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We study the potential for pleasant and cooperative contact to reduce prejudice between religious groups in India. We randomly assign Hindu and Muslim participants into groups, in which they interact over the course of a week-long vocational training program. A novel feature of our study is that all of the participants were women. We find that intergroup contact reduces the prejudice of both Hindu and Muslim participants toward members of the other religion one week after the training program concluded. While we find that most of the positive effect of intergroup contact on reducing prejudice dissipates after six months, effects on Hindu attitudes toward Muslims are persistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper investigates whether the religious identity of state legislators in India influences development outcomes, both for citizens of their religious group and for the population as a whole. Using an instrumental variables approach derived from a regression discontinuity, we find that increasing the political representation of Muslims improves health and education outcomes in the district from which the legislator is elected. We find no evidence of religious favoritism: Muslim children do not benefit more from Muslim political representation than children from other religious groups. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Discussions of everyday Islamic religiosity commonly distinguish two distinct forms of Muslim religiosity, one 'normative' and 'formal,' the other 'accommodative' and 'informal.' It is invariably the latter form that is identified as the site of engagement with other religious traditions. This paper sets out to question the common association of 'popular' Islamic religiosity with 'syncretism' by analysing the methods by which Muslims defend contentious practices in everyday life. Drawing on fieldwork among Tamil-speaking Muslims in India and Southeast Asia, various strategies for defending contentious practices will be analysed, most important among which are references to Islamic scripture and scholarly tradition. Concomitantly, the discourse surrounding the defence of contentious practices and beliefs shows a heightened concern with authenticity, resulting in an often stridently anti-syncretic rhetoric. Finally, the paper will deal with an alternative way of defending contentious practices particularly salient in Southeast Asia, which tries to remove contentious practices from the sphere of 'religion' to that of 'culture.' In all cases, the respective defensive strategies clearly inhabit the same discursive space as the criticism levelled at contentious practice, revealing the problematic nature of the assumed binaries of Muslim religiosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]