The Fuzzy Boundaries: Julaha Weavers’ Identity Formation in Early Twentieth Century United Provinces

Abstract

This article addresses the fluid, changeable and ambiguous character of religious and cultural identities, held by Julahas; claiming different local and sectarian backgrounds. The Barelvi, Wahabi and Deobandi schools of Indian Islam provided a polarising platform to the Julaha identity discourse from the late nineteenth century onwards, leading to a wider ‘shift’ towards supra-caste, supra-locally-based concepts of community and collective religious identity, yet this ‘shift’ did not ‘replace’ other forms of collective identities along sectarian, caste, community and regional lines. These ‘blurred boundaries’ in the Julaha Ansari identity discourse defy their concrete positioning within the framework of India’s Islamic landscape. The challenges triggered by a stagnant capitalist transformation under the colonial state and the official records reinforce a static image of the Julaha community, ascribing to it innate conservatism, recalcitrant to change fostered by the ‘modernising impulse’ of the colonial government. The self image of the community was no doubt deeply affected by this ascription by the powerful ‘other’ but nevertheless remained distinct. This process was accompanied by renewed efforts at setting up community institutions such as panchayats and by constructing community mosques. Societal changes like the simultaneous formation as well as breakup of communities along with the communal pooling of labour were part of the larger development. The article further locates and scrutinises the influence of this sort of polarisation on the mind of Muslim weavers and Hindu merchants.