Islamophobia Studies in India: Problems and Prospects

This article aims to situate the problems and prospects of thinking about critical Islamophobia studies in the context of India. In doing so, first, the article traces the technical and political impasses to the emergence of critical Islamophobia studies in India by looking at the problem of denial of Islamophobia with respect to Indian nationalism and at the same time the rise of a new security paradigm in the context of the global war on terror. A new approach on critical Islamophobia studies, which is cognizant towards the mass desire of Islamophobia, is introduced in order to understand its popular base in India. Secondly, the limitations of the framework of communalism in developing critical Islamophobia studies are analyzed in light of the biopolitical aspects of state and society in India. Finally, the article proposes a preliminary roadmap to a new approach to understand the politics of Islamophobia as an active desire based in practice in India and introduces a new typology of precautionary and proactionary Islamophobia in the context of rising Hindu nationalism by locating its normative and derivative dimensions.