This article aims at understanding how Muslims of India are trying to restore and reconstruct their patterns of life disturbed or threatened by the effects of the internationalization of the economy. The discursive practices among Muslims in response to the processes of economic internationalization have been looked at with reference to two types of Islamic movements, namely Jamaat-e-Islami and Tablighi Jamaat. While Jamaat-e- Islami's ideology is essentially instrumental and "outwardly directed", the Tablighi Jamaat is expressive and "inwardly oriented". On the one hand, Jamaat-e-Islami strives at capturing state power for establishing Islamic order. The Tablighi Jamaat, on the other hand, underplays political power by bypassing the state and concentrates on civil society, identity, and cultural issues of Islam. The commonality is concerning the way Muslims are engaged in the reconstruction of their identities through cultural politics that provides stabilizing mechanisms in the context of a fast changing and chaotic global environment. In last resort, the deeper analysis reveals that Tablighi Jamaat is also essentially political in nature.
Economic Internationalization - Islamic Resurgence - Jamaat-e-Islami - Tablighi Jamaat - Identity Politics - Cultural Politics
S. ZAINUDDIN is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Social Work, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, U.P., India. He has published research papers on Status Groups among Muslims in India, classes among Muslims in North India, Elite and Power Groups among Muslims in India, Tablighi Movement in India. His research interests include Globalization and Culture, Social Movements among Muslims in India, and Religion and Politics among Muslims.
Author Name (Year), “Title”, in: The International Scope Review, Volume Number, Issue Number, TSCF Editions, Brussels.
This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the IVth Conference of the Asia-Pacific Sociological Association in Japan in September 2000. The author would like to express his sincere thanks to Vice-Chancellor Hamid Ansari, for sanctioning a University travel grant to enable him to present this paper at the APSA Conference. He is immensely indebted to his senior colleague, Professor Shad Bano Ahmad (Dept. of Sociology and social work, AMU, Aligarh) for her constant support, encouragement and helpful comments in the preparation of this article.
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