Dr Hardy has attempted a general history of British India's Muslims with a deeper perspective. He shows how the interplay of memories of past Muslim supremacy, Islamic religious aspirations and modern Muslim social and economic anxieties with the political needs of the alien ruling power gradually fostered a separate Muslim politics. Dr Hardy argues (contrary to the usual view) that Muslims were able to take political initiatives because, in the region of modern Uttar Pradesh, British rule before 1857 and even the events of the Mutiny and Rebellion of 1857-8 had not been economically disastrous for most of them. He stresses the force of religion in the growth of Muslim political separatism, showing how the 'modernists' kept the conversation among Muslims within Islamic postulates and underlining the role of the traditional scholars in heightening popular religious feeling. Regarding any sense of Muslim political unity and nationhood as an outcome of the period of British rule, Dr Hardy shows the limitations and frailty of that unity and nationhood by 1947.
The volume attempts to gauge and analyse the level of denial and deprivation faced by Indian Muslims by evaluating their status after a gap of several years of Sachar Committee (2006) and Rangnath Mishra Commission (2007) Reports. It presents and discusses the current conditions with respect to outcome indicators such as population, education, economy, poverty, unemployment, consumption level, availability of bank loans, infrastructure and civic facilities and representation in government employment. By placing facts in perspective, it also discusses community-specific issues such as use of Urdu, madrasa education and Waqf. In the post-Sachar era, governments started many schemes to improve the condition of Muslims whose reach and impact is assessed with the help of latest data. It presents the social structure of Muslims, presence of OBCs and Dalits and suggests a practical pattern for reservation. It follows up the process of implementation of recommendations of these reports and highlights how the governments adopted tokenism, attempted to implement minor recommendations and shied away from major ones. The volume highlights the lopsided attitude of the previous UPA governments, hostile attitude of the present NDA regime and accelerated marginalization of Muslims in today’s scenario due to open discrimination, mob-violence, lynching and hate crimes in the name of various communal issues. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka
While jihad has been the subject of countless studies in the wake of recent terrorist attacks, scholarship on the topic has so far paid little attention to South Asian Islam and, more specifically, its place in South Asian history. Seeking to fill some gaps in the historiography, Ilyse R. Morgenstein Fuerst examines the effects of the 1857 Rebellion (long taught in Britain as the 'Indian Mutiny') on debates about the issue of jihad during the British Raj. Morgenstein Fuerst shows that the Rebellion had lasting, pronounced effects on the understanding by their Indian subjects (whether Muslim, Hindu or Sikh) of imperial rule by distant outsiders. For India's Muslims their interpretation of the Rebellion as jihad shaped subsequent discourses, definitions and codifications of Islam in the region. Morgenstein Fuerst concludes by demonstrating how these perceptions of jihad, contextualised within the framework of the 19th century Rebellion, continue to influence contemporary rhetoric about Islam and Muslims in the Indian subcontinent.Drawing on extensive primary source analysis, this unique take on Islamic identities in South Asia will be invaluable to scholars working on British colonial history, India and the Raj, as well as to those studying Islam in the region and beyond.
Disputed between India and Pakistan, Kashmir contains a large majority of Muslims subject to the laws of a predominantly Hindu and increasingly "Hinduized" India. How did religion and politics become so enmeshed in defining the protest of Kashmir's Muslims against Hindu rule? This book reaches beyond standard accounts that look to the 1947 partition of India for an explanation. Examining the 100-year period before that landmark event, during which Kashmir was ruled by Hindu Dogra kings under the aegis of the British, Mridu Rai highlights the collusion that shaped a decisively Hindu sovereignty over a subject Muslim populace. Focusing on authority, sovereignty, legitimacy, and community rights, she explains how Kashmir's modern Muslim identity emerged. Rai shows how the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was formed as the East India Company marched into India beginning in the late eighteenth century. After the 1857 rebellion, outright annexation was abandoned as the British Crown took over and princes were incorporated into the imperial framework as junior partners. But, Rai argues, scholarship on other regions of India has led to misconceptions about colonialism, not least that a "hollowing of the crown" occurred throughout as Brahman came to dominate over King. In Kashmir the Dogra kings maintained firm control. They rode roughshod over the interests of the vast majority of their Kashmiri Muslim subjects, planting the seeds of a political movement that remains in thrall to a religiosity thrust upon it for the past 150 years.
