Rethinking the Muslim Question in Post-Colonial India

Speaking initially in the third person, moderate Muslims might correctly say, ‘In the face of colonial history and in the face of recent frustrations and defeat, Islam has an appeal for us; it is grounded in a doctrine we embrace and which has comprehensive pretensions and claims on us, including – crucially – on our polities, and this gives us a sense of autonomy and identity.’ If I am right that this defensive attitude reflects a predominantly third-person perspective on ourselves, it will do no violence to the use of ‘us’ and ‘we’ here if we replace them with ‘them’ and ‘they.’