Though Islam and Muslims form an integral part of the rich history and culture of India, their voice in present times is a muted one. Academic discourse in the west, which is increasingly engaging with Islam, thus chooses to largely ignore their existence. Much of what is written about India’s Muslims, by Indian as well as western scholars, tends to highlight the reactionary and strident over the moderate and normal. In this book Mushirul Hasan articulates a vision of Islam or rather the many different kinds of Islam, instead of the frightening monolith of popular perception, living in harmony with other faiths, and of Indian Muslims, inheritors of the great Indian civilization, living in a plural society. Engaging with the debates surrounding the society, polity, and history of India’s Muslims, and using historical and literary sources, as well as the writings of modern Muslim thinkers like Aziz Ahmad and Mohammad Mujeeb, Hasan traces the development of contemporary ideas about Muslims from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, through British rule and the partition, to the present day. For Hasan, a truly secular reading of Indian history reveals Indian Islam as one that exists in a pluralist milieu. Moderate or Militant, one of the first assessments of prevailing perceptions of India’s Muslims, will interest general readers as well as social scientists and policymakers looking for a comprehensive understanding of the challenges faced by India’s Muslims in the twenty-first century.
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