| Abstract: | Using primarily published sources in Urdu from the second-half of the nineteenth
century, my thesis presents evidence with regard to north Indian Muslims, which
questions the idea of a homogenous, centralising, entity, at times called the Muslim
community, qaum, ummah or nation. Using a large number of second-tier publicists'
writings in Urdu, the thesis argues that the self-perceptions and representations of
many Muslims, were far more local, parochial, disparate, multiple, and highly
contested. The idea of a homogenous, levelling, sense of collective identity, or an
imagined community, seem wanting in this period. This line of evidence and
argumentation, also has important implications for locating the moment of
separatism and identity formation amongst north Indian Muslims, and argues that
this happened much later than has previously been imagined. Based on this, the
thesis also argues against an anachronistic or teleological strain of historiography
with regard to north Indian Muslims of this period.
The main medium through which these arguments are debated, is through the Urdu
print world, where a large number of new sources have been presented which
underscore this difference, more than this uniformity. Whether it was in religious
debates, debates around the attempt to unify - as part of a qaum - or around the
reasons for Muslims to be at a point of zillat - utter humiliation - the literature points
to multiple and diverse interpretations, causes and solutions. Moreover, the question
of who a Muslim was', was always bitterly contested by those who claimed to be
Muslims themselves. The thesis also examines the forum of the munäzara, and how
pre-print forms of public engagement helped in emphasising individual identity,
authority and reputation. The interplay between oral representation and the
subsequent written accounts after the event, also raise questions about the fixity of
print'. and about sources for historians.
Using this new print material, the thesis engages broadly, with notions related to the
imagined community and the public sphere, arguing that in a colonial context, much
of the theory based on the European experience, needs to be rethought, for the nature
and development of the public sphere/s and of the formation of communities, may
have been somewhat different in this context. |
