South Asian Muslim Research Articles

Book review: Usha Sanyal. 2020. Scholars of Faith: South Asian Muslim Women and the Embodiment of Religious Knowledge

Usha Sanyal. 2020. Scholars of Faith: South Asian Muslim Women and the Embodiment of Religious Knowledge. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. xiv + 395 pp. Figures, tables, glossary, bibliography, index. ₹1495 (hardback)

Seaming Sisterhood/Seaming Seams: South Asian Muslim Women in London-- Community among Precarity

Seaming Sisterhood/Seaming Seams: South Asian Muslim Women in London-- Community among Precarity

Scholars of Faith: South Asian Muslim Women and the Embodiment of Religious Knowledge. By Usha Sanyal

<i>Scholars of Faith: South Asian Muslim Women and the Embodiment of Religious Knowledge</i>. By <scp>Usha Sanyal</scp>

Courting agency: gender and divorce in an English sharia council

ABSTRACT Sharia councils have been in existence in England since the 1980s, providing advice and guidance in matters of Islamic family law. The vast majority of their users are women applying for Islamic divorces. The ulamā (scholars) at the councils encourage reconciliation and only grant divorces where this is deemed impossible. This paper, based on observations at a large sharia council in East London, supplements earlier institutional analyses by focusing not on what the ulamā are doing, but on what women are doing at the council. The paper identifies a spectrum of compliance with the council and its procedures, ranging between those who say they just want what the sharia wants, to foot-dragging, actively contesting the ulamā and exiting the council. Further, these forms of engagement may change over time. Overall, the paper contributes by illustrating the complexity of British South Asian Muslim women’s identities and affiliations and engaging with questions of gendered agency. It is clear that even when women petitioners contest, confront or exit the council, they may inscribe their moves within, rather than in opposition to, Islamic norms and values. The paper draws out the wider political implications of this non-opposition between Islamic subject positions and agency.

The “East—West” Dilemma: The Caliphate in the Categories of Acceptance and Rejection by Muslim Ideologists of the 20th Century

The article discusses the actualization of the problem of Islamic statehood after the official abolition of the Caliphate by the Parliament and the Government of Turkey in 1924. From that time on the institution of the Caliphate was no longer a part of the political reality in the Muslim world. However, it has become an arena of the movement for the revival of the traditional Islamic form of government and a platform for debates regarding the ways and prospects of restoring the Caliphate within the framework of new political realities. The search for a more pragmatic understanding of the problems of the Caliphate was followed by the shaping of the idea for debunking of its historical role as the foundation of the Muslim community. The authors of the article examine the concepts, logic and argumentation of the Egyptian theologian Ali Abd al-Raziq (1888—1966), who questioned the legitimacy of the Caliphate as a political phenomenon and criticized it from a theological and legal point of view. The analysis of the source material confirms that calls for the replacement of the Caliphate with other political models of government were not positively received in the post-Ottoman space of the Middle East and North Africa. The article also explores the foundations and practical actions of the Caliphate movement which emerged among Muslims in South Asia. The article focuses on the views and visions of the Caliphate’s future of two Muslim thinkers – Abul Kalam Azad (1888—1958) and Abul Ala Maududi (1903—1979). As advocates of Caliphatism, both intellectuals represented different approaches to the future development of the Muslim community in South Asia: the idea of coexistence of Muslims with other religious communities within the borders of a single secular state and the idea of Islamic fundamentalism based on the construction of a world Caliphate. Attempts to rethink the concept of the Caliphate continue in the modern Muslim world, which, however, is not ready to give an unambiguous answer to the question of the possibility of developing its societies in line with European civilization.

Book Review: Forging the Ideal Educated Girl: The Production of Desirable Subjects in Muslim South Asia by Shenila Khoja-Moolji

Book Review: Forging the Ideal Educated Girl: The Production of Desirable Subjects in Muslim South Asia by Shenila Khoja-Moolji

Promoting Health Literacy About Cancer Screening Among Muslim Immigrants in Canada: Perspectives of Imams on the Role They Can Play in Community.

