Ep 36: The Mosques of Colonial South Asia- Guftagu with Dr Sana Haroon

India Colonised

In this episode of Guftagu, we've with us Dr Sana Haroon, author of the book, "The Mosques of Colonial South Asia: A Social and Legal History of Muslim Worship"
Dr Sana Haroon is Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is a social historian with a particular interest in Muslim religious organizations in colonial north India. Her research, including her monograph Frontier of Faith, engages with theory on borderlands, religious reformism, urban, spatial history and governance to provide an alternative to theories of political Islam which have dominated understandings of Islam in South Asia.
In this book, Dr Haroon examines the dilemmas of public worship in a colonial secular state. By showing how mosques became spaces of social influence and control, she traces the ascent of prayer-leaders and mosque custodians as these lesser-known counterparts to Sufis.
Through the use of legal records, archives and multiple case studies Sana Haroon ties a series of narrative threads stretching across multiple regions in Colonial South Asia. Ranging from the late-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth, and from Rangoon to Lahore, the book centres on the mosque as a site of social change, sectarian debate, and legal regulation. The result is a highly original take on a crucial aspect of Muslim public life, the mosque, that historians have mostly overlooked.
This interview explores and examines such provided stances in the book along with other broader perspectives on colonial secularism.
There is a series of such amazingly curated interactions with authors and scholars on the history of the subcontinent. Check out our website www.indiacolonised.com for more blogs and podcasts exploring the tales of India's contemporary history. Do follow us on our social media sites for more exciting updates. Until next time. Stay Safe and Stay Curious.