Hilal Ahmed | Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi (original) (raw)

Papers by Hilal Ahmed

Routledge eBooks, May 17, 2022

Journal of Right-Wing Studies

We spent the year 2008 trying to get the UC Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies (CRWS) off the... more We spent the year 2008 trying to get the UC Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies (CRWS) off the ground. There was pushback. In part, it was because there was no precedent-right-wing studies?-for such an entity on a major research campus. But above all, the pushback was about timing. Neoliberalism was suffering comeuppance in the form of transnational catastrophic financial collapse and near depression. In the USA, the most right-wing presidency in at least seventy-five years was coming to a shattering end, seeming to give way to a "transformative" administration under a Black Democrat. Sam Tanenhaus of the New York Times reflected the widespread mood, publishing The Death of Conservatism. Why now was there a need for right-wing studies? The Tea Party swiftly put this objection to rest. Its populist uprising was the defining political event of the Obama years. It was launched in February 2009, one month after Barack Obama's inauguration as president and one month before CRWS opened its doors. We held an early conference on the Tea Party, wrote reports and a book on it, and the center attracted attention from many quarters around the world where right-wing populism was similarly on the rise. By the time US populism morphed from the Tea Party to Trumpism, immigration surges had made the worldwide dimension of the trend unmistakable. Liberal democracy was back on its heels in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Trumpism was of a piece with illiberal democratic regimes erupting across the continents. Behind them were populist right-wing mobilizations possessed by local variations of replacement theory. This state of affairs has only deepened over the past several years. Surely it is time for a Journal of Right-Wing Studies. JRWS will publish essays, research papers, book reviews, and commentary. We believe the problems we will address here are urgent, and that discussion and analysis need to be as widely diffused as possible. Accordingly, we are an open access journal available worldwide without economic barriers for readers or for potential authors. Our first full issue-Issue One-will be published early this year. What we are publishing today we are calling our "Issue Zero." We have asked a dozen scholars to comment on what they consider to be the most compelling questions in right-wing studies today. We believe this provocative series of short essays offers a robust suggestion of what is to come in JRWS. It is a pleasure to welcome you to our initial publication, Issue Zero of the Journal of Right-Wing Studies.

Routledge eBooks, Jun 3, 2015

to Javed Alam and so on, this trend of analysing the postcolonial Muslim politics on the paramete... more to Javed Alam and so on, this trend of analysing the postcolonial Muslim politics on the parameters of these binaries becomes obvious.

Philosophy and politics, 2020

This paper contextualizes the ideas of contemporary Muslim politicians within the discourse of wh... more This paper contextualizes the ideas of contemporary Muslim politicians within the discourse of what I call ‘radical constitutionalism’. I approach the notion of ‘Muslimness’ and the conceptual package called ‘Muslim issues’ from the point of view of contemporary Muslim politicians, who actually practice these ideas to deal with political engagements of the Indian Muslim communities. The paper raises two very basic questions: (a) how do Muslim politicians conceptualize the political identity of India’s Muslims, and do Indian Muslims, as constitutional minority, constitute a political community? and (b) what is the required political strategy to secure the interests of this ‘Muslim political community’ in a liberal-democratic framework? The paper argues that the contemporary Muslim political discourse revolves around the collective autonomy of the Muslims either as a community or as a set of various Muslims groups. These identities are interpreted in the modern language of accommodation and equilibrium.

South Asian studies, Mar 1, 2013

Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi This article examines various poli... more Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi This article examines various political images of Jama Masjid of Delhi to find out the ways in which historic buildings are transformed into monuments of various kinds. More specifically, it studies a particular event of 1987 when Jama Masjid, a functional Muslim religious place of worship, was closed by its own Imam. The paper makes a broad argument that the afterlives of historical objects produce various kinds of monumentalisation. In the case of postcolonial Muslim politics, especially in north India, the commemorative capacities of historic mosques are politically evoked, not merely by stressing their religious significance as religious places of worship but also by highlighting them as a Muslim contribution to the making and remaking of the official postcolonial idea of 'Indian heritage'.

Studies in Indian Politics, Oct 13, 2021

The study of Indian politics, especially in the conventional disciplinary framework of political ... more The study of Indian politics, especially in the conventional disciplinary framework of political science, is often differentiated from what is called political theory. Indian politics, more generally, refers to the functioning of institutions (Parliament, Supreme Court, political parties) and the everydayness of political processes. On the other hand, political theory is envisaged as a sophisticated mode of thinking about certain concepts (liberty, equality, justice, secularism) and intellectual traditions (liberalism, Marxism and so on). The dominance of Eurocentric Western concepts and categories is clearly visible in such disciplinary representation of political theory as a subject. Although a section of Indian scholars has questioned this imaginary dividing line between theory (read Western!) and politics (read Indian/ empirical!) in last two decades, the study of the theoretical aspects of Indian politics has not yet been given adequate intellectual attention.2 Sudipta Kaviraj’s work is an exception in this regard. He has been engaging with the complexities of Indian politics for serious political theorization for almost five decades. Kaviraj’s work recognizes the historical formation of Indian politics as a point of departure to underline the specific constitution of Indian modernity. Unlike other scholars of his generation, especially the self-declared Marxists, Kaviraj has always been critical of theoretical rigidity of any kind. This intellectual openness helps him to engage with Western intellectual traditions without compromising with his adherence to the empirically informed, historically conscious, and theoretically adventurous analysis of Indian politics. Kaviraj’s work introduces us to an interesting methodological trajectory. He does not outrightly reject the value of Eurocentric/Western theoretical thinking. Instead of employing them uncritically, he asks us to locate these theoretical reflections in their immediate Western context. This contextualization of Western theories, Kaviraj argues, may help us in tracing the manner in which a particular modern experience is understood, evaluated and eventually theorized. In other words, Kaviraj is not merely interested in the act of theory; he seems to explore the mechanisms that produce theoretical reflections. Notes on Methods

Indian Economic and Social History Review, Apr 1, 2016

Faisal Devji, Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Univer... more Faisal Devji, Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2013, p. 278.

Democratic Transition in the Muslim World

Social Change, 2018

Farah Naqvi with Sadhbhavna Trust, Working with Muslims: Beyond Burqa and Triple Talaq—Stories of... more Farah Naqvi with Sadhbhavna Trust, Working with Muslims: Beyond Burqa and Triple Talaq—Stories of Development and Everyday Citizenship in India. New Delhi: Three Essays Collective, 2018, 416 pp., ₹450, ISBN: 9789383968244.

to Javed Alam and so on, this trend of analysing the postcolonial Muslim politics on the paramete... more to Javed Alam and so on, this trend of analysing the postcolonial Muslim politics on the parameters of these binaries becomes obvious.

Bombay Cinema's Islamicate Histories

Indian Politics & Policy, 2020

The dominant descriptions of Muslim political engagements in contemporary India suffer from three... more The dominant descriptions of Muslim political engagements in contemporary India suffer from three conceptual problems. First, there is an assumption that Muslims constitute a single homogeneous community, whose political/electoral behavior is self-evident. Second, the 'Muslim voting' is envisaged as an independent self-governing exercise as if Muslim politics is all about Muslim voting. Third, Muslim voting behavior is always understood in relation to Muslim political representation in legislative bodies. It is assumed, in fact rather uncritically, that there is an organic and instrumental relationship between Muslim voters and Muslim MPs and MLAs. Reliability on these assumptions does not allow us to pay attention to various sociological, cultural, and economic factors that determine Muslim political imaginations in different contexts. In the backdrop of 2019 election, this paper argues that Mus-lim politics is not simply about the number of Muslim MPs and MLAs. Nor is it entirely reducible to the voting behavior of Muslim voters. The political engagements of Muslims in contemporary In-dia, therefore, need to be explored as an ever-evolving independent discourse, which does not always respond to the challenges posed by Hindutva politics.

