Lecture: Rethinking Muslim Histories: 1948 "Police Action" and the Case of Hyderabad

Prof. Afsar Mohammad, University of Pennsylvania, will give a lecture on his new book Remaking History: 1948 Police Action and the Muslims of Hyderabad (Cambridge, 2023) on Friday, September 22, 2023 in the Meyerson Conference Room, WCH 4.118. A reception with refreshments will precede the talk at noon and the lecture will begin at 12:30. All are invited.

Based on oral histories and written documents about the Police Action in 1948 in Hyderabad, Deccan, this talk discusses various ways of rethinking Muslim past in South India. Whereas most studies focus on Partition as related to the Muslim question and Hindu-Muslim interactions in South Asia, it's crucial now to understand the role of such violence and trauma in Hyderabad and Telangana which raises various key questions about new Muslim discourses, particularly, the idea of a "new Muslim," as articulated in an everyday life in the urban setting of Hyderabad. In the aftermath of the 1948 Police Action that led to thousands of killings and some thousands of migrations to various parts of the world, the Muslims of Hyderabad rejected many traditional norms and embraced a modernity that has roots in a local conceptualization of Islam and Muslim belongingness.