Muslim Communities In Gujarat: Preliminary Studies In Their History And Social Organization

Nothing in Indian studies is more fascinating-or more instructive-than an inquiry into the process of social and cultural dynamism of which Indian society and Indian culture are direct results. The rise and growth of Indian communities especially of communities like the Indian Muslim communities, the adaptation of the Great Tradition to the Little in a land where emergent social forms were the rule rather than the exception, and the resultant, configurations, social and interpersonal-in brief, the symbiosis which has been the warp and the wood of Indian life and society and a process which is peculiarly and characteristically India, required to by studied in its manifold aspects. The present study is an attempt in this direction, a preliminary effort to analyse some aspects of this process as they have been illustrated in the evolution of the Muslim communities in Gujarat and in their present-day social configurations. In the words of Professor G.E. von Grunebaum, "it opens the door to one of the least investigated sectors of the Islamic world and it provides a rich introduction to the composition and stratification of Gujarati Islam and the social realities within which the Muslim faith is lived in the complexities of an area where traditions are commingled rather than blended."