Electoral Politics in India

Studies in Indian Politics

This article explores Muslim political attitudes in contemporary India. It contextualizes the pol... more This article explores Muslim political attitudes in contemporary India. It contextualizes the political responses of Muslim communities in the backdrop of two crucial legal-constitutional changes introduced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government: the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution and the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019. These changes, I suggest, stem from the official doctrine of New India and its operative mechanism, Hindutva constitutionalism. Analysing the nature of Muslim participation in the anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protests and Muslim electoral responses in two subsequent elections (Delhi Assembly Election, 2020 and the Bihar Assembly Election, 2020), I argue that political engagement of Muslims could be interpreted as an ever-evolving discourse, which not merely responds to Hindutva politics but also asserts its relative autonomy.

This paper contextualizes the ideas of contemporary Muslim politicians within the discourse of wh... more This paper contextualizes the ideas of contemporary Muslim politicians within the discourse of what I call ‘radical constitutionalism’. I approach the notion of ‘Muslimness’ and the conceptual package called ‘Muslim issues’ from the point of view of contemporary Muslim politicians, who actually practice these ideas to deal with political engagements of the Indian Muslim communities. The paper raises two very basic questions: (a) how do Muslim politicians conceptualize the political identity of India’s Muslims, and do Indian Muslims, as constitutional minority, constitute a political community? and (b) what is the required political strategy to secure the interests of this ‘Muslim political community’ in a liberal-democratic framework? The paper argues that the contemporary Muslim political discourse revolves around the collective autonomy of the Muslims either as a community or as a set of various Muslims groups. These identities are interpreted in the modern language of accommodati...

Studies in Indian Politics, 2021

Writing a conventional obituary for Prof Dhirubhai L. Seth (or Dhirubhai!)—the former Director an... more Writing a conventional obituary for Prof Dhirubhai L. Seth (or Dhirubhai!)—the former Director and one of the founding members of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and member of advisory board of this journal—is a difficult task. Dhirubhai was a theorist of the present. He would always respond to the challenges, issues and anxieties posed by the contemporary moment. The past in Dhirubhai’s framework is always seen in relation to contemporary concerns. For him, ‘historicization of an event, or an object...or an institution of a distant past becomes credible, and makes good historical sense, only when it is done in terms of contemporary concerns and sensibilities’ (DLS, p. 25). Dhrubhai’s intellectual adherence to here and now forces us to always engage with him as our contemporary. His lively, assertive and interventionist intellectual quest cannot be treated as history. For this reason, the colourful intellectual personality of Dhirubhai cannot be commemorated in an orthodox unadventurous mode. The vastness of Dhirubhai’s work poses a challenge of a different kind. He used to describe himself as a writer of short stories to justify his faithfulness for writing long essays instead of books. These essays address a number issues such as nationalism, democracy, caste, religion, backwardness, institutional development, non-party political processes, grassroots movements, intellectualism and so on. Although there are two edited volumes based on his various writings —Satta Aur Samaj: Dhirubhai Sheth (edited by Abhay Kumar Dubey, 2009) and At Home with Democracy: A Theory of India Politics (edited by Peter R. deSouza, 2018)—it is very difficult to provide a thematic label to Dhirubhai’s intellectual universe. Any conventional tribute, especially in strict professional academic sense, is almost meaningless, if not entirely futile. To avoid such explanatory difficulties, we must engage with Dhirubhai’s notion of intellectualism: How did he conceptualize the role of intellectuals in a postcolonial society like India? Dhirubhai makes a crucial distinction between academic work and intellectual pursuit. For him, academic work refers to the formal, professional engagement with a particular subject matter. On the other hand, intellectual work is seen as a creative devotion to an idea simply to nurture a process of constructive thinking. Dhirubhai introduces an innovative dimension to this conceptual distinction. He emphasises the decisive role of language in the realm of ideas. He writes:

