The Islamic Connection: South Asia And The Gulf

Description

The region inhabited by the largest number of Muslims-roughly 500 million-today is South Asia. In the course of the Islamization process that began in the eighth century, the region developed a distinct Indo-Islamic civilization that culminated in the Mughal Empire. In the Gulf, while paying lip service to the power centres, including Mecca and Medina, this civilization cultivated its own variety of Islam, which was based on Sufism. Over the last fifty years, pan-Islamic ties have intensified between these two regions. Gathering together some of the best specialists on the subject, this volume explores these ideological, educational and spiritual networks, which have gained momentum due to political strategies, migration flows and increased communications. At stake are both the resilience of the civilization that imbued South Asia with a specific identity and the relations between Sunnis and Shias in a region where Saudi Arabia and Iran are fighting a cultural proxy war. The Islamic Connection investigates the nature and implications of the cultural, spiritual and socio-economic rapprochement between these two Islams.

Christophe Jaffrelot is Director of CERI and Editor-in-Chief of Critique Internationale. He teaches South Asian Politics at Sciences Po (CERI). His most recent publications are The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics, 1925 to the 1990s, La democratie en IndeReligion, caste et politique and Dr. Ambedkar, leader intouchable et pere de la Constitution indienne. He has edited L'Inde contemporaineDe 1950 a nos jours, Le Pakistan, carrefour de tensions regionales, Democraties d'ailleursDemocraties et democratisations hors d'Occident and Le Pakistan. He has also co-edited with Blom Hansen, The BJP and the Compulsions of Politics in India.