Modernization and Social Change Among Muslims in India

The study of social change has long been a neglected area in India. Social change in Muslim communities has hardly been studied in a proper manner. This has often given rise to an impression that Muslims are tradition-bound and resistant to the processes of modernization and social change. This classic work offers insights fora realistic appraisal of the Muslim responses to the now familiar processes of modernization and social change

Editor

Imtiaz Ahmad, Former Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

This book is the fourth and the last of the four-volume series dealing with the social and cultural life of the Muslims in India. The first two volumes of this series were concerned with the study of caste and social stratification and family, kinship and marriage among Muslims in India. The third volume dealt with Muslim rituals and religious life. This volume is devoted to a study of modernization and social change among them.

Perhaps, it is only appropriate that the last of a series of books dealing with the social and cultural life of Muslims in India should be devoted to a discussion of the theme of modernization and social change among them. Ever since India achieved independence, national policies have been directed toward a radical reorganization of Indian society and a number of schemes and programmes have been introduced and carried out to achieve this goal. Numerous studies have tried to assess the effects of these developmental schemes and programmes of social change and to find out the ways in which the different segments of the Indian population have responded to them. Unfortunately, despite their numerical and social significance, there is little sociological literature either on the response of the Muslim communities to the processes of economic development and social change or on the extent to which the Muslim communities can be said to have been affected by those processes. This has often given rise to an impression that the Muslims as a whole have failed to take advantage of these programmes of economic development and social change and are lagging behind the others. This book should provide information and offer insights for a realistic appraisal of the Muslim response to the now familiar phenomenon of modernization and social change in India.

**Contents and Sample Pages**