Marriage customs among muslims in India : a sociological study of the Shia marriage customs

The present book is the revised version of the dissertation on Shia marriage customs in Uttar Pradesh for which the University of Lucknow has awarded doctorate.

It is a painful fact that whatever has been written on Indian Muslims, no matter how meagre it is, is related to Sunni Muslims, to a great extent. As a result one of the most important sects of Islam viz., Shias, remained hidden under the thick wall of apathy and indifference. Only Hollister (1953), a Christian missionary, cared to write a little book on the Shias. Another fact which deserves attention is that there is not even a single book on the institution of marriage among the Indian Muslims. It also implies that despite the over emphasis on the study of Sunni Muslims many facts of this sect too, remain untouched and unexplored.

After the advent of Muslims in India, both Hindus and Muslims have been influenced reciprocally. The present book is an attempt to acquaint the readers with three important aspects of Shia Muslims, i.e., religious, legal and social with reference to the important findings about the influence of Hindu customs on Muslim marriage, especially on Shias.

According to Prof. Hitti (1951) Shias constitute about 15% of the entire Muslims of the globe. Unfortunately, we do not have any accurate figure of the population of Shias residing in India due to their non-inclusion in the decennial censuses taken in India after 1931 onwards. But according to the previous figures and the information obtained from Shia agencies, there are about 20% Shias among the entire Muslim population in India and the main concentration being in Uttar Pradesh. According to many Shia organisations the majority of the Indian Shias inhabit Uttar Pradesh, and Lucknow, alone contains about one lakh Shias.