Copyright by Mohammad Raisur Rahman 2008 The Dissertation Committee for Mohammad Raisur Rahman certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Islam, Modernity, and Educated Muslims: A History of Qasbahs in Colonial India Committee: _____________________________________ Gail Minault, Supervisor _____________________________________ Cynthia M. Talbot _____________________________________ Denise A. Spellberg _____________________________________ Michael H. Fisher _____________________________________ Syed Akbar Hyder Islam, Modernity, and Educated Muslims: A History of Qasbahs in Colonial India by Mohammad Raisur Rahman, B.A. Honors; M.A.; M.Phil. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2008 Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to the fond memories of my parents, Najma Bano and Azizur Rahman, and to Kulsum Acknowledgements Many people have assisted me in the completion of this project. This work could not have taken its current shape in the absence of their contributions. I thank them all. First and foremost, I owe my greatest debt of gratitude to my advisor Gail Minault for her guidance and assistance. I am grateful for her useful comments, sharp criticisms, and invaluable suggestions on the earlier drafts, and for her constant encouragement, support, and generous time throughout my doctoral work. I must add that it was her path breaking scholarship in South Asian Islam that inspired me to come to Austin, Texas all the way from New Delhi, India. While it brought me an opportunity to work under her supervision, I benefited myself further at the prospect of working with some of the finest scholars and excellent human beings I have ever known. I express my gratitude to the members of my dissertation committee who helped me in numerous ways, from encouraging me to confidently pursue working in an understudied area to constantly inspiring me through their outstanding work and scholarship. I wish to thank Cynthia Talbot whose profound knowledge of premodern South Asia has constantly inspired and encouraged me to see those inevitable continuities in earlier periods of history, while I worked on a topic pertaining to modern South Asia. I will never forget how diligently she explained, during my first year in the program, the fine differences between the expectations of Indian and American academia and ensuring that my transition from the one to the other was smooth. I am extremely grateful for the assistance, generosity, and advice I received from Denise Spellberg. She taught me how to carefully handle various sources of Islamic history and frequently reminded me of the inevitable interconnections between different geographical zones of the Islamic world, while also emphasizing the differences as they exist. I must admit that my knowledge of Islam would have been much narrower than what it is now without her guidance. Syed Akbar Hyder has v been a source of inspiration for me. He was always available whenever I needed his advice, suggestions, and assistance. His vast knowledge of Urdu literature, South Asian Islam, and cultural studies has an imprint on my dissertation. I wish to thank him for his useful comments and suggestions on various sections and help with translating Urdu verses, in addition to all his help, encouragement, and confidence in my abilities. I consider myself fortunate to have Michael Fisher of Oberlin College who kindly consented to serve on my committee. Despite his busy schedule, he read this dissertation very closely and provided useful criticisms and suggestions. I am thankful to him for his generosity and assistance. His esteemed contribution to South Asian history will continue to inspire me. Several grants and fellowships helped me through this project. I thank Allan Tully, Chair of the Department of History at the University of Texas for offering me a five-year guaranteed funding for my doctoral work. Besides that, I obtained some other fellowships/grants, including a History Department Fellowship (Spring 2008), Dora Bonham research grants (2004, 2006), Mary Helen Quinn Dissertation Fellowship (2005-06), Liberal Arts Graduate Research Fellowship (2005-06), International Education Fee Scholarship (2005), South Asia Institute fellowship (2005), and Asian Studies Study Abroad scholarship (2003). I thank all who assisted me in obtaining these fellowships by providing information and writing letters in my support. During my doctoral career, it was encouraging to have my research proposal selected by the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) for its annual Dissertation Workshop held in Chicago in April 2005. I express my gratitude to the eleven other doctoral students, all selected through a nationwide competition, for a close reading of my research proposal. I want them to know that their feedback and suggestions benefited my project immensely. I would also like to thank Michael Paschal of AAS and the faculty participants, including David Szanton, Susan Wadley, and Laura Hostetler. From time to time, various scholars have motivated me to pursue this project through their feedback. They showed interest in different aspects of this work and vi their questions, criticisms, and suggestions have helped me clarify and sharpen my arguments. I am indebted to Itty Abraham, Muzaffar Alam, Kamran Ali, Shahid Amin, Joel Brereton, Juan Cole, Kaushik Ghosh, Jamal Malik, Patrick Olivelle, Margrit Pernau, Gyanendra Pandey, Carla Petievich, Francis Robinson, and Martha Selby. I appreciate their help during different phases of my project. I also wish to thank Asghar Abbas, Iqbal Husain, Mustafa Husain Nizami, Abul Kalam Qasmi, Sharib Rudaulvi, Mubarak Shamim, Muhammad Umar, and I. A. Zilli for wonderful and enlightening conversations, some of which went on for hours over several cups of tea. Their advice and comments were extremely helpful in providing me with pointers on where to look for potential primary sources during my research. I am also grateful to the faculty members of the University of Texas. I have not come across many people as supportive as Howard Miller and George Forgie of the Department of History. I wish to thank James Sidbury, the graduate advisor in the Department. During my doctoral career, I have worked as a teaching assistant to some of the best lecturers that I have known. I extend my thanks to Erika Bsumek, Tiffany Gill, David Haney, Mark Lawrence, Karl Miller, and Megan Seaholm. From each of them, I have tried to learn different instructional and communication skills. From other departments in the university, I owe a debt of gratitude to Mohammad Ghanoonparwar, Herman van Olphen, Rupert Snell, and Kamala Visweswaran. I conducted research in India for three summers before I embarked on a yearlong fieldwork for this project. I do not have words to express my gratitude to the help extended by my friends, family, colleagues, teachers, and even those who hardly knew me. While some of them constantly encouraged me to pursue this project, yet others went out of their ways to make sure that my fieldwork was productive and my stay in different cities comfortable. Bhagwan Josh, Aditya Mukherjee, Yogesh Sharma, and Majid Siddiqi have always remained a perpetual source of inspiration for me. I want to thank them for being there to encourage and help me through different phases, even before I started working on this project until today. I am grateful to Mridula Mukherjee, the then chairperson of the Centre for Historical Studies, vii Jawaharlal Nehru University, my alma mater, for an affiliation with the Centre during my fieldwork in 2005-06. In Aligarh and different qasbahs, I was helped by countless people. In particular, I owe a debt of gratitude to Asghar Abbas, Wali Muhammad Chaudhary, Farrukh Jalali, Mohammad Ali Khan, Chaudhary Saeed Mustafa, Syed Faizan Ali Naqvi, Nehal Raza, Syed Athar Abbas Rizvi, Sharib Rudaulvi, Tehzeeb Zaidi, and I. A. Zilli. Without the help of some of my dearest friends, my research in India would have been neither productive nor enjoyable. Sunita and Siddharth Shankar not only arranged for my stay in Lucknow each time I visited but also made sure that I had a good social life in the city of Nawabs. Similarly, I do not think I would have been able to finish my work on time while also enjoying my time in Delhi without Deepender Kumar. Shweta and Kshitij Singh, along with Deepender, provided the necessary social and intellectual adventures. In addition, my research provided me with an opportunity to spend time with a host of my close friends in India, while they also extended all possible assistance towards facilitating my work. I am thankful to Saifuddin Ahmad, Khalid Akhter, Sadre Alam, Amir Ali, Raziuddin Aquil, Abdul Bari, Tanweer Fazal, Avinash Gautam, Sudhir Kumar Hembrom, Faizul Islam, Waquar Khan, Rahul Priyadarshi, Ataur Rahman, Mohammad Sajjad, Manisha Sethi, Sarvesh Shahdeo, and Jagjit Singh. In Austin, I wish to thank my friends for making my life easier when I was swamped with work: Preema Lobo and Manoranjan D‘Souza, Sadaf Munshi and Tasaduk Mir, Jaladhi Pujara, Faiza and Azfar Moin, and Hozefa Haidery. I would also like to thank Saad Abi-Hamad, Michael Anderson, Michael Bednar, Eric Busch, Tyler Fleming, Emily Hillhouse, Christian Jennings, and other colleagues in the Department of History for their friendship over the years. My thanks are also due to Shahnaz