[Reader-list] The Islamic Flag of Indian Muslims

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear Kshmendra

This is with respect to your response to Javed's mail.

Contrary to your view, I think, it is the manner in which a
homogenizing category like 'Indian Muslim' is mounted in popular
discourse, is deeply problematic to me.

In my opinion Javed raised an important question, 'Who is an Indian Muslim'?

Any contention which seeks to disregard the questioning of such a
category as 'meaningless' tends to create a mischief. The reason being
simple. One do not know who an Indian Muslim is. Therefore any
discourse which seeks to investigate an overlap of so called national
and religious identities or accompanying symbols must clarify what
these categories stand for. I think on a platform, like this one, we
can afford any amount of time and any volume of words to make sure
that a suitable clarification is reached.

By the way of an inquiry of this nature, we can, I hope, begin, by
assuming that a category called Indian Muslim does in fact exists.
After which we can start asking preliminary questions like- Who is an
Indian Muslim? Where is this category coming from? When did this
category first come into play in popular consciousness? Who devised
such a category? Why was this category constructed? What was the
nature of construction of such a category? What were the
socio-politico conditions when such a category was devised? Can we
find an example of an Indian Muslim? Would that example be truly
representative of all the people of India who cite Islam as their
religion? If yes then in what manner?  What are various theological
strands of Islam in India? How are they different from each other? In
what manner are they consistent or inconsistent with the idea of
Islam? Can those strands be unified as one? Could there be a singular
representation of a religion which is divergent in theory and
practice? If no, then would it be correct to club them together as one
and present them in a universally identifiable category like
'Muslims'?

Warm regards

Taha