How do we understand the idea of freedom from a lens of vernacular Islam? Responding to this question, we propose a roundtable discussion of Afsar Mohammad’s book Remaking History: 1948 Police Action and the Muslims of Hyderabad (Cambridge University Press, 2023). Considered to be another dimension of the Partition, the violent event of 1948 in the princely state of Hyderabad led to the killings of thousands of Muslims and then migrations to Pakistan and the other parts of the world. Remaking History documents these oral histories and juxtaposes them with a set of written narratives including governmental and media archives. The book emphasizes the need of reframing the Muslim question in contemporary studies. The proposed roundtable about this book discusses some of these questions with an emphasis on the rise of a new Muslim identity in the Hyderabad state that centers on the idea of freedom, equality and social justice.
| Afsar Mohammad, University of Pennsylvania | afsartelugu@gmail.com | View |