What Is A “Sellable” Muslim? Towards a Political Economy of Muslim Cultural Representation in Contemporary India

While exclusionary forces continue to claim Muslims do not belong in India, specific Muslims are uniquely visible across diverse genres of cultural representation. This paper focuses on the tension between official forms of Muslim exclusion and the visibility of certain types of Muslims in diverse media forms including commercial theatre, Hindi cinema, and heritage tourism. Questions this paper explores include: what kinds of Muslims are “sellable” for twenty-first century forms of cultural consumption? How are the goals and strategies of producers to make Muslims visible in genres of cultural representation shaped by the forces of twenty-first century, late-stage Indian capitalism and neoliberalism? The typologies of desirable Muslims in cultural representation identified in this paper reveal the socio-political conditions of religious belonging not just in India, but also in other secular democratic societies during twenty and twenty-first century late-stage capitalism. More than just simply entertainment, these moments of representation shape knowledge about religion, and particularly Islam, both for Muslims and non-Muslims.