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List of contents
1. Introduction 2. The Solidarity Agenda: Aligarh Students and the demand for Pakistan 3. Beyond centre-periphery: qasbahs and Muslim life in South Asia 4. Asian and Islamic crossings: Malay writing in nineteenth-century Sri Lanka 5. Can ‘Om’ be an Islamic term? Translations, encounters, and Islamic discourse in vernacular South Asia 6. Remapping Muslim literary culture: folklore, Bulbul, and world-making in colonial Bengal 7. Breaking the begging bowl: morals, drugs, and madness in the fate of the Muslim fakīr 8. A matrilineal Sufi shaykh in Sri Lanka 9. Epilogue: Margins of anxiety and centres of confidence
About the author
Neilesh Bose is Assistant Professor of History at St. John’s University, New York City, USA. A scholar of South Asian history, decolonization, cultural history and intellectual history, his research examines the history of religion, culture, and language in nineteenth and twentieth century South Asia. He also holds active research interests in imperial history and the history of migrations and diaspora.
Summary
This book explores the myriad diversities of South Asian Islam from a historical perspective attuned to the lived practices of Muslims in various portions of South Asia, outside of Urdu, Persian, or Arabic language perspectives. These perspectives are, in some cases taken both from literal regions rarely noticed within discussions of South Asian Islam, such as Sri Lanka, Bengal, and Tamil Nadu. In other contributions the perspectives draw on historiographic interventions about the role of fakīrs in South Asian history, qasbahs in South Asian history, and the role of Aligarh students within the Pakistan movement. As a collection of voices aimed at stimulating debate about the range and diversity of South Asian Islam, the book probes meanings and markers of categories like "Indic," "Islamicate," and "local" or "global" Islam within the context of South Asia. Relevant to debates in the history of South Asia as well as Islamic studies, this collection will serve as a reference point for discussions about South Asian Islam as well as the nature and role of vernacularization as a cultural process. This book was originally published as a special issue of South Asian History and Culture.
