The sameness of the ‘other’: India has an enduring Islamic legacy; confluence of art, culture make Muslims innate part of Indian history
FirstpostAt a time when the fault lines are becoming starker, how corrosive and baffling it would be to define the boundaries of an accepted Indian-ness along lines of Hindu and Muslim otherness? “The Hindu, like the eunuch,” wrote James Mill in the early 19th century, “excels in the qualities of a slave.” Through these sentiments, the Scottish historian, economist and philosopher was explaining what had become accepted wisdom – the categorising of India into clearly defined communities, Muslims and Hindus, separate and apart, in which the Hindus were described as weak, and effeminate, and the Muslims, though “duplicitous”, were nevertheless “manly and vigorous”. The self-loathing and the fear of emasculation that this created among certain Hindus called for the re-imagining of this weakened creature as one of a “dying race” with a once-glorious Aryan past. At this cosmopolitan Mughal court where Iranis, Afghans, Turks, Ethiopians, Indian Muslims and Central Asians rubbed shoulders with Rajput noblemen, Akbar composed verse in Hindi and elite noblemen like Abdur Rahim were accomplished Braj poets with a deep understanding of the Hindu religion. So, at a time when the fault lines are becoming starker, how corrosive and baffling it would be to define the boundaries of an accepted “Indian-ness”.
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