Overview

The Mohammadan Anglo-Oriental College (MAO), that became the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in 1920 drew the Muslim elite into its orbit and was a key site of a distinctively Muslim nationalism. Located in New Dehli, the historic centre of Muslim rule, it was home to many leading intellectuals and reformers in the years leading up to Indian independence. During partition it was a hub of pro-Pakistan activism. The graduates who came of age during the anti-colonial struggle in India settled throughout the subcontinent after the Partition. They carried with them the particular experiences, values and histories that had defined their lives as Aligarh students in a self-consciously Muslim environment, surrounded by a non-Muslim majority. This new archive of oral history narratives from seventy former AMU students reveals histories of partition as yet unheard. In contrast to existing studies, these stories lead across the boundaries of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Partition in AMU is not defined by international borders and migrations but by alienation from the safety of familiar places. The book reframes Partition to draw attention to the ways individuals experienced ongoing changes associated with “partitioning”—the process through which familiar spaces and places became strange and sometimes threatening—and they highlight specific, never-before-studied sites of disturbance distant from the borders.

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9780755635412

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Reviews

Amber Abbas's book fulfills Sir Syed mission of connecting individuals and communities. The ethnography of the university is rich in details and captures the emotions of the people who have studied and lived there. A story of the lived history of AMU is a very significant contribution. Her book is a bridge for the alum of AMU to find their friends and colleagues in the divided nations of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh and feel a sense of wholeness. Abbas's book shines a humanistic light, which deserves attention for national and human wellbeing. * Yasmin Saikia, Hardt-Nickachos Chair in Peace Studies and Professor of History at Arizona State University, USA * By setting the 'partitioning' of India as a process over time and space, this perceptive and sensitive study allows us to break away from standard narratives and see history from multiple perspectives. Amber H. Abbas tracks a cohort of students rooted in the ethos of Aligarh Muslim University from the end of British rule to its subsequent place in independent India -- those who stayed and those who moved across new national borders, the role Aligarh played in their lives, and the revisions of experience and memory within the ongoing histories of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. * David Lelyveld, author of Aligarh's First Generation: Muslim Solidarity in British India *

Author Information

Amber H. Abbas is Assistant Professor of History at St. Joseph's University, USA. Her research focuses on the period of transition associated with the 1947 Independence and Partition of India, and its impact on South Asian Muslims.

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