Colonialism and the Construction of Religious Identities in Punjab: The Case of Muslims (original) (raw)

Political Economy of Idenity Formation, 1890- 1910: Class and Community in Colonial Punjab

This paper analyses the rise of Muslim communal consciousness from the perspective of class conflict between different religious communities of this region. Punjab, being a Muslim majority province of British India, had agricultural and pastoral economy, notwithstanding the fact that colonial projects such as building of railways and canal colonies later radically altered pre-capitalist economic structure. British political and legal institutions along with these projects played a role in shaping and formation of group identity although it could not transform the consciousness which was distinctive of agrarian-pastoral society. The kind of nationalism which originated and developed on soil of the Punjab was professedly of religious nature. In the social milieu, rival religious communities vied for political and economic dominance. This paper seeks to explore the relation between class interest of landed elites and Muslim nationalist consciousness. The idea of religious nationalism, both among Hindus and Muslims, was developed and exploited by powerful elites representing economic interests of different classes to strengthen their political position in the Punjab. The paper also analyses how economic structure built by colonial state sharpened the antagonism between social classes of Muslim and non-Muslim

The Collective Self and the Collective Other: Construction of Communal Identities in Colonial Punjab

Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, 2015

The end of the British colonial rule in India culminated into the partition of subcontinent and the genesis of two successor nation states of Pakistan and India in 1947.The Punjab (a province of British India) was also parted into two halves. Eventually, it experienced communal massacre at an unprecedented scale. Millions of people were displaced and migrated from one to the other state. This massive exodus on communal basis was not anticipated either by hitherto rulers of India or the Indian National Congress and the All India Muslim League. Various explanations have been offered for the tragedy of partition and concomitant communal violence but one that endures and is popular in Pakistan is the idea that Hindus and Muslims constituted two identifiable and separate nations,which could not live in one ‘nation state’ further. This argument augmentsthe trauma of communal carnage happened due to violent assertion of ∗ Assistant Professor, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan. 26 Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, Vol.XXXVI, No.2 (2015) ‘essentialist’ and ‘primordial’ Hindu-Muslim-Sikh identities. There is a need to explore the process and bring out factors of mutually exclusive communal ‘instrumental’ identities due to which the strict boundaries were drawn up between religious communities. It is equally important to consider evidence that suggests the socio-cultural and political variables which transcend the communal boundaries and testify existence of composite cultural milieu in pre-colonial and colonial Punjab side by side the markers of communal identities. This paper is an attempt to trace out the process and comprehend the contributing factors of demarcation of religious boundaries and construction of communal identities in the colonial Punjab.

A Nineteenth-Century Blueprint for Recasting the Muslim Mindset in British India

Oriente Moderno, 2021

The reformist endeavour famously known as the Aligarh Movement, initiated by the prominent Muslim intellectual Sir Sayyid Aḥmad Ḫān in the wake of the fateful happenings of 1857, indisputably represents a significant modernist movement among Indian Muslims in nineteenth-century British India. Despite having a limited base among the community, given its elitist character, the role that this movement played in shaping the Muslims’ destiny during the twentieth century cannot be overstated. As a reformist project, this movement set as its main objective the remodelling of the Muslim mindset as well as the resuscitation of the hitherto moribund community to bring it back to the mainstream. In line with this intention, the reform-minded Sayyid Aḥmad put forward an elaborate three-pronged scheme. This article, therefore, seeks to shed light on the Aligarh’s ambitious programme which targeted every aspect of Muslim life, political, religious and socio-cultural.

A Genealogy of Identity: Reflections on post-1857 Islamic Political Thought in Colonial India

History and Sociology of South Asia

There were various political discourses associated with the Islamic community in colonial India. These included trends that were later understood under the rubric of ‘Muslim’ nationalism and Indian nationalism, along with other critical stances that cannot be subsumed within either nationalism. This article explores one such trend: it reads genealogically the trajectories of concepts through which the problematic of Islamic political identity developed in the context of the post-1857 experience. In order to understand the way these arguments were formed the article analyses texts that both reflected on and were a reflection of socio-political dynamics. It concludes with a note on utilising such a genealogical approach in the study of trajectories in the development of political thought, and the possibilities of extending this approach to the sphere of entire cultures.

