ignore his Muslim origins

“Even though Kabir showed a healthy disregard for conventional boundaries of society and organized religion, his intrinsic pursuit was rooted in spirituality and spirituality alone. In the process of conveying the innate spirituality of all creation, Kabir, in all likelihood, had to deal with and overcome prevalent parochial barriers. But this ought not to be misconstrued to imply that his intent was to reform society or religion.”

"It is needless to ask of a saint the caste to which he belongs,

For the priest, the warrior, the tradesman, and all the thirty-six castes, alike are seeking for God.

It is but folly to ask what the caste of a saint may be,

The barber has sought God, the washerwoman, and the carpenter,

Even Raidas was a seeker after God.

The Rishi Swapacha was a tanner by caste.

Hindus and Moslems alike have achieved that End, where remains no mark of distinction."

Sikhism:

·         Founded by Kabir’s student Guru Nanak (1469-1539)

·         Blends Islam’s monotheism and congregation worship with Hinduism’s reincarnation and karma

o   Draws from egalitarian and mystic traditions of both

·         Anti-orthodoxy, pro inter-communal relationships

·         Stresses the importance of doing good actions rather than merely carrying out rituals

Caste System and marriage

·         “The doors of mosques were barred to [the untouchables]; when permitted to attend prayers, they were expected not to proceed beyond the entrance steps. When they were allowed to learn the Quran, they were required not to teach it” (Hinduism and Islam in India 83) (this was after the conversions – this is an example of how the Hindus that converted to Islam remained firm in their belief of the caste system)

·         Muslim appropriation, based on ethnic variation:

o   Superior: Pure Arab

o   Inferior: Indian converts

·         Muslim men permitted to marry down but not up

·         Muslims take on some Hindu marriage practices while ignoring others:

o   Early marriage

o   Widows not allowed to marry

o   But banned burning of widows

Mughal Empire (1526-1857)

Early Mughal rule (1526-1618)

·         A religiously diverse India

·         Rich exchange already in progress when power solidifies

Emperor Akbar (1542 – 1605)

 “All this led to Akbar developing a basic belief in the commonness of all religions, but never to the extent of heresy against Islam or coercing his citizens to follow a new faith.”

·         Third ruler, instrumental and building empire

·         Policy of toleration towards Hindus

o   Employed Hindus within his government—meritocratic

·         Government supported cultural syncretism

o   Incorporated Hindu elements in architecture

o   Literary translation campaigns (see below section on culture)

Dadu (1544-1603)

·         Follower of Kabir, sought to unify Islam and Hinduism

·         Early followers accepted that he was born a Muslim

·         Like Kabir, Orthodox Muslims reject him; orthodox Hindus would accept him but ignore his Muslim origins

Political expressions of tolerance and cultural blending:

·         Akbar banned cow slaughter in respect to Hindu worship practices; with advice from doctor on hygienic threat of cow beef, extended ban to buffalo, horses, camels

o   Thus incorporated non-secular pluralist AND scientific motives into policy

·         Manucci outlawed the Hindu practice of burning the widowed wife at her husband’s funeral in 1663 in respect to Muslim beliefs

Social expressions of tolerance and cultural blending

·         Upper class Hindus enjoyed same material luxuries as the Mughals

·         Though it is assumed that Hindus only converted to Islam during the Mughal rule, Muslims also converted to Hinduism.

Cultural expressions of tolerance and cultural blending:

·         Poetry: Hindu poet saint Tukaram (1608-1645) influenced by Islam

·         Language: The primary language in Mughal courts was Persian and the secondary language was Hindi.

