Beyond centre-periphery: qasbahs and Muslim life in South Asia

Abstract

Qasbahs (small towns or large villages) have the dubious distinction of being at the heart of South Asian Islamic history and yet lying on the margins of historiography. It is almost impossible to imagine the central aspects of South Asian Islam without due acknowledgement to qasbahs and the qasbatis, their residents. From the Aligarh Movement and the Deoband madrasa to the development of an extensive body of Urdu literature, qasbahs provided not only the rank and file but also crucial leadership. While scholars concur on this fact, qasbahs and qasbati Muslims continue to fall outside of the academic purview. Addressing this lacuna, this article seeks to bring in qasbahs to the heart of debates by arguing that the various institutions and intellectual output of qasbahs were central, not peripheral, to Indo-Muslim life in South Asia. It discusses the evolution of qasbahs and focuses on Chaudhary Muhammad Ali (1882–1959) of the qasbah of Rudauli, a paragon of the learned and literary tradition of the qasbahs. Chaudhary Muhammad Ali, a quintessential qasbati intellectual, has left volumes of writings in Urdu, many of which are being consulted and written about for the first time. A reformer, writer, religious scholar, and activist, his association with the Progressive Writers’ Association in its opening days, alongside the likes of Prem Chand and Sajjad Zaheer, speaks of his recognition in the wider circle of writers in South Asia. Because of his many contributions, as those of his qasbati peers, a discussion of him not only brings to the fore the imaginary of the qasbahs, but also further enriches and complicates the discussion on the centres and margins in South Asian Islam.