Self and Sovereignty Individual and Community in South Asian Islam Since 1850 AYESHA JALAL London and New York
Contents Lists of Maps Preface List of Abbreviations ix xi xxi 1. The Muslim Self and the Loss of Sovereignty: Individual and Community Before 1858 1 a) The Muslim as Individual 2 b) The City as Identifier 10 c) Region and Language in Muslim Consciousness 15 d) Muslims, the Idea of India and the Revolt of 1857 27 e) The Loss of Sovereignty and the Reformulation of Identity 37 2. Forging a Muslim Community: Press, Poetry and Politics in the Late Nineteenth Century 43 a) Colonalism and Print in North-western India 48 b) Press and Poetry as Markers of Identity 54 i) Muslim as Rebel, Muslim as Category 58 ii) The Vexed Question of Loyalty 60 iii) Muslims and 'Modernity' 67 iv) Woman as Ornament, Woman as Prostitute 69 v) Colonial Modernity and Male Rationality 72 vi) Community and Class: Conversion, Cow and Conflict 78
vi Contents c) The Private as Public and the Politics of Difference 86 i) Education and Employment 88 ii) Representing Communities and Nations 92 3. Common Languages, Contested Scripts, Conflicted Communities: Shifting Identities of Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi 102 a) The Identity of Language, Education and Employment 104 i) Education for Whom? 108 ii) Pleading with Officialdom 114 iii) Romanized Punjabi and Mass Education 122 b) Language as Identity: The Hindi-Urdu Dispute 124 c) Turn-of-the-Century Politics of Language 133 4. Muslims as a Legal and Political Category: Subjecthood in Theory and Practice 139 a) Courts, Customs and Communities 143 i) Qazis, Sects and Muslim Law 148 b) Compartmentalizing the Muslim: Politics as Identity 153 ii) Race t Nation and Nationality in the Punjab Press 160 c) Reconfiguring the Individual and Community In Islam 165 5. Identity and Sovereignty in Muslim Consciousness: The Khilafat Crescent and the Indian Charkha 187 a) Hakimiyat, the Ummah and the Khilafat 188 b) God, Government and Gandhi 195 i) Striking for Rights: Hijrat or Non-cooperation 214 c) Cultural Difference and National Accommodation 237 d) The Embarrassments of Nationalism in the Punjab 247 6. Contested Sovereignty in the Punjab: The Interplay of Formal and Informal Politics 262 a) The Politics of Union and Disunion 265 b) Regional Religious or National Rights? 271 c) Satanic Prose and the Difference Within 284 i) The Ahmadi 'Heresy' 290 ii) Press Incivility and Public Culture 297
Contents vii d) The Delhi Proposals, the Nehru Report and Simon's un-solomonic Paper 300 i) Khilafatists, Νau Jawans and the Nehruvian Ideal 303 ii) Punjabis on the Nehru Report 307 7. Between Region and Nation: The Missing Centre 320 a) Punjab: A View from the 'Whole? 322 i) Iqbal's Vision of 'Muslim India' 324 ii) The Sikh Factor, the Depression and Denominational Assertions 334 b) Relating the Muslim Parts to a 'Whole' 342 i) Kashmir Jannat Nazeer: Ahrar Reds and Ahmadi Blues 351 c) The Toss-up for the Centre and Communal-Nationalism in the Region 370 i) Punjab's Political Breakdown: Progressive Bigots Versus Reactionary Liberals 371 ii) Communal Means for Nationalist Ends 377 8. At the Crossroads of 'Pakistan': Muslim Imaginings and Territorial Sovereignty 386 a) 'Muslim Schemes' of the Late-1930s Reconsidered 388 b) 'Pakistan' in the North-western Region 400 i) The Islamic Roots of 'Pakistan'? 409 c) A Gathering Storm, a Sobering Lull 422 i) Prostituting or Proselytizing Islam? 424 ii) Sikh Schemes for the Punjab 433 iii) Hindus, Hindi and Hindustan 436 vi) Promises and Prospects: The League in the Punjab 441 v) Simla Sizzles and Election Fever 449 vi) A War of the Fatwas: Muslim versus Muslim 453 d) Voting for Religion?: Elections and Their Aftermath 460 9. Lost Tracks to Unity: Confrontation, Compromise and Civil War 472 a) The Muslim Groundswell for 'Pakistan' and the Cabinet Mission 473 i) Arming to Survive, Arming to Kill? 479 ii) Sikhs, the All-India Federation and the League's 'Pakistan' 485 iii) Awaiting Peace, Affecting Strife The Hindu-Muslim Tussle 494
viii Contents b) Separating at Close Quarters: The Punjab Partitioned! 504 i) 'Alas Punjab!' Waris Shah from the Grave 506 10. Epilogue An Unhealing Wound: Paradoxes of Muslim Identity, Sovereignty and Citizenship 563 a) Divided Community, United Nation? 567 b) The Muslim 'Else' in Postcolonial South Asia 570 c) Mazhab and Qaum: Khuda, Khudi and Khudikhtiyari 574 Glossary 579 Select Bibliography 582 Index 596