Media, Citizenship, and Religious Mobilization: The Muharram Awareness Campaign in Mumbai

Abstract

The great urban diversity of Mumbai has given rise to a range of religious mobilizations that are not only shaped by a history of communalism along religious lines but also driven by intra-religious rivalry and competition in their urban environment. Against the backdrop of a global megacity, contemporary Shi‘ite religious activism in Mumbai provides evidence of the importance of global processes of religious mobilization, while also showing its entanglement with state regulation of religion. An advertising campaign by a Shi‘ite media center illustrates that such religious activism with global ramifications can only be understood if one also takes its intersection with state-sponsored regimes of religious diversity into account. Media practices of Indian Muslims as a vulnerable minority are especially responsive to normative discourses and images of religious diversity, and mobilize alternative strands of Indian secularism in order to counteract the fragility of their citizenship.

‘Live has an atmosphere of its own’: azadari, ethical orientation, and tuned presence in Shi‘i media praxis

“…In India and Pakistan, the practices usually associated with azadari are led by groups known in Lahore as matami anjuman (mourning unions or associations), who also engage in charitable work, provide a sense of corporate identity, and amplify the piety of their community. It is common for such religious mobilizations to deploy the circulation of media as a way of blending religious activism and entertainment (Eisenlohr 2015; Mirza 2015) at the same time as building on established traditions of Shi‘i disclosure and publicity. As Tahir Jafri mentioned, the pious labour associated with the Shi‘i marketplace media trader has coalesced with the work of Shi‘i mourning associations to form what for the sake of brevity will be described as ‘ azadari networks’, to borrow the term used by both Jafri and the Facebook page (240k followers) administered in Pakistan by Afaq Haider Khan and Shafqat Hussain.…”

Towards a Postsecular Shia Rhetoric – the Discursive Strategies of Transnational Online Network of Shia Muslims in India

“…Generally, media studies on Islam tend to explore various features of Muslim media discourse and engagement by studying majority Muslim groups such as Sunni Muslims. Notwithstanding, in recent years, media and communication studies have started to focus on minority groups such as Shia communities (for example, Kalinock, 2006;Pak-Shiraz, 2011;Maréchal, & Zemni, 2013;Schäfer, 2015;Eisenlohr, 2015;Valibeigi, 2018;Rahimi & Amin, 2020;Rizvi Jafree, 2021). By analyzing the social media discursive strategies of a transnational Shia network, this study aims to contribute to emerging media and communication studies on Shia communities.…”