India in the Muslim Imagination: Cartography and Landscape in 19th Century Urdu Literature

The formation of the ‘Muslim community’ in colonial India necessitated a rethinking of the country itself in its physical and political geography. The Muslim modernists of North India who were gathered in the Aligarh Movement struggled both to assimilate themselves within the colonial cartography th...

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Main Author: Faisal Devji
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud 2014-12-01
Series:South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/3751
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author Faisal Devji
author_facet Faisal Devji
author_sort Faisal Devji
collection DOAJ
description The formation of the ‘Muslim community’ in colonial India necessitated a rethinking of the country itself in its physical and political geography. The Muslim modernists of North India who were gathered in the Aligarh Movement struggled both to assimilate themselves within the colonial cartography that was coming to define India as an idea, and, simultaneously, to inhabit it in distinctive new ways. Rather than serving to demonstrate the ‘incompletion’ of their modernity, this made for a narrative illustrating an epistemological ‘double consciousness’, of which this essay explores the Urdu literary tropes of the human figure, cartography, landscape and the ruin.
format Article
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series South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal
spelling doaj-art-8af56c6680de4eed8806fae8d15e4d792025-08-20T01:55:12ZengCentre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du SudSouth Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal1960-60602014-12-011010.4000/samaj.3751India in the Muslim Imagination: Cartography and Landscape in 19th Century Urdu LiteratureFaisal DevjiThe formation of the ‘Muslim community’ in colonial India necessitated a rethinking of the country itself in its physical and political geography. The Muslim modernists of North India who were gathered in the Aligarh Movement struggled both to assimilate themselves within the colonial cartography that was coming to define India as an idea, and, simultaneously, to inhabit it in distinctive new ways. Rather than serving to demonstrate the ‘incompletion’ of their modernity, this made for a narrative illustrating an epistemological ‘double consciousness’, of which this essay explores the Urdu literary tropes of the human figure, cartography, landscape and the ruin.https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/3751Muslim communityAligarh MovementUrdu literature
spellingShingle Faisal Devji
India in the Muslim Imagination: Cartography and Landscape in 19th Century Urdu Literature
South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal
Muslim community
Aligarh Movement
Urdu literature
title India in the Muslim Imagination: Cartography and Landscape in 19th Century Urdu Literature
title_full India in the Muslim Imagination: Cartography and Landscape in 19th Century Urdu Literature
title_fullStr India in the Muslim Imagination: Cartography and Landscape in 19th Century Urdu Literature
title_full_unstemmed India in the Muslim Imagination: Cartography and Landscape in 19th Century Urdu Literature
title_short India in the Muslim Imagination: Cartography and Landscape in 19th Century Urdu Literature
title_sort india in the muslim imagination cartography and landscape in 19th century urdu literature
topic Muslim community
Aligarh Movement
Urdu literature
url https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/3751
work_keys_str_mv AT faisaldevji indiainthemuslimimaginationcartographyandlandscapein19thcenturyurduliterature