Uncolonizable
Freedom in the Muslim mind in colonial British India
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12985689 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Yasmin Saikia (0000-0002-4321-1188, Arizona State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 117-134 |
| Publication date | 2016-02-15 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | South Asian History and Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1947-2498 • E-ISSN: 1947-2501 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/19472498.2016.1143670 |
| OpenAlex | W2320138449 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 19 |
Does Islam offer a vision of freedom? What did freedom’s imagination look like to the colonized Muslims of the Indian subcontinent? In this article, I engage the imagination of freedom of two revolutionary middle actors – Fazal Illahi, a mullah, and Iqbal Shedai, a self-styled middle-class rebel. Drawing upon the Islamic concept of the free human, these men developed a concept of azadi (freedom) making the colonized subjects of British India aware of the issues of dignity and natural human rights, which was more expansive in scope than political freedom that was demanded by the national leaders of the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League. Further, by collaborating with anti-imperial internationalists in Europe, these men elevated India’s freedom struggle into an international agenda. By engaging the Islamic concept of freedom and making it an inclusive project for decolonization, the middle actors raised a critical question of the relationship between Islam and the state. I read their freedom imagination by engaging Malik Bennabi’s theory of (un)colonializability and the twelfth-century Islamic philosopher Ibn Arabi’s concept of hayrah (perplexity). I argue that Illahi and Shedai’s interpretation of azadi expands our understanding of freedom as an unenclosed horizon of possibilities, yet to be realized in the subcontinent
Colonialism · Dignity · Individualism · Islam · Muslim world · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Theology · Asian Studies and History · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Philosophy · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East
The Content of the Form
Spies in Arabia
The Sole Spokesman
Metahistory
Post-Islamism
Modern Islamic Thought in a Radical Age
Islam in Liberalism
Islam and the State
The Construction of Communalism in Colonial North India
Malik Bennabi. On the Origins of Human Society
Malik Bennabi and the Intellectual Problems of the Muslim Ummah
One Man against the Empire
The honesty of the perplexed
The Question of Narrative in Contemporary Historical Theory
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,44 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2025 (9) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |