The Gabriel of Madness - (Islamic Humanities) by Anand Vivek Taneja

About the Book

"Since a right-wing Hindu nationalist government came to power in 2014, Indian Muslims have faced rampant Islamophobia, lynchings and mob violence, discriminatory legislation, and economic ostracism. How have Indian Muslims--the largest religious minority in the world's largest democracy--responded to the failures and demise of state secularism? Using the lens of Urdu poetry, this beautiful ethnography explores how Indian Muslims have drawn upon Islamic traditions to actualize free-thinking selves and imagine a pluralistic society unbeholden to coercive state power. Through poetic symposiums, interviews, social media, and deep conversations with diverse Muslim interlocutors, from religious leaders to politicians, civil society activists to poets, Anand Vivek Taneja paints a portrait of the vitality of Indian Muslim artistic, ethical, and spiritual life at a moment of existential crisis"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.

Since a right-wing Hindu nationalist government came to power in 2014, Indian Muslims have faced rampant Islamophobia, lynchings and mob violence, discriminatory legislation, and economic ostracism. How have Indian Muslims--the largest religious minority in the world's largest democracy--responded to the failures and demise of state secularism? Using the lens of Urdu poetry, this beautiful ethnography explores how Indian Muslims have drawn upon Islamic traditions to actualize free-thinking selves and imagine a pluralistic society unbeholden to coercive state power. Through poetic symposiums, interviews, social media, and deep conversations with diverse Muslim interlocutors, from religious leaders to politicians, civil society activists to poets, Anand Vivek Taneja paints a portrait of the vitality of Indian Muslim artistic, ethical, and spiritual life at a moment of existential crisis.

From the Back Cover

"A brilliant theoretical and ethnographic work opening up the poetics and politics of contemporary life in North India. Calls to our attention the resilience of the revolutionary ethos from the Urdu poetry canon and meaning making in everyday practices and ordinary selves."--Manan Ahmed Asif, Columbia University

"This work is a timely and moving account of Muslim life under Hindu nationalism in contemporary India, told through the lens and guidance of Urdu poetry. Following these verses, Anand Vivek Taneja makes important and unprecedented contributions to the understanding of the interior, ethical, and social experience of both Muslim and Hindu life. While a work of anthropology concerned with ethics and self-fashioning, it will doubtless be regarded as an important historical record of the interior lives of Indians during a particularly disturbing period in the nation's history."--Oludamini Ogunnaike, author of Poetry in Praise of Prophetic Perfection: A Study of West African Madīḥ Poetry and Its Precedents

About the Author

Anand Vivek Taneja is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Anthropology at Vanderbilt University. He is author of the award-winning Jinnealogy: Time, Islam, and Ecological Thought in the Medieval Ruins of Delhi.