Minorities and Populism – Critical Perspectives from South Asia and Europe, 2020

This paper contextualizes the ideas of contemporary Muslim politicians within the discourse of wh... more This paper contextualizes the ideas of contemporary Muslim politicians within the discourse of what I call ‘radical constitutionalism’. I approach the notion of ‘Muslimness’ and the conceptual package called ‘Muslim issues’ from the point of view of contemporary Muslim politicians, who actually practice these ideas to deal with political engagements of the Indian Muslim communities. The paper raises two very basic questions: (a) how do Muslim politicians conceptualize the political identity of India’s Muslims, and do Indian Muslims, as constitutional minority, constitute a political community? and (b) what is the required political strategy to secure the interests of this ‘Muslim political community’ in a liberal-democratic framework? The paper argues that the contemporary Muslim political discourse revolves around the collective autonomy of the Muslims either as a community or as a set of various Muslims groups. These identities are interpreted in the modern language of accommodation and equilibrium.

Studies in Indian Politics, 2015

The aim of this short note is to engage with a few issues raised by Manindra Nath Thakur in his a... more The aim of this short note is to engage with a few issues raised by Manindra Nath Thakur in his article, 'How do Muslims Vote?: Case of Seemanchal Parliamentary Elections' (Studies in Indian Politics, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 81-93). More specifically, I would like to address two central themes: (a) what is Muslim community, politically? This question is related to the 'conceptual' imagination of Indian Muslim community (not communities, as the author tends to use Hindu and Muslim as perceptible conceptual categories) and its engagement with electoral politics; (b) how to theorize Muslim electoral behaviour? This issue is concerned with the explanatory capacity of an argument. The note does not intentionally use election data produced by Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS)-Lokniti simply to avoid an unnecessary debate on survey research versus ethnography. Instead, the note is based on a rereading of the ethnographic details given in the article as evidences.

The Algebra of Warfare-Welfare, 2019

There are a number of commentaries, official reports, and well-researched academic books on commu... more There are a number of commentaries, official reports, and well-researched academic books on communalism in India that directly or indirectly look at the nature of violence-centric electoral politics. However, our understanding of Muslim electoral politics is very limited. The belief that violent events persuade Muslims to vote tactically at the national level is often evoked to substantiate the claim that communal violence always determines Muslim electoral preferences. The idea of Muslim vote bank is also an expanded version of this argument. Focusing upon the Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013, this paper makes an attempt to revisit the idea of electoral polarization in the context of the 2014 general election. The paper critically evaluates the merit of a twofold claim that the communal and targeted violence against Muslims produce electoral polarization; and, violence of this kind could only be prevented if the number of Muslim MPs and MLAs in legislative bodies increases.

Routledge eBooks, May 17, 2022

Journal of Right-Wing Studies

We spent the year 2008 trying to get the UC Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies (CRWS) off the... more We spent the year 2008 trying to get the UC Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies (CRWS) off the ground. There was pushback. In part, it was because there was no precedent-right-wing studies?-for such an entity on a major research campus. But above all, the pushback was about timing. Neoliberalism was suffering comeuppance in the form of transnational catastrophic financial collapse and near depression. In the USA, the most right-wing presidency in at least seventy-five years was coming to a shattering end, seeming to give way to a "transformative" administration under a Black Democrat. Sam Tanenhaus of the New York Times reflected the widespread mood, publishing The Death of Conservatism. Why now was there a need for right-wing studies? The Tea Party swiftly put this objection to rest. Its populist uprising was the defining political event of the Obama years. It was launched in February 2009, one month after Barack Obama's inauguration as president and one month before CRWS opened its doors. We held an early conference on the Tea Party, wrote reports and a book on it, and the center attracted attention from many quarters around the world where right-wing populism was similarly on the rise. By the time US populism morphed from the Tea Party to Trumpism, immigration surges had made the worldwide dimension of the trend unmistakable. Liberal democracy was back on its heels in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Trumpism was of a piece with illiberal democratic regimes erupting across the continents. Behind them were populist right-wing mobilizations possessed by local variations of replacement theory. This state of affairs has only deepened over the past several years. Surely it is time for a Journal of Right-Wing Studies. JRWS will publish essays, research papers, book reviews, and commentary. We believe the problems we will address here are urgent, and that discussion and analysis need to be as widely diffused as possible. Accordingly, we are an open access journal available worldwide without economic barriers for readers or for potential authors. Our first full issue-Issue One-will be published early this year. What we are publishing today we are calling our "Issue Zero." We have asked a dozen scholars to comment on what they consider to be the most compelling questions in right-wing studies today. We believe this provocative series of short essays offers a robust suggestion of what is to come in JRWS. It is a pleasure to welcome you to our initial publication, Issue Zero of the Journal of Right-Wing Studies.

