Between 1857, year of the Sepoy revolt and subsequent occupation of India by the British, which caused the end of Muslim political supremacy, and 1947, year of its Independence and Partition into two states, India and Pakistan, the Indian sub-continent went through great transformations.
It was a very rich period of Islamic reformist thought, originating an intense debate which surpassed the geographical boundaries of India and anticipated future issueswhich are still being discussed today: the position of women, the role of religion in politics or the end of the caliphate. The importance of studying Islam in a South Asian context derives from the fact that one third of all Muslims in the world live in this region, and from the fact that in the period that is now analysed the British Empire was the political entity with the largest Muslim population, due to the fact that India was under Great Britain's administration. On the other hand, in 2007, which was the year that marked the 60th anniversary of Independence for India and Pakistan, and the 150th anniversary of the Sepoy Revolt, there were people asserting that the British should have given back to Muslims, in 1947, the power taken in 1857. Using Mohammed Arkoun's Applied Islamology, and historical contextualization, a method proposed by Quentin Skinner, this research focuses on three intellectuals of that period, Chiragh 'Ali, Muhammad Iqbal and Sayyi d Abu'l 'Ala Mawdudi, as well as on their most important works. This research, through case4studies and qualitative comparison, analyses, describes and tries to assess Islamic reform movements which sprang up in India between the final moments of the Mughal dynasty (1857-1858) and the final moments of the British presence (1947), especially the different political and State models offered by those three figures, comparing them at different levels: biographies, works, thought, heritage and disciples, as well as the legacy bequeathed and the debate that they originated around issues such as the role of religion in politics and/or the model of State to be followed in the Islamic world. The different political models offered by each one of the authors, and their conceptions about the relations between religion and politics, express a diversity of thought which is frequently at odds with one another. This thesis concludes that Islam, as an object of study of, and in, the social sciences, has to be rethought and redefined, as well as concepts such as Shari'a, Religion, Politics, State, Church, Secularism, Modernity. Each one of them assumes different forms in different temporal and geographical contexts, including what is usually called the West, and each one of them interacts with the others in a multiplicity of ways, with no single or essentialist model resulting from that interaction. http://run.unl.pt/bitstream/10362/7876/1/MOHOMED,%20Carimo..pdf -- Sent out via: FN Phone +91-832-2409490 Mobile +91-9822122436
