Nida Kirmani’s sociological study, Questioning the Muslim Woman: Identity and Insecurity in an Urban Indian Locality, engages in thorough fieldwork centering on the South Delhi township of Zakir Nagar, a predominantly Muslim locality in India.

Kirmani’s main aim is to provide a nuanced, academic picture of the lives of the town’s women, thereby giving one a sense of what it means to be female and Muslim in this town. Most of her interviewees range from the underprivileged to the lower middle-class. The project itself is a soundly conceived one, and Kirmani’s systematic handling of her subject matter and themes make this a useful text, especially from the perspective of graduate student research (in both sociology as well as international relations).

Kirmani describes the geographical location, structure and general plan of the locality, and sketches a set of helpful demographic outlines for the reader that enable one to appreciate that she expects her study to challenge prevalent modes of research. She correctly notes that sociologists examining aspects of South Asian culture, history, and religion too often fall into the trap of using Orientalist modes of scholarship. While this is understandable to some extent, Kirmani herself is shrewd enough to realise that her study can only benefit from moving beyond such paradigms, and indeed one hopes that many 21st century researchers have experienced a similar awakening.

Working on both the macro and micro levels, Kirmani analyses the impact of major national issues, as well as more locally pertinent domestic ones, on the shaping of female Muslim identities in Zakir Nagar. Her central chapters cover a range of topics as diverse as family dynamics, migration (both into and out of the town), and the widespread political ramifications of historical occurrences such as the Babri Masjid riots.

The famous Shah Bano and Gudiya cases are aptly alluded to as Kirmani builds her central arguments. Although the work falls short of coming to any definitive conclusions about female Muslim identity in the Zakir Nagar area, perhaps that fact in and of itself underscores the type of dynamism to which Kirmani’s work aspires. Complex identities are never stable, and Kirmani deserves kudos for using her research in a manner that creates a fluid and non-static picture of the lives of her female subjects.

Barring the occasional typo, Kirmani’s writing is clear and lucid, and in spite of its definitively academic nature the book is a surprisingly fast read. Her bibliography and chapter endnotes are admirably erudite, and often help orient the reader when most needed. For example, she notes that a number of her interviewees would make assumptions about Islam that ideally needed questioning, so she explicates on these matters in endnotes (by briefly commenting on points such as weak versus strong hadith, etc.).

Since the book is a debut work, one should be generous about critiquing the point that a number of its most vital chapters have been previously published in the form of journal articles. It appears likely that Kirmani, while publishing individual articles, came to believe that the story of Zakir Nagar’s women could be better consolidated in book form, both for the sake of convenience as well as academic completeness. The logic behind this is undeniable; however, this does lead to the text coming across as somewhat disjointed in parts, a fact that sadly cannot be corrected by the rather finely detailed introduction and adequate conclusion of the work.

Somewhat more disturbing is the manner in which Kirmani neglects to make substantial use of her bibliography. Her use of critics in the main body of her text could have been far more extensive; even the great Ayesha Jalal and the talented Huma Yusuf are relegated to a couple of footnotes. One appreciates that the text is about India, not Pakistan (although Krimani does mention the latter country on occasion); nevertheless, the book would have benefited from the incorporation of some of the academic endeavours of notable Pakistani social scientists such as Kaiser Bengali and Khalida Ghous.

Kirmani maintains a relatively detached and moderate critical tone throughout, though part of the beauty of her work is that her interviews are conducted with implicit sympathy and sensitivity. She does not shrink from eliciting responses from her subjects on semi-taboo issues such as female social repression and domestic violence. One respects that the book is expected to be predominantly about one gender only, but though the author claimed that she interviewed a few men, those accounts hardly make any appreciable difference to the text.

Fortunately, Kirmani is not as much of an apologist when it comes to her assertion of her personal identity as a feminist academic critic. One of the greatest services that her work provides when it comes to bringing the plight of these Muslim women to the forefront is that she successfully depicts the complexity of their lives against the equally complex backdrop of their town. Zakir Nagar, for all its drawbacks, hails as a fascinating point of study, and Kirmani’s detailed portrayal of its Hindu-Muslim conflicts and challenges visibly enhances her overarching agendum.

In aggregate the book clearly merits the compliment of being regarded as a ground-breaking work that deserves a place on many library shelves.

The reviewer is Assistant Professor of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts at the Institute of Business Administration.

Questioning the Muslim Woman: Identity and Insecurity in an Urban Indian Locality

(SOCIOLOGY)

By Nida Kirmani

Routledge, India

ISBN 978-0415707800

248pp.