Legacy of a divided nation: India's muslims since independence

This important work analyses the current
condition of India's polity and its relationship
with Muslims. It also provides new
information on India's Muslims before and
after Independence.
Professor Hasan looks at the origins of
Muslim separatism under the British, at the
making of Partition, and at the meanings of
these for a host of Muslim communities,
families and individuals. His book examines
the establishment of the 'Nehruvian
consensus' - with its secular vision for
India's future - in the 1940s and 1950s, and
delineates secular identities as well as the
Muslim organizations which ran counter to
this process.
Mushirul Hasan illustrates the role of
Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia
Islamia as bearers of the 'beacon lights' of
modern and secular understandings of the
Muslim future in India. He then examines
the break-up of the Nehruvian consensus
from the 1960s through to the present,
focussing in particular on the reasons for the
growth of communal activity and the retreat
of both Hindus and Muslims into communal,
political camps. Finally the book surveys the
state of India's Muslims in the period after
the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
Professor Hasan believes that there still
exists a secular platform in India, even if this
has been somewhat narrowed. He argues for
its importance at the current conjuncture,
when the spectre of a supposed 'Islamic
menace' has globally created a sharp
civilizational divide. Professor Hasan's
moderate and modernist voice will help build
bridges in these difficult times, when
positions have hardened and battle lines
drawn.