Tracing the Development of Contemporary Muslim Identity from the Colonial State

The premise of this essay is that the development of the Muslim identity was not primarily a phenomenon of ethnic differences; rather it emerged from a socio-political context, where the state played an active role. First, there was a construction of a rigid and homogenous Muslim identity in the twentieth century through the promotion of Anglo-Muhammadan scholarship. Subsequently, this separate Muslim identity influenced the politics of the nationalist movement, where it was juxtaposed with an all-encompassing Indian national identity.

Making ‘Kaur’ in Twentieth Century Colonial Punjab

"Emergence" University of Southampton , 2018

The social identities such as ethnicity, sexuality, religion, and nationality have come to the center of political mobilization. However, there is little agreement about the true cause of this emerging importance of social identities or about its most likely political effects. The differences that exist between social identities in their genesis, manifestation, and political effects are immense but most importantly identities need to be analyzed in their cultural location as well as in relation to their historical epoch. In fact, identities are often created under the umbrella of colonialism, religious boundaries, gender construction, racial and sexual subordination, and national conflicts. Shaping and reshaping of identities through gender is a widely accepted phenomenon under imperialism. Similarly, the case of the Sikhs of Punjab being understood as Sikh identity was essentially fabricated by the colonial state. But one cannot ignore the religious diversity within the Punjab and plural identities within the religious communities. The start of the twentieth century was a crucial time for South Asian religious communities regarding the formation of identities. It was the time when communal consciousness led to religious purification movements and distinct communal identities.

Precolonial and colonial Punjab : society, economy, politics, and culture : essays for Indu Banga

2005

Indu Banga: The Historian Introduction Reflections on Geographical Perspectives, Culture Change & Linkages in Early Punjab Jatts in Medieval Punjab Well-Irrigation & Socio-economic Change in Medieval Punjab Economic Profile of the Punjab (sixteent-seventeetnh centuries) Batala as a Medieval Town The State & Agrarian Society in the Early Nineteenth Century Punjab Sahiban in Punjabi Literature Punjabi Heroic Poetry Cultural Life under Maharaja Ranjit Singh with Emphasis on the French Influence Administrative Space in the British Punjab Epidemics in the Colonial Punjab Customary Law & Women in the Colonial Punjab The Women of Amritsar through Missionary Eyes The Peasants Response to Colonial Environment in the Punjab Agricultural Labourers in the Punjab (late nineteenth century) Bhagyawati: The First Hindi Novel of the Punjab Pioneer Punjabi Migrants to North America: Revolutionaries of Will The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in the Context of Anti-colonial Struggle Ad Dharm A Nightmare of ...

Religion and Group Identity: Comparing Three Regional Movements in Colonial India

Annemarie Hafner (ed), Essays on South Asian Society, Culture and Politics. (Förderungsgesellschaft Wiss. Neuv. mbH, FSP Moderner Orient, Arbeitshefte, 8) Berlin: Das Arabische Buch 1995, pp. 73-89., 1995

The process of redefining national and ethnic identities often relies on a close relationship between cultural and linguistic traditions, political movements and religious communities. This manuscript seeks to understand how the religious aspect influenced regional identity-building under conditions of colonial rule in India. The paper draws on a project concerning itself with the political implications of regional identities during the twenties and thirties of the 20th century. The project compares the movements of the Sikhs, the Tamil "Non-Brahmans" and the Pakhtuns. It is intended to outline the evolution of the religious aspect in these movements through three major stages of political mobilisation: revivalism, loyalism and radicalism. The issue seems to be of particular interest in the Indian case for two reasons: - Was there any common pattern behind the influence of religion on group identity? What were the similarities and the differences in the role of religion in the three movements? - Was there any peculiarity in the Indian case under colonial rule as compared to the time of independence?