ABSTRACT
This chapter emerged from a clinical encounter between Shifa (the first author) and Dev in a Delhi clinic. Both authors of the chapter are Muslim women and psychoanalytic psychotherapists who have worked to the greater extent with Hindu clients in the urban space of the capital city of India. The high proportion of Hindu clients may only reflect the demographics of India, where over 80% of the population is counted to be Hindu. It is rarer to see Muslims in the other chair: that of the psychotherapist. Sitting in this ‘other chair’ has been difficult and not so difficult for us as psychotherapists. It has been difficult because before we reach the clinic we are already confronted with psychoanalytic literature in India that posits the Indian Muslim as the Other, the outsider.