INDEX CHAPTER 1 : The Great Mutiny of 1857 CHAPTER 2 : Indigenous Revolts and Tribal Insurrections CHAPTER 3 : Peasant Revolts and Uprisings Post-1857 CHAPTER 4 : The Formation of the Congress: Debunking the Myths CHAPTER 5 : The True Story Behind the Formation of the Indian National Congress CHAPTER 6 : Socio-Religious Reforms: Catalysts of the National Awakening CHAPTER 7 : An Economic Analysis of Colonial Exploitation CHAPTER 8 : Advocating for Press Freedom: A Historical Perspective CHAPTER 9 : The Use of Propaganda within Legislative Bodies CHAPTER 10 : The Swadeshi Movement: Unveiling the Spirit of Nationalism (1903-1908) CHAPTER 11 : Congressional Fissure and the Emergence of Revolutionary Violence CHAPTER 12 : World War I and the Ghadar Movement: Catalysts for Indian Nationalism CHAPTER 13 : The Home Rule Movement and Its Aftermath CHAPTER 14 : Gandhiji's Formative Years and Activism Beginnings CHAPTER 15 : Gandhi's Formative Years and Early Activism CHAPTER 16 : Rural Uprisings and Nationalism in the 1920s CHAPTER 17 : Indian Labor Movement and the Nationalist Struggle CHAPTER 18 : Activism for Gurdwara Reform and Temple Access CHAPTER 19 : Era of Stagnation: Swarajists, Status Quo Advocates, and Gandhi's Influence CHAPTER 20 : Bhagat Singh, Surya Sen, and Revolutionary Activism CHAPTER 21 : Rising Tensions: 1927-29 CHAPTER 22 : Civil Disobedience Movement CHAPTER 23 : Journey from Karachi to Wardha: 1932-34 CHAPTER 24 : The Emergence of Left-Wing Movements CHAPTER 25 : Strategic Discussions: 1935-37 CHAPTER 26 : Twenty-Eight Months of Congress Governance CHAPTER 27 : Rural Uprisings During the 1930s and 1940s CHAPTER 28 : The Independence Movement in Princely States CHAPTER 29 : Indian Industrialists and the Nationalist Movement CHAPTER 30 : Evolution of Nationalist Foreign Policy CHAPTER 31 : The Emergence and Expansion of Communalism CHAPTER 32 : Communalism in its Liberal Phase CHAPTER 33 : Jinnah, Golwalkar, and Radical Communalism CHAPTER 34 : From the Tripuri Crisis to the Cripps Mission CHAPTER 35 : From the Quit India Movement to the INA CHAPTER 36 : Post-War National Awakening: India's Path to Independence CHAPTER 37 : Freedom and Partition: The Birth of India and Pakistan CHAPTER 38 : Strategic Evolution of the Indian National Movement CHAPTER 39 : The Ideological Landscape of the Indian National Movement
This book reflects upon the political philosophy of Muhammad Iqbal, a towering intellectual figure in South Asian history, revered by many for his poetry and his thought. He lived in India in the twilight years of the British Empire and, apart from a short but significant period studying in the West, he remained in Punjab until his death in 1938. The book studies Iqbal's critique of nationalist ideology and his attempts to chart a path for the development of the 'nation' by liberating it from the centralizing and homogenizing tendencies of the modern state structure. Iqbal frequently clashed with his contemporaries over his view of nationalism as 'the greatest enemy of Islam'. He constructed his own particular interpretation of Islam - forged through an interaction with Muslim thinkers and Western intellectual traditions - that was ahead of its time, and since his death both modernists and Islamists have continued to champion his legacy.
The International Bestseller 'Barney White-Spunner's book stands out for its judicious and unsparing look at events from a British perspective.' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times Review 'This book is at its most powerful in its month-by-month narrative of how Partition tore apart northern and eastern India, with the new state of Pakistan carved out of communities who had lived together for the past millennium.' Zareer Masani BBC History Magazine 'A highly readable account . . .' Times Literary Review Between January and August 1947 the conflicting political, religious and social tensions in India culminated in independence from Britain and the creation of Pakistan. Those months saw the end of ninety years of the British Raj, and the effective power of the Maharajahs, as the Congress Party established itself commanding a democratic government in Delhi. They also witnessed the rushed creation of Pakistan as a country in two halves whose capitals were two thousand kilometers apart. From September to December 1947 the euphoria surrounding the realization of the dream of independence dissipated into shame and incrimination; nearly 1 million people died and countless more lost their homes and their livelihoods as partition was realized. The events of those months would dictate the history of South Asia for the next seventy years, leading to three wars, countless acts of terrorism, polarization around the Cold War powers and to two nations with millions living in poverty spending disproportionate amounts on their military. The roots of much of the violence in the region today, and worldwide, are in the decisions taken that year. Not only were those decisions controversial but the people who made them were themselves to become some of the most enduring characters of the twentieth century. Gandhi and Nehru enjoyed almost saint like status in India, and still do, whilst Jinnah is lionized in Pakistan. The British cast, from Churchill to Attlee and Mountbatten, find their contribution praised and damned in equal measure. Yet it is not only the national players whose stories fascinate. Many of those ordinary people who witnessed the events of that year are still alive. Although most were, predictably, only children, there are still some in their late eighties and nineties who have a clear recollection of the excitement and the horror. Illustrating the story of 1947 with their experiences and what independence and partition meant to the farmers of the Punjab, those living in Lahore and Calcutta, or what it felt like to be a soldier in a divided and largely passive army, makes the story real. Partition will bring to life this terrible era for the Indian Sub Continent.
