30 – South Asian Islam and the World: In Search for a New Paradigm

As global networks, diasporas, populism, political theology, and legal regimes take center stage in South Asian Studies, this panel gathers contributions that point out the salience of Muslim communities in South Asia for investigating such themes. The aim is to highlight approaches actively breaking down established area studies barriers which far too often associate “relevant” and “normative” Islam only with the Middle East. Instead, we are interested in contributions that both show how Islam in South Asia is perceptive of and open to global Islamic trends but also, crucially, how South Asian thinkers and movements have made premodern and modern Islam. Over the last decade, a rise in Indian Ocean Studies has demonstrated, for instance, how Muslim groups and Islamic law have shaped the Western Indian Ocean in terms of legal frameworks and trade. Similarly, attempts have been made to consider Deobandi Islam not only as an Indian and Pakistani phenomenon but to investigate how it has established itself in places such as South Africa, the UK, and Iran. Abu l-A‘la Maududi and his Jamaat-e-Islami are increasingly understood not simply as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood but become recognized for having established essential frameworks for Islamist thought worldwide. One should also mention studies that have identified South Asian Shi‘i scholars as towering interlocutors in modern negotiations of the faith. Yet, despite these encouraging signs in scholarship, there is limited effort to bundle these and other conversations into one single forum to make a convincing case for the centrality of South Asian Muslim approaches to global Islam beyond the Subcontinent. This ECSAS panel provides such an innovative angle and is also attentive, despite its focus on Islam, not to lose sight of broader conversations in South Asian Studies.

Convenor

Simon Wolfgang Fuchs -