"Diversity in Unity" within a Revivalist Islamic Movement in India: Conversion and Subjectivities in the Tablīghī Jamāʻat

This paper will examine internal forms of diversity within religious movements using the example of an Islamic revivalist and scripturalist movement in India, the Tablīghī Jamāʻat. The Tablīghī Jamāʻat represents an interesting case study of internal plurality within a religious movement, especially...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Archives de sciences sociales des religions
Main Author: Mohammad-Arif, Aminah (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Ed. de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales [2021]
In: Archives de sciences sociales des religions
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B India / Tablighi Jamaʻat / Islam / Religious movement / Religious pluralism
IxTheo Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AX Inter-religious relations
BJ Islam
KBM Asia
Further subjects:B Tablīghī Jamāʻat
B Inde
B avivamiento islámico
B Conversión
B revivalisme islamique
B subjectivités
B subjetividades
B Islamic revivalism
B Conversion
B Subjectivities
B India
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Summary:This paper will examine internal forms of diversity within religious movements using the example of an Islamic revivalist and scripturalist movement in India, the Tablīghī Jamāʻat. The Tablīghī Jamāʻat represents an interesting case study of internal plurality within a religious movement, especially when examined through the articulation of individual and collective affiliations. On the one hand, the TJ seems to function collectively as a structured group under the control of a central authority based in Delhi, which indoctrinates the followers with strict and specific instructions governing several areas. In a way, it is the bios, in the Foucauldian sense, i.e., the concrete daily life of individuals, that the "disciplinary power" of this movement seeks to shape. On the other hand, ethnography among individual followers shows that behind the apparent homogeneity lies internal diversity, including in regard to religious conceptions and, to a lesser extent, in religious practices. While the disconnect between discourse and practice is of course a more than common phenomenon, this paper will explore how this diversity can challenge the very definition of Tablīghī and suggest that there is a degree of autonomy vis-à-vis the leadership. This idea will in turn be confronted with the wider context of religious plurality in India. In doing so, I will examine how internal diversity and external plurality intersect.
ISSN:1777-5825
Contains:Enthalten in: Archives de sciences sociales des religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.4000/assr.58676