·         Painting: Majority of painters in Mughal courts were Hindus

·         Indo-Muslim music

·         Organic syncretism: Muslims and Hindus continue to adopt one anothers’ cultural practices

·         Government sponsored literary translation campaigns

o   Akbar created a council for this specific purpose, later rulers would continue

o   Indian folk tales translated from Hindi to Persian

o   Akbar wrote poetry himself in Hindi under the pseudonym Rai Karan

o   Akbar filled his court with Hindi and Sanskrit scholars, embraced Indian languages so much that Hindi became a lingua franca

o   All the Sanskrit/Hindi classics and epics translated into Persian and Urdu

§  Cool example: under Shah Jehan’s rule, Maulana Adbur Rahman Chishti wrote poetic dialogue between Hindu deities Mahadev and Paryathi, constructing an analogy to this pair and Adam and Eve

§  Dara Shikoh, third son of Shah Jehan, wrote Majmaaaul Bahrain, an attempt to bridge gap between Hindu and Islam as “two springs from the same source”

“The world is a hospitable inn for those who are just and right, wherever they may find themselves/As a form of worship, their life’s journey will be assured of success.”

—Akbar/Rai Karan

Later Mughal Rule (1618-1707)

Reaction to Akbar’s synchronistic ideas

·         Hindu Prejudice

o   Intensified prejudice of Muslims as untouchables; rejected explicit forms of cultural syncretism

·         Muslim Prejudice:

§  Elite Reaction:

·         Effort to maintain Islam through political power

·         Shaikh Ahmad wrote letters to Janhangir’s court (Akbar’s son) and asserted that the Mughal rulers must maintain the dignity of Islam; he grew to hate Akbar’s policies and non-Muslims because they took power and reverence away from Islam

§  Common Reaction: Spread the Prophet’s message to the people as a Islamic revivalist effort;  leader Sayyid Sultan

Emperor Aurangzeb (1618-1707)

·         Sixth Mughal ruler in India; Greatly enlarged India to include present-day East Pakistan

·         Pious Muslim follower; abandoned religious toleration of the previous rulers; patronized Islamic scholars

Dara Shikoh (1615-1659):

·         Royal, son of emperor

·         Wrote The Mingling of Two Oceans (1655) to try to bridge Muslim-Hindu gap

·         After long thoughtful scholarship, Dara concluded that monotheistic Hindu Vedantism and Islamic Sufism shared the same truths

Mughal Political Decline (1707 – 1803)

Formation of the Muslim-Elite Consciousness

·         Consciousness of superiority directly tied to minority status of religion as well as foreigner status

·         This complicates our concept of conqueror-conquered relations—the British Christians also constructed their imperial attitude around being religiously and nationally particular in relation to the masses of Hindu Indians

o   If the superior-inferior relationship is essentially the same, but we can see that Mughal rule was fairly peaceful and never overthrown by its subjected people, then we can conclude that modernism (and everything that goes with it: materialism, secularism, nationalism) is the determining factor that leads to revolt

Revivalists (early 1800s)

·         Historical Context:

o   Mughal Empire losing power, India opening to worldwide trade (basically political and economic instability)

o   Muslims unhappy working under Hindus in new global market

o   Muslims continuously losing power to the British

o   Violence breaking out due to tension (Mu jahiddin movement 1824-31)

o   Hinduism was the religion of at least ¾ of the population. (two different groups of Hindus) but both are fully orthodox in the sense that they retain and enforce with great strictness the ancient Hindu rules of conduct. (dharma).

o   Islam was very orthodox and very ignorant, and was steadily deteriorating. (the collapse of the Muslim governments and the steady fall of Muslim character had worked sad havoc in the religion itself)

o   Muslims formed 1/6 of the population

o   However, they were not as weak or intimidated by the British as the Hindus were.

o   The British had entered into the heritage of their administration

o   Multitudes of Muslims were still government officials

o   Urdu (the hybrid tongue which had grown up as a medium of communication in the Muslim camp) was still the official language in the law-courts and elsewhere.

o   The bulk of public education was still Muslim in character

o   YET, the Muslim community was steadily declining: there was no living movement of thought and no spiritual leader among them.

