BEYOND HINDU AND MUSLIM BEYOND HINDU AND MUSLIM Multiple Identity in Narratives from Village India PETER GOTTSCHALK 1 2000 1 Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Bombay Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi Paris Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 2000 by Peter Gottschalk Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gottschalk, Peter, 1963– Beyond Hindu and Muslim : multiple identity in narratives from village India / Peter Gottschalk. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-513514-8 1. India—Ethnic relations. 2. Group identity—India. 3. Ethnicity—India. 4. Muslims—India. 5. Hindus—India. 6. Narration (Rhetoric) I. Title. DS430 .G66 2000 305.8'00954—dc21 99-046737 135798642 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Dedicated, with deep gratitude, to the people of Bhabhua district, who opened their lives and their hearts to me (“We are all foreign to each other.”) —Bhoju Ram Gopal (“There, behind barbed wire, was India. Over there, behind more barbed wire, was Pakistan. In the middle, on a piece of ground which had no name, lay Toba Tek Singh.”) —Saadat Hasan Manto, “Toba Tek Singh” Acknowledgments he first note of thanks goes to the residents of the Arampur area, whose T generosity and trust allowed me to share in so many dimensions of their selves. It is impossible for me to list everyone who made time and space for me. Special appreciation goes to Achutya Nand Singh, who guided me in Hindi, introduced me to his village, found me a home, and continually provided in- sightful interpretations. Jaideo Singh opened his house to me, and his family accepted me. His counsel guided me too often to remember. The Arampur Debate Society offered an endless supply of hot chai and warm friendship. In Banaras, Rakesh Ranjan shared his hospitality, personal insights, and expan- sive language expertise. Virendra Singh continued his long and patient tutor- ing of “Ram Iqbal” while Ramu Pandit offered his own unique perspective on the field and fieldworkers. Nita Kumar graciously accepted being my sponsor in India and provided administrative support, anthropological insights, and a scholastic model. The Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, kindly extended institutional affiliation for the project. Dr. Shailendra Tripathi pro- vided a wonderful introduction to rural studies, finding room for me among fieldworkers in their jeeps and among his family in their home. Dr. Satyendra Tripathi, Director, extended the support of the Integrated Rural Develop- ment Program in Banaras Hindu University. In the United States, my dissertation advisor, Wendy Doniger, provided constant support, insight, editing, and humor. This book represents the final fruition of a wonderful collaboration with Wendy, who has taught me much, molded me mightily, and set me “to go boldly. .” It would be impossible to note every feature of this text that benefited from our conversations and her suggestions and I am particularly indebted to her for her thoughtful foreword to this work. My dissertation readers, Steven Collins and Arjun Appadurai, unhesitatingly offered their expertise to shape this project and helped re- fine some of the many elements that it involved. Narayana Rao and Philip Lutgendorf offered their time to read drafts and make comments, many of which added significantly to my understanding. C. M. Naim has often acted x Acknowledgments as a touchstone to which I have returned for linguistic and other types of ad- vice, and has generously reviewed some of my translations. McKim Marriot patiently offered invaluable insights into fieldwork and India through numer- ous conversations. Joe Elder continued to provide sage advice and practical insights. Ann Grodzins Gold shared her fieldwork experiences with me, as well as the quote from her collaborator, Bhoju Ram Gopal. Thanks, too, to the numerous colleagues who have listened to and commented on components of this project during conference and workshop presentations. Among institutions, I appreciate the help that Southwestern University of- fered through Cullen faculty development stipends and the support of my new colleagues, especially the members of the Writers’ Group who offered such useful feedback. Special thanks to Rich Pianka and Pat Ramsey of ITS who patiently aided me with my map-making. I am also very grateful to the Uni- versity of Chicago, which financially supported my dissertation work abroad and in Chicago through the Divinity School, Committee on South Asian Stud- ies, and advanced overseas dissertation research fellowship. There are too many faculty, administrators, and staff throughout the university for me to name whose help paved the way for this project. I thank the Government of India for the kind extension of a research visa. Special thanks to the American Insti- tute of Indian Studies for its support for my visa application and to Director- General Dr. Pradeep Mehendiratta for its renewal. Oxford University Press has been particularly supportive of this project, and Cynthia Read wonder- fully helpful. My thanks to John Bowen for his insightful comments as a reader. Portions of Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories are reproduced by permission of Penguin Books. The LaserURDU™ font used to print this work is available from Linguist’s Software, Inc., PO Box 580, Edmonds, WA 98020-0580 USA tel (206) 775-1130. Finally, and most emphatically, I want to thank the people closest to me for the support which abides so deeply and finds expression too rarely. My par- ents, Babette and Rudolf Gottschalk, come first of course. How can a tree adequately demonstrate appreciation for its roots? My brother and sisters also deserve a great note of thanks for their patience and support, as do my neph- ews and nieces, whose presence and love often helped me put my work in a larger context. Many colleagues from Chicago, especially Brian Bennett and Jeff Carter, gave invaluable input through the course of innumerable conver- sations. Friends like Bill, Steve, Christine, John, and Ken have given warm company, emotional support, and good humor throughout the course of this work. I continue to owe a debt to my teachers, who are too many to entirely mention but too important not to try: Sarah Wilde, Richard Wilde, Sylvia Campbell, Steve Marabeti, Clyde Pax, the late Theo von Laue, Frank Reynolds, and Bruce Lincoln. To Prem Kumar in India and Mat Schmalz in the United States: Darmok and Jilad on the Ocean. Finally, to my wife Deborah and my daughter Ariadne, who have lit my life with their fire and warmth: thank you, for evermore. Acknowledgments xi Contents Foreword by Wendy Doniger xiii Transliteration Guide xvii Introduction: One Territory, Multiple Maps 3 1 Multiple Identities, Singular Representations 11 2 The Village Nexus 41 3 Identity, Narrative, and Group Memory 65 4 Ocean of the Strands of Memory 103 5 Institutions of Integration and Disintegration 135 Conclusion: The Well of Meanings 173 Appendix: Indices of Bihar GovernmentTextbooks for Social Studies and History 181 Glossary 191 Bibliography 193 Index 205 Photos follow page 64 Foreword his study of the construction of Hindu, Muslim, and other identities in TIndia has important implications for our understanding of interreligious cooperation and interreligious violence. It will contribute, in general, to our understanding of the various cultural logics which inform societies in conflict and, in particular, to our understanding of the Hindu-Muslim conflict in India. Gottschalk’s work is about concepts of time and memory; he is searching for a constructive sense of history in the face of the formidable de(con)struction wrought by the Orientalist and subaltern critique. His study of India is informed by his previous work on the historiography and theology of Jewish approaches to the Holocaust; in both cases, he has delved deep into the emotional and cognitive problems of understanding a traumatic past. His particular contri- bution to the debates of historians is his subtle understanding of narrative, particularly religious narrative, and he puts his theories to a practical and con- structive test in India. He writes beautifully and brings a quasi-novelistic sen- sitivity to his evocation of the settings in which real people come into real conflict. This brilliant and passionately conceived book is readable, moving, and timely; it changed my mind, entirely, about the ways in which Hindus and Muslims regard one another in India, and about the ways in which the concerns that bind one human being to another may override the political and economic forces that drive them apart. —Wendy Doniger xiii Transliteration Guide Scheme of Hindi and Bhojpuri Transliteration Passages followed by “[H]” are transliterated according to the Hindi-to- English system below, which follows R. S. McGregor, The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary: a a i i u u eaioaur kkhggh4 cchjjhñ tth ddh nrrh tthddhn pphbbhm yr l l v :0sh xvii xviiixviii TransliterationAcknowledgments Guide Scheme of Urdu Transliteration Passages followed by “[U]” are transliterated according to the Urdu to English system below, which follows John Platts, A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi and English: [[/ÕÓ aiua -¼[ ¼[ +¼[ ¾[/¾[¾[+ u oaui eai ] Y a ] ei y mq bptt0 jch kh u Š wy˜ { ¡ d d zrr zzh }…†Š ssh0z 1 ’ –š¡ ì 23 gf q ¶Âª¯²¼¶Á k g l m n v/w h y BEYOND HINDU AND MUSLIM Introduction One Territory, Multiple Maps friend had just returned from India, and we sat having tea in my Chicago A apartment.