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| The Hindu Phenomenon |
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RETREAT AND RAGE |
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membership of the larger ummah does not also mean that there has
been nothing specifically Indian about Indian Islam. It would have
been surprising if this had been the case 13.
But when we talk in civilizational terms which is necessary in view
of the universal nature of Islam, issues have to be framed in the
broader context.
It seems to me incontestable that, as
in the larger Islamic world, Muslims have been on the retreat in
India also. While the process of Hindu self-renewal and self
affirmation has been on since the latter part of the eighteenth
century no similar process has been in evidence among Indian Muslims
since the battle of Plassey in 1757. Indeed since the decline of the
Mughal empire, beginning with Aurangzeb's death in 1707, the first
priority of Indian Muslims, albeit not quite conscious and well-articulated,has
been self-definition and self- preservation and not
self-advancement. All major movements among them, beginning with
Shah Waliullah 14 in the eighteenth
century, have been inspired principally by this concern for
demarcation from Hindus and Hindu practices which the converts had
brought with them 15. |
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