·         Muslims (early 1800s) respond through revivalist Islamic movements

o   Purified form of Islam

§  Strict observance of Islam

§  Rejection of Hindu practices

§  Simple Islamic lifestyle protected by Islamic community

·         Hindu: Hinduvta movement begins

Colonial Period (1857-1947)

·         1857: Fall of Mughal rule to British control

·         Time of crisis: power dynamic among Hindus and Muslims disrupted, and introduction of modern imperialism, nation state, capitalism, etc. to an oriental context

British actively divided Muslims and Hindus in anticipation of communalism

·         Supporting Hindu claims over Hindu mythical nature of the lands: Ayodhya Mosque controversy

·         Morley-Minto Reforms (1909) increased the divisions between Hindus and Muslims; collapse of Hindu-Muslim alliance due to struggle for power

Modernist

·         Muslims:   

o   Reconciliation between Muslim subjects and the British Empire (compliance to global actors)

o   Education of Muslims in Western art and science (Western education)

o   Promoting Muslim loyalty to British Empire

o   Catch up with Hindus in the process of Westernization (economic tension with Hindus due globalization)

o   Identity of the Muslim Elite: Identity based on being different religion and also superior outsider—that will continue to stand as they collaborate with the imperialist British Christians

·         Hindus:

o   Emphasize persistent tension of Hindus under Muslim 650 year rule (Modernist play up the tension that may or may not have been a problem over this long period of time; simplification and politicization of history)

o   Modern Hindu views Muslim as the “perennial outsider”; sees Pakistan as a natural and needed separation

Revivalists

·         British actively influenced divisionàpassive unity derived from common enemy and altered power dynamicà identity crisis among both religious populations

·         Muslims began actively redefining themselves against Hindu and Western influence

o   Sufi revivial in Bengal which emphasized strict religious observance, rejection of Hindu influence and practices, and austere Muslim life

o   Faraidi Movement (revivalist group preaching puritanical Islam; arose after 1793) (p.24)

o   Titu Mir’s Movement (1827-1831): Fundamentalist movement; attracted Muslim peasants and weaver who worked under Hindu Zamindars (p.27)

o   Mu jahiddin Movement: (1824-1831): Military campaign in northern India; against Sikhs for breaking away from Mughal rule

o   Leaders of Jam’iyyat al-‘Ulama believed colonialism, from start to end, was the cause of social and economic backwardness of Muslims in British India

·         Hindus also sparked a revivalist movement based on their native claim to the land, cast Muslims as perennial outsiders

o   Vaishanavaite leadership

Muslims and Hindus for United India:

·         Ghandi (1869-1948) fought against partition of India and Pakistan (Hindu)

·         Economic motives: Middle class Indians (merchants) felt restricted in home market due to the limitations of being a colony.  Middle class Indians started an anti-colonial movement to unite all Indians, Muslims and Hindus, against the British.

·         Fundamentalist Muslims against British rule in India:

o   Join forces with Hindus and “avowedly secular” Indian National Congress to kick British out of India; congress dominated by Hindus and led by leaders such as Ghandi whose rhetoric was infused with Hindu idiom

·         Some Muslim leaders (Madani and the “nationalist” ‘ulama) felt confident about the future of a postcolonial, united India in which Muslims and Hindus coexisted harmoniously

Not for Pakistan but for Islamic Nation: Mawdudi (1903-1979)

Mawdudi’s Response to Muslims supporting Indian Nationalists:

o   Skeptical about how the Muslim community would function in a Hindu-dominated India

o   Criticized Madani for his failure to grasp the sacrifice/concessions of the Muslim community that would come with the emergence of a “united nationhood”

o   Against western style nationalism and preferred that people be properly trained in Islamic norms before a Muslim state was formed

Partitionists (Nationalists) (Pakistan vs. India) (Partition in 1947)

·         Creation of Pakistan

·         Rise of nationalistic divisions on religious basis

·         1940: Muslim League started calling for separate Muslim homeland, separate from India to protect Muslim interests

Tension heightened under British rule:

-          Mughals (Muslims) rule over Hindus for hundred of years

-          Hindus views Muslims as being in a lower caste

-          Entrance of British: Hindus no longer need to be ruled by Muslim, whom they see as their oppressor

Post-Partition/Post-Independence (1947 – present)

"India is both an unnatural nation as well as an unlikely democracy. Never before has a territory so disparate and diverse been constructed as a single political unit."

