Panel Title: Politics, Power and
Islam in South Asia
Convenor: Staffan
Lindberg, Dept. of Sociology, Lund University, Sweden
Thursday
8 July, 13–18
Panel Abstract: The significance
of Islam in the multiple spaces of State, security and society continues
to expand. Contemporary global discourse on national security, governance,
identity, democracy, guerilla warfare, counter-insurgency, terrorism
and counter-terrorism issues reflects this reality. This panel will
examine the location of Islam in the South Asian experience with
reference to these multiple variable of the this global discourse..
In doing three other sub themes will be examined. What has been
the role of other major religions in South Asia with reference to
these variables ? How have various religions interfaced each
o! ther in the South Asian , internal and cross-border context ?
Finally if and how has Islam been the bridge between South Asia
and other surrounding regions of China, South West and Central Asia.
This panel will identify the political dimensions of the State,
security and societal dilemmas in South Asia to locate Islam
in the ”power construct” of different state and sub-state,
national and transnational actors of South Asia. And where
relevant beyond South Asia. This will be essential to understand
the ”causation” that enables Islam to become one of the
important factors in the power construct.
To do so meaningfully a study of three aspects is important. One,
how Islam enhances or legitimizes the political power of various
groups. These groups would include State, national security managers,
the political parties, insurgency and counter-insurgency movements
within a national, regional and international context needs to be
examined.
Two that how the national, regional and international context
within which these various ”power groups” operate, contributes
towards making Islam an important factor in the power construct.
Three that while the Islam ”label” across all the power
constructs is uniform yet it often holds different meanings for
different power groups. Hence as a factor in the power ”construct”
Islam is invested with a wide-ranging, even contradictory, subtext.
Often the ”user” decides the subtext. All papers for this
panel would look these aspects.
Panelists will also address some of the following questions: As
an important factor in the power ”construct” what are
the many subtexts of Islam ? What makes these subtexts possible
? Do these subtexts change and how ? How does the international
and national context contribute towards making Islam an important
element in the power construct ? Do other faiths in similar
circumstances become important in the power constructs of other
peoples and nations ? What supra-national forces, legal, political,
military and economic that contribute towards reinforcing Islam
as factor in the power construct?
Paper Giver 1:
Teberez A Neyazi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi,
India
Paper 1 Title: Does
Islamic Militancy Exists in India?
Paper Abstract: Islamic militancy
in the form of armed protests against established regimes prevails
in many parts of the world, including West Asia, North Africa, etc.
These movements owe much more to socio-political than religious
factors, but it has led many to jump to the conclusion that Islam
is inherently radicalizing and therefore orients Muslims towards
militancy. The paper shall attempt three things. First, it shall
briefly explore whether there are elements within the Islamic corpus
of beliefs and practices that contribute to militant political action.
Second, it shall attempt an analysis of the Islamic concept of power
and how this conception relates to the existential situation of
Muslims in the contemporary world. Finally, it shall examine whether
there are any trends towards Islamic militancy in India and, if
the answer is in the affirmative, what forms it has assumed and
where it is located. In the process the paper would explain the
sources of this militant response in the Indian context.
The paper argues that associating militancy with Islam is itself
based on falsified notion of Islam as an aggressive religion spread
through sword. Islamic militancy is not possible in India because
of India’s adoption of liberal-democratic framework after
independence. India’s success as a democracy lies in its successful
handling of minority problems. According to Ahmad, the powerful
position of Muslim middle class who are more inclined to solve their
grievances through democratic means rather than taking to arms itself
render Islamic militancy impossible in India. The case of Kashmir
is quite different where militancy existed since the time of independence
and is essentially an autonomy movement. That those spearheading
this movement are Muslim is incidental to the whole issue. It cannot
thus be regarded as Islamic militancy.
The eclectic nature of Islam also discounts Islam as revolutionary
force and militancy as inherent in Islam. As put by Eaton, as in
South Asia as elsewhere, religious traditions have been continuously
redefined, reinterpreted, and contested, as competing social groups
have risen or fallen in prominence and influence. Unlike migrant
Islam in Europe, Indian Islam is historical Islam and there exists
a very close proximity between Indian Muslim and Indian Hindu across
cultural lines, which also makes Islamic militancy a distant possibility.
There is an increasing tendency on the part of Hindu right-wing
groups to present Muslims as the ‘other’ in order to
unite Hindus against the Muslim so as to consolidate their hold
over the power structure of the state. Even in the face of these
developments Islamic militancy has not found widespread expression
in India. This is not to deny that there are radical Muslim groups
in India, but they have failed so far to earn wide public acceptance.
Therefore, the paper will also analyze the possibility of growth
of Islamic militancy in India especially after the consolidation
of Hindutva forces in the nineties.
