
At the Confluence of Two Rivers
Muslims & Hindus in South India
Jackie Assayag(Author)
Manohar Publishers and Distributors
Published on 1. January 2003
Book
Hardback
314 pages
978-81-7304-512-7 (ISBN)
Description
Relations between Hindus and Muslims are a matter of vital concern in contemporary India. Analysis of the relations between Islam and Hinduism, frequently reduced to stereotypes, is not always accompanied by a thorough consideration of the complexity of the mutual relations of attraction and repulsion which the people of the Book' and various Hindu castes have maintained for more than a thousand years. Having evoked the historical and social circumstances of the implantation of Islam in South Asia, the author presents the situation of Muslims in Karnataka, where the dynamics of the cultural forms of pair alterity/identity has seldom been studied. In the framework of an anthropological investigation conducted in the region over a period of several years, the complexity of interactions between Hindus and Muslims fully emerges. Their relations are explored in the village and in the urban milleu, among saints cum-healers or during ceremonies of fakirs, across hybrid cults or within the individual community, in daily life as well as on the occasion of festivals. Finally, the socio-historical study of the rise to prominence of the inter-communitarian conflict in a town of average size reveals how the demarcation of new boundaries, which are nevertheless secular, today heightens a communitarian exclusivism which extends to the core of collective memories. Thus, local knowledge casts light on the destiny of the subcontinent, at the same time as it offers possibilities of comparison.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Delhi
India
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
25 illus
Dimensions
Height: 225 mm
Width: 145 mm
Weight
522 gr
ISBN-13
978-81-7304-512-7 (9788173045127)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Jackie Assayag is Director of Research at the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) and affiliated to EHESS, Paris. He has worked extensively on anthropology, sociology and politics in modern India. He is the author of La colere de la deesse decapitee. Traditions, cultes et pouvoir dans le Sud de l'Inde; L'Inde fabuleuse; L'Inde. Desir de nation; and the editor of The Resources of History. Tradition, Narration and Nation in South Asia; and co-editor of Alterite et identiti. Ism et christianisme en Inde; La possession en Asie du Sud; At Home in Diaspora. South Asian Intellectuals and the West
Content
Introduction: Muslims in South India: A Historical Overview; Sociogeneses & Dynamic Acculturation; Separatism, Revivalism & Nationalism; Society: Hindus & Muslims in the Village: Shahabandar Village; Demonology: Power versus 'Powers': Demonology in North Karnataka; Devotion: Sufism & the Fakirs: Islam & Sufism; Mythology: Let us Pray to Allah in the Name of Vishnu: Rivers, Village & Temple of Yamanur; Cult: The Goddess & the Saint: The Centrality of Hinduism & the Off-Centre Position of Muslims; Politics: The Border, Communalism & Remembrance: Border Dispute to Communal Conflict; Conclusion: At the Confluence of Two Oceans; Appendices; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.