Crossing the Threshold

Abstract

Debate over the Hindu and Muslim religious identity, as well as the nature of the two communities’ interaction, has generated different answers. To some, it has been an interaction full of conflict and conflict-resolution between two irreconcilable faiths. To others, it remains impossible to reconstruct their history as one of convergence or divergence, due to the considerable variation in their cultures and religions over time. Khan addresses the question from a different perspective. According to her, “the Hindus or the Muslims whom the question addresses are not real characters” (p. 4): The religious identity of the “Self” is not completely distinct from that of the “Other” in medieval India. Thus, the sporadic clashes between Hindus and Muslims have been due mainly to political reasons and occasionally to economic factors, but definitely never to religious differences. Khan’s book dwells on the making of identity in the Indian subcontinent between medieval India and the end of the twentieth century. It seeks to explore the spiritual encounters between the indigenous Hindu traditions and Islam, their historical harmonious coexistence, and their present predicaments, with special reference to the intermediary position of Nizari Ismailism, a Shi`i sect. Based on field research, observation, and personal experience, the author demonstrates with vivid case studies, legends, and folklore how the two peoples had formerly lived by shared deities and how the change of identity based on Hindu nationalism and Islam has wrought havoc. The book is broadly divided into four chapters. Chapter 1 examines some important terminologies that underpin religio-cultural identities in Indian history. In ancient and medieval India, people were distinguished by socio-religious strata, first by the varna system (socio-ritual categories) and later by the jati panth (caste and sect) system. A similar thing applied to Indian Muslims, who were hierarchically categorized as Ashrafs (referring to nobles, foreign Muslims) and Ajlafs (referring to converts), but not simply as “Muslims.” The interface between the indigenous Hindu religion and Islam goes beyond the terminological resemblance and reaches the heart of religious rituals and ideologies. In chapter 2, the author cites three modes of interaction ...