Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India c10.2

c10.2

The invasions of Muhammad bin Qasim, Mahmud of Ghazni and Amir Timur seem to have happened yesterday. The Qutb Minar in Delhi reminds one of Aibak and Iltutmish. One who visits the Taj Mahal of Agra, remembers Shahjahan. Akbar and Aurangzeb are still the talk of the town. Truly has Bernard Croce said that all history is contemporary. Our living present is the extension of the past which in many ways is still with us. No wonder then that Muslim state in India has not ceased to exist. It is not known as Nizam-i-Mustafa, as, in the Indian secular democracy, it cannot be known by that nomenclature. But it has been internalised in the Muslim psyche and is expressed in a number of euphemistic phrases like Muslim Identity, Muslim Personal Law, (Muslim) Minorities Commission, Muslim Waqf Board, Muslim (Madrasa) Education, and so on. All in all, Muslims by their personal law and separate identity represent a separate system within the secular Indian state, if not a separate state within the Indian state.