Indian Muslim(s) After Liberalization

by Maidul Islam

Overview

This book deals with the problems of Muslim minorities in contemporary India. This book suggests that there are three principal reasons for a neglect of the socio-economic aspects of Indian Muslims during the period of neoliberal economic reforms. First, the problems of Muslims are inadequately understood by the governmental agencies and the political leadership. As a result, the state either ignores the real issues of the Muslims or tries to resolve them through a piecemeal approach. Secondly, the lack of a progressive leadership among the Indian Muslims has traditionally confined the problems of the community to the issues of identity and security instead of the demands for equity. Thirdly, popular Hindi cinema has misrepresented the identity of Indian Muslims by age-old stereotypes, demonisation and vilification without showing the actual problems of the Muslim minorities. As a result, the wrong notions, misconception, and myths regarding Muslims only proliferate and permeate among large sections of the Indian population while the structural problems of the Muslims hardly get attention for remedy. Finally, without being trapped in the Muslim question, this book has proposed three routes of radical democratic politics along with visions for a post-neoliberal order of reimagining India in the 21st century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199489916
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/02/2019
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 5.60(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Maidul Islam, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta

Maidul Islam is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. Previously he has taught Political Science at Presidency University, Kolkata and is the author of Limits of Islamism (2015).

Table of Contents

List of TablesAcknowledgementsList of AbbreviationsPrologue: Muslim Identity Formation in Neoliberal India1: The Muslim Question in the Neoliberal Regime2. Imag(in)ing Indian Muslims in Post-Liberalisation Hindi Cinema3. Indian Muslims and the Politics of Affirmative Action4. Political Articulations of Indian Muslims in an Era of GlobalisationEpilogue: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics in IndiaBibliographyIndexAbout the Author

Editorial Reviews

"Well-researched publications since the Sachar Committee Report, 2006 are few and far between. The Sachar report brought together authentic empirical data on Muslims—the largest of the Indian minorities—and wrote analytical perspectives on social, educational, and economic levels in comparison to other socio-religious communities (SRCs). Indian Muslim(s) after Liberalization by Maidul Islam, therefore, is a welcome addition. It is topical and relevant to the contemporary social and economic growth discourses of India..this book highlights multiple concepts and issues on the status of the Muslim community in India and makes the reader think." — Economic and Political Weekly

"Maidul Islam presents a serious analysis of the Muslim predicament in the era of economic liberalisation. He gives a good overview of literature and sheds light on the contemporary debates on Muslim politics." — The Hindu

"The book is indeed provocative in multiple senses. First, the author engages himself to explore the problems of the Muslim minorities and their identity formations in liberal-cum-neo-liberal India. Second, in order to unravel the complexity of identity, the author explores the theoretical possibility of investigating Muslims from the location of socio-economic and political marginalization of group identity. This is a feat in itself as such analytical framework was unthinkable three decades ago. Third, the book is a serious attempt to understand Muslim questions in terms of their democratic rights as citizens of India...Above all, the book is an important intellectual exercise to understand Muslim problems in a progressive theoretical context." — The Book Review

From the Publisher