Identifications versus Identities: The Indian Muslim Religious Identity Sundrome (original) (raw)

Identity and religion syncretism : some reflections on Indian muslims

2019

At 172 million strong, Muslims constitute 14,2% of the Indian population. As the community is hardly monolithic and widely scattered across India, no conclusion drawn on the Northern Muslims can be legitimately applied on Mohammedans from the South, East or West. My overriding goal of this article is to provide several reflections on Indian Muslim community with a touch of variations in their practice and belief. The identity of them is far more complex, yet it remains understudied. This article contributes to the understanding of some characteristics among Indian Muslims. The identity of them is far more complex, yet it remains understudied. In the article I investigate: 1) their unique dichotomic identity, such as the distinction between little and great tradition or the coastal and the inland division; 2) the role of al-Hidayah in the region; 3) the interface between Hinduism and Islam.

Being Indian: A comprehensive insight of the Indian National Identity

India is known for having a diverse background in terms of culture, rituals, religion and languages. It is therefore challenging to arrive at common characteristics or traits that would describe the distinctness of the Indian national Identity. There are various sub categories of linguistic groups, cast and religion spread across the country. Nevertheless, the notion of oneness has always been prevalent in the Indian psyche. This paper essentially validates the idea of a single national identity and is built upon the thoughts of various Indian respondents. The paper is an effort to analytically scrutinize the way Indian citizens perceive their national identity. The paper answers the traits that speak volumes of the unanimity that the Indians are filled with. Major reasons behind the identity of a single nation are the commonalities that the Indian nationals share with each other and the colonial Indian past.

Identity Politics in India : A Theoretical Perspective

2018

Identity politics emerged as a scholarly inquiry in social science and humanities mainly in the second half of the twentieth century in the form of multiculturalism, women’s movement, Dalit and Adivasi movements, civil rights, lesbian and gay movements, separatist movements, and violent ethnic and nationalist movements in different parts of the world. The very claim of their movement emanates perhaps from the injustices done to them regarding their social position, vulnerability, marginalization, oppression by the so called cultural imperialism. However, it is in this context that the paper tries to analyze how identity politics developed in different scholarships particularly in social sciences and humanities and how different approaches define the process of identity formation. Along with this the paper examines identity politics in India in terms of caste, tribe, language, religion, region and ethnicity and explains how far and to what extent these identity markers pose a challen...

Exploring the Illusive Borderlines: Construction of Identity in the Indian Subcontinent

The creation of borderlines demarcating the geographical boundary of the state has always problematized the discourse of nation incorporating the issues and debates of race, class, religion and historical events. It is also significant how it presents the ongoing process of the construction of personal ‘identity’ and the cultural determination of one’s selfhood. In the Indian subcontinent, the case is more interesting and complex as nation building takes place in heterogeneous, even fragmented lingual and cultural societies all over our country. The idea of ‘nation’ in the Subcontinent is much complicated, where the question of ethnicity and other forms of religious and political identities play a key role. My paper entitled “Exploring the Illusive Borderlines: Construction of Identity in the Indian Subcontinent” is a very modest attempt to get a glimpse into how the formation of borderlines by the partition of India delineates the construction of racial, religious and cultural ‘identity’ of an individual. This paper aims at studying few short stories like Intizar Husain’s “An Unwritten Epic”, Saadat Hasan Manto’s “Toba Tek Singh” and films like Srijit Mukherji’s “Rajkahini”, Deepa Mehta’s “Earth”, exploring the inherent complexities that arise while defining one’s identity, which is determined by one’s socio-cultural and religious position. The arbitrary lines that the British had drawn in order to divide the entire nation have resulted in the creation of two distinct and separate identities, which are hostile and inimical to each other. The Partition not only unleashed immense bloodsheds and communal riots, but also brought out the perplexity of the common masses to determine their ‘national’ identity that is predefined by their religion. Husain’s “An Unwritten Epic” portrays the character of Pichwa, who fought for the creation of Pakistan but unfortunately had to become a refugee there, leaving his homeland Qadirpur in India. This intense agony of Pichwa to locate his own native place is similar to Bishan Singh of Manto’s story “Toba Tek Singh”, who although being a Sikh refuses to go to India as his hometown Toba Tek Singh was situated in Pakistan, and eventually dying on the ‘no man’s land’. The brothel in Srijit Mukherji’s film “Rajkahini” is the epitome of a larger nation where the Radcliffe line has passed right through the courtyard. It depicts the complications that emerge while sundering the house into two, blending it with the Partition, demarcated by the illusive borderlines. The construction of identities of the subaltern people who fall on the trope of nation building is also a significant aspect. Deepa Mehta’s “Earth” reflects the transformation of a skeptical and liberal person into a religious fanatic roaming on the streets of Lahore with vengeance in his mind, witnessing the hatred originated by the creation of Pakistan. Considering the aforementioned texts, this study also interrogates the formation of distinct national and religious identities in the Subcontinent, at a time when it was taking root in the context of Partition and beyond. Keywords: Borderlines, Nation, Identity, Partition

The Dilemma of Identity: A Study of Hindustani Culture

About the Author Dr. Liza Nanda completed her Ph.D. in 2013. Her area of specialization is South Asian Literary Studies and Indian Writing in English. Her research has been on Muslim writers of the Indian Subcontinent and South Asia.