Culture, Education and the Identity of Indian Muslims: an Indian Approach to Cultural Unity - Humayun Kabir.

• Main Author: Runions, Ted.
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: McGill University 1970
• Subjects: Islamic Studies.
• Online Access: http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=108915

The contribution of this thesis to knowledge is that it is a test case of the lndian ideal 'unity in diversity' as proposed by an Indian Muslim, Humayun Kabir, to solve the problem of cultural identity of Indian Muslims in a secular democratic state. This study of Kabir's proposal suggests that the ideal is neither an actuality nor a possibility. It is not an actuality because Kabir consistently in his historical, philosophical, educational and political essays fails to attain the ideal. It is not a possibility because Kabir's proposal underestimates the importance and power of traditional religion inherent in the cultural identity of Indians, Muslim and Hindu and overestimates the appeal of a rational religion to command either audience or credence let alone stimulus for integration among most Indians, Muslim and Hindu. In other words, Kabir's proposaI is a rational secular solution to an emotional religious problem.