Routledge eBooks, Jun 3, 2015

to Javed Alam and so on, this trend of analysing the postcolonial Muslim politics on the paramete... more to Javed Alam and so on, this trend of analysing the postcolonial Muslim politics on the parameters of these binaries becomes obvious.

Philosophy and politics, 2020

This paper contextualizes the ideas of contemporary Muslim politicians within the discourse of wh... more This paper contextualizes the ideas of contemporary Muslim politicians within the discourse of what I call ‘radical constitutionalism’. I approach the notion of ‘Muslimness’ and the conceptual package called ‘Muslim issues’ from the point of view of contemporary Muslim politicians, who actually practice these ideas to deal with political engagements of the Indian Muslim communities. The paper raises two very basic questions: (a) how do Muslim politicians conceptualize the political identity of India’s Muslims, and do Indian Muslims, as constitutional minority, constitute a political community? and (b) what is the required political strategy to secure the interests of this ‘Muslim political community’ in a liberal-democratic framework? The paper argues that the contemporary Muslim political discourse revolves around the collective autonomy of the Muslims either as a community or as a set of various Muslims groups. These identities are interpreted in the modern language of accommodation and equilibrium.

South Asian studies, Mar 1, 2013

Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi This article examines various poli... more Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi This article examines various political images of Jama Masjid of Delhi to find out the ways in which historic buildings are transformed into monuments of various kinds. More specifically, it studies a particular event of 1987 when Jama Masjid, a functional Muslim religious place of worship, was closed by its own Imam. The paper makes a broad argument that the afterlives of historical objects produce various kinds of monumentalisation. In the case of postcolonial Muslim politics, especially in north India, the commemorative capacities of historic mosques are politically evoked, not merely by stressing their religious significance as religious places of worship but also by highlighting them as a Muslim contribution to the making and remaking of the official postcolonial idea of 'Indian heritage'.

Studies in Indian Politics, Oct 13, 2021

The study of Indian politics, especially in the conventional disciplinary framework of political ... more The study of Indian politics, especially in the conventional disciplinary framework of political science, is often differentiated from what is called political theory. Indian politics, more generally, refers to the functioning of institutions (Parliament, Supreme Court, political parties) and the everydayness of political processes. On the other hand, political theory is envisaged as a sophisticated mode of thinking about certain concepts (liberty, equality, justice, secularism) and intellectual traditions (liberalism, Marxism and so on). The dominance of Eurocentric Western concepts and categories is clearly visible in such disciplinary representation of political theory as a subject. Although a section of Indian scholars has questioned this imaginary dividing line between theory (read Western!) and politics (read Indian/ empirical!) in last two decades, the study of the theoretical aspects of Indian politics has not yet been given adequate intellectual attention.2 Sudipta Kaviraj’s work is an exception in this regard. He has been engaging with the complexities of Indian politics for serious political theorization for almost five decades. Kaviraj’s work recognizes the historical formation of Indian politics as a point of departure to underline the specific constitution of Indian modernity. Unlike other scholars of his generation, especially the self-declared Marxists, Kaviraj has always been critical of theoretical rigidity of any kind. This intellectual openness helps him to engage with Western intellectual traditions without compromising with his adherence to the empirically informed, historically conscious, and theoretically adventurous analysis of Indian politics. Kaviraj’s work introduces us to an interesting methodological trajectory. He does not outrightly reject the value of Eurocentric/Western theoretical thinking. Instead of employing them uncritically, he asks us to locate these theoretical reflections in their immediate Western context. This contextualization of Western theories, Kaviraj argues, may help us in tracing the manner in which a particular modern experience is understood, evaluated and eventually theorized. In other words, Kaviraj is not merely interested in the act of theory; he seems to explore the mechanisms that produce theoretical reflections. Notes on Methods

Indian Economic and Social History Review, Apr 1, 2016

Faisal Devji, Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Univer... more Faisal Devji, Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2013, p. 278.

