No Offence: Communal Vulnerability, Law and Versatility in a Vernacular Indo-Islamic Context

Abstract

This essay addresses canonisation accounts of the medieval Muslim saint Hazrat Sharafuddin Hyderabadi. According to a contemporary text, a Hindu deity was believed to have been jettisoned from the saint’s dargah, causing communal unrest in the Deccan. How can a Muslim saint be enshrined through offence in a Hindu environment, and how does this create a discourse of both rifts and bridges between Hinduism and Islam in contemporary India? The analysis traces the interdependence between the Muslim and Hindu communities and suggests a more nuanced reading than positions advanced in the current political climate and in recent legislation, which consider them to be irreconcilable socio-religious systems.