Purpose: Immigrants tend to have lower rates of cancer screening than non-immigrants in Canada. Inequity in screening rates may stem from religious factors, which religious leaders can influence. This study aimed to explore the knowledge and attitudes held by Muslim religious leaders about cancer screening, as well as the role religious leaders perceive they can play in improving cancer screening health literacy among South Asian Muslim immigrant women. Methods: We conducted interviews with 8 Muslim religious leaders in Calgary, Canada. Participants’ knowledge and attitudes were inductively summarized using descriptive analysis, while practices were deductively thematically analyzed using the Socioecological Model and the Communication for Development approaches. Results: We found participants mostly had some knowledge of cancer, but lesser knowledge of different screening tests and of low screening rates among immigrants. Participants proposed that their role as a speaker, access to facilities and community networks, and collaboration with universities and healthcare professionals could help overcome religious misinterpretations and promote cancer screening among South Asian Muslim immigrant women. Conclusion: Religious leaders were highly supportive of incorporating health messaging into faith-based messaging. Future work should focus on implementing the practices recommended in this study with South Asian Muslim immigrant women’s voices at their center.

Intergenerational Exchanges In Aging South Asian Muslim Families: An Intersectional Lifecourse Perspective

International migration flows are increasing at a rapid pace and are often accompanied by emergent global realities, (re)negotiation of identities and familial bonds, anticipated challenges, and unforeseen exigencies. Concomitantly, advances in public health have resulted in longer lives with an increasing proportion of the global population now 65 years and older. While these demographic shifts have received considerable research attention, little is known about aging South Asian Muslim families in the US and the ways in which they adjust and adapt to shifting social realities. To address this gap, this qualitative study explores the intersections of faith, culture, gender, age, and immigrant status, and how these seminal life course events shape intergenerational care and support exchanges in South Asian Muslim families. Building on findings from 30 in-depth narrative interviews with three generations of immigrant South Asian Muslim women, and using an intersectional lifecourse perspective, this study explores the (re)negotiation of familial bonds and the enactment of religious beliefs and practices such as those around filial expectations in a transnational Islamic context. It shows how, for the grandmothers, daughters, and granddaughters in the study, their Islamic faith was a part of both the public sphere and a collective ideology, as well as a deeply personal and intimate attachment that provided structure and continuity in their everyday lives. Finally, the implications of these findings in the broader context of Islamophobia and salient structural barriers to accessing available health and social support services for aging South Asian Muslim families are discussed.

Double Consciousness in Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album

This article throws light on the issue of identity and Double Consciousness which creates traumatic effects on the psyche, identity and culture of Shahid, the representative of South Asian Immigrants depicted in Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album in Britain. In The Black Album, Shahid is depicted as a South Asian British Muslim who looks at himself from the eyes of the White British and he finds two-ness in himself, which is similar to W. E. B. Du Bois’ theory of Double Consciousness that “is the sense of always looking at one’s self from the eyes of others” (2). So, the article reveals the double consciousness of Shahid, the protagonist who carries hybrid identity for having British White mother and Pakistani Muslim father. Because of being a South Asian Muslim immigrant living under the hegemony of White Supremacy in Britain, he experiences Double Consciousness, which causes his inferiority complex, lack of self-esteem, rootlessness, in-betweenness and fragmentation of identity. Thus, the article deals with the Double Consciousness within the binary opposition between the East and West, Islamic Fundamentalist and Western Liberalism, and Pakistani Identity and British Identity. According to the theorists Homi Bhabha, Edward Said and Frantz Fanon, the colonized people who become immigrants in the postcolonial era suffer from identity crisis and double consciousness as they face segregation, racism, discrimination and various other forms of Othering.

