Being the Other: The Muslim in India

by Saeed Naqvi

In the heart of the modern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) lies the erstwhile region of Awadh—or Oudh as it was known in British historical texts—an independent state that rose to prominence in the early eighteenth century as the power wielded by Mughal emperors was on the wane. The first ruler of Awadh, and the progenitor of the Nawabs of Awadh, Saadat Khan, laid the foundation of the capital city, Faizabad, on the outskirts of Ayodhya in 1722 ce. Awadh was truly God’s own country with the Ganga, Jamuna, Sarayu and Gomti flowing through it. It was circumscribed by the Triveni at Prayag (Allahabad), Kashi (Varanasi), Vrindavan (Mathura), Haridwar and Rishikesh—the core of Hindu civilization. The reign of the nawabs gave rise to what is known as the Ganga–Jamuni tehzeeb—a multiculturalism particular to this area of the central plains of northern India, a fusion of Hindu–Muslim elements. And it is here, in the qasbah of Mustafabad—near Rae Bareli and Lucknow—in the heart of Awadh’s syncretic culture, that my early years (the 1950s) were spent.