The Identity Question of the Assamese Muslims

by Swabana Mamtaz

This article was sent to us quite sometime ago but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons.

I. Introduction

While the Muslims all over the world have a common religious identity, there is also extensive diversity among them relating to their socio-economic-cultural and political spheres. This creates their different social identities with the common feature, their religion. Therefore, it appears that the folk-cultural life of the indigenous Muslims of Assam is somewhat different from the Muslims of Northern and Southern India. Despite their assimilation, association and coexistence with the Assamese Hindu neighbours, the Muslims of Assam in their own traditional way maintain a complete separate religious identity with a distinctive blend of similarities and diversities among themselves. (Ahmed: 2010) It may be noted here that there are a number of distinctive categories of Muslims living in Assam. These are