The Indianized states of Southeast Asia

The author of this broad social and cultural history is Vice-Chancellor of the Jamia Millia Islamia and a leading exponent of the 'nationalist' view of the subject. Thus he finds 'the only unifying factor among Indian Muslims was common allegiance to Islam' which he, unlike Pakistani historians, insists must not be confused with 'identity as a distinct body politic or nation'. Yet the purpose of the book is not polemical. Rather its aim is the application of critical standards to a large but selective body of fact in order to achieve historical understanding. So hard does Mujeeb strive for objectivity in this area, notable chiefly for the absence of that quality, that he fails, by his own admission, to arrive at that synthesis which should be the purpose of every analysis. Instead he concludes with a warning that generalizations about such a diverse people can only be partial and misleading. Despite this self-imposed limitation, the author has produced a work of profound scholarship, demonstrating a thorough knowledge of both manuscript and secondary sources on a wide range of topics—theology, poetry, architecture, biography and social life—all expressed in a subtle yet lucid style. Among the controversial issues of the modern period upon which Mujeeb permits himself a judgment are the nature of the Mutiny ('we cannot point to any person in it, Hindu or Muslim, who had any conception of national freedom'), Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan's educational programme ('the reconstruction of the social and economic life of a whole community was sacrified to secure recruitment in the . . . government service for the sons of a few hundred Muslim families'), and Urdu. (It was 'the common language of Hindus and Muslims at the end of the 19th century. . . . The common culture of India was repudiated first by the Hindus of Bengal. . . . The survival of the Indian Muslims in a culturally recognizable form is linked up with Urdu which is synonymous with Urdu script.') The future of Muslims in India, he concludes, will depend upon the ability of the individual Muslim to think for himself and create a new moral and spiritual community.