Social Diversity, Hierarchy and cultural Heterogeneity Among Muslims of India

Though the media and other journalistic literature in recent years have projected Muslims as socially ‘monolithic’ and with the same ‘identity’ of ‘Muslimness’, Muslims in India, are as diverse and as disparate as ‘Hindus’. The religion as a thin veneer is spread over a block of diverse social practices and conceptions of sub-continental origin like caste, community, kinship, race, gender, language and food habits. This is why, Muslims in India have largely remained unaffected from social and political movements among Muslims elsewhere.

- Abdul Shaban

Social, cultural, religious and racial diversities have been the hallmark of India. In India, there is no single identity that is able to adequately signify individuals, families and groups as several identities criss-cross them. More often than not, they have to use one or the other identity to define and situate themselves in the cobweb of India's social formation. Followers of all the major religions of the world such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism are found in India. In fact, two geographies, western Asia and south Asia have been the hearth of these religions. The former three Abrahamic religions originated in the Middle East, while the latter four, in what is today, India and Pakistan. As per the Census of India 2011 (PIB 2015), the Hindus constitute 79.8 per cent while Muslims comprise 14.2 per cent of the total population of the country. Muslims are the second major religious community of India. The share of other religious groups has been miniscule though numerically significant.

The Geographic identity of people of the indian subcontinent

It is important to note that the collective identity of the people living to the east of the Indus, irrespective of their religion and belief systems, was that of the Hindus. Arabs, Greeks and Central Asians referred people living to the east of Indus as Hindus. As such it is a geographic identity. In fact, what we have today as Hinduism is not a religion having a homogenous belief and practice system, like other religions, but a collection of belief systems practiced by people living to the east of the Indus.