Muslims in Indian Cities: Trajectories of Marginalisation

by Laurent Gayer, Christophe Jaffrelot

Key Features Eleven brilliant, essays by scholars and academicians addressing the issue of the lives of Muslims in Indian cities Comes with a lot of praise in international circuits and has generated great interest in socio-political circles in India Christophe Jaffrelot is one of the most respected names writing on Indian society, politics & will receive great media attention About the Book: Muslims in Indian Cities: Trajectories of Marginalisation 'Christophe Jaffrelot's range of scholarship is amazing, and hisnew book .... co-edited with Laurent Gayer, illustrates well hiswide-ranging interests. The contributions are instructive andinsightful and cover a much-neglected theme in contemporary SouthAsia'-Mushirul Hasan Numbering more than 150 million, Muslims constitute the largestminority in India, yet suffer the most politically andsocio-economically. Forced to contend with severe and persistentprejudice, India's Muslims are often targets of violence. In India's cities, these developments find contrastingexpressions. While the quality of Muslim life may lag behind thatof Hindus nationally, local and inclusive cultures have beenresilient in the south and the east. In the Hindi belt and in thenorth, Muslims have known less peace, especially in the riot-proneareas of Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Jaipur and Aligarh, and in the capitalsof former Muslim states-Delhi, Hyderabad, Bhopal and Lucknow. Thesecities 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 newMuslim middle class have regrouped for physical and culturalprotection. Combining first-hand testimony with sound critical analysis,this volume follows urban Muslim life in eleven Indian cities,providing uncommon insight into a little-known subject of immenseimportance and consequence. About the Authors: Christophe Jaffrelot, Laurent Gayer Christophe Jaffrelot is research director at CNRS an

Genres: Nonfiction, Islam, Religion, History, India

416 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2011

Reviews

[Pramod Pant]

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 !

[Saif Sayed]

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.

[Imran]

The book had a number of spelling mistakes... not expected of a Harper Collins publication.

[Karthik Ram]

Interesting premise with some good facts thrown in; expected more though