ABSTRACT
The narratives in this chapter are of two remarkable, and yet very different, women of Banaras who see themselves as not only Banarasi but also quite decidedly Muslim. The idiom is clearly very contemporary. Both the women are addressing the secular concerns of Muslims as they face the turbulent times of the late 20th and the early 21st centuries. In neither of the narratives does one find any trace of either diffidence or hostile sullenness. Instead, there is a great degree of confidence — confidence in laying claim to a common heritage and a shared discourse of staking claims to rights and entitlements in a democratic polity, albeit in different cadences.
