Indo-Muslim Cultures in Transition

This volume is an attempt to envision South Asian Muslim culture from the sixteenth through the twentieth centuries. Given this broad temporal range, it is not surprising that the volume as a whole meanders, despite the editors' attempts to make the case that what unites the nine chapters included in the volume is the circulation and exchange of people, commodities, and ideas within the Indian subcontinent during the five-hundred-year period under consideration here. The general analytical focus is thus on “transitions” during the late and post-Mughal periods. Patel and Leonard attempt to justify their two primary terms of reference in the title. They viably argue that “transition” is better than “decline,” because it suggests a dynamic process. Fair enough, but what of the term “Indo-Muslim”? By using this term rather than “Islamic,” the editors and their contributors wish to focus on civilization rather than religion. This is necessary, they argue,...