인도무슬림의 특성

Abstract

Muslims constitute the largest religious minority in India. This article aims to analyse characteristics of Indian Muslims to provide basic materials for the understanding of them. Chapter Ⅱ describes the brief history of Indian Islam in terms of the development of Islamic thought. Chapter Ⅲ deals with some demographic features of Muslims in India. Chapter Ⅳ tries to define Indian Muslim’s identity. And finally Chapter Ⅴ introduces current socio-political issues related to Indian Muslim’s social status and identity. The history of Indian Muslims begins about the 12th century when Qutb-ud-din Aibak occupied Delhi. In the beginning Sufism played the major role in the spread of Islam thought in India. There also appeared Islamic thinkers who sought to establish orthodox Islam in India from the 17th century. Islamic power in India was declined in British India. Muslims became socially marginalised in post-partition India and have not been able to form their own identity under the oppression of Hindu Right as well as in the socio-economically backward environments. Indian Muslims are constituted by a wide array of regional, linguistic, economic, sectarian and caste identities. It, hence, appears to be quite imprecise to define Indian Muslims in singular terms. Nonetheless, the religious and political leaders of the orthodox Islam and the Hindu right attempted to define the Indian Muslim’s identity in singular terms with the respectively different intention and purposes. Indian Muslims remain in the form of the most backward group in Indian society. As a result, their social status is low and their political influence is generally considered insignificant. Caste divisions and hereditary occupational hierarchies among Indian Muslims persist and have endogamous character. However, Muslim casteism is not based on the ritual dimension of pollution and purity. Caste exists among Muslims as a basis of social relations, but its form has been weakened or modified. In relation to Indian Muslims who have suffered from the oppression and backwardness in the Hindu-dominant society, reservation policies for backward and disadvantaged classes, Muslim personal law, and Ghettoisation of Muslims have been major social and emotive issues and political controversy.