Self and Sovereignty

by Ayesha Jalal

Self and Sovereignty surveys the role of individual Muslim men and women within India and Pakistan from 1850 through to decolonisation and the partition period.
Commencing in colonial times, this book explores and interprets the historical processes through which the perception of the Muslim individual and the community of Islam has been reconfigured over time. Self and Sovereignty examines the relationship between Islam and nationalism and the individual, regional, class and cultural differences that have shaped the discourse and politics of Muslim identity. As well as fascinating discussion of political and religious movements, culture and art, this book includes analysis
* press, poetry and politics in late nineteenth century India
* the politics of language and identity - Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi
* Muslim identity, cultural differnce and nationalism
* the Punjab and the politics of Union and Disunion
* the creation of Pakistan
Covering a period of immense upheaval and sometimes devastating violence, this work is an important and enlightening insight into the history of Muslims in South Asia.

Genres: History, Pakistan, Religion, Islam, India, Politics, Nonfiction

656 pages, Paperback

First published January 16, 2000

About the author

Ayesha Jalal is a Pakistani-American historian and academic, and the Mary Richardson Professor of History at Tufts University. Her work focuses on the military-industrial complex, post-colonial politics, and Muslim identity in South Asia. She is also known for positing in The Sole Spokesman that the Partition of India and Pakistan was less a political necessity than a terrible human tragedy and that the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was a pragmatist who was motivated by greater rights for the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent than the creation of a separate state.

Reviews

[Umar Tosheeb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ayesha Jalal heavily relies on Urdu press and poetry to analyze the Muslim and Hindu sentiments from 1850s to just before the partition of India. What gives these resources balance vis-a-vis Muslim and Hindu opinion is that both Hindus and Muslims wrote in Urdu. Hindus increasingly less so over time. Majority of Hindu newspapers in Punjab were written in Urdu. The label of the book is slightly misleading, the book is about Muslims, but it’s focus is North Indian Muslims and especially Punjab. The author exclusively relies on resources from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and to a lesser extent from Bengal. There is absence of South, Central, and Western Indian Muslims.
It is a fascinating read when it comes to languages, the part they played in the conflict between Hindus and Muslim. When it comes to Punjab, for administrative reasons, British scrapped Persian and made Urdu official language of the province. The author in detail describe the impact it had on literacy to relation between Hindu, Muslims, and Sikhs in the province. The comparison with Bengalis is an interesting one. On the one hand Punjabi elite was readily willing to give up Punjabi in the favor of Urdu, Bengali Muslims refused to do do. Already, decades before the partition, and later Bangladeshi independence from Pakistan, there was this stark difference when it comes to United Provinces (Uttar Pradesh, Bihar etc) and Punjab on the one hand and Bengal on the other. Punjabi and North Indian Muslims adopted Urdu as an identity language of Muslims, while Bengali Muslims refused.
Another major theme of the book is the downfall of Turkish Caliphate and what role it played on the psyche of Indian Muslims and why they were obsessed with the fall of the Caliphate.
It is a well researched book on the status of North Indian Muslims prior to the partition and possible motives behind the partition of India.

[Sanjida · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dense, academic, and repetitive, the work is not for those unversed with Indian and Muslim culture and the history of the Indian independence movement, as it doesn't pause for explanatory commas. I'm glad I waited until I'd read Ramachandra Guha's histories of India. Jalal offers a counterpoint to pro-Gandhi, pro-Congress narratives, which I found thought provoking. There's also a detailed take on the ideas of poet Muhammed Iqbal, the history of the Ahmedis, and a lot of Punjabi politics.

[Kavya]

This book combined various sources such as poetry and news reports to show how nationalism was formed in South Asia. Various thought processes intermingled and mutually reinforced communal identity. The British contributed with their colonial frameworks of identity that disregarded much of the spiritual aspect expresses.
The last part on partition highlighted the Sikh conundrum amidst various partition plans put forth by dominant parties. In the end most active wings of the Sikh self determination sided with Hindutva forces. All communal groups were male dominated and experienced radicalization and extreme patterns in speech at the cost of women's space in public as well as their personal safety.