But You Don't Look Like a Muslim: On Identity

Jalil, Rakhshanda

ISBN 10: 9353026814 / ISBN 13: 9789353026813

Published by Harper Collins Publishers, 2019

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 26376270352

Bibliographic Details

• Title: But You Don't Look Like a Muslim: On Identity
• Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9353026814
• ISBN 13: 9789353026813
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

What does it mean to be Muslim in India?What does it mean to look like one's religion?Does one's faith determine how one is perceived?Is there a secular ideal one is supposed to live up to?Can people of different faiths have a shared culture, a shared identity?India has, since time immemorial, been plural, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual, where various streams have fed into and strengthened each other, and where dissimilarities have always been a cause for rejoicing rather than strife. These writings, on and about being Muslim in India, by Rakhshanda Jalil - one of the country's foremost literary historians and cultural commentators - excavate memories, interrogate dilemmas, and rediscover and celebrate a nation and its syncretic culture. But You Don't Look Like a Muslim is a book that every thinking Indian must read.

About the Author

Rakhshanda Jalil is a writer, critic and literary historian. She has published over twenty books and written over fifty academic papers and essays. Her book on the lesser-known monuments of Delhi, Invisible City, continues to be a bestseller. Her most recent works include translations of The Sea Lies Ahead, Intizar Husain's seminal novel on Karachi and Krishan Chander's partition novel Traitor; an edited volume of critical writings on Ismat Chughtai called An Uncivil Woman; a literary biography of the Urdu poet Shahryar; The Great War: Indian Writings on the First World War; Preeto and Other Stories: The Male Gaze in Urdu and, most recently, Kaifiyat, a translation of Kaifi Azmi's poems. She runs an organization called Hindustani Awaaz, devoted to the popularization of Hindi–Urdu literature and culture. In 2016, she was awarded the Kaifi Azmi Award for her contribution to Urdu.