Can a Muslim university be an Indian university? These are the first words in Dr Laurence Gautier’s book Between Nation and ‘Community’ - Muslim Universities & Indian Politics after Partition, in which she explores the history, nature and contribution of India’s leading Muslim universities - Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI), two institutions which in her words acted, “as crucibles for competing conceptions of ‘Indian Muslimness’ in post-independence India.”
This MBM conversation is with researcher and author, Laurence Gautier where we discuss how these universities, their members and students played key roles in recognising the needs of a new India in terms of education, nation-building and social reform.
We dive deeper into debates and contestation of ideas around the Indian Muslim identity that continues to evolve and the ways in which many figures, men and women, both worked towards making it more encompassing and holistic, despite the internal and external challenges. The conversation also sheds some light on caste-based politics, women’s participation in universities, and the possible future roles of both these universities in the making of modern India.
In this episode we use abbreviations - ‘AMU’ for Aligarh Muslim University and ‘JMI’ for Jamia Millia Islamia.
About Dr Laurence Gautier:
Laurence Gautier is a researcher at the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH), New Delhi. She completed her PhD in History at the University of Cambridge and taught at O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat before joining CSH. She writes on Muslim politics, secularism, nation-building and university politics in post-independence India. Between Nation and Community is her first monograph. She also co-edited Historicizing Sayyid-ness: Social Status and Muslim Identity in South Asia with Julien Levesque (JRAS, 2020).
Episode notes:
Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1860-1900 (Barbara D. Metcalfe, Princeton University Press, 1982)
Emotions and Modernity in Colonial India: From Balance to Fervor (Margrit Pernau, Oxford University Press, 2019)
Imagined Communities - Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (Benedict Anderson, Verso Books)
Sajida Zaidi,celebrated Urdu writer,passes away at 84 (The Indian Express, March 2011)
Zahida Zaidi writings (Rekhta)
Social Exclusion of Muslims in India and Britain (Sabah Khan, Journal of Social Inclusion Studies Volume 6, Issue 1, June 2020)
Mandal Commission Report (National Commission for Backward Classes
A Constitutional Body under Article 338B of the Constitution of India)
Why caste among Muslims must be studied (Shireen Azam and Srinivas Goli, The Indian Express, May 2022)
Gerda Philipsborn, the Lesser Known Maker of Jamia Millia Islamia (Mahtab Alam, The Wire, October 2021)
MBM visual identity design by Shazia Salam || Music by Jupneet Singh
EP32 - The roles of AMU and Jamia Millia Islamia in post-partition India