Democratic Transition in the Muslim World

Social Change, 2018

Farah Naqvi with Sadhbhavna Trust, Working with Muslims: Beyond Burqa and Triple Talaq—Stories of... more Farah Naqvi with Sadhbhavna Trust, Working with Muslims: Beyond Burqa and Triple Talaq—Stories of Development and Everyday Citizenship in India. New Delhi: Three Essays Collective, 2018, 416 pp., ₹450, ISBN: 9789383968244.

to Javed Alam and so on, this trend of analysing the postcolonial Muslim politics on the paramete... more to Javed Alam and so on, this trend of analysing the postcolonial Muslim politics on the parameters of these binaries becomes obvious.

Bombay Cinema's Islamicate Histories

Indian Politics & Policy, 2020

The dominant descriptions of Muslim political engagements in contemporary India suffer from three... more The dominant descriptions of Muslim political engagements in contemporary India suffer from three conceptual problems. First, there is an assumption that Muslims constitute a single homogeneous community, whose political/electoral behavior is self-evident. Second, the 'Muslim voting' is envisaged as an independent self-governing exercise as if Muslim politics is all about Muslim voting. Third, Muslim voting behavior is always understood in relation to Muslim political representation in legislative bodies. It is assumed, in fact rather uncritically, that there is an organic and instrumental relationship between Muslim voters and Muslim MPs and MLAs. Reliability on these assumptions does not allow us to pay attention to various sociological, cultural, and economic factors that determine Muslim political imaginations in different contexts. In the backdrop of 2019 election, this paper argues that Mus-lim politics is not simply about the number of Muslim MPs and MLAs. Nor is it entirely reducible to the voting behavior of Muslim voters. The political engagements of Muslims in contemporary In-dia, therefore, need to be explored as an ever-evolving independent discourse, which does not always respond to the challenges posed by Hindutva politics.

Electoral Politics in India

Studies in Indian Politics

This article explores Muslim political attitudes in contemporary India. It contextualizes the pol... more This article explores Muslim political attitudes in contemporary India. It contextualizes the political responses of Muslim communities in the backdrop of two crucial legal-constitutional changes introduced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government: the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution and the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019. These changes, I suggest, stem from the official doctrine of New India and its operative mechanism, Hindutva constitutionalism. Analysing the nature of Muslim participation in the anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protests and Muslim electoral responses in two subsequent elections (Delhi Assembly Election, 2020 and the Bihar Assembly Election, 2020), I argue that political engagement of Muslims could be interpreted as an ever-evolving discourse, which not merely responds to Hindutva politics but also asserts its relative autonomy.

This paper contextualizes the ideas of contemporary Muslim politicians within the discourse of wh... more This paper contextualizes the ideas of contemporary Muslim politicians within the discourse of what I call ‘radical constitutionalism’. I approach the notion of ‘Muslimness’ and the conceptual package called ‘Muslim issues’ from the point of view of contemporary Muslim politicians, who actually practice these ideas to deal with political engagements of the Indian Muslim communities. The paper raises two very basic questions: (a) how do Muslim politicians conceptualize the political identity of India’s Muslims, and do Indian Muslims, as constitutional minority, constitute a political community? and (b) what is the required political strategy to secure the interests of this ‘Muslim political community’ in a liberal-democratic framework? The paper argues that the contemporary Muslim political discourse revolves around the collective autonomy of the Muslims either as a community or as a set of various Muslims groups. These identities are interpreted in the modern language of accommodati...

