The Moors’ Islamic Cultural Home and the Modern Muslim Ummah: Negotiating Identity, Politics, and Community in 1940s Sri Lanka
The Moors’ Islamic Cultural Home (MICH) was incorporated in the State Council in 1944. This paper will look at the establishment of the MICH as indicating the emergence of a particular post-World War II aspirational Muslim middle-class sensibility in Sri Lanka. It will argue that this sensibility em...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2023
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| In: |
International Journal of Islam in Asia
Year: 2023, Volume: 4, Issue: 1/2, Pages: 125-150 |
| Further subjects: | B
Nationalism
B Modernity B Sri Lanka B Citizenship B Elite B Identity B Ceylon Moor B Muslim |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The Moors’ Islamic Cultural Home (MICH) was incorporated in the State Council in 1944. This paper will look at the establishment of the MICH as indicating the emergence of a particular post-World War II aspirational Muslim middle-class sensibility in Sri Lanka. It will argue that this sensibility emerged at the intersection of two sets of anxieties – Muslims as a minority in a soon to be majoritarian state, and the Muslim elite as insufficiently educated and forward looking in comparison with other elites in the country. In the period when the MICH was established, Ceylonese Muslims distanced themselves from Indian Muslims living in Sri Lanka but presented a connection with a Muslim past through invoking the Moors of Spain. Through the MICH the Muslim elite presented themselves as learned, modern, and as leading poorer Muslims out of destitution toward a modern middle-class way of life. |
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| ISSN: | 2589-9996 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: International Journal of Islam in Asia
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/25899996-20241071 |