Identity and Difference in a Muslim Community in Central Gujarat, India Following the 2002 Communal Violence
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Identity and difference in a Muslim community in central Gujarat, India following the 2002 communal violence Carolyn M. Heitmeyer London School of Economics and Political Science PhD 1 UMI Number: U615304 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615304 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 F Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of the author. I warrant that this authorization does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. Carolyn Heitmeyer Abstract: The broad aim of the thesis is to examine the impact of class, caste and religious identity in constructing notions of Muslim identity in a small town in central Gujarat, India and to challenge wider assumptions about the primacy of religious identity in ordering sociality in ‘everyday life’ in the region following the large-scale violence against the Muslim minority in 2002. Based on fifteen months of ethnographic research, the thesis engages with debates about the impact of violence on inter-ethnic relations and the construction of a minority identity. My research focuses particularly on the Muslim Sunni Vohras in the town of Mahemdabad, a community whose language, residential patterns, dress and kinship system defy, both locally as well as more generally, dualistic notions of what constitutes ‘Hindu’/4Muslim’ modes of conduct. As a merchant group, Sunni Vohras in the town have traditionally maintained closer ties with local Hindu merchants rather than other Muslims with whom they commonly eschew close affiliation. Through an analysis of various spheres such as kinship, gender, religious practice and local politics, the thesis examines how different notions of ‘Muslim identity’ are at once predicated on an opposition to ‘Hindu identity’ but likewise how competing definitions are brandished as a means of establishing status and honour. On a wider level, the thesis presents an examination of how ‘everyday coexistence’ between different religious groups in the town following the 2002 violence and the way in which such coexistence is sustained and managed through informal networks. Unlike nearby cities, the town in which research was conducted had not previously experienced wide-scale attacks in the past and prided itself on the ‘communal harmony’ between Hindus and Muslims. The thesis argues that the ongoing salience of caste and class links between the two communities constitute a central factor in explaining how, despite the wider social and political context, religious identity has not succeeded in trumping previous forms of social stratification. 2 In memory o f Cleone Larson Heitmeyer (1918-2006) and Albert Pontello (1910-2003) Contents Acknowledgements: .......................................................................................................6 Figures, maps and plates:...............................................................................................7 Note on transliteration:...................................................................................................8 Introduction ..................................................................................................................13 I. The question of Muslim identity in contemporary India ................................... 19 II. Muslims in India: Why the Sunni Vohras? .......................................................22 III. Researching Mahemdabad ............................................................................... 25 IV. Methodological challenges................ 28 V. Outline of chapters...........................................................................................31 Chapter 1: Setting and background ...........................................................................35 1.1. Introduction......................................................................................................35 1.2. Gujarat: Merchants, peasant nationalists and Hindutva .................................... 36 1.3. Mahemdabad: A market town in Kheda District ..............................................39 1.4. Spaces and socialities: Changing living patterns in Mahemdabad....................42 1.5. From qasbah to housing societies: Residential patterns .................................... 44 1.6. Education and class: Maintaining divisions ......................................................50 1.7. Local politics in Mahemdabad and the wider political context in Gujarat ..........................................................................................................55 1.8. Local ‘civil society’ .........................................................................................60 1.9. Everyday celebrations and institutions ..............................................................61 1.10. Conclusion ........................................ ;........................63 Chapter 2: Muslim identity and stratification in Mahemdabad ..................................65 2.1. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 65 2.2. Historical origins of the Sunni Vohras in Gujarat .............................................66 2.3. ‘Caste’ or ‘community’? Debates on social stratification among Muslims in South Asia .................................................................................... 68 2.4. Ethnographic depiction of Sunni Vohras in Gujarat .........................................75 2.5. Profile of the Mahemdabadi Charotar Sunni Vohra community .......................77 2.6. Status and differentiation within the Muslim community ..................................82 2.7. Contested Muslim identity: ‘Vohras’ or ‘Musulmans’? ................................... 84 2.8. Being a ‘Muslim’ in Mahemdabad .................................................................. 90 2.9. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 96 Chapter 3: Kinship, endogamy and the cultivation of intra-group unity among Sunni Vohras ............................................................................................97 3.1. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 97 3.2. Theories of Muslim kinship system in India .....................................................98 3.3. Muslim kinship in Gujarat ............................................................................. 100 3.4. Kinship organisation and marriage practices among Muslims in Mahemdabad ....................................................................................102 3.5. Status and difference among Charotar Sunni Vohras ..................................... 106 3.6. Community organisation among Charotar Sunni Vohras in Gujarat ................Ill 3.7. Group marriage and ideals of equality ...........................................................115 3.8. Marriage prestations and the question of dahej .............................................. 117 3.8.1. Prestations before and on the day of the wedding .......................................117 3.8.2. The gifts given to the bride ........................................................................ 119 4 3.8.3 Dahejor bridegroom price: The gifts given to the groom and his family................................................................................................. 122 3.9. The importance of endogamy and caste unity among mercantile communities .........................................................................129 3.10. Conclusion: Endogamy, dowry and cohesion .................................................131 Chapter 4: Gender, sexuality and ijjat in Mahemdabad ................................... 133 4.1. Introduction ................................................................................................... 133 4.2. Women and honour ........................................................................................135 4.3. Purdah among young Muslim women ........................................................... 138 4.4. Older Muslim women ....................................................................................144 4.5. ‘Open secrets’: Female sexuality and izzat.....................................................149 4.6. Money, sex and creditworthiness: The end of the affair .................................153 4.7. Gendered stereotypes and Muslim men ........................................................