While jihad has been the subject of countless studies in the wake of recent terrorist attacks, scholarship on the topic has so far paid little attention to South Asian Islam and, more specifically, its place in South Asian history. Seeking to fill some gaps in the historiography, Ilyse R. Morgenstein Fuerst examines the effects of the 1857 Rebellion (long taught in Britain as the 'Indian Mutiny') on debates about the issue of jihad during the British Raj. Morgenstein Fuerst shows that the Rebellion had lasting, pronounced effects on the understanding by their Indian subjects (whether Muslim, Hindu or Sikh) of imperial rule by distant outsiders. For India's Muslims their interpretation of the Rebellion as jihad shaped subsequent discourses, definitions and codifications of Islam in the region. Morgenstein Fuerst concludes by demonstrating how these perceptions of jihad, contextualised within the framework of the 19th century Rebellion, continue to influence contemporary rhetoric about Islam and Muslims in the Indian subcontinent.Drawing on extensive primary source analysis, this unique take on Islamic identities in South Asia will be invaluable to scholars working on British colonial history, India and the Raj, as well as to those studying Islam in the region and beyond.

Focuses on the period leading up to the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

Dr Hardy has attempted a general history of British India's Muslims with a deeper perspective. He shows how the interplay of memories of past Muslim supremacy, Islamic religious aspirations and modern Muslim social and economic anxieties with the political needs of the alien ruling power gradually fostered a separate Muslim politics. Dr Hardy argues (contrary to the usual view) that Muslims were able to take political initiatives because, in the region of modern Uttar Pradesh, British rule before 1857 and even the events of the Mutiny and Rebellion of 1857-8 had not been economically disastrous for most of them. He stresses the force of religion in the growth of Muslim political separatism, showing how the 'modernists' kept the conversation among Muslims within Islamic postulates and underlining the role of the traditional scholars in heightening popular religious feeling. Regarding any sense of Muslim political unity and nationhood as an outcome of the period of British rule, Dr Hardy shows the limitations and frailty of that unity and nationhood by 1947.

This volume presents important documents recording reactions of Muslims in the period following Independence and the Partition of India, and in the subsequect fifty years. Besides key political developments, documets on topics such as Hindu revivalism and Muslim responses, the Babri Masjid question, the Supreme Court's ruling on the Shah Bano case, Rajiv Gandhi's discussions with Muslim leader and the issue of personal laws provide insights into Muslim participation in post-Independence polity anad society. This book will interest students and scholars of modern Indian history and politics, journalists, and general readers.

Syed Ahmed Khan was one of the leading figures of Muslim India, and the Revolt of 1857 was the defining moment of his life. He wrote this analysis soon after he witnessed the brutal revenge the British took on Delhi once the Revolt was suppressed. His primary aim was to correct the misconception that the uprising was merely a Muslim conspiracy. Instead, he argued, the Revolt was a widespread response to the failure of the British to admit Indians into the Legislative Council, effectively preventing them from having any say in government policies. Before the Revolt he had been a scholar and civil servant; after, he began a political career that helped transform modern India. This book provides both a vivid firsthand account of the events and rich insight into one the central personalities.