Paper Giver 2: Maleeha
Aslam, Dept. of Land Economy, Wolfson College, Cambridge
University, UK
Paper 2 Title: The Process
and Impact of Ideologization of Islam in Pakistan
Paper Abstract: This paper, as the
title suggests will look into the process of introduction of Islamic
Ideology in Pakistan and its consequences that were faced by the
nation. It looks into the systematic process through which the ruling
classes strengthened their power by misusing Islam as a tool of
oppression and suppression and by using religion for running surveillance
over the masses, especially women. Henceforth, today we are all
bearing witness to the widespread existence of injustices and inequalities
in Pakistani society. After taking into account the complexity of
the historical and socio political processes that brought Pakistan
to this stage, few solutions will also be recommended.
Pakistan, is an interesting country to study religion and the process
of development due to its strategic location; western influenced
culture; western-aided economy; presence of class structures e.g.
elites, feudals, military, bureaucrats, a divided Ulema and the
popular Sufis and Pirs; existence of some institutional infrastructure
inherited by the British; and most significantly an urban-female
population that is generally aware of its rights. However it is
unfortunate that most of the women do not have freedom. The justification
of their shackles is literally concocted through otherwise highly
yielding and agreeable Qur’anic verses. This is something
that makes discourses on religion a plinth for understanding many
development issues in Pakistan.
Though ‘Islamic ideology’ is still upheld and promoted,
the debate on its centrality continues amongst the intelligentsia.
The ideologization of Islam in present day Pakistan is disputed
by academics like Ayesha-Jalal, Hamza-Alavi, Aitzaz-Ahsan etc, who
maintain that the use of Islam for Pakistan movement was a short-term
political strategy of the Muslim statesmen of that time and is now
redundant. Therefore, they maintain that Pakistan movement must
be characterised as ‘Muslim’ and not ‘Islamic’,
led by diverse Muslim ethnic groups from different regions and social
strata. This is however rejected by the opposing intelligentsia,
who believe that Pakistan’s survival was due to this ‘Islamic
mandate’, otherwise its people are divided in ethnic and sectarian
groups. [Baxter;Malik;Kennedy and Oberst-1987].
It can be perceived effortlessly that the silencing of voices of
dissent in Pakistan, with or without force, made ‘ideologization
of Islam’ in Pakistan appear like an authoritarian process
unleashed by both pseudo-democratic governments and authoritarian
regimes of Pakistan to maintain the ‘state’ and ‘societal’
power structures and relations in the country. There remained some
grey areas in which the state itself appeared confused about its
Islamic ideology. However, largely as explained in the opening paragraph
Islam was used as a tool of oppression and suppression on the ‘poorer
sections of the society’. Sometimes the state succumbed to
the pressure of societal power-holders e.g. the Ulema, the landed
aristocracy and the capital-owning classes, to encapsulate the country
in ‘Islam’. This further developed a strong nexus between
the state and non-state elements to maintain their power and ensure
their share in the kitty. This political mess shaped Pakistan’s
negative societal attitudes e.g. supporting gross human rights violations
like honour-killings.
To me it appears that, sensible or insensible, ideologization of
Islam in Pakistan was not without a purpose, or a hidden agenda
to run power politics. Therefore It is extremely important to familiarise
ourselves with this issue. This would also help us realise that
it must not be Islam but the “application of Islam”
in the contemporary Muslim world that should be our point of concern.
Paper Giver 3: Y.H.
Nayakwadi, Dept. of History, Manasagangothri, Universsity
of Mysore, Mysore, India
Paper Title: State, Landed Intermediaries
and Peasants in Hyderabad State: A Study of Hyderabad-Karnataka
Region (1800-1948)
Panel report:
There were about 20 persons who attended the session.
We had lively debates about all the three papers. The practice
of veiling came up as major issue. It is interesting to note how
this symbolic act is interpreted in the West and also in India
at large. Most people seem to have forgotten that veiling was
quite common in the West two generations ago. A married woman
would not walk in public without a scarf covering her hair. This
was matter of being respectable. Today, the same act is considered
only from the point of view of emancipation. Women succumbing
to this practice are seen as oppressed and in need of liberation.
There is also not much understanding of how this simple symbol
stands for solidarity between people at a time of attacks on all
Muslims.
During the session we decided to start a discussion group on the
Internet which has now been done. Those interest to join can go
to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/islam_politics/
Contact Mr Taberez
A Neyayazi for further information, and to obtain the password
for the discussion group.
SASNET - Swedish South Asian Studies Network/Lund
University
Address: Scheelevägen 15 D, SE-223 70 Lund, Sweden
Phone: +46 46 222 73 40
Webmaster: Lars Eklund
Last updated
2006-01-27
