Indian Muslims Asian Studies Meeting in Boston on 12 March 1999
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4 4 Conference Reports ISIM NEWSLETTER 3 / 9 9 AAS OMARKHALIDI Differentiation and Homogenization among Differentiation and homogenization was the theme of a panel at the Association of Indian Muslims Asian Studies meeting in Boston on 12 March 1999. Sponsored by the South Asian Muslim Studies Association (SAMSA) and themselves and others on a large scale. Kha- Harvard University (panel discussant) in a improve their conditions, but the question is chaired by Prof. Theodore P. Wright, Jr (re- lidi argued that if the present trend contin- 1987 paper on the Khojahs, an Ismaili de- beset by the problem of group definition of tired, State University of New York-Albany), ues, it is likely that this group will be fully nomination similar in many ways to the backwardness, which has the potential of the panel brought four papers, one read in homogenized with the Urdu speaking com- Bohras. Asani had concluded that within the splitting Muslims along quasi-caste lines. the absence of the presenter, and a discus- munities of North India and the Deccan. short span of half a century, the Khojah Jenkins’ paper thus shows the persistence of sant, Prof. Ali Asani of Harvard University. Similarly, Jonah Blank (a recent Harvard sense of identification with the larger Islamic differentiation based on caste or caste-like The ideology of Muslim nationalism in India PhDand presentlywithUSNews&World Re- tradition has become so strong that many clusters among Indian Muslims, particularly dominant during the 1940s held that Mus- port) presented a paper on the Islamization young members have come to regard their if some groups benefit from inclusion in the lims constituted a nation distinct in every and modernization of the Daudi Bohras of community’s earlier beliefs as belonging to a OBC category and others not. respect from other Indians. The fieldwork of Mumbai and western India. Over the past phase in history when the early missionaries Finally, the paper by Frank Fanselow (Uni- the anthropologists published in the 1970s decades, the clergy of the Bohras has at- had to make concessions to the Hindu mi- versity of Brunei-Darussalam), read in his ab- contended that contrary to the ideology of tempted Ð with great success Ð to establish a lieu. At present, they affirm that they are sence by Khalidi, described and analysed the ‘two nations,’ Muslims were regionally, lin- group identity that is at once universally Is- merely returning to their proper fold in conversion of Dalits to Islam in the early guistically, ritually and behaviourally di- lamic andunique to thedenomination. It has Islam. 1980s. Although it was a local affair confined verse, in addition to the division by sect. done so not by rejecting modern or Western The thirdpaper delivered by Laura D. Jenk- to an obscure village called Minakshipuram Our panel re-examined this issue, interro- ideas and technologies, but rather by em- ins (University of Cincinnati) was on ‘Caste, in Tamilnadu, the publicity surrounding the gating both differentiation and homoge- bracing them: the Bohras have used moder- Class and Islam: Debating the Boundaries of conversion drew national attention souring nization in recent decades. nity as a tool to reinvigorate their core tradi- “Backwardness” in India.’ While normative Hindu-Muslim relations in a state known for Omar Khalidi (MIT) presented a paper on tions. Jonah’s case study should serve as a Islam is caste-free, educationally and eco- inter-communal harmony, thus negatively the homogenization of Konkani Muslims of powerful refutation to those who would es- nomically poor Muslim groups are often as- homogenizing it with the national trend. ♦ coastal Maharashtra to Urdu, a language sentialize Islamic revivalism or even (to use a sociated with low social status, some of spoken in North India and the Deccan. more ideologically-laden term) Islamic fun- whom are grouped as Other Backward Class- Dr Omar Khalidi is an independentscholar atthe Konkani Muslims are adopting Urdu instead damentalism as anti-modern. es (OBC), a bureaucratic category compris- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Aga Khan of native Konkani for education, formal Jonah’s argument seems to confirm some ing both Hindu and Muslim poor. Many Mus- Program for Islamic Architecture, Cambridge, USA. speech, and mass communication amongst of the conclusions reached by Ali Asani of lim OBCs are seeking affirmative action to E-mail: [email protected].