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Comment parler aujourd’hui des sociétés du sous-continent indien ? Ces sociétés de castes ont été gagnées, au cours du dernier siècle, par l’économie de marché, l’industrialisation, le capitalisme agricole, la démocratie, le syndicalisme, et présentent de plus en plus les apparences des sociétés de classes modernes. Il reste pourtant très difficile, aujourd’hui encore, d’analyser en profondeur les mouvements sociaux, les comportements économiques, les attitudes politiques qu’on y observe sans faire référence à la caste. Existe-t-il de véritables classes sociales en Asie du Sud ? La caste tend-elle à s’estomper, ou se perpétue-t-elle en s’adaptant ? C’est à l’aide d’enquêtes détaillées sur des milieux sociaux précis qu’on a cherché à rassembler ici des éléments de réponse.

This article is based on data which were collected in a locality of Central Nepal and are interpreted against the wider background of the Central Himalaya and, more generally, Northern India. It aims to bring to light new facts and to offer new interpretations in the field of service relationships which are loosely termed jajmānī in the literature.Each such relationship has two poles: at one pole stands the patron who usually acts as the head of his own household but may at times represent a larger group of people: lineage, village, etc.; at the other pole is the specialist, drawn from one or another of the castes whose traditional occupation is to render one or several services to patrons. The various relationships are here enumerated, described and analysed; the author investigates not only the nature of the services and the mode of payment, but also the terms under which the relationships are established, renewed or ended, as well as the relative status of the patron and the specialist.These relationships fall into three distinct classes:1 – Those which have a religious content, either positive or negative, on which the relative status of the patron and of the specialist is founded; the former acts here as a sacrificer, jajmān; he is served, on a personal basis, by .the Brahman priest, on the one hand, who is for him a source of purity and who introduces him in the realm of the sacred; and, on the other hand, by members of the lower castes, in the present case all intouchable, such as the cobblers and the musicians, who help him get rid of impurity; in these relationships, which alone are properly called jajmānī, status is always relevant.2 – Relationships which involve purely artisanal services, without any religious implications, and in which status is not relevant; they are either personal, on the basis of an annual contract with a fixed payment in grains and food, as in the case of the blacksmith or of the tailor whose services are often needed; or impersonal, as in the case of the goldsmith, carpenter, potter, etc. whose services are less frequently required.3 – Finally, relationships founded on beggary, in which compulsion is always present, should be considered as making up a distinct class; they involve, on the one hand, a householder and, on the other hand, respectable ascetics or untouchable begging and wandering musicians. One of the lessons drawn from this analysis is put forward as a contribution to the general debate on the so-called, jajmānī system. It is here argued that only the relationships of the first class, which involve purity and impurity and which imply a hierarchical complementarity between the patrons and the service castes, should properly be termed jajmānī. The two other criteria which have been proposed in the literature: fixed payment in kind, and heredity, are not essential.Certain other conclusions refer specifically to the region under study. In the Central Himalaya (Nepal, Kumaon, Garhwal), the range of services available to patrons, particularly with respect to the first class, is much narrower than in the Plains of Northern India; and specialized castes usually cumulate several roles which fall into the first and the second class. We find thus, among the Indo-Nepalese of the Central Himalaya, a very limited number of specialized castes; but in Central and Eastern Nepal, additional services are provided by Tribals and Newars.Finally three, or rather four, distinct religions are represented in the area under study: Hinduism; Buddhism associated with tribal religion and Islam. The presence of these four competing traditions enables us to define more precisely the many integrated roles of the Hindu priest, the Brahmin, as opposed to those of the Buddhist Lāmā, of the Tribal shaman and of the Muslim Qāẓī and Fakir. Moreover – and this general conclusion has a bearing on the sociology of India the three classes of relationships function harmoniously only when the patron is a Hindu. When he is a Buddhist, an adept of a tribal religion or a Muslim, he does not deal with the Brahmin as a priest and his own priests are by no means comparable to Brahmins; but he behaves with the other specialists of lower status in the same way as his Hindu counterpart. The hierarchy is thus truncated: the highest, the Brahmin disappears, but the unclean and the untouchables remain such in the eyes of the non-Hindus.

This communication deals with a particular class of spirits, bāyu, who are the souls of people who suffered an abnormal death and wander in this world. The author deliberately adopted the view-points of the bāyu themselves, quoting their statements as heard from the mouths of the mediums (ḍāgre) through whom they manifest themselves: their careers are thus unfolded from the moment of death till the time they are fixed in a lineage shrine and, possibly, released to join the ancestors in another world. The paper also includes a description of the choice and training of the mediums and analysis of the kinship structure in which the cult of the bāyu is developed.The material on which this paper is based was collected among both Hindus and Muslims in villages of central Nepal. But indoubtedly the cult originated among Hindus for it fits into their beliefs concerning the fate of the soul after death. It has been adopted not only by Muslims, but also by buddhist tribals; thus