Between Nation and ‘Community’: Muslim Universities and Indian Politics after Partition

by: Laurence Gautier (Author)

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Publication Date: 2024/7/1

Language: English

Print Length: 360 pages

ISBN-10: 1009358499

ISBN-13: 9781009358491

Book Description

Between Nation and ‘Community’ examines the role of two universities – Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia – in shaping the discourse on Muslims in post-independence India, as citizens and as a minority group. Both universities were more than educational institutions – they acted as political sites, at the intersection between state actors, community organisations and ordinary Muslim citizens. Through them, state authorities sought to reach out to the so-called Muslim community and aimed to produce ‘good Muslims’ who would simultaneously be ‘good Indians’. This book is a close study of the relations between state and university actors thus giving us precious insights into the state’s ambivalent attitude towards Indians Muslims – at once urging them to act as un-hyphenated citizens, and yet constantly looking at them as a ‘different’ group.

About the Author

Between Nation and ‘Community’ examines the role of two universities – Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia – in shaping the discourse on Muslims in post-independence India, as citizens and as a minority group. Both universities were more than educational institutions – they acted as political sites, at the intersection between state actors, community organisations and ordinary Muslim citizens. Through them, state authorities sought to reach out to the so-called Muslim community and aimed to produce ‘good Muslims’ who would simultaneously be ‘good Indians’. This book is a close study of the relations between state and university actors thus giving us precious insights into the state’s ambivalent attitude towards Indians Muslims – at once urging them to act as un-hyphenated citizens, and yet constantly looking at them as a ‘different’ group.