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HIS book deals with Muslim nationalism in Imperial India
in its four aspects. The first stage in the growth of a national-
ism is the evolution of a group into a nation. This is mainly an
historical development and occurs on the time-le”\Tel. Chapters
I, 2, and 3 describe how the Indian Muslims came to look upon
themselves as a separate national group,· how this affected
‘Indian’ nationalism and how it was consummated by the es-
tablishment of an· independent Muslim state. In brief, they
deal with the Muslim nationalist movement in its historical
and political aspects. The second stage (which, in terms of
time, may sometimes coincide with the first stage) arrives
when the national group begins to enunciate the principles and
ideals on which it claims a separate existence. The nation
justifies its nationhood on the philosophical plane. This may
take two shapes: r~ligion and culture. These two arguments
are the theme of Chapters 4 and 5, which deal, respectively,
with the religious element and the cultural background of
Muslim nationalism. The last aspect chosen for study is the
psychological factor in nationalism. How the Indian Muslims
took pride in being one nation, how they invented symbols to
represent their nationalism and created myths to reflect their
aspirations, how they persuaded themselves of their own solid-
arity: this is the subject of Chapter 6. Chapter 7 examines the
two-nation theory on which the creation of Pakistan was
professedly based. ·
The Introduction describes the subject of the book and de-
fines its terms of reference. The Epilogue sums up the argu-
ment and raises some questions.
My wife has helped me in the writing of this book by checking
the references, reading the proofs and in sundry other ways.
I am very grateful to her.
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