Living with Secularism: The Destiny of India's Muslims

The success of Indian secularism lies in the ways in which its minorities have lived and negotiated their existence with the State and the broader society at large. Yet it remains painfully true that over the past decade, the story of Indian Muslims has been circumscribed by the broader Hindutva agenda. An assessment of the future of Indian Muslims must necessarily be read within the context of the rise militant Hindu nationalist politics and its impact on the secular fabric of the country. Hindu-Muslim unity, the defining moment of Indian secularism has come under renewed threat. The present volume tries to map the tensions and predicaments of Indian Muslims arising as a result of that threat. The papers included here study the ways in which Hindu Right forces such as the RSS and the Bajrang Dal view the Muslims and in a certain sense construct them. Does the rise of Hindutva necessarily force the Muslims towards alienation or is there a section, which looks at the BJP differently? How does the stress on Indian pluralism translate in terms of Muslims' relationship with the State? What has been the response of the State to such demands? The volume also brings into focus ways in which Muslims themselves make their life meaningful; whether through investing in education or even a change in terms of practising their own religion or the way they have historically related to other political formations. It is at the three interrelated levels of the state, politics and society that the present volume charts out the issues of Muslims and the multifarious ways in which they live and give meaning to Indian secularism.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; Competing Interests, Social Conflict & Muslim Reservations; The Reformist Sufism of the Tablighi Jamaat: The Case of the Meos of Mewat; Investing in the Future: Education in the Social & Cultural Reproduction of Muslims in UP; Tamil Muslims & the Self-Respect Movement; The Hindutva Gameplan to Checkmate Muslims; Hindutva & Future of Muslims in India; The Cancer of Dowry in Indian Muslim Marriages: Themes in Popular Rhetoric from the South Indian Muslim Press; From Custom to Scripture: Observations on the Direction of Indian Islam; The Bajrang Dal: the New Hindu Nationalist Brigade; The RSS & Citizenship: The Construction of the Muslim Minority Identity in India; A Malevolent Embrace? The BJP & Muslims in the Parliamentary Election of 2004; The Future of Muslims in India: Views of an Outsider Political Scientist; Index.