PERCEPTIONS of self, identity, social order and peace on one hand and fears of instability, loss of self, disorder and violence, conflict on the other seem to depend on each other in a dialectical way. This was true of the formative years of the West as well as of the Islamic world. Perception of the ‘other’ formed an integral part of this dialectic. This book highlights the current perceptions of the East and the West as seen through the eyes of not each other but scholars from India. Here 20 interviews are included with historical and philosophical analysis in this book.
The first part of the book discusses the history of perceptions between the Europe and Latin Christianity and the so-called Muslim world, starting from the 7th century onwards. In the West, Islam was viewed as a threat because Muslim conquerors expanded the reach of Islam well into Spain, Italy and even France. Islam was portrayed as a hostile alternative to Christianity. While Christian religion was seen as the epitome of all that was good, Islam became the incremental evil in the eyes of the West. On the other hand, in the Muslim world, Western Europe hardly figured in the mental map of the people and if it did, it was as Crusaders or traders or firangis who made their way into the Middle East. The period of colonialism and later of imperialism left a deep mark on the geography of the colonised lands and minds of the people colonised. As its fallout, one can see the tragedy of Palestine, Kashmir, nations in South Africa and so on. Generally it left the decolonised with a sense of mistrust vis-a-vis the West.
The focus of this book is extensively on the role perceptions of Muslims as the threatening ‘other’ and the relationship between them and the West. Of course, India has its own history of perceptions of Islam prior to the advent of the British.
The book’s third part explores the role that intellectual elites play. Interests of academics in India are included in this part. It comprises interviews of eminent scholars and thinkers in India, such as Imtiaz Ahmad and Ashis Nandy. Put together, they form the basis of an assessment of these countries regarding the role that their academic elites play in the controversies surrounding the identity of their polity. Subtle ideological differences surface in their responses to the use of common questions based on theories of modernity, concepts of justice and notions of identity politics.
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