An Analysis of the cultural identity of Indian Muslims in the British Colonial era as narrated by Muharram paintings

Diğer Ülkelerden Üniversiteler Tarafından Desteklenmiş Proje, 2025 - 2026

Proje Türü: Diğer Ülkelerden Üniversiteler Tarafından Desteklenmiş Proje
Başlama Tarihi: Mayıs 2025
Bitiş Tarihi: Ağustos 2026

Proje Özeti

With the emergence of British rule in India under the auspices of the East India Company, a new style emerged in the works of indigenous painters. These works, depicting the culture of the inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent, were produced and purchased with the support and commissions of British authorities: of particular significance in this context was the painters’ inclination to record and document events with religious themes, especially the Muharram events and their observance by Muslims in India. Accordingly, this study seeks to examine the role of colonial culture in the formation of Muharram-themed artworks in India and to interpret the cultural components that influenced the creation of these paintings. To this end, the study first draws upon Erwin Panofsky’s “three levels of iconological interpretation” and subsequently employs Homi K. Bhabha’s theory of the “Third Space” to explore the meanings embedded within these works. The study addresses the following questions: What consequences did the underlying content of Muharram-themed paintings produced during the colonial era entail? Furthermore, how did the recognition of the concepts embedded in these works and the cultural identity of Indian Muslims within the Third Space formed between the colonizer and the colonized contribute to the re-expression of Islamic culture under British rule in India? The aim of this study is to interpret the underlying meanings of these artworks, identify their symbolic values, and examine how Muslim identity was revitalized within a colonized society through paintings centered on Muharram. The findings, based on a historical and descriptive-analytical approach and on the collection of data through library research, indicate that although Britain ostensibly sought only to commission and collect paintings documenting Shiite mourning rituals in India, it viewed the revival of the Ashura movement as a potential threat that could trigger an uprising among the inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent. Therefore, with the aim of exerting control over Indian Muslims and diminishing their influence among Hindus, the British commissioned paintings centered on Muharram. It is noteworthy that indigenous painters, in creating these works, employed elements of Hindu-Islamic culture and, albeit unintentionally, created an opportunity for the re-emergence of Muslim identity during the colonial era. This identity, which had been weakened as a result of British hostility and the implementation of policies aimed at fomenting division between Hindus and Muslims, consequently came to receive attention in a different form. In other words, the artist’s use of traditional elements prevalent in India, together with the reciprocal orientation of the colonizer and the colonized toward one another within an in-between space, was not merely an expression of the absolute domination of colonialism over Indian Muslims; nor did it simply correspond to indigenous Indian cultural elements. It can therefore be argued that, contrary to the expectations of the colonial authorities, these artworks, depicting mourning for Sayyid al-Shuhada (Imam Husayn), were aligned with the philosophy of Ashura and created conditions for the renewed expression of Islamic—and particularly Shiite—culture and identity during the colonial era in India. They also contributed to introducing these communities and their cultural practices beyond the borders of this multicultural land. In this sense, such artworks can be regarded as a means of fostering unity among Shiites, Sunnis, and non-Muslims in India in their resistance to colonialism.