Description
Concerned with the fate of the minority in the age of the nation-state, Muslim political thought in modern South Asia has often been associated with religious nationalism and the creation of Pakistan. The Muslim Secular complicates that story by reconstructing the ideas of three prominent thinker-actors of the Indian freedom struggle: the Indian National Congress leader Abul Kalam Azad, the popular Kashmiri politician Sheikh Abdullah, and the nonviolent Pashtun activist Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Revising the common view that they were mere acolytes of their celebrated Hindu colleagues M.K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, this book argues that these three men collectively produced a distinct Muslim secularity from within the grander family of secular Indian nationalism; an intellectual tradition that has retained religion within the public space while nevertheless preventing it from defining either national membership or the state. At a time when many across the decolonising world believed that identity-based majorities and minorities were incompatible and had to be separated out into sovereign equals, Azad, Abdullah, and Ghaffar Khan thought differently about the problem of religious pluralism in a postcolonial democracy. The minority, they contended, could conceive of the majority not just as an antagonistic entity that is set against it, but to which it can belong and uniquely complete. Premising its claim to a single, united India upon the universalism of Islam, champions of the Muslim secular mobilised notions of federation and popular sovereignty to replace older monarchical and communitarian forms of power. But to finally jettison the demographic inequality between Hindus and Muslims, these thinkers redefined equality itself. Rejecting its liberal definition for being too abstract and thus prone to majoritarian assimilation, they replaced it with their own rendition of Indian parity to simultaneously evoke commonality and distinction between Hindu and Muslim peers. Azad, Abdullah, and Ghaffar Khan achieved this by deploying a range of concepts from profane inheritance and theological autonomy to linguistic diversity and ethical pledges. Retaining their Muslimness and Indian nationality in full, this crowning notion of equality-as-parity challenged both Gandhi and Nehru's abstractions and Mohammad Ali Jinnah's supposedly dangerous demand for Pakistan.
About the Author
An intellectual historian of modern India and Pakistan, Amar Sohal completed his DPhil in History at Merton College, Oxford. Now an Early-Career Research Fellow in Politics and International Studies at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, his research focuses on anti-colonial nationalism, religious politics, and the secular state. His writing has been published in leading academic journals: Modern Intellectual History, Global Intellectual History, and South Asia. He has also scripted and presented an hour-long documentary titled Azad and Jinnah: A Political Rivalry in Late Colonial India. He tweets @sohalamarsingh
Reviews
Meticulously researched, intricately argued, and elegantly written. This is a splendid and original contribution to the understanding of the intellectual foundations of Indian nationalism. * Cecile Laborde, University of Oxford *
A trail blazing account that promises to rewrite the story of India's Partition. Sohal's masterful study of the 'Muslim secular' sheds light on a compelling yet little known 'third way' to Indian nationalism. Crafted in opposition to the harsh binaries of 'secular' and 'communal' nationalisms, it offered a majestic vision of India, inspired by the universalist claims of Islam, as a shared cultural space where Hindus and Muslims were equally valued as the makers of an Indian nation and architects of a future Indian republic. * Farzana Shaikh, Author of Making Sense of Pakistan *
Amar Sohal displaces the accusation-popular and scholarly-that Muslim politics, nationalist or otherwise, was a series of bargains driven by interest. In this well-argued account matched by rigorous evidence, Sohal centrally places the arguments and ideas of Muslim leaders and thinkers who enabled and strengthened Indian nationalism and secularism. This is a major tribute to both the power of political ideas and indeed, to the now forgotten or deliberately misunderstood Muslim thinkers who laid the foundations of the Indian Republic. An essential book for our contemporary times and a valuable and original addition to the growing scholarship on the vibrant if young field of Indian political thought. * Shruti Kapila, University of Cambridge *
