How did prominent Muslim intellectuals in nineteenth-century Delhi, construct Islam? How did they understand themselves as Muslims and as Indians living in British India? What paths did they embark upon in their attempts to negotiate with the government? What was the place of adab and sharif culture before and after 1857? Existing studies on Delhi have neglected the history of ideas. This work, the first of its kind, illumines the little-known world of men of letters, for the most part teachers at the Delhi College. No one has surpassed them in their capacity to recover an epoch’s intellectual tendencies. Zakaullah, the historian, Nazir Ahmad, the novelist, or Mirza Ghalib, the poet, present readers with a kaleidoscope of life around them, bringing alive the society of their time better than any academic construction could achieve. The author’s own lively narrative, interspersed with Urdu verses, evokes a sense of the colour and charm characteristic of city life in the nineteenth century. The uniqueness of this scholarly volume lies in the fact that it looks at the attitudes and behaviour of literary and historical figures living through the 1857 upheaval, a reappraisal of their culture and identity, and, above all, the impact of their thinking and activism on contemporary society. What is more, A Moral Reckoning reveals how many sections of Delhi’s Muslim intelligentsia built bridges of understanding between religious communities and responded to the conditions of modern life with a strong and universalistic component in defining the Indian Muslim. In his book, From Pluralism to Separatism: Qasbas in Colonial Awadh (OUP, 2004), Hasan found similar processes at work. This book provides the kinds of perspectives the social scientist will find helpful in understanding cross-cultural influences, and the place of pluralist and non-sectarian ideologies in a local milieu. It will interest a wide cross section of historians, political scientists, and sociologists.
There are no reviews yet.