Constructing ‘the other’: narrating religious boundaries in Zakir Nagar

Abstract

The research for this paper is based in a majority-Muslim neighbourhood in South Delhi, Zakir Nagar. As with most urban localities, the borders around Zakir Nagar are permeable—with residents frequently moving in and out of the neighbourhood and coming into contact with members of other religious groups. Many of the residents of Zakir Nagar have also lived in religiously mixed areas previously. Furthermore, although the neighbourhood is itself identified as ‘Muslim’, it is by no means homogeneous, so that multiple social boundaries operate even within this locality. This paper looks more closely at the issue of religious identity as it was narrated in relation to various and shifting ‘others’. These ‘others’—referred to in the context of friendship, neighbours and marriage as well as in terms of discrimination, riots and ‘communalism’—were often identified as ‘Hindus’ or as ‘non-Muslims’, but were also often referred to members of different class, status or regional groups. Hence, boundaries around ‘us’ and ‘them’ shifted according to context and were contingent upon various factors alongside religious identity. Through the narratives of Zakir Nagar residents, religious identity emerged as itself a problematic category whose meaning and salience was continuously shifting.