ABSTRACT
The expression Muslim identity has been in vogue in the Indian subcontinent for well over a century. Muslim organisations like the All-India Muslim League, which in its early years represented just a handful of government servants and landlords, invoked the separate and distinct identity of their co-religionists to stake their claim in the imperial system. For most British travellers, missionaries, administrators, and ethnographers, Islam was part of the great tradition and closed to external influences. For a balanced, objective and rounded view, it is necessary to explore the terrain of those scholars, artists and creative writers who contest the definition of Muslim identity in purely religious terms and refute the popular belief that Islamic values and symbols provides a key to understanding the Muslim world-view. For Muslim communities, in particular, it is important to reiterate secular positions, oppose the mixing of religion with politics, revive internal discussions on reforms and innovation, and ignore the rhetoric behind pronouncements on Muslim identity.