The partition removed 2/3 of India’s Muslim population and moved them into Bangladesh and Pakistan…but the separation “does not erase the history of interreligious experiments in this vital area of the globe. The whole area is still considered a single civilizational entity.”

Before the introduction of secularism, Indian Hindus and Muslims were historically peaceful and enjoyed creative exchange—one of the two religions was always in power; the concept of a secular government naturally inspired religiously charged power-plays on both sides

Secularism in Post-Partition India:

The vision: a secular, constitutional democracy in which Hindus and Muslims coexisted peacefully

The reality: “secular” government distorted by defensive movement to redefine religious identity on both Hindu and Muslim sides, as well as many western-style modernists struggling to curb power of religious movement in government

Modernist approach to pluralism (Western European):

o   Secularism in its political manifestation subordinates ALL religions to a less role in society, thus equalizing them

Traditionalist approach to pluralism (Kabir, Akbar, Guenon):

o   ALL religions share equal influence and participate in a true religious exchange

Political: Partition of India

·         Indian Independence Act of 1947—British authority officially ousted

·         Dissolution of the British Indian Empire and the end of the British Raj 

·         Violence and bloodshed throughout India due to partition of India

·         Continued large-scale violence sparked by underlying tensions between sections of the Hindu and Muslim communities (Popular culture example: Violence in Slum Dog Million is Hindu-Muslim violence)

·         Conflict from dichotomy of Hindu Nationalism and Islamic Extremism (this is probably too simplistic)

·         Dislocation:

o   Dislocation of Hindus and Muslims because not a perfect split (not possible because of the coexistence)

o   Refugee problem: 6 million refugees (Hindu and Muslim) after the partition

o   India became a secular democratic state

o   Post-partition population of Muslims: 40 million Muslims

o   Muslim ghettos often termed “mini-Pakistans” in India

·         Violence:

o   In the past 10 years, there has been a razing of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya.

o   In 2001, Islamic militants attacked the Indian Parliament.

o   Action: Fifty Hindu pilgrims returning from the disputed site of the Babri Mosque were burnt alive in a train fire at the Godgra railway stain.

o   Response: In 2002, one to two thousand Muslims died at Gujarat riots in retaliation to the Godhra Train Burning

o   In general, violence in India often blamed on Muslims, and retaliation against Pakistan is often the immediate reaction

·        Economic inequality:

o   Hindus are statistically more poor than any other group in India

o   Earn less, hold fewer public or political jobs

o   Poorest fate in terms of education, infant mortality rates=essentially still as badly off as the Hindu untouchable with which they have so long been associated

Crisis of Indian Muslim consciousness post-Independence

-          How do they relate to Muslims in the rest of the world with a unique cultural history?

-          Partition of India and Pakistan (Mawdudi): At the time of India’s Independence, there was a lot of tension between Hindus and Muslims

-          Problem: Partition ignores the shared history of Hindus and Muslims together.

-          Pakistani and Indian Muslims often look to Middle east for cultural heritage, and resist acknowledging the depth of their Indian roots and shared history

Problem: The Indian nation state is Religiously, Socially, etc.’ly fragmented:

• India is a secular democracy with federal and state levels
• 2 major parties:
• Indian Nat’l Congress and BJP
• INC is fragmented because it encompasses huge variety of castes, economic classes, religions
• Ulema allied with INC
• BJP is associated with Hinduvta Hindu supremacy movement; very anti-Muslim

The modernist solution: westernize, democratize, federalize, secularize

• Ambedkar, one of the leaders who brought us to democracy, was educated at Colombia and LSE
• Worked to curb influence of communists and Hindu extremists
• “They united a diverse and fragmented country, and then gave it a democratic, plural, federal and republican feel.”
• Nehru ensured that no single religion, caste, gender, or language would dominate the federal gov’t
• To stand up against fundamentalists is considered heroic and necessary
• Associate the Hinduvta rejection of pluralism with a rejection of modernity: BJP will never accept pluralism because it’s based on ideals “antithetical to those of modern, secular, liberal democracy”
• Modernist economic solution: liberate the market yet further, and Hindus and Muslims will forget their differences in the common motivation to produce and consume; capitalism will yield pluralism

