Paper short abstract:

Focussing on communist responses to subcontinental constellations, the paper addresses questions of and linkages between minority and resistancy in a communist nomenclature and the latter’s confirmation of collective identity formation on the example of independent India’s Muslims.

Paper long abstract:

Positive communist connotations of 'community' have ever been underpinned by notions of resistancy connected with a given community. The impact of classical Marxism's materialist class analysis has been matched solely by the concept of self-determination of nationalities - and concomitantly the category of "national minority" - popularised by Soviet Marxism. As opposed to the working class, the minority's resistancy lies solely in its relative numerical definition as a minority.

It is well known that the adaptation of this paradigm in a subcontinental environment on the part of the CPI effected the latter's tectonic shift towards supporting the Pakistan demand in the 1940s, which emphatically declared communist support for a minoritarian Muslim subjectivity. However, beyond that surprisingly little work has been done on further communist contribution to the delineation of an Indian Muslim identity. The paper will concentrate on developments within the Indian communist left after the dramatic events accompanying the bifurcation of British India. It will address questions such as how Muslim subjectivity is defined within a communist nomenclature, how positive connotations of 'Muslim-ness' are tied to projections of resistancy as opposed to sharp rejections of majoritarian Hindu assertiveness, how shifting social and political constellations influenced a communist shaping of India's Muslims, and most importantly how a (Muslim) communist viewpoint negotiates the space for a minoritarian Muslim identity within the larger framework of a secular and socialist project in a post-independent political landscape. The writings of Muqimuddin Farooqi and others like Sajjad Zaheer will be instructive in exploring these apparent antinomies.