AKAM Lecture Series: 03

Topic: Reformism, Piety and Politics: A Study of Muslim Counter public through the Life and Works of MakthiThangal

Presenter: Dr. Sherin B.S, Asst. Professor, Dept. of Comparative Literature, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad

Moderator: Dr. M. Parameswaran

Abstract:
Gender and caste are two axes through which historiography envisages the field of reform movements. Generally, Indian nationalism incorporates these apparently diverse discursive domains into its fold, and many historians have delineated the intrinsic patterns of gendering and caste structuring woven into the designs of imagining the nation, adjunct to the reform movements. However, early twentieth century and late nineteenth century socio religious movements rose from different ethos in different communities and the constitutive field of anti-colonial sentiments were variously embraced by different communities. If anti-caste movements of the time had a nuanced relationship with colonialism, especially in favour of missionary education and various material support from the Europeans, Muslims in India had a different take on colonialism. The history of Islam in South India, especially in Kerala had a troubled relationship with European invasion, starting from the earliest European presence of the Portuguese in coastal Kerala. In the back drop of the community’s eroding power, the Muslim reformers addressed both pan-Islamic tension with Christianity as well as specificities of the political geography. This paper is an attempt to study the intricacies of Muslim reform movements and the counter publics created through the sermons, literature and piety that contested religious orthodoxy, colonialism and feudalism simultaneously focusing on the life and works of Syed Sanahullah Makthi Thangal ( 1847-1912).Doing so, I also intend to expose the plural and complex histories underlying reform movements, discarding singular and inflated ideas of monolithic nationalism. The ethical dimension of collective life initiated through Makthi Thangal’s ideas contests modern nation state’s straitjacket secularism and spreads over social, political and moral domains of pious living.

Sherin B.S. is Assistant Professor, at the Department of Comparative Literature and India Studies, The English and Foreign Languages University. Her academic interests include Secularism and Religion in India, Gender Studies, Comparative Studies, Regional Cinema, Contemporary Art, Urban Studies and Malayalam Literature. She has presented papers in various international and national conferences on these topics. Feminist Studies in India, Women’s Autobiographies, Youth Culture, Nation in Literature, Literature of Difference, Literature and Other Arts and Cities, Space and Culture are some of the courses she teaches. She has done her PhD on “Islam and Women in Kerala” and won thefellowship by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States at the University of California, for “The Study of the U.S. Institute on Religious Pluralism” that examines the intersection between religious pluralism and democracy. A bilingual scholar, she haspublished in English and Malayalam with peer-reviewed journals and also in non- academic platforms on topics of contemporary relevance. Her monograph on Women and Islam is published by Orient Blackswan, titled Gendering Minorities: Muslim Women and the Politics of Modernity (2021). She is also the author of the book, Feminism, Desheeyatha, Muthalaq: PrathiVyavahaarangaludeRaashtreeyam( Feminism, Nationalism and Triple Talaq: The Politics of Counter Discourses) 2018, in Malayalam