280 Islam and Modernity
are the reformists (modernists, adaptationists), Islamists (fundamentalists) and
traditionalists. Using three Indian representatives, I have elaborated on their
implications for identity. Building upon insights from both Taylor and Fanon,
the chapter has turned attention to the dual critical movements directed against
the self and the other.
With regard to the period after 1967, I propose that a more careful look at
the availability of these options and patterns would help us understand the con-
struction of modern Islamic religious identities. In this period, political action,
dress and radical politics are hardly the preserve of any one of these highly
charged appropriations of identities. They weave and play between the styles,
liberally using the critical apparatuses that the earlier articulations provide. The
religious dimensions of identities are given by the employment of these styles of
action.
Summary of chapter
Muslim identities, with particular reference to their religious dimensions, are based on
styles of action that have characterised Muslim attitudes and responses since the
beginning of Islam. In the modern context, these styles of actions were imprinted by
their critical responses to modern colonial and post-colonial states from the second
half of the nineteenth century. Broadly speaking, there were three styles of actions of
relevance to modern Muslim identities. These were the reformists (modernists,
adaptationists), Islamists (fundamentalists) and traditionalists. Using three Indian
representatives, this chapter has elaborated on their implications for identity in the
framework of Taylor and Fanon. Taylor located identity in modernity and the
Enlightenment, while Fanon located it in colonialism and post-colonialism. Building
upon their insights, the chapter has turned attention to the double critical movements
directed against the self and the other. The three styles of action provide the patterns
and the choices on which identities have been constructed in various sites. They were
already clearly articulated before the 1960s and 1970s, when the turn to identities on a
global scale became evident. The post-1967 period provided an opportunity to create
the self and the other out of the many possibilities presented by these early modern
styles. Rather than examining reformists, Islamists and traditionalists as distinct
movements or social groups, the chapter suggests that we see the construction of
Muslim identities from their tropes and themes for individuals, states and societies
who appropriated them after 1967.
Questions
- The notion of identities arises in specifi c historical contexts. What do you think
gave rise to different identities in different periods of the modern age? When did
this take place? What was the meaning of identities in these different times? What
was the impact of colonialism and modern state formation on identities? - This chapter has briefl y referred to John Voll’s analysis of Muslim ‘styles of action’
in response to change, in modern as well as in pre-modern times. Is the strong
focus on identity formation in these responses specifi c to modernity? If so, why do
you think this is the case?