Ethical selfhood and the status of the secular: Muslim identity in Mumbai

As part of a larger project, this essay contributes to the current anthropological rethinking of categories such as 'religion', 'secularism' and 'politics' in relation to social processes and subjects: a series of ventures that are related, in the Indian context, to mod...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Anand, Ari Singh (Author)
Format: Electronic/Print Article
Language:English
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Published: Taylor & Francis [2014]
In: Culture and religion
Year: 2014, Volume: 15, Issue: 4, Pages: 377-398
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Mumbai / Islam / Religious identity / Secularism / Family life / Ethical individualism
RelBib Classification:AA Study of religion
AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism
AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
BJ Islam
KBM Asia
NCB Personal ethics
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:As part of a larger project, this essay contributes to the current anthropological rethinking of categories such as 'religion', 'secularism' and 'politics' in relation to social processes and subjects: a series of ventures that are related, in the Indian context, to modernity and liberal conceptions of statehood, sovereignty and personhood. In discussing everyday phenomena such as piety and religious authority, gender and childraising, and political and professional pursuits in Mumbai, I demonstrate that the ostensibly ‘religious’ domain of Islam is not necessarily the only, or even primary, basis for achieving a self-consciously ethical selfhood for even those who identify as observant and devout Muslims. I argue that the religious domain of Islam in this context is defined as such and intersected by discourses and practices of the self as a political and economic agent defined largely in terms of political modernity.
ISSN:1475-5610
Contains:Enthalten in: Culture and religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2014.982667