This book explores the critical linkages between education and empowerment of women, marginalized groups and other disadvantaged sections of society. It: Provides an overview of educational policies and practices from India’s independence to the present day, and tracks relevant changes and amendments. Examines a range of issues connected with education such as the Right to Education Act; empowerment and community mobilization; higher education challenges and other emerging topics. Brings together both theoretical postulates and empirical findings.

Through the creation of post-colonial citizenship, India adopted a hybridisation of specific secular and western conception of citizenship. In this democratic framework, Indian Muslims are observed on how they make use of the spaces and channels to accommodate their Islamic identity within a secular one. This book analyses how the socio-political context shapes citizens’ perceptions of multiple variables, such as their sense of political efficacy, agency, conception of citizenship rights and belief in democracy. Based on extensive surveys and interviews and through presenting and investigating the various meanings of jihād, the author explores the usage of non-Eurocentric conceptual approaches to the study of postcolonial and Muslim societies, in particular the meaning it carries in the psyche of the Muslim community. She argues that through means of argumentative and spiritual jihād, Indian Muslims fight their battle towards a realisation of citizenship ideals despite the unfavourable conditions of intra and inter community conflicts. Presenting new examinations of Islamic identity and citizenship in contemporary India, this book will be a useful contribution to the study of South Asian Studies, Religion, Islam, and Race and Ethnicity.

This book is an attempt to discuss what is the place of Islam in India. What are the status and opportunities of Muslims in India and also what is the Indian form of Islam? Many important issues have been raised in the book, as well as the status of Muslims in government schemes and programs has been assessed. The book also tries to find out the size of the problems of Indian Muslims and how they can be resolved. Terrorism has been mentioned in many places in the book, which is an attempt to clarify that Indian Muslims are not intolerant by their nature but external forces want them to live in a state of isolation in the country. This is the reason why an attempt has been made to understand the situation in Kashmir as well. This book is dedicated to all those readers who want to understand Indian Islam from a new but established point of view.

This book studies how marginality impacts the everyday lives of Indian Muslims. It challenges the prevailing myths and stereotypes through which Indian Muslims have come to be seen in the popular imagination. The volume engages with questions of citizenship, collective violence, and issues of civil and criminal jurisprudence. It explores the linkages between development, marginality, and citizenship – the three critical issues for modern democracies today. Going beyond the singular narrative of a community on a continuous slide, the chapters in this volume present diversities of the Muslim experience of exclusion and participation. It discusses themes such as violence and marginality among minorities; Indian Muslims and the ghettoized economy; employment aspirations of low-income Muslim men; intergenerational social mobility of Muslims; the nature of the middle class; and the question of Islam, development, and globalization to showcase the living conditions of Muslims in India. Part of the Religion and Citizenship series, this timely volume will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of political studies, sociology, political sociology, minority studies, public policy, religion, citizenship studies, diversity and inclusion studies, and social anthropology.

Transformation of socio-economic condition of people depends on basic requirements of life. Although the sources of improved standard of living of people are enumerable, broadly they can be categorized as social and economic requirements. Among the most influential requirements, discussion mostly revolves around the educational attainment and health of social sector, and that of sources of income of economic sector. Socio-economic transformation of people of any region has become one of the goals of economic policy over time. Therefore, understanding the pros and cons of socio-economic status of any section of people or any region has emerged for future policy perspectives. The present study proposes to analyze and understand the social and economic status of Deshi Muslims, a specific section of Assamese community inhabiting in Goalpara district, Assam in particular.

Drawing upon original case studies spanning North America, Europe and Australia, Muslim Citizens in the West explores how Muslims have been both the excluded and the excluders within the wider societies in which they live. The book extends debates on the inclusion and exclusion of Muslim minorities beyond ideas of marginalisation to show that, while there have undoubtedly been increased incidences of Islamophobia since September 2001, some Muslim groups have played their own part in separating themselves from the wider society. The cases examined show how these tendencies span geographical, ethnic and gender divides and can be encouraged by a combination of international and national developments prompting some groups to identify wider society as the 'other'. Muslim and non-Muslim scholars and practitioners in political science, social work, history and law also highlight positive outcomes in terms of Muslim activism with relationship to their respective countries and suggest ways in which increasing tensions felt, perceived or assumed can be eased and greater emphasis given to the role Muslims can play in shaping their place in the wider communities where they live.

This book explores how social discrimination in South Asia contributes to health disparities and impedes well-being. Specifically, it addresses how marginalization shapes health outcomes, both under normal circumstances and specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic. Coming from diverse backgrounds and representing different academic disciplines, the authors have contributed a range of chapters drawing from quantitative and ethnographic material across South Asia. Chapters address reservation politics, tribal lifeways, Dalit exclusions from governmental institutions, Muslim ghettoization, gendered domestic violence, social determinants of health among migrant workers, and the pandemic fallout across South Asian society, among other subjects. Scholars draw on decades of experience and firsthand ethnographic fieldwork among affected communities. The chapters provide an innovative analysis, often in real time, of the human toll of casteism, classism, patriarchy, and religious intolerance—many set against the spectre of COVID-19. Many authors not only present social critiques but also offer specific policy recommendations. The book is of great interest to social scientists, public health practitioners, and policy advocates interested in addressing systemic inequalities and ensuring that future pandemics are not disproportionately felt by the most vulnerable.

Chapter Introduction: Human development: has the paradigm failed us? -- chapter 1 Conceptualizing Human Development: Towards a social power approach -- chapter 2 Human Development in India: a profi le of unevenness -- chapter 3 Explaining Uneven Human Development in India: A social power perspective -- chapter 4 Human Development in Pakistan and Bangladesh: a profi le -- chapter 5 Uneven Human Development in Pakistan and Bangladesh: A social power perspective -- chapter 6 Conclusions: Agency, human development and social power.