Sohal studies the political ideas of three leading Muslim nationalists - Abul Kalam Azad, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and Abdul Ghaffar Khan - which he feels have been ignored by historians. These men, who all came from Muslim majority areas of British India, drew confidence from the sheer numbers of Muslims in the subcontinent both to oppose the separatism of Jinnah's All-India Muslim League and to support the drive to establish a secular Indian republic. This is a deeply learned book, which embraces many Muslim voices in addition to the main three. It would always be a major intervention in Indian political thought, but is particularly so now when Hindu nationalism has established an unprecedented hegemony in India. * Francis Robinson, Royal Holloway, University of London *
The Muslim Secular stands out as a seminal work that transcends traditional historiography. Sohal's narrative is not only informative but also reflective, inviting readers to engage deeply with the complexities of India's political trajectory. * Saleem Rashid Shah, Outlook India Magazine *
The Muslim Secular is an extremely resourceful, well-argued research work that is going to provoke a great deal of discussion, especially in India. * Shakir Mir, Scroll.in *
Book Information
ISBN 9780198887638
Author Dr Amar Sohal
Format Hardback
Page Count 352
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 528g
Dimensions(mm) 225mm * 140mm * 25mm
About the Author
An intellectual historian of modern India and Pakistan, Amar Sohal completed his DPhil in History at Merton College, Oxford. Now an Early-Career Research Fellow in Politics and International Studies at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, his research focuses on anti-colonial nationalism, religious politics, and the secular state. His writing has been published in leading academic journals: Modern Intellectual History, Global Intellectual History, and South Asia. He has also scripted and presented an hour-long documentary titled Azad and Jinnah: A Political Rivalry in Late Colonial India. He tweets @sohalamarsingh
Reviews
Meticulously researched, intricately argued, and elegantly written. This is a splendid and original contribution to the understanding of the intellectual foundations of Indian nationalism. * Cecile Laborde, University of Oxford *
A trail blazing account that promises to rewrite the story of India's Partition. Sohal's masterful study of the 'Muslim secular' sheds light on a compelling yet little known 'third way' to Indian nationalism. Crafted in opposition to the harsh binaries of 'secular' and 'communal' nationalisms, it offered a majestic vision of India, inspired by the universalist claims of Islam, as a shared cultural space where Hindus and Muslims were equally valued as the makers of an Indian nation and architects of a future Indian republic. * Farzana Shaikh, Author of Making Sense of Pakistan *
Amar Sohal displaces the accusation-popular and scholarly-that Muslim politics, nationalist or otherwise, was a series of bargains driven by interest. In this well-argued account matched by rigorous evidence, Sohal centrally places the arguments and ideas of Muslim leaders and thinkers who enabled and strengthened Indian nationalism and secularism. This is a major tribute to both the power of political ideas and indeed, to the now forgotten or deliberately misunderstood Muslim thinkers who laid the foundations of the Indian Republic. An essential book for our contemporary times and a valuable and original addition to the growing scholarship on the vibrant if young field of Indian political thought. * Shruti Kapila, University of Cambridge *
Sohal studies the political ideas of three leading Muslim nationalists - Abul Kalam Azad, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and Abdul Ghaffar Khan - which he feels have been ignored by historians. These men, who all came from Muslim majority areas of British India, drew confidence from the sheer numbers of Muslims in the subcontinent both to oppose the separatism of Jinnah's All-India Muslim League and to support the drive to establish a secular Indian republic. This is a deeply learned book, which embraces many Muslim voices in addition to the main three. It would always be a major intervention in Indian political thought, but is particularly so now when Hindu nationalism has established an unprecedented hegemony in India. * Francis Robinson, Royal Holloway, University of London *
The Muslim Secular stands out as a seminal work that transcends traditional historiography. Sohal's narrative is not only informative but also reflective, inviting readers to engage deeply with the complexities of India's political trajectory. * Saleem Rashid Shah, Outlook India Magazine *
The Muslim Secular is an extremely resourceful, well-argued research work that is going to provoke a great deal of discussion, especially in India. * Shakir Mir, Scroll.in *
Book Information
ISBN 9780198887638
Author Dr Amar Sohal
Format Hardback
Page Count 352
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 528g
Dimensions(mm) 225mm * 140mm * 25mm
