Islam in the Public Sphere: Religious Groups in India, 1900-1947

This study explores the contestation of the public sphere by ten Islamic groups and traditions in colonial India. The groups studied here represent reformist and revivalist traditions with a significant degree of heterogeneity. They comprise seminary movements organized around a particular lead madrasa (Deobandi, Barelwi, Nadwa, Firangi Mahal, Aligarh) and revival movements attempting to increase religious awareness in ritual observance, in public life, and in politics, which this book closely examines. A common concern of the Islamic project in South Asia becomes discernible on looking closely at the discourses of these schools and movements and their lines of activity. Various issues which arose as a result of their activities eventually became entangled with the political awakening in India brought about by the nationalist movement led by the Indian National Congress. These challenges caused Islamic groups to formulate their own project for society and an Islamic polity in India. This project evolved over time from scholarly debates to political action and social concepts. They took up political issues related to the status of Islam in India, the Islamic world and vis-à-vis British colonial rule the debate over the role of Islamic groups in the public sphere and the formation of an Islamic sector within it can serve as a catalyst for a better understanding of the diverse trends and models of their interaction.