3 Review(s)

The late capitalist phase of development has been marked by intensified ethnic and religious polarisations both at global and local levels. Ethnic minorities and marginalised are faced with increased challenges with respect to their economic development, social and civic rights. Muslims, as a religious minority, are also faced with these challenges in India, and suffer from acute development deficits, ethno-centric discriminatory practices, and physical and social violence, off late conspicuously emerging from ‘mimicry’ of the global drifts at local level, undermining the social and religious ‘hybridity’ developed in the country over a historical period of time. Muslims, who in many states of India are largely concentrated in urban centres, are getting confined to their ghettoes, characterised by lack of development and at large a subsistence informal urban economy. Essays in this volume, based on in-depth case studies from many cities of India, highlight the local-global nexuses, concerns and deprivations of Muslims, and opportunities available to them for their development. The book also highlights the peace building process between religious communities, politics of culture, and deprivation among Muslims resulting from the coalescing of traditional cultural elements with neoliberal economy. The book will be very useful for researchers and teachers in the field of Development Studies, Sociology, Political Science, Human Geography, Economic Sociology, Cultural Studies, Islamic Studies and Policy Studies.