This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1973.

"Islam in the Public Sphere explores the contestation of the public sphere by different Islamic groups and traditions in colonial India. It traces the genesis of madrasa-based movements and Islamic groups in South Asia and helps understand the roots of the current state of Islamic activism and militancy in the region." "This book will be an interesting read for historians, political scientists, and journalists as well as scholars and students interested in religious studies and the history of Islam and Islamic groups, with respect to nationalist politics in South Asia."--BOOK JACKET.

Summary: "Since the rise of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the traditional Islamic schools known as the madrasa have frequently been portrayed as hotbeds of terrorism. For much longer, the madrasa has been considered by some as a backward and petrified impediment to social progress. However, for an important segment of the poor Muslim populations of Asia, madrasas constitute the only accessible form of education. This volume presents an overview of the madrasas in countries such as China, Indonesia, Malayisia, India and Pakistan."--Publisher description.