Travelling Leaders and Connecting Print Cultures: two conceptions of Twelver Shi‘i reformism in the Indian Ocean

Abstract

This article explores Islamic networks, as constituted by migration of people, movement of saints and philanthropic institutional links, across the Indian Ocean. Linking Bombay, Hyderabad and the Muslim diasporas of East Africa, these transnational Shi‘i networks forge a print-based public sphere and determine routes for the circulation of media technology. Moreover, this article argues, that they deploy this technology to enable Islamic reformism in ways that are distinct to the local urban cultures in which they are set. The article examines two initiatives that apply technology towards different conceptions of Shi‘i reformism: while one reform initiative attempts to situate itself within a secular liberal public, another seeks to interrogate secular liberal assumptions by establishing an authentic Islamic society; both then, are underpinned by different goals, internal contestations and diverse trajectories. This article seeks to emphasize the ongoing impact of historically shaped networks of community migration and organisation: both the use of technology in mediating Islamic reform, and attempts to articulate a moral Islamic universalism, which have in practice been determined by these existing transnational networks.

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

“…WIN was founded in 1991 and is still directed by Imran Rasool, a graphic designer and entrepreneur who owns a factory for wooden gift articles and who, together with other Ithna Ashari Khoja associates, began distributing free Islamic books and organizing evening tutoring classes, gradually expanding into Islamic propagation through electronic media in the following years. Ever since its foundation, WIN has remained close to Shi'ite institutions in Mumbai run by members of the Khoja Shia Ithna Ashari Jama'at of the city (see also Mirza 2014). Its board of trustees consists entirely of Ithna Ashari Khoja professionals and businessmen, while one of the religious guides of the media center, Maulana Sayed Ahmedali Abedi, is the prayer leader at the Khoja Shia Ithna Ashari Masjid across the street from WIN, and also the head of the hawza (Shi'ite seminary of higher learning for the training of 'ulema) in nearby Najafi House.…”