A Brief History of the Present - by Hilal Ahmed (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Present-day political discourse swings between two contrary positions on the issue of Muslims.Hindutva politics categorizes Muslims as a monolithic religious group to substantiate Hindu homogeneity. The liberals, on the other hand, claim to protect Muslims as a religious minority to defend Indian democracy (if not secularism!). In both cases, Muslim identity is envisioned as a one-dimensional phenomenon.

A Brief History of the Present attempts to go beyond the obvious to rethink the role of minorities, specifically Muslims, in the 'New India' that has revealed itself since 2014. By diving deep into the complexities of Muslim identity and its role in everyday life while at the same time viewing the Muslim communities through a historical lens, the author attempts to provide a far more accurate picture of Indian Muslims than what is perceived currently.

Through the author's interpretation of a wide range of quantitative and qualitative sources and his long experience as an observer of the Indian political scenario for more than three decades, the book presents a deeply considered view of a burning question: the current status of Muslims in India.

Review Quotes

In this book, Hilal Ahmed analyzes the relationship of Hindutva to the various facets -- historical, cultural, social, political -- of Muslim life in a new India. We learn a lot about the inner diversity of Muslim society, the complexities of Pasmanda politics, the absence of affection for Aurangzeb among India's Muslims, the weakness of Muslim liberals to strike roots in Muslim community, and much more. Enlightening!

Ashutosh Varshney
Director, Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia
Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences
Professor of Political Science
Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs
Brown University

It's a measure of Hilal Ahmed's optimism in India's ability to self-heal that he draws lessons for the future from the past. Measured and restrained, A Brief History of the Present steers clear of emotionalism, preferring pragmatic reflection to put the state of Indian Muslims in context, and using that context to shine a light to the way ahead. Suffused with hope, Ahmed's latest offering treads the middle path. No mean feat, in these times of extremities.

Ghazala Wahab,
Editor FORCE, https: //forceindia.net/ and author of Born A Muslim: Some Truths About Islam in India (Winner of Book of Year Award [non-fiction] Tata Literature Live and AttaGalatta)

In this provocative new book, Hilal Ahmed skillfully examines the place of Muslims in the 'New India.' Building on a career's worth of qualitative and quantitative research, he asks and answers uncomfortable questions about 'Muslimness' in an era of Hindu nationalist hegemony. The book challenges popular arguments touted by both liberals and conservatives.

Milan Vaishnav
Director and Senior Fellow
South Asia Program
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

About the Author

Hilal Ahmed is Associate Professor at Centre for the study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi. He works on political Islam, Indian democracy, and politics of symbols in South Asia. He is associated with the Lokniti program of the CSDS.

He is the author of Muslim Political Discourse in Postcolonial India: Monuments, Memory, Contestation (Routledge 2014), Allah Naam ki Siyasat (Hindi, Setu Prakashan, 2023), Siyasi Muslims: A Story of Political Islam in India (Penguin-Random House, New Delhi, 2019) and Democratic Accommodations: Minorities in contemporary India (With Peter R deSouza, and Sanjeer Alam, Bloomsbury, 2019). He has also edited Companion to Indian Democracy: Resilience, Fragility, Ambivalence (With Peter R deSouza, and Sanjeer Alam, Routledge, 2021), Rethinking Muslim Personal Law: Issues, Debates and Reforms (with R. K. Mishra & K. N. Jehangir, Routledge, 2022) and Sudipta Kaviraj: A Reader (Hindi, Setu Prakashan, 2023). Ahmed is the Associate Editor, South Asian Studies, journal of the British Association of South Asian Studies. He is also part of the editorial team of CSDS's Hindi journal Pratiman.

Ahmed writes for academic journals, newspapers, and websites in English and Hindi. He has produced two documentaries, Encountering the Political Jama Masjid (English, 2006) and Qutub: Ek Adhura Afsana (Qutub: an unfinished story, Hindi with English subtitles, 2016). Ahmed has also conceptualized and developed an academic mobile app SHARC-DILLI, an app on the Partitioned City of Delhi, (with Deborah Sutton, Lancaster University).

Ahmed was awarded the Rajya Sabha Fellowship (2015-2016), the Asia Fellow Award (2008/2010), the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies Fellowship (2009), the Ford Foundation-IFP Fellowship (2002), the ATRI-Charities Aid Foundation Fellowship (2001), and UGC Senior Research Fellowship (1999) and the UGC Junior Research Fellowship (1997).

A film Beacons of Hope (2008) documents Ahmed's life story.