Making Sense of ‘Multiple Islams’: The View from the Indian South

Over its long history, Islam has taken on many distinctive regional forms. With its many languages and countless cultural influences, South Asia – comprising India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka – has produced a particularly rich variety of these localized versions of Islam. Taking the example of the Tamil-speaking Muslims of southern India and Sri Lanka, in this podcast we’ll explore how living by the shores of the Indian Ocean shaped the contours of their maritime Islam.  Turning to more recent times, we’ll also see how religious reformists from Pakistan and the Gulf have tried to ‘purify’ or ‘standardize’ the way Tamils practice their faith. Nile Green talks to Torsten Tschacher, the author of Race, Religion, and the ‘Indian Muslim’ Predicament in Singapore (Routledge, 2017).