Studies in Indian Politics, 2021

Writing a conventional obituary for Prof Dhirubhai L. Seth (or Dhirubhai!)—the former Director an... more Writing a conventional obituary for Prof Dhirubhai L. Seth (or Dhirubhai!)—the former Director and one of the founding members of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and member of advisory board of this journal—is a difficult task. Dhirubhai was a theorist of the present. He would always respond to the challenges, issues and anxieties posed by the contemporary moment. The past in Dhirubhai’s framework is always seen in relation to contemporary concerns. For him, ‘historicization of an event, or an object...or an institution of a distant past becomes credible, and makes good historical sense, only when it is done in terms of contemporary concerns and sensibilities’ (DLS, p. 25). Dhrubhai’s intellectual adherence to here and now forces us to always engage with him as our contemporary. His lively, assertive and interventionist intellectual quest cannot be treated as history. For this reason, the colourful intellectual personality of Dhirubhai cannot be commemorated in an orthodox unadventurous mode. The vastness of Dhirubhai’s work poses a challenge of a different kind. He used to describe himself as a writer of short stories to justify his faithfulness for writing long essays instead of books. These essays address a number issues such as nationalism, democracy, caste, religion, backwardness, institutional development, non-party political processes, grassroots movements, intellectualism and so on. Although there are two edited volumes based on his various writings —Satta Aur Samaj: Dhirubhai Sheth (edited by Abhay Kumar Dubey, 2009) and At Home with Democracy: A Theory of India Politics (edited by Peter R. deSouza, 2018)—it is very difficult to provide a thematic label to Dhirubhai’s intellectual universe. Any conventional tribute, especially in strict professional academic sense, is almost meaningless, if not entirely futile. To avoid such explanatory difficulties, we must engage with Dhirubhai’s notion of intellectualism: How did he conceptualize the role of intellectuals in a postcolonial society like India? Dhirubhai makes a crucial distinction between academic work and intellectual pursuit. For him, academic work refers to the formal, professional engagement with a particular subject matter. On the other hand, intellectual work is seen as a creative devotion to an idea simply to nurture a process of constructive thinking. Dhirubhai introduces an innovative dimension to this conceptual distinction. He emphasises the decisive role of language in the realm of ideas. He writes:

Minorities and Populism – Critical Perspectives from South Asia and Europe, 2020

This paper contextualizes the ideas of contemporary Muslim politicians within the discourse of wh... more This paper contextualizes the ideas of contemporary Muslim politicians within the discourse of what I call ‘radical constitutionalism’. I approach the notion of ‘Muslimness’ and the conceptual package called ‘Muslim issues’ from the point of view of contemporary Muslim politicians, who actually practice these ideas to deal with political engagements of the Indian Muslim communities. The paper raises two very basic questions: (a) how do Muslim politicians conceptualize the political identity of India’s Muslims, and do Indian Muslims, as constitutional minority, constitute a political community? and (b) what is the required political strategy to secure the interests of this ‘Muslim political community’ in a liberal-democratic framework? The paper argues that the contemporary Muslim political discourse revolves around the collective autonomy of the Muslims either as a community or as a set of various Muslims groups. These identities are interpreted in the modern language of accommodation and equilibrium.

Studies in Indian Politics, 2015

The aim of this short note is to engage with a few issues raised by Manindra Nath Thakur in his a... more The aim of this short note is to engage with a few issues raised by Manindra Nath Thakur in his article, 'How do Muslims Vote?: Case of Seemanchal Parliamentary Elections' (Studies in Indian Politics, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 81-93). More specifically, I would like to address two central themes: (a) what is Muslim community, politically? This question is related to the 'conceptual' imagination of Indian Muslim community (not communities, as the author tends to use Hindu and Muslim as perceptible conceptual categories) and its engagement with electoral politics; (b) how to theorize Muslim electoral behaviour? This issue is concerned with the explanatory capacity of an argument. The note does not intentionally use election data produced by Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS)-Lokniti simply to avoid an unnecessary debate on survey research versus ethnography. Instead, the note is based on a rereading of the ethnographic details given in the article as evidences.

