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Muslims in Indian Cities: Trajectories of Marginalisation
Numbering more than 150 million, Muslims constitute the largest minority in India, yet they suffer the most politically and socioeconomically. Forced to contend with severe and persistent prejudice, India's Muslims are often targets of violence and collective acts of murder.
While the quality of Muslim life may lag behind that of Hindus nationally, local and inclusive cultures have been resilient in the south and the east. Within India's cities, however, the challenges Muslims face can be harder to read. In the Hindi belt and in the north, Muslims have known less peace, especially in the riot-prone areas of Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Jaipur, and Aligarh, and in the capitals of former Muslim states -- Delhi, Hyderabad, Bhopal, and Lucknow. These cities are rife with Muslim ghettos and slums. However, self-segregation has also played a part in forming Muslim enclaves, such as in Delhi and Aligarh, where traditional elites and a new Muslim middle class have regrouped for physical and cultural protection.
Combining firsthand testimony with sound critical analysis, this volume follows urban Muslim life in eleven Indian cities, providing uncommon insight into a little-known but highly consequential subject.
While the quality of Muslim life may lag behind that of Hindus nationally, local and inclusive cultures have been resilient in the south and the east. Within India's cities, however, the challenges Muslims face can be harder to read. In the Hindi belt and in the north, Muslims have known less peace, especially in the riot-prone areas of Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Jaipur, and Aligarh, and in the capitals of former Muslim states -- Delhi, Hyderabad, Bhopal, and Lucknow. These cities are rife with Muslim ghettos and slums. However, self-segregation has also played a part in forming Muslim enclaves, such as in Delhi and Aligarh, where traditional elites and a new Muslim middle class have regrouped for physical and cultural protection.
Combining firsthand testimony with sound critical analysis, this volume follows urban Muslim life in eleven Indian cities, providing uncommon insight into a little-known but highly consequential subject.
Hardcover
First published October 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 28, 2022
The book was published in 2012, a couple of years before BJP came to power again in India. The book, therefore, may need a rewriting with new data and opinions.
It still paints a useful portrait and one feels sorry for people in the clutches of dogmatic religious leaders who know - very clearly, practically- where their own personal interests lie . Every Hindu should read it, to gain empathy. Muslims may not require the book so badly as they feel the segregation on a daily basis - as Hindus did for centuries past . Living History at the wrong edge of the sword - figurative or real - is such a sorry business !
It still paints a useful portrait and one feels sorry for people in the clutches of dogmatic religious leaders who know - very clearly, practically- where their own personal interests lie . Every Hindu should read it, to gain empathy. Muslims may not require the book so badly as they feel the segregation on a daily basis - as Hindus did for centuries past . Living History at the wrong edge of the sword - figurative or real - is such a sorry business !
January 3, 2022
A must read for a better understanding about the socio-economic and political condition of Muslims in post-colonial India and what leads to their ghettoization in major Indian cities.
This is a well researched report based on empirical data along with recorded lived experience of local Muslims on how they go through in their daily life, baring the brunt of communal violence, living their lives in nostalgia of pre-colonial times, caste and class divide, representation in socio-politico apparatus and how all of this impacts their position in Modern India.
This is a well researched report based on empirical data along with recorded lived experience of local Muslims on how they go through in their daily life, baring the brunt of communal violence, living their lives in nostalgia of pre-colonial times, caste and class divide, representation in socio-politico apparatus and how all of this impacts their position in Modern India.
August 11, 2013
The book had a number of spelling mistakes... not expected of a Harper Collins publication.
July 7, 2019
Interesting premise with some good facts thrown in; expected more though
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews