Deobandism: The Indian Origins of a Global Muslim Reform Movement

From its humble origins as a small-town madrasa founded in colonial India in 1866, the Deoband movement has become one of the most influential molders of contemporary Islam. By tracing its trajectory of expansion, and unpacking its doctrines, this podcast follows Deobandism from provincial India to the world, before turning to its complex relationship with Sufism, on the one hand, and the Taliban, on the other. Together with its allied Tablighi Jamaat missionary society, the impact of Deobandism points us to the leading but little-recognized role of South Asia in contemporary global Islam. Nile Green talks to Brannon D. Ingram, the author of Revival from Below: The Deoband Movement and Global Islam (University of California Press, 2018).