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Abstract
This article examines the dissonance between Indian secularism in theory and secularism in practice for India's largest religious minority of Muslims. Marginalised and discriminated against in everyday life, India's Muslims are frequently constructed simply as victims without recourse to agency. This article challenges this narrative by documenting how Muslims living in Varanasi in North India actively sought to realise their citizenship and a sense of meaningful participation in society. The empirical insights illustrate that despite the failure of state secularism to protect the Muslim minority from discrimination and facilitate their realisation of equal citizenship, these Muslims did not reject the principle of secularism nor seek an alternative. To the contrary, the rhetoric of secularism offered spaces of opportunity through which Muslims could become political, challenge normative narratives and articulate themselves as citizens. The article develops an understanding of multiple and plural Muslim citizenship strategies that are enacted simultaneously across different spaces and scales within the state and society, where notions of the self and citizenship are always in the process of becoming.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the Economic and Social Research Council and the British Academy who funded the doctoral and post-doctoral research on which this article is based. I wish to thank the editors of this Special Issue, Humeira Iqtidar and David Lehman, an anonymous reviewer and Bhaskar Vira for their constructive comments on earlier versions of this paper.
Notes
1. Personal codes are in place for all religious minorities, and pertain to matters of marriage and inheritance, for instance. On more general issues, all religious communities consult the civil courts. Where questions of faith enter into civil matters, these are understood on the basis of the respective communities belief and are not judged from a central position.
2. For instance, the Mahatma Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the Right to Information Act and the Tribal Forest Rights Bill (see Williams et al., Citation2011).
3. SCs and STs represent administrative groups of people traditionally thought of as ‘untouchable’ and ‘Adivasi’, respectively. Considered outside the Hindu caste system, both groups have historically experienced persistent patterns of marginalisation within society. The Indian Constitution sought to redress these inequalities and afforded them right to preferential treatment in employment and education in state institutions, as well as in electoral politics. Despite increasing political empowerment by Dalits and the lower castes with the rise of the Bahujan Samaj Party, in general, SCs and STs continue to suffer informal and everyday patterns of discrimination and marginalisation.
4. Kabeer (Citation2007) points to a similar shift in focus in her discussion about the importance of ‘horizontal’ relationships within society as well as ‘vertical’ relations with the state.
5. Although Islam does not endorse a hierarchical social code like Hinduism, cultural interaction and exchange between these religions in South Asia have resulted in the constitution of India's Muslims in three broad strata: the ‘Ashrafs’, meaning those who claim to have ‘noble’ origins or foreign blood and/or were converted from upper Hindu castes; the ‘Ajlafs’; generally believed to be converts from artisan and other lower castes; and the ‘Arzals’ equivalent to Hindu SCs (Mann Citation1992, Sachar Citation2006, Shah Citation2007).
6. This figure is derived on the basis of Municipal Corporation Election Directorate 2001 and corroborated by informants. The electorate population is 20,000, since this does not take children under 16 into account the actual figure is likely to be twice that.
7. Interview, Abdul Kalim, retired Muslim weaver, 2 May 2007.
8. Interview, Kalim Ahmad Mahto and Mohammed Naseem, 7 March/21 February 2007.
9. Bakr eid is an Islamic festival to celebrate the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son as an act of commitment to God. It is a time when family and friends meet and share food, and visit the mosque to give thanks to Allah.
10. Interview, Mohd Naseem, General Secretary, Janata Seva Hospital, 21 February 2007
11. Ibid.
12. Interview, Kalin Ahmad Mahto, 7 March 2007.
13. Waqf is a permanent dedication by a Muslim of any moveable or immovable property for any purpose recognised by Muslim Law as pious, religious or charitable.
14. Court Proceedings; Dr Massoud's collection, 20 April 1999.
15. Kazi-e-Sahar et al. Letter correspondence to Vice President Vikas Pratdhikran Varanasi, 4 June 1999; Interview 1, Dr Massoud, March 2007.
16. Interview, Dr Massoud, 1 March 2007
17. Ibid.
18. Interview, Abdul Kalim, 2 May 2007.
19. Interview, Dr Massoud, 1 March 2007.
20. Interview, Nadeem, 1 September 2008.