Comparative Study of Muslim Minorities A Preliminary Framework

Abstract

Most of the world’s Muslims reside in countries where they are numerically
predominant. As such, these Muslims possess a majoritarian outlook in sharp
contrast to the perspective of minority Muslims living in India, China, the
USSR, and some Western countries. In recent years, Muslim minorities have
found themselves at the confluence of diverse social forces and political
developments which have heightened their sense of communal identity and
apprehension vish-vis non-Muslim majorities. This has been particularly
true of the crisis besetting the Indian Muslims in 1990-91 as well as the newly
formed Muslim communities in Western Europe.
The foregoing circumstances have highlighted the need for serious research
on Muslim minorities within a comparative framework. What follows is a
preliminary outline of a research framework for a comparative study of Muslim
minorities using the Indian Muslims as an illustrative case.
The Salience of Tradition
One of the most significant transnational phenomena in the four decades
since mid-century has been the revival of communal consciousness among
minorities in a large number of countries throughout the world. This tendency
toward cultural regeneration has been noted among such diverse ethnic groups
as Afro-Americans, French Canadians, Palestinian Arabs, the Scots of Great
Britain, Soviet minorities, and native Americans. A common tendency among
these groups is to reach back to their cultural traditions and to explore those
roots which have served as the historical anchors of their present communal
existence. Significantly, this quest for tradition has had a salutary impact
upon the lives of these communities, for it has reinforced their collective
and individual identities and has enabled them to confront the multiple
difficulties of modem life more effectively. By according its members a sense ...