12-Educational Contribution of District Educational Conference Dera Ghazi Khan 1914-1947 and its Socio-Political impact on Muslims (A Historical Analysis)

This paper is an attempt to highlight the educational efforts Muslim’s education in Dera Ghazi Khan District. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan established All India Muslim Educational Conference in 1886 and its Headquarter was Alipur. As a central organization several of its branches were also formed in different regions of India by the local leadership of Muslims. Dera Ghazi Khan was an important district of Punjab due to its important geo-strategic position. District Educational Conference organization was formed in 1914 and All India Muslim educational conference owned it as its branch. This district organization played a vital role in education of the district. This paper explores the historical background of the district and educational condition of the district. Although educational conference was completely committed to the educational issues and it was irrelevant to the political issues of the Muslims of India initially as per its constitution. But later on it left a lasting impact on the political activities of the Muslims as it changed the Political thinking of the Muslims of south Asia. Its various debates a lasting impact on the on educational &amp; cultural matters are the best testimony to prove this hypothesis. Most of the cultural as well educational issues were interconnected with political issues therefore, real segregation became impossible. The overall analysis of the speeches delivered on the conference's forum by the eminent Muslims and the resolution passed after the meetings gave political inspirations and impetus to the Muslims in general. The annual meeting, its arrangements in various cities and the public enthusiasm inspired the Muslim at large. The conference resolutions stimulated the spirit of unity and promoted two nation's theory. On December 31, 1906, All India Muslim League emerged after the end of the Conference session at Dacca. Those who attended Conference' meetings were the same members present in the League's meeting. The study explores the major issues debated at the conference's forum and the resolutions passed in the light of the primary sources. This paper highlights the formation, objectives and achievements of this District Educational Conference

Meeting the Moral Markers of Success: Concerted Cultivation among Second‐Generation Muslim Parents*

Concerted cultivation describes how parents reproduce middle‐class status by preparing children for success through the organization of their family’s daily lives. Scholarship accounting for the potentially important role that minority religious identity plays in this process is warranted. The current study fills this theoretical and empirical niche by exploring the parenting practices of second‐generation, upper‐middle‐class Muslim Americans. I show how within the context of rising Islamophobia, members of this group defined success for their children using both socioeconomic markers and moral markers, in which Islam and excellent character traits are crucial. With this definition in mind, parents aimed to reproduce both class and religion in the third generation using concerted cultivation strategies. I utilize data from two years of ethnographic fieldwork and 72 in‐depth interviews with second‐generation Arab and South Asian Muslim Americans in suburban Metro‐Detroit. I make contributions to sociology by presenting novel data on a little understood minority group and their institutions and by bringing religion into discussions of second‐generation parenting styles and class reproduction.

Da’wa in Islam: A Discursive Analysis of South Asian Muslim Scholarly Discourses

Da‘wa is one of the notable/substantial topic in Islam. Numerous works have been written on the subject, its modus operandi, philosophies, pedagogy, prominence, tactics, and other interconnected aspects in distinctive languages especially Arabic, Urdu and English. In South Asia, the enormous da‘wa literature produced by the scholars is in Urdu. A significant portion of literature, however, has been produced, both originally as well as through translations, in English to fulfill the needs of da‘uāt in South-Asia as well as global level. In this context, the study attempts to present an appraisal of three English works (produced in 1990s to 2000s) authored by the South Asian scholars. These books are: Syed Abul Hasan Nadwi, da‘wa in the West: The Qur’anic Paradigm (1992 [1991]); Abdus Salam, da‘wa Guide (1996); and Amin Ahsan Islahi, Da’wat-ī dīn Aur Uska Tāriqa-Ka’ar/Islamic Faith and the Mode of its Preaching (2005[1951]). The main themes, collectively, highlighted in these works, reveal both theoretical, and practical aspects; pedagogy and methodology of da‘wa in Quranic paradigm; practical aspect from Prophet’s life; modes and stages in dawat-ī dīn; qualities; language; principles and the style of articulation; wisdom and broadness of da‘i; da‘wa and its harmony with time and space (Modern age). The study, with a tri-fold aim, seeks to: (i) explore their approaches and methodology in their discussions on da‘wa (ii) evaluate critically their stance on modern-day challenges of da‘wa and (iii) highlight the relevance of their interpretation in providing solutions to the contemporary challenges vis-à-vis da‘wa . The major argument put forth in the article is that these selected books make a significant contribution in understanding the pros and cons of da‘wa through their contents; approach and style; construct a momentous contribution to da‘wa literature in the English language and thus accomplish the need of da‘uāt glocally.

