Shia Islam in Colonial India: Religion, Community and Sectarianism

摘要

Shia Islam in Colonial India: Religion, Community and Sectarianism, by Justin Jones, aims to study religious and social transformations among the Shia community in colonial India, particularly the period from the 1880s to 1930s. Indeed, since this is a rich and pivotal turning point in the formation of Muslim identity politics, a book devoted solely to understanding the Shia community is a welcome contribution to the growing area of studies on South Asian Muslims. Few books discuss Shi'ism in India in such detail and this book with its reliance on myriad primary and secondary sources will hopefully carve the way for future studies. In particular, it is a novel contribution for showing how Shi'ism is not only a distinct identity and religion but also how it consciously defined itself as one during that period. Ossified religious categories are revealed as deliberate outcomes of the local and national imaginings of what it means to not only be Muslim or Indian Muslim but also in this case what it means to be a Shia Muslim in India.