Crossing the Threshold Understanding Religious Identities in South Asia by Dominique-Sila Khan (London: I.B. Tauris, 2004. 185 pages.)

Abstract

Debate over the Hindu and Muslim religious identity, as well as the nature
of the two communities’ interaction, has generated different answers. To
some, it has been an interaction full of conflict and conflict-resolution
between two irreconcilable faiths. To others, it remains impossible to reconstruct
their history as one of convergence or divergence, due to the considerable
variation in their cultures and religions over time. Khan addresses the
question from a different perspective. According to her, “the Hindus or the
Muslims whom the question addresses are not real characters” (p. 4): The
religious identity of the “Self” is not completely distinct from that of the
“Other” in medieval India. Thus, the sporadic clashes between Hindus and
Muslims have been due mainly to political reasons and occasionally to economic
factors, but definitely never to religious differences.
Khan’s book dwells on the making of identity in the Indian subcontinent
between medieval India and the end of the twentieth century. It seeks to
explore the spiritual encounters between the indigenous Hindu traditions
and Islam, their historical harmonious coexistence, and their present
predicaments, with special reference to the intermediary position of Nizari
Ismailism, a Shi`i sect. Based on field research, observation, and personal
experience, the author demonstrates with vivid case studies, legends, and
folklore how the two peoples had formerly lived by shared deities and how
the change of identity based on Hindu nationalism and Islam has wrought
havoc.
The book is broadly divided into four chapters. Chapter 1 examines
some important terminologies that underpin religio-cultural identities in
Indian history. In ancient and medieval India, people were distinguished by
socio-religious strata, first by the varna system (socio-ritual categories) and
later by the jati panth (caste and sect) system. A similar thing applied to
Indian Muslims, who were hierarchically categorized as Ashrafs (referring
to nobles, foreign Muslims) and Ajlafs (referring to converts), but not simply
as “Muslims.”
The interface between the indigenous Hindu religion and Islam goes
beyond the terminological resemblance and reaches the heart of religious rituals
and ideologies. In chapter 2, the author cites three modes of interaction ...