The fundamentalist solution: responding to religious identity crisis, political chaos, failure of secular modernists to curb influence of religious sub-parties

“Initial cultural differences between the Hindus and the Muslims widened and gained social significance as a consequence of the structural impact of India’s integration in the world system.”  Ahmad 1

Hinduvta movement

•  “The BJP has sought to construct a unified “Hindu” community, and then present itself as the most authentic and reliable defender of Hindu interests.”
• Classic fundamentalists, mirrors Salafism in fact:
• Hindu supremacists
• Golden age attitude (scientifically, culturally, socially)
• Beware of western bias: the term fundamentalist often connotes “pre-Enlightenment” and scoffs at the aspiration of some groups to return to a past age
• Chosen people attitude
• Feel that Hindus are the owners, and Muslims and Christians have always been the Dacoits (Indian word denoting member of class of criminals who engage in organized robbery and murder)
• HOWEVER, they seek power through democracy rather than terrorism
• Ashok Singhal: India should become the Hindu Pakistan, and exclude minorities from top jobs

Islamic fundamentalism in India

• Jan 1948 Ghandi was shot by a Hindu fanatic, an event which resulted from a wave of religious radicalism "which insisted that India be constructed as a Hindu nation in opposition to the Muslim nation that had broken away from it, namely, Pakistan."

·         Distinct from Middle eastern groups like Al Queda

• Mujihadeen, Jama’at-I Islami and Bhopali movements disregard the secular order professed by the state, hope to purge Islam of Hindu and Western influences

·         According to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, this is because Indian Muslims “are the product of and feel empowered by a democratic and pluralistic society.”

o   àthus they do not support or affiliate themselves with Al Queda or other foreign terrorist groups

Historiographical tensions:

·         What stake does the West have in this?

o   Western scholarship continues to portray South Asians as motivated by a primary impulse of religious sentiment—orientalism

o   “fundamentalist” is an orientalist term which is often synonymous with “pre-modern”

o   Western scholarship also tends to categorize subcontinental groups by religious identities which are implicitly juxtaposed to the secular identities in the west

o   The oversimplification of religious conflict in South Asia is amplified by an emphasis on social conflict which overlooks the common ground among Hindus and Muslims

·         The political tension between Pakistan and India is misinterpreted as historical tension between Hindus and Muslim

o   That creates a duality between two oversimplified, monolithic faiths—by ignoring the shared tradition of many centuries, this discourse bends to orientalist tendencies

·         This informs the BJP/Hinduvta platform of creating a Hindu compliment to Pakistan in India

·         It’s anti secular, anti-pluralist, anti-tolerant

·         Western Imperialism gives modern shape to persistent religious tensions between Hindus and Muslim in India

·         Muslim and Hindu tension over sacred spaces:

o   Town of Ayodhya: both Muslims and Hindus lived there throughout history, and it contained Hindu temples and Mosques

o   Hindu claim to origin was primarily mythical/ancient historical

o   Muslim claim was more archeologically sound

o   To inflame conflict and weaken Muslims, the British began siding with Hindu mythology as historical fact

o   Led to decades of intense violence and desecration by both sides

o   Also became powerful platform for Hinduvta movement which posited Muslims as perennial outsiders

·         The Ayodhya mosque is prime example of Hindus and Muslims vying for claim over a history which is essentially mutual; also demonstrates the destructive results of that—i.e. violence, religious fundamentalism, further division

·         Muslim and Hindu claims over Kabir’s life:

o   “The metamorphosis which the life story and teachings of Kabir and Dadu have undergone is not merely the work of those who were anxious to secure their heroes high lineage and a link with Hinduism; it is symptomatic of the general movement of separation that became common in both Islam and Hinduism in the later centuries. As Muslims grew more orthodox, they turned away from men such as Kabir and Dadu, while Hindus accepted them as saints, but forgot their Islamic origns.” P.128