ali mian dissertation 2015

352 Pages·2015·5.85 MB·English

by  Ali Mian

Surviving Modernity: Ashraf ‘Alī Thānvī (1863-1943) and the Making of Muslim
Orthodoxy in Colonial India

by
Ali Altaf Mian
Graduate Program in Religion
Duke University

Date: _______________________
Approved:

___________________________
Ebrahim Moosa, Supervisor

___________________________
Carl Ernst

___________________________
Laura Lieber

___________________________
Leela Prasad

___________________________
Robyn Wiegman

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of Doctor
of Philosophy in the Graduate Program in
Religion in the Graduate School
of Duke University

2015
ABSTRACT
Surviving Modernity: Ashraf ‘Alī Thānvī (1863-1943) and the Making of Muslim
Orthodoxy in Colonial India

by
Ali Altaf Mian
Graduate Program in Religion
Duke University

Date:_______________________
Approved:

___________________________
Ebrahim Moosa, Supervisor

___________________________
Carl Ernst

___________________________
Laura Lieber

___________________________
Leela Prasad

___________________________
Robyn Wiegman

An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Program in
Religion in the Graduate School of
Duke University

2015
Copyright by
Ali Altaf Mian
2015
Abstract

This dissertation examines the shape, substance, and staging of Muslim orthodoxy in
British India, concentrating on how orthodox theologians survived colonial modernity by
deploying sociological, discursive, psychic, and hermeneutical strategies. This
dissertation is organized around Ashraf ‘Alī Thānvī (1863-1943), a leading Muslim
theologian, mystic, and jurist of colonial India. Thānvī authored hundreds of original
treatises, compiled texts, and works of commentary on doctrine and ritual, mystical
experience, communal identity, and political theology. His collected letters, recorded
conversations, and sermons were published within his lifetime and continue to instruct
many contemporary South Asian Muslims. I closely read Thānvī’s texts and situate them
within two frameworks: the history of Indo-Muslim thought and the socio-political
history of colonial India. Thānvī’s hundreds of published treatises and sermons,
continued citation within South Asian Islam, and widespread ṣūfī fellowship make him
one of the most compelling case studies for analyzing some of the key thematic concerns
of Muslim orthodoxy, such as religious knowledge, self-discipline, sublimation of desire,
regulation of gender, and communalist politics. My analyses demonstrate how orthodox
scholars proliferated their theological, legal, and mystical teachings in order to make
tradition relevant and authoritative in the public and private lives of many South Asian
Muslims. Orthodox Islam not only survived colonial modernity, but also thrived in its
ideological and social contexts.

iv
For my mother and father,
Nusrat and Altaf Mian

v
Table of Contents

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………...iv
Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………….ix
Introduction: Behind the Scenes of Muslim Orthodoxy in Colonial India………………..1
Concepts and Methods…………………………………………………………….7
Scenes of Survival: Chapter Outline……………………………………………..14
1. The Performance of Life and Thought: A Brief Biography of Ashraf ‘Alī Thānvī…..19
The Formative Years…………………………………………………………..…21
The Deoband Years………………………………………………………………24
The Kanpur Years……………………………………………………………..…29
The Thana Bhawan Years………………………………………………………..46
The Final Years………………………………………………………………..…54
Ashraf ‘Alī Thānvī: Genres & Texts………………………………………….…56
2. The Production of Knowledge: Moral Responsibility and Gnostic Insight…………...76
The Epistemic Aura of Ashraf ‘Alī Thānvī………………………………...……77
Surviving Knowledge in Modernity………………………………..……………81
‘Ilm-i dīn: The Bridge to the Prophetic Past………………..……………………85
The Polemics of Orthodoxy………………………………...……………………93
The Orthodox Domestication of Reason…………………..……………………100
Orthodox Refutations of Modern Knowing…………………….………………105
Thānvī’s Epistemology: Ma‘rifa and Taklīf……………………………………110
Conclusion………………………………………………………...……………114
3. The Script of Subjectivity: The Passionate Self and Rational Discipline……………117
vi
Subjectivity in Transition: ‘Abd Al-Mājid Daryābādī………………………….122
Daryābādī’s Turn to Thānvī……………………………………………….……126
Thānvī’s Disciplined Subjectivity………………………………………………133
The Subject of Passion…………………………………………………….……140
Degrees of Intensity: ‘ishq and maḥabba………………………………………147
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...152
4. The Scene of Sublimation: Sensuality and Divinity…………………………………155
Dealing with Desire: Methodological Considerations………………………….158
Desire and Sublimation in South Asian Muslim Orthodoxy………………...…163
Constant Cravings of the Split Subject…………………………………..……..171
Married with Anxiety…………………………………………………………...179
Impersonal Attachments………………………………………………………..182
The Beardless Simulacrum……………………………………………………..188
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...191
5. The Drama of Domesticity: Ornamental Femininity and Essential Masculinity…….195
Muslim Women and Colonial Modernity………………………………………198
Thānvī on Domesticity……………………………………………………….…206
Heavenly Ornaments……………………………………………………………215
Ornamental Femininity…………………………………………………………220
Gender and Orthodox Structures of Authority………………………….………225
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...231
6. The Theater of Legalism: Equality and Difference………………………………….233
Muslim Women between Sacred Law and Colonial Governmentality………...236
vii
The Successful Stratagem for the Helpless Wife……………………………….241
Contractual Limits: ṭalāq al-tafwīḍ…………………………………………..…245
Annulment Limits: tansīkh al-nikāḥ……………………………………………248
The Conjugal Economy of Religious Identity………………………………….254
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...260
7. The Spectacle of Communal Politics: Separatism and Nationalism…………………262
Orthodox Political Strategies…………………………………………………...264
Deobandī Historiography and Post-1857 Muslim Politics…………………..…268
Politics in Muslim Orthodoxy……………………………………..……………276
Thānvī’s Jurisprudence of Politics…………………………………………...…282
Debating Thānvī’s Politics in Post-Colonial South Asia………………….……288
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...…291
Conclusion: The Power of Orthodoxy…………………………………...……………..293
Appendix I: Ashraf ‘Alī Thānvī—A Timeline…………………………………………301

Appendix II: Ashraf ‘Alī Thānvī’s Sermons (khuṭbāt)……………………………...….302
Appendix III: Ashraf ‘Alī Thānvī’s Recorded Conversations (malfūẓāt)…………..….307
Appendix IV: Ashraf ‘Alī Thānvī’s Ṣūfī Successors (khulafā’)……………………..…311
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………320
Biography…………………………………………………………………………….…341

viii
Acknowledgements

The subject of this study, Ashraf ‘Alī Thānvī, played a crucial role in my
formative religious experiences. My intellectual romance with Thānvī was a gripping,
solitary exposure to grace and tradition. The experience now enables me to appreciate
Flannery O’Connor’s words of wisdom: “Our age not only does not have a very sharp
eye for the almost imperceptible intrusions of grace, it no longer has much feeling for the
nature of the violences which precede and follow them.” For better or for worse, I
journeyed away from Thānvī. Journeying away, however, does not mean forgetting or
disavowing. I have slowly learned to remember him and to avow him in creative and
critical ways. The journey continues…and my paranoid and reparative modes of
engagement with the Islamic tradition have become indebted to other ideological
constructs and figures—other scenes of meaning and pleasure. Freud and Foucault, I
must confess, have become indispensable resources for my thinking. Over the past
decade or so, I have immersed myself in the critical study of religion, psychoanalysis,
continental philosophy, women’s studies, and queer theory. I am grateful to my mentor
and dissertation supervisor, Professor Ebrahim Moosa, for his patience with me as I
ventured into disciplinary domains beyond religious studies. Professor Moosa is an
exemplary teacher and a scholar extraordinaire (always cutting-edge, always already
there). I especially thank him for the countless hours he spent with me reading classical
Arabic texts. I also enjoyed our chapter meetings, which enriched me with valuable
resources and newfound inspiration (āp ke andāz-i karam ke liye āp kā shukriya).
I also benefited from studying with Professor Kalman P. Bland. His tutelage and
wisdom transported me to the philosophical worlds of Philo, Maimonides, Ibn Rushd,
ix
Spinoza, and Kant. Professor Bland read my work with care and placed critical and
historical questions on the horizon of my thinking. Thank you, Dr. Bland! I am also
grateful to Professor Bruce B. Lawrence for generously sharing with me gems from his
wide-ranging erudition. Professor Robyn Wiegman brought her razor-sharp insights to
my project and asked me compelling meta-critical questions (thank you, robyn, for
genersouly giving me your time, for teaching me feminist theory and queer theory, and
for including me in trips to asheville, manchester, and norway). My thanks also go to
Professor Laura Lieber, who gently taught me parts of the Talmud and provided
incredibly helpful feedback on chapter drafts. I am grateful to Professor Carl Ernst for
answering my questions with resourceful replies. For her encouraging presence, I thank
Professor Leela Prasad.
My other teachers all taught me valuable lessons. My heartfelt thanks go to
Thomas Maloney, Susan M. Ryan, Matthew Biberman, Glynis Ridley, Bronwyn
Williams, John McLeod, Toril Moi, Elizabeth Grosz, Valentin Mudimbe, Kenneth Surin,
Antonio Viego, Ranjana Khanna, Michael Gillespie, Mona Hassan, Mohsen Kadivar,
miriam cooke, Shaykh Salah Abu’l-Haj, and Muhammad Habib. The following
professors patiently listened to me and enlightened me with insight: Marcia Hermansen,
Rey Chow, Katherine Ewing, Frances Hasso, Sumathi Ramaswamy, Ara Wilson, and
Margrit Pernau. I thank SherAli Tareen and Zahid Chaudhary for involving me in
enriching conference panels.
The following colleagues and friends also shared their brilliance with me: Zaid
Adhami, Amey Victoria Adkins, Torang Asadi, Hunter Bandy, Fahad Bishara, Yoknyam
Dabale, Tamara Extian-Babiuk, Daanish Faruqi, Emanuel Fiano, Azeen Khan, Nadia Inji
x