Muslims in Indian Cities: Trajectories of Marginalization

Numbering more than 150 million, Muslims constitute the largest minority in India, yet they suffer the most politically and socioeconomically. Forced to contend with severe and persistent prejudice, India's Muslims are often targets of violence and collective acts of murder.

While the quality of Muslim life may lag behind that of Hindus nationally, local and inclusive cultures have been resilient in the south and the east. Within India's cities, however, the challenges Muslims face can be harder to read. In the Hindi belt and in the north, Muslims have known less peace, especially in the riot-prone areas of Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Jaipur, and Aligarh, and in the capitals of former Muslim states -- Delhi, Hyderabad, Bhopal, and Lucknow. These cities are rife with Muslim ghettos and slums. However, self-segregation has also played a part in forming Muslim enclaves, such as in Delhi and Aligarh, where traditional elites and a new Muslim middle class have regrouped for physical and cultural protection.

Combining firsthand testimony with sound critical analysis, this volume follows urban Muslim life in eleven Indian cities, providing uncommon insight into a little-known but highly consequential subject.

Laurent Gayer is a research fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), currently posted at the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH) in New Delhi. He is also research associate at the Centre d'Etudes de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud in Paris.

Christophe Jaffrelot is research director at CNRS and teaches South Asian politics and history at Sciences Po (Paris), as well as at King's College, London. From 2000 to 2008, he served as director of CERI at Sciences Po and is arguably one of the world's most respected writers on Indian society and politics. His publications include The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics: 1925 to the 1990s; India's Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India; and Dr. Ambedkar and Untouchability: Fighting the Indian Caste System.