SynopsisWhat does it mean to be Muslim in India? What does it mean to look like one's religion? Does one's faith determine how one is perceived? Is there a secular ideal one is supposed to live up to? Can people of different faiths have a shared culture, a shared identity? India has, since time immemorial, been plural, multi - cultural, multi - ethnic and multi - lingual, where various streams have fed into and strengthened each other, and where dissimilarities have always been a cause for rejoicing rather than strife. These writings, on and about being Muslim in India, by Rakhshanda Jalil - one of the country's foremost literary historians and cultural commentators - excavate memories, interrogate dilemmas, and rediscover and celebrate a nation and its syncretic culture. But You Don't Look Like a Muslim is a book that every thinking Indian must read.
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Binding: HardBack
About the author
Dr Rakhshanda Jalil is a writer, critic and literary historian. She has published over 15 books and written over 50 academic papers and essays. Her book on the lesser-known monuments of Delhi, Invisible City, continues to be a bestseller. Her recent works include: Liking Progress, Loving Change: A Literary History of the Progressive Writers Movement in Urdu; a biography of Urdu feminist writer Dr Rashid Jahan A Rebel and her Cause; a translation of Intizar Husain's seminal novel on Karachi, The Sea Lies Ahead; Pigeons of the Domes: Stories on Communalism, Krishan Chandar's Partition novel Ghaddar; and most recently an edited volume of critical writings on Ismat called An Uncivil Woman and Preeeto & Other Stories: The Male Gaze in Urdu. She runs an organisation called Hindustani Awaaz, devoted to the popularisation of Hindi-Urdu literature and culture.