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.)