Women’s ‘Retrieval’ from Pakistan: ‘India’s Daughters’ and the Emotional History of Partition

The Partition of 1947 remains an important reference point for Hindu nationalist political discourse in India, defining its relationship with Pakistan and Muslims in South Asia. This article investigates the use of the label ‘India’s daughters’ by the BJP-led NDA government (2014–15), a term originally used to describe Hindu and Sikh women retrieved from Pakistan in 1947. It offers an example of the emotional power wielded by Partition metaphors and demonstrates the BJP’s attempts to insert itself into the emotional history of Partition by transforming the meanings of its terms. The case of Uzma Ahmad’s retrieval from Pakistan acts as a case in point, illustrating the BJP’s increasing attempts to harness Partition semantics.

Neo-Orientalist Gambits in South Asian Global Game in Aslam's The Blind Man's Garden

This study focuses on the great global game of chess of Neoimperialist played in South Asia. It explores that to fetch global capitalist designs, global forces have devised a global Neo-Orientalist game of chess in three perspectives, i.e. economic, cultural and political, for three-level players, i.e. great players, little players and domestic players. The economic ventures urge the need to divide the South Asian Muslims into good and bad categories through neo-orientalist cultural and political gambits, as is revealed from Nadeem Aslam's 'The Blind Man's Garden' (2013) that critiques the hegemony of Neo-imperialist global forces working purely for their global designs in the region. It exposes economic, political, cultural and strategic motives behind two basic goals: the establishment of neo-imperialism through the elimination of borders for neo-liberalist gains by homogenizing world culture; and the eradication of global terrorism for which war has already been launched there.

Charity in Medieval Sufi Islam: Spiritual Dimensions

The Early Chishti Sufi Shaikhs from thirteenth and fourteenth century Delhi made critical interventions in the religious lives of the Muslims in South Asia. They cultivated in their adherents the much-needed ethical vision and sensitivity towards the socially marginalized. Yet hardly any attention is paid to the pedagogy of these Sufis on religion and spirituality. Their discourses on their community are documented in their literary works like malfūzāt. Of late, malfūzāt have been studied as a literary genre for the unique processes of their making. But their didactic contents on Islam and their instructions to Sufi initiates have barely been examined. This lacuna stems on account of the usage of these religious texts as fillers for information lacking in court chronicles. The essay studies the pedagogy of the Early Chishtī Shaikhs and as they related to charity in medieval South Asia. It also examines the mechanisms deployed by them to cultivate a philanthropic vision in Muslims in the praxis of faith.

The Silence of the Subaltern in the Partition of India: Bengali Gendered Trauma Narratives in Shobha Rao’s “The Lost Ribbon” and Ramapada Chaudhuri’s “Embrace”

The Partition of India was one of the crucial moments marking the transition between the colonial and postcolonial era. Partition has become ever since a long-term process that continues to elicit political, cultural and emotional contexts in South Asia. The creation of Pakistan as a homeland for South Asian Muslims involved the division of Bengal and Punjab along religious lines and while the celebratory narratives of decolonization and nationhood marked the official historiographies of 1947, trauma, loss and displacement were not part of the narrative. The following article focuses on the experience of abducted women in Bengal in the communal riots during the Partition of India. This analysis stems from a brief overview of the silence that has permeated the partition of Bengal within historiography and the scarce literary response that has articulated those silences. It moves on to the analysis of the violence that abducted women suffered in this context. Finally, it deals with two short stories, “The Lost Ribbon” and “Embrace,” which situate gender trauma narratives by showing two radically different responses to the event of becoming a mother of an abductor’s child on the other side of the border and the effect that displacement and forced repatriation has upon female bodies.

Living religions across transnational spaces: experiences of South Asian American Hindu and Muslim women

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on women of Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin in the US diaspora to examine how religious identities unfold within multi-layered transnational structures that range from political histories and events to active webs of family and community relationships that stretch across the diaspora. Our analysis draws on focus groups and interviews with highly educated Hindu and Muslim women in the US. For these women, approaches to religion were marked by multiple points of tension and negotiation, including the work of situating oneself within the intersecting power structures of the diaspora and country of origin, including a transnational sphere that is increasingly crafted through the reach of social media. These women's narratives show they are minorities in the US, and part of majorities in countries of origin, but, sometimes, outsiders to the local politics of religions. Focusing on these women allows us to reflect on the ways in which histories and contemporary events shape contemporary South Asia far beyond its geographic location.

Women and South Asian Hinduism and Islam: in the subcontinent and the diaspora

ABSTRACT This viewpoint essay provides an introduction to the special section, ‘Lived Religions of South Asian Hindu and Muslim Women' and context on the issues for the readers. The section draws on the work of an interdisciplinary, international group and covers a vast swath from return migrant women’s locations within Hinduism and Islam in Bangladesh and India, to their experiences with religion in the U.S. and the Middle East. It also examines alternative, emancipatory Hindu traditions, and women’s struggles with India’s Citizenship Amendment Act. I provide an overview to role of religion in shaping anti-colonial nationalist movements, post-colonial national identities, as well as the rise of religious fundamentalisms in South Asia. I also draw on my own work to show how religion mediates out-migration, settlement, and community formation of South Asians in the diaspora and the contradictory impacts religion has on women’s lives. I examine how the diasporization of religion often results in a greater intellectualization as well as homogenization and can encourage both religious fundamentalisms as well as a recasting of religious doctrines to fit in with the culture and society of the new countries. Finally, I discuss the multi-directional relationship between religious exchanges among diasporic and home communities.

A British South Asian Muslim relational negotiation of divorce: uncoupling beyond the couple

Through analysis of the narratives of one British South Asian Muslim woman contemplating divorce, this article explores how the termination of marriage is negotiated within families. The article charts the involvement and emotional implication of multiple family members in the decision at multiple levels: the interpersonal, via their involvement as sounding boards, advisers and mediators, and the intersubjective, as people’s sense of their own internal will or resolve to divorce is dialogical and unstably tied to others’ expressed views. The negotiation of divorce is an agentic intervention in the reordering of relationships and sheds light on wider processes linking agency, culture and belief. While these multiple levels of the relational negotiation of divorce may be particularly piqued in South Asian contexts, there are wider implications for sociology as, in contrast with individualisation theory, uncoupling is shown to involve more than the feelings and choices of just the husband and wife.

Value Them as Members of the Community: Existing Support Structures in Mosques for South Asian Muslim Families of Children with IDD Living in the United States

Congregational support plays an essential role in the lives of Muslim families of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Yet, little is known about support provided by mosques for Muslim families of children with IDD. Using semi-structured interviews, this study examined available and accessed mosque support structures by three South Asian Muslim parents of children with IDD living in the United States. Parents expressed strong emotional and social support from the mosque and positively viewed available respite care. However, they identified lack of formal support for physical accommodations, little support structures for newly immigrated parents, and strong cultural stigma. Parents also reported an absence of informal support structures for parent wellbeing and advocated a need to increase inclusive practices in the community. Although parents expressed strong religious and cultural ties to their mosque community, they voiced a lost sense of belonging and inclusion within the social and religious frameworks of the mosque. While some support structures exist in mosques, most of the support is not accessible, available, or individualized. Implications and future research are discussed.