The Algebra of Warfare-Welfare, 2019

There are a number of commentaries, official reports, and well-researched academic books on commu... more There are a number of commentaries, official reports, and well-researched academic books on communalism in India that directly or indirectly look at the nature of violence-centric electoral politics. However, our understanding of Muslim electoral politics is very limited. The belief that violent events persuade Muslims to vote tactically at the national level is often evoked to substantiate the claim that communal violence always determines Muslim electoral preferences. The idea of Muslim vote bank is also an expanded version of this argument. Focusing upon the Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013, this paper makes an attempt to revisit the idea of electoral polarization in the context of the 2014 general election. The paper critically evaluates the merit of a twofold claim that the communal and targeted violence against Muslims produce electoral polarization; and, violence of this kind could only be prevented if the number of Muslim MPs and MLAs in legislative bodies increases.

This paper examines the issues related to the conservation of protected secular historical monume... more This paper examines the issues related to the conservation of protected secular historical monuments in India and the religious faith of local communities. Focusing on the Indo-Islamic buildings, the objective is to look at the placing of religion in the policy discourse. It explores those contested legal issues and policy concerns that prevent religious groups, particularly the Muslim communities, from fully participating in the process of conservation. The paper concentrates on the following two questions: (a) Is it constitutionally appropriate to allow religious communities to take part in the conservation of historical monuments in India, given the fact that the archaeological policy follows a kind of secularism, which believes in a strict separation between religion and conservation, and (b) If the Constitution can be interpreted in such a way that the religious minorities could be involved, what could be the mode of their participation? The paper makes a broad argument: the strict separation between religion and the conservation policy does not correspond to the contextual-political secularism adopted by the Indian Constitution. As a result, the conventional community resources— such as wakf—are not used. Thus, if local Muslim communities are involved through wakf institutions in protecting the protected and unprotected historic monuments, an actual people-centric conservation policy can evolve.

This paper examines the issues related to the conservation of protected secular historical monume... more This paper examines the issues related to the conservation of protected secular historical monuments in India and the religious faith of local communities. Focusing on the Indo-Islamic buildings, the objective is to look at the placing of religion in the policy discourse. It explores those contested legal issues and policy concerns that prevent religious groups, particularly the Muslim communities, from fully participating in the process of conservation. The paper concentrates on the following two questions: (a) Is it constitutionally appropriate to allow religious communities to take part in the conservation of historical monuments in India, given the fact that the archaeological policy follows a kind of secularism, which believes in a strict separation between religion and conservation, and (b) If the Constitution can be interpreted in such a way that the religious minorities could be involved, what could be the mode of their participation? The paper makes a broad argument: the strict separation between religion and the conservation policy does not correspond to the contextual-political secularism adopted by the Indian Constitution. As a result, the conventional community resources— such as wakf—are not used. Thus, if local Muslim communities are involved through wakf institutions in protecting the protected and unprotected historic monuments, an actual people-centric conservation policy can evolve.

...the enthusiasm by which politics as a sanctified activity is imbibed in the cultural universe ... more ...the enthusiasm by which politics as a sanctified activity is imbibed in the cultural universe of Muslim communities of Bihar is certainly unique (Sajjad, 2014). One finds an interesting discussion on this point in Mohammed Sajjiad’s book Muslim Politics in Bihar. The author does not look at the Pasmanda assertion as a closed political category; instead he makes a serious effort to examine different shades of the movement. In fact, a critical perspective is offered to make an analytical distinction between Pasmanda politics and the larger questions of social transformations among Muslims of Bihar. Sajjad argues:
‘….a long term movement for empowerment requires the ability to lead a cultural revolution, and to formulate and move a programme for socio-economic transformation. Until these issues are also linked to the larger project of emancipation and empowerment, the transformation of Muslim identity politics in larger political process of Bihar is likely to remain un(der) accomplished. They may have to think of moving much ahead of narrow, identity-based electoral politics. They will have to become a movement so that the co-option of a few individual leaders does not impede the process of democratization and empowerment.’ (Sajjad, 2014, 316).
https://performancegurus.net/documents/Ch8-Bihar-Do-Muslims-act-as-a-Political-Community.pdf