FRANCE:

Muslims in Indian Cities: Trajectories of MarginalisationEdited by Lauren Gayer and Christophe Jaffrelot (London:  Hurst & Company.

This book puts together researches on Muslims in India in a dozen Indian cities bringing out their sociological as well as topographical profiles. Various case studies in the volume locate Muslims in Indian cities and examine the ‘ghettoisation thesis’ and look into the Muslim localities and the way they relate to the wider reality of their city. The studies employ both qualitative and quantitative methods; some provide ethnographic profiles of the urban settlements. The profiles outline the marginalization of Indian Muslims in terms of economic deprivation aggravated by physical insecurity and their increasing socio-spatial segregation.

The studies clarify that Muslims in India do not form an internally homogenous block. The research is able to disaggregate the community in terms of caste and class as well as in terms of urban/rural divide. The Dalit Christians, the Dalit Muslims are not officially recognized and therefore do not benefit from the state’s affirmative action extended through reservations. The charitable donations in the form of zakāt lead to some redistribution, but this does not replace or make up for state intervention.

The ‘Unwanted in My City’—the making of a ‘Muslim Slum’ in Mumbai (Qudsiya Contractor) is an account of the formation of a Muslim Slum as a peripheral life space in Shivaji Nagar in terms of the ethnography of everyday life. The focus is laid on how the blurring of the boundaries between the everyday spatial practices of the state and the Hindu right takes place via the experiences of the people. The paper further describes how these exclusionary practices are countered by the Muslim community.

There is an unintended (not so negative) consequence of the process of ghettoization in the ‘riot-city’ of Ahmedabad (Christophe Jaffrelot and Charlotte Thomas). It placed Muslims in a majority position, where they could elect their representatives and, secondly, the regrouping of Muslims from different backgrounds has endowed the local commoners with a local elite who could campaign around safety and organize themselves for self-help development involving education. This account has parallels in the city of Ramganj, Jaipur (Gayatri Jai Singh Rathore), where the lower class were able to mobilize themselves to address issues in the field of education and politics by starting up schools and creating their own political party. Such mobilization could earn official recognition as well as gains in education and political awareness.

The account of the Shiʿa of Kashmiri mohalla, Lucknow (Gilles Verniers) highlights how the draining away of the new Shiʿi elite has contributed to the marginalization of those who stay behind. This transformation may be interpreted against the backdrop of the Shiʿa–Sunni divide. Those who emigrate escape their minority status and disperse without identity within the wider population. Another city, Aligarh, also riot-prone on account of the Hindu–Muslim divide, has a heterogeneous Muslim population and defies simple conclusions regarding its residential pattern. In some sense, Aligarh’s Muslim population in Shah Jamal is compared with Ahmedabad. Aligarh represents the political and economic domination of the Hindu community, yet the city connects symbolically with Islam and the Indian Muslim community. The interface between the majority and the minority communities of the town is susceptible to political violence. Each round of communal conflict is followed by further fragmentation of the old city: Hindus living in Muslim-dominated areas and Muslims living in Hindu-majority localities emigrate, thereby supporting the communal segregation of the town.

The story of Muslims being pushed to the social periphery in Bhopal (Christophe Jaffrelot and Shazia Wulbers) resulted in the marginalization of Urdu and forced the old elite to join new professions, but they failed to remain well-represented in the elite groups. This decline is analysed in relation to the influx of Hindu newcomers and the rise to power of the Hindu nationalists, which spurred the communal riot in 1992. Against the background of Muslims’ suffering discrimination in the job market, they also harbour a feeling of victimization which confines them within the old city. This produces a situation where the Muslims in the walled city lag behind, while the mainstream population expands southward in Bhopal.

