Abstract
Shia Islam in Colonial India: Religion, Community and Sectarianism, by Justin Jones, aims to study religious and social transformations among the Shia community in colonial India, particularly the period from the 1880s to 1930s. Indeed, since this is a rich and pivotal turning point in the formation of Muslim identity politics, a book devoted solely to understanding the Shia community is a welcome contribution to the growing area of studies on South Asian Muslims. Few books discuss Shi’ism in India in such detail and this book with its reliance on myriad primary and secondary sources will hopefully carve the way for future studies. In particular, it is a novel contribution for showing how Shi’ism is not only a distinct identity and religion but also how it consciously defined itself as one during that period. Ossified religious categories are revealed as deliberate outcomes of the local and national imaginings of what it means to not only be Muslim or Indian Muslim but also in this case what it means to be a Shia Muslim in India.
The author begins from the premise that the 1857 Mutiny represented a cataclysmic shift in Indian political life and society and was particularly detrimental for the Shia community. In particular, the annexation of new territory by the East Company, the removal of key figureheads of Muslim rule, the seizure of inherited landholdings and the imposition of what was seen as ‘Western’ education resulted in a loss of confidence and power among the Muslim elites. One particularly vivid example of the physical transformation of space includes the conversion of Shia mosques into British military garrisons, police depots, medical dispensaries and stables for livestock. However, this loss of power also created the opportunity for Shias to create themselves anew outside of traditional forms of Muslim patronage and state control such that Shi’ism experienced resurgence by the early 1900s. But what is particularly important about this study is that it does not take for granted the notion of a Shia or sectarian identity but discusses the ways in which it was consciously formulated and asserted during a period of tremendous social and political change.
The book is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 discusses clerical expansion through the bureaucratisation of religious education in madrasas, the reinvigoration of the Shia clergy, particular the mujtahids or senior clergy who gained an unprecedented prominence in public life since the Nawabi period by expanding their networks now that old forms of patronage had been lost. Alongside these changes, proselytizing or tabligh also took on new forms through printing technology and the growth of publishing houses, which allowed for more creative, vernacular expressions of religious sentiment as opposed to just religious scholarship. Chapter 2 focuses upon the expansion of Shia popular practice through religious ceremony, display and public preaching. In particular, religious festivals such as Muharram were carried out with greater experimentation and exuberance. The plurality of these practices led to a ‘marketplace Shi’ism’ whereby the sheer diversity and number of patrons, preachers and professional mourners gave its religious public many options from which to choose. The rituals of Muharram were a central aspect of this shift and actually one manifestation of growing religious sectarianism between Sunnis and Shias whereas previously Muharram had brought the two communities together. Chapter 3 focuses upon public service and charitable institutions through Shia anjumans, and Shia waqf, Muslim religious endowments. This chapter also builds upon changing language among Shia vernacular, problematizing the development of a Shia qaum or ‘nation’. Chapter 4, arguably one of the most important chapters of this book, examines the role of Shi’ism within larger Muslim networks, particularly the well-known Aligarh reformist Movement, anti-colonial jihadism and pan-Islam, or the consciousness of an Islamic universalism rooted in the perpetuation of the Ottoman sultanate. Very little has been written about the politicization of Shias within these pivotal moments of the Indian Muslim narrative. Generally the chapter argues that while many Shia were heavily involved in these larger political social movements, many other Shias chose to organize and view their struggles as independent. One salient example is Shia opponents of the Aligarh movement’s prognoses for communal relations. The discussion on jihad also points out that while Shi’ism does not theologically support jihad since the absent Twelfth Imam is the only one qualified to make this declaration, in reality many recent social movements of Islamic resistance have creatively used the concept of jihad. And finally, Chapter 5 concludes by examining the Shia–Sunni conflict through the tabarra agitation, possibly the most significant sectarian conflict in colonial or post-colonial India, where 18,000 Shias were jailed over several months in Lucknow for an organized collective recitation of long-banned curses cast upon the early Caliphs leading to riots. While earlier chapters hint at the tensions between Shias and Sunnis, this chapter looks at the results of that growing tension. But the chapter also examines the changing demographics, including population increase, to understand why this confrontation occurred at this particular time.
Historically, Shias have always distinguished themselves from their Sunni counterparts through their historical reading of the role of the Caliph Ali and the martyrdom of Imams Hasan and Hussain. While in the pan-Islamic community, Shias may be associated with Iran or Iraq, it is interesting to see in this study that focuses upon the Isna Ashari branch of Shi’ism, how the Shia community distinguished itself from Sunni Muslims where both share the same culture and lived space. For example, Muslims associated with the Aligarh Movement began donning a Turkish cap to demonstrate their identity, while many Shias in response adopted the Persian kulah cap. Our modern-day understanding of Muslims remains so superficial that these small details on the differences among Muslims, particularly for a historical period where Muslims were realizing the value of a religious identity politics that could exert influence on local and national politics and later generate vote-banks, is fascinating material. Yet conversely, what the author also shows is that many of the attempts to distinguish Shi’ism from Sunni Islam came about through the changes in modernization and globalization that were affecting the society at large. So, for example, the development of printing allowed for greater dissemination of religious texts and treatises and proselytization. And the formation of institutional networks that resulted in large conferences and gatherings also gave Shias the feeling of a separate and autonomous identity.
While the book provides many rich and descriptive details of the author’s various points, the density of the material can make it difficult to grasp larger points or move through the material easily. In this sense, more narratives, anecdotes and excerpted exchanges among key figures might have provided a better illustration of key points and images. While the topic of this book is no less relevant than works such as the Last Mughal or White Mughal by William Dalrymple, it is less accessible. The sheer dearth of material on Muslims, especially Shia Muslims, during this period begs for more widely read works on the subject.
On the whole, we are still learning about how this period in colonial India affected Muslims and how Muslims responded after such a loss of political and social power. This is a rich and important study for those who wish to move beyond simplistic categories of the ‘Muslim’ in India. And as the author points out, an understanding of the development of Shia identity, as well as the role of sectarian conflicts implies the need for future studies that not only focus upon hardened identities but open up debates about the leadership and religious practices within those schools themselves. As his discussion of the tabarra agitation shows, the nuanced events and conflagrations among the Sunni and Shia community in Lucknow in the 1930s resulted from hardening Sunni and Shia identities. Rahi Masoom Reza’s semi-autobiographical tale, The Village Divided, (Penguin Books, 2003) written from the perspective of a Shia villager in eastern Uttar Pradesh and organized along the events of Muharram, came to mind as it illustrates the tragic outcome of this growing sectarianism that Justin expounds on at length. Justin’s approach to Sunni–Shia conflicts is not unlike the recent scholarly shifts around Hindu–Muslim communalism that interrogate the defining of communal identities to better understand these conflicts. This book will aid future scholars writing on Muslims in South Asia further along that path.