Indian Muslims in Performance: Ethics, History, and the Politics of Belonging
[Thesis]
Jaclyn A. Michael
Gade, Anna M.
The University of Wisconsin - Madison
2016
305
Committee members: Davis, Jr., Donald R.; Dharwadker, Aparna; Hansen, Anne R.; Mani, B. Venkat
Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-0-438-77791-0
Ph.D.
Languages and Cultures of Asia
The University of Wisconsin - Madison
2016
"Indian Muslims in Performance" is an interdisciplinary study of the place of Indian Muslims in national culture, history, and social life through examination of diverse Muslim representations across modern performance genres. India's largest minority community, Muslims have been rendered in scholarship and in popular culture as an anxiety of the nation, as separatist and communal, and as liminal figures dominated by Hindu society and history. Representations of Muslims intervene in how a diverse community is described in modern historiography and known in social discourse as the national "other." Shifting perspective to materials from genres of performance makes visible new claims about Indian Muslim selves, and reframes skepticism of their belonging with evidence of constitutive Muslim relationships in national social, historical, and cultural contexts.
Islamic Studies; Anxiety; Ethics; Cultural differences; Performing arts; Historiography; Politics; South Asian studies; Historical text analysis; Discourse/Text genres; Stereotypes
Communication and the arts;Social sciences;Indian Islam;Indian history;Performance studies;Religious minorities