One variation upon the above account is to be found in Hyderabad (Neena Ambre Rao and S. Abdul Thaha), where Muslims seem to be ‘landlocked in the walled city’. In the background of its characteristic history, its economic and intellectual elites have left the scene. The political elite, however, seems to persist as the old city became a stronghold of the MIM (Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) which has a decisive influence in the municipal elections. The riots during the 1980s to 90s stimulated the unmaking of the Hindu–Muslim mix areas, thus the old city became communally ‘pure’ in its Muslim population. The old city, being high on communal security, decays on account of its poor living conditions and lack of government provisions. The emerging elite that pledges to represent the people is hardly able to keep its promises regarding the improvement of the area. However, a growing awareness is built around the importance of education, leading to the emergence of the newly educated middle class. These changes in various directions internally produce a tension: on the one hand, MIM dominates politically, and on the other hand, Muslims suffer discrimination outside the old city. This situation awaits a proper assessment.

The account (by Laurent Gayer) of Abul Fazl Enclave in South Delhi shows that the middle-class Muslims who opt to settle in the area, represent a case of self-segregation rather than ghettoization. The area offers, in the perception of the community, greater physical and residential security. Living in a mixed locality, outside, evokes the issue of security in the experience of the community. This needs to be seen in the wider context of the experience of risk. At the same time parents send their children to schools outside the locality, in an attempt to follow a ‘counter-segregative’ strategy. This calls for a multifaceted interpretation in the making of an enclave in the locality.

The story of Muslims in Cuttack in the State of Orissa is different from the usual account, where Muslims feel unsafe and insecure in communally sensitive areas. The Muslim communities in Cuttack are able to coexist with non-Muslims through the practice of an age-old tradition of bhaichara (brotherhood). In spite of the feelings of security and stability, a majority of Muslims of Cuttack are socially marginalized. The account of Cuttack outlines its history as well as the emergence of syncretic cultural traditions at the popular level. At the same time, the story of backwardness and under-representation of Muslims in various spheres of society directs attention to the dynamics of internal reasons for social inequality, a case of a minority within the minority. One such section of the community, the Muslim butchers (qasai), engage in community initiatives and organize themselves against the apathy of the state as well as the caste hierarchy of the community. An interesting exception to the story of marginalized Muslim localities in urban India is brought out from Kozhikode, in the state of Kerala. Radhika Kanchana points out how the enclave of the Muslim community is part of the city’s foundational design and the medieval practice of spatial groupings of different communities on the basis of occupation and social status. The locality of Kuttichira remains a Muslim cluster without the negative tag of decline or marginalization. Here, Muslims choose to extend into the city’s mixed localities without leaving their specific cultural and geographic identity.

Aminah Mohammad-Arif’s account of Muslims in Bangalore, in relation to the data gathered from Shivaji Nagar, questions the notion of a ‘ghetto’ insofar as different communities belonging to different classes respond to different interests and do not exhibit a common pattern arising out of a self-conscious choice of living in ghetto. This is influenced by Shivaji Nagar’s religious diversity that spawns interactions across the communal divide.

In conclusion, the editors discern complex patterns in the state of marginalization among India’s urban Muslims. Ghettoization has its own dynamics. Socially, a new middle class is emerging along traditional economy lines but also beyond, say in the areas of agribusiness, information technology, pharmaceuticals, real estate, etc. Successful Muslim entrepreneurs hail from the lowest sections of Muslim communities. In some places ‘petro-dollar’ colonies have emerged. The trajectories of marginalization represent different patterns of segregation: mixed areas, enclaves, slums and ghettos. These patterns are formed along the lines of voluntary and enforced segregation. The element of choice becomes difficult to interpret especially where considerations of insecurity and discrimination are taken into account.

The collection of essays is helpful in providing a contemporary account of India’s urban Muslims and the extent to which the patterns respond to the way the Indian state, the majority community and the dynamics of the internal urge to move upward intertwine. The diverse accounts add to the social mosaic of Muslims in India. The volume is an important reference for researches on Muslims in contemporary India.

by: Mohammad Talib, Journal of Islamic Studies, Volume 26, Issue 1, January 2015, Pages 88–91

source: http://www.academic.oup.com / Oxford Academic – Journal of Islamic Studies / by Mohammad Talib / September 29th, 2014