Arndt-Walter Emmerich - Islamic Movements in India

This book analyses the emerging trend of Muslim-minority politics in India and illustrates that a fundamental shift has occurred over the last 20 years from an identity-dominated, self-serving and inward-looking approach by Muslim community leaders, Islamic authorities and social activists that seeks to protect Islamic law and culture, towards an inclusive debate centred on socio-economic marginalisation and minority empowerment.

The book focuses on Muslim activists, and members and affiliates of the Popular Front of India (PFI), a growing Muslim-minority and youth movement. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork undertaken since 2011, the author analyses recent literature on Muslim citizenship politics and the growing involvement of Islamist organisations and movements in the democratic process and electoral politics to demonstrate that religious groups play a role in politics, development, and policy making, which is often ignored within political theory. The book suggests that further scrutiny is needed of the assumption that Muslim politics and Islamic movements are incompatible with the democratic political framework of the modern nation state in India and elsewhere.

Contributing to a more nuanced understanding of how Islamic movements utilise various spiritual, organisational and material resources and strategies for collective action, community development and democratic engagement, the book will be of interest to academics in the field of political Islam, South Asian studies, sociology of religion and development studies.

Arndt Emmerich a Political Sociologist, is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Gttingen, Germany. He is also Research Associate in the Oxford Department of International Development at the University of Oxford, UK.

Editorial Board:

Professor Francis Robinson, Royal Holloway, University of London (Chair)

Professor Tim Barrett, SOAS, University of London

Dr Evrim Binba, Royal Holloway, University of London

Professor Anna Contadini, SOAS, University of London

Professor Michael Feener, National University of Singapore

Dr Gordon Johnson, University of Cambridge

Professor David Morgan, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Dr BMC Brend

Dr R. Llewellyn. Jones MBE

The Royal Asiatic Society was founded in 1823 for the investigation of subjects connected with, and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia. Informed by these goals, the policy of the Societys Editorial Board is to make available in appropriate formats the results of original research in the humanities and social sciences having to do with Asia, defined in the broadest geographical and cultural sense and up to the present day.

For a full list of titles, please see: www.routledge.com/asianstudies/series/RAS

Royal Asiatic Society Books:

Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt Series

The Royal Asiatic Societys Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt Fund, established in 2001 by Princess Fazil Ibrahim, encourages the growth and development of Ottoman studies internationally by publishing Ottoman documents and manuscripts of historical importance from the classical period up to 1839, with transliteration, full or part translation and scholarly commentaries.

Grievance Administration (ikayet) in an Ottoman Province

The Kaymakam of Rumelias Record Book of Complaints of 17811783

Michael Ursinus

Islamic Movements in India

Moderation and its Discontents

Arndt Emmerich

Moderation and its Discontents

Arndt Emmerich

First published 2020

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2020 Arndt Emmerich

The right of Arndt Emmerich to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record has been requested for this book

ISBN: 978-0-367-34314-9 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-32498-7 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear

I am greatly in debt to Masooda Bano for her intellectual guidance, encouragement and supervision, which were crucial for the completion of this manuscript. Masooda has been there from the beginning in 2011, when the idea of the book developed, always urging me to find my own path while in the field or at the desk. I fondly remember our countless, inspirational conversations as a doctoral student in her office at the Oxford Department of International Development, leaving me feeling confident and eager to write and explore new facets of my research area.

Furthermore, this book would not have been possible without the generous participation of the numerous leaders, members and supporters of the Popular Front of India (PFI), the Social Democratic Party of India, the All India Imams Council and the Campus Front of India, who opened their doors to me. In particular, I would like to thank two key PFI activists for their warm welcome in Bangalore in 2011 and for introducing me to the organisation in five Indian states. In addition, I am grateful to members and staff of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, the Student Islamic Organisation, the Solidarity Youth Movement, the Milli Council, the Tablighi Jamaat, the Institute of Objective Studies, Centre for Peace and Spiritually, Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties, as well as the journalists and political analysts affiliated to Milli Gazette, Radiance, Islamic Voice, Karnataka Muslims, Thejas, Vartha Bharathi, The Hindu, Frontline, Deccan Herald, Newzfirst, Tehelka, Hindustani Times, BBC India, Die Zeit and various other outlets; the political representatives from the Indian Union Muslim League, All India Council of the Union of Muslims, the Indian National Congress, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Dalit Sangharsh Samithi, the Republican Party, as well as several independent organisations and individuals from civil society and the business community. Without the input and commitment of these hard-working individuals, this monograph would not have been feasible.