The social space of Muslim spokespersons in India: A typology

Abstract

Who speaks for Muslims in India? Who are the leaders of the so-called “Muslim organizations”? What family and educational background do they come from? What is their relation to state authorities? This article addresses these questions by presenting a unique biographical database and the results of statistical treatments (multiple correspondence analysis and hierarchical clustering on principal components) of this data. This database includes the office-bearers of a selected set of organizations that make representative claims in the name of Muslims in India. Our analysis thus delineates the contours of the social space of Muslim spokespersons in India and describes how it is structured. We will highlight the important distinctions that exist among these Muslim spokespersons, such as the opposition between secular figures and religious scholars, the political sphere and the educational sphere, and between central power and regional dynamics. This analysis allows us, more broadly, to examine the role of state authorities in the definition of the Muslim spokespersons, thus highlighting some of the characteristic features of state secularism in India.