Muslim Political Philosophy in Colonial India

Muslim philosophers in colonial India considered the relationship between the present, the past, and the future. While debates on nationalism and religious difference dominated studies on Muslim thought in South Asia, it is important to note that Muslims in colonial India were also contemplating various other issues, including the concept of time. They pondered how the present related to the past and future. The complex portrayal of the Mughal dynasty, which represented both the height of Muslim political sovereignty and the loss of that sovereignty to the British, exemplifies this ambivalence. The Mughal past became a subject of reflection, examining how Muslims in colonial India negotiated their paradoxical position in relation to it.