Mushirul Hasan

Nationalist and separatist trends in Aligarh, 1915-47

Ackaowledgemmts: I am most grateful to Mr Khalid Shamsul Hasan who made the Syed Shamsill Hasan Collection available to me. I am also indebted to Professor Khaliq Ahmad Nizami for allowing me access to the very important archives at the Sir Syed Academy, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. Dr V . C. Bhutani was kind enough to comment on several drafts of this paper. Zoya, as always, made useful suggestions. One of the author’s earliest memories is of the arrival in our ancestral village in northern India of three young men carrying the Muslim League flag-the Islamic crescent and star on a deep green background. The three were students from

September 11th and its aftermath

Mushirul Hasan reflects on the consequences of September 11 on Indias Muslim community, and the challenges that lie ahead. Questioning the notion of a monolithic Muslim identity depicted in many Western and Muslim narratives, Hasan assesses the internal and external causes of discontent among Muslim communities in India and elsewhere. Themes addressed include: the legacy of decolonization, the demonization of Islam in the media and public discourse; the “clash of civilizations” thesis; and the role of the electronic media in fuelling discontent. It is argued that the weakness of governing and educational institutions remains a chief cause of ‘decay’ in some Muslim communities. Hasan emphasizes that over the course of history, Islam has developed the capacity to meet challenges creatively. In the aftermath of September 11, the need for Muslims to rewrite their script is greater than ever before. Lamentation must cease and give way to self‐introspection, a reappraisal of the crises affecting Muslim societies, and a careful reordering of priorities. As well, much needs to be done to build bridges between Muslim countries and the rest of the world.

Book Reviews : AYESHA JALAL, The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and tne Demand for Pakistan, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1985, pp. 310, £ 15

many Adivasis reverted to their old ways by drinking and performing bloody sacrifices, and in the main areas of the movement’s success, the community split into reformist (Varjela) and restorationist (Sarjela) factions. By the 1930s, Gandhian appeals mainly fell on deaf ears, although the self-assertion did not disappear. It is surely the restorationists who were the clear-sighted radicals, the ones who knew that adopting the reformists’ Brahmanical values would inevitably be understood in the wider society as Sanskritisation, as a claim to higher caste status. Appropriating Brahmanical values never democratises them; it only serves to reinforce their legitimacy and the superiority of high castes, and hence the legitimacy of a hierarchy in which Adivasis are at the bottom. The selfassertion which the Adivasis learnt stems as much, if not more, from their rejection of the Devi’s message as from their relatively brief acceptance of it.

Book reviews : BIPAN CHANDRA, Communalism in Modern India. Vikas Publishing House, Delhi, 1984, xii + 363 pp., Rs. 150

This book attempts to define communalism, explore its social roots, delineate its ideological, social and cultural dimensions, and outline British policy in relation to the Hindu-Muslim divide. According to its author, Communalism in Modern India provides an ’overview’ of these aspects, though it does not trace the evolution of the communal phenomena nor analyses the instruments and mechanisms through which communal ideology and politics were ’propagated’ (p. viii). Professor Bipan Chandra, already known to modern Indian historians for his comprehensive study of economic nationalism in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, sets out his ’basic’ approach to communalism by arguing that it was a modern phenomenon which arose as a result of British colonial

Book Reviews : B. R. NANDA (ED), Essays in Modern Indian History, Oxford University Press, 1980, Pp. 252, Rs 70

of the Portuguese empire in this &dquo;Iron Century&dquo; with reference to its &dquo;constitutional corruption,&dquo; Professor Boxer is faithful to his characteristic approach of laying stress on human virtues and weaknesses and attributes the resilience to still available few honest and competent individuals, as well as to ever hopeful and industrious missionaries, chiefly the Jesuits. In addition to many other instructive insights in this phase of the Portuguese imperial history, there is sufficient evidence adduced to argue against the common over-simplistic reliance upon the loud lamentations of universal poverty which pervade official and unofhcial correspondence of the period. The cases cited show con-

The Delhi Proposals: A Study in Communal Politics

On 20 March 1927, thirty Muslims assembled in Delhi and in a dramatic gesture, agreed to forego separate electorates if their four proposals were accepted in toto.’ The first of these was that the Bengali and Punjabi Muslims should be represented in the legislative councils in proportion to their population ; the second was that one-third of the seats in the Central Legislature be reserved for the Muslims. And the last two demands were that Sind be separated from the Bombay Presidency and constituted as an independent province, and reforms be extended to the Frontier Province. These were popularly known as the Delhi proposals. &dquo;We have after all succeeded,&dquo; Mohammad Yaqub wrote triumphantly, &dquo;in finding out a formula on which there was a unanimity of Muslim opinion, and which has shifted the burden of proof on the other party; [and] it is for them to clasp the hand of friendship which the Muslims have extended.&dquo;-’