Mediated Da'wa: Ethics, Nationalism and the Everyday in South Indian Islam

Abstract

How do we understand Islam as an anthropological object? While one answer to this question has highlighted the importance of Islam as a discursive tradition which seeks coherence in practices by returning to the scriptures (Qur’an and hadith), other research projects have focused on everyday lives of Muslims arguing that theology is insufficient or unnecessary in making sense of Islam. This dissertation does not adhere to one or the other of these dominant strands in the anthropological study of Islam. Neither does it use one approach to criticize or debunk another. Instead this dissertation argues that either of them, in and by themselves, are at once indispensable and inadequate to make sense of Islam. Hence the attempt to bring the approaches together. Anthropologists should try to comprehend Islamic categories in the context of the everyday and vice versa. And the attempt should be to think through the connections, if any, that obtain among them. What kind of subjects are produced by such interfaces? This research problem is explored by studying a particular genre of intra-Islamic da‘wa and the controversies surrounding it in the southwest Indian state of Kerala. Da‘wa mainly relates to topics of doctrinal dispute (is seeking the intercession of the Prophet or saints Islamic, for example) among the various Islamic sectarian tendencies in Kerala, but also frequently covered topics of organizational importance like factionalism. Importantly, da‘wa is not free of controversy. It is alleged to be marked by immoral conduct, deception and sophistry. It is accused of exposing a marginalized Indian Muslim minority to dangers from without as intra-Islamic da‘wa publicizes deep fissures within the community. However, these charges are refuted by defenders of da‘wa by pointing out that it is a religious obligation to combat erroneous doctrine, that the practice is rooted in the moral value of transparency and highlights a mode of belonging to the nation, and is intricately entangled with the everyday struggle to gain an income. This dissertation identifies three discourses with which da‘wa and the narratives about da‘wa are tied together – nationalism, non-Islamic/ordinary ethical traditions and the efforts to earn a living wage. The argument is that each of these entanglements enable the performance of different subjectivities. While da‘wa allowed its practitioners to enroll themselves in the nation, it helped cope with the troubles and disappointments of the daily struggle to earn a living wage, and elements of non-Islamic and ordinary ethics afforded the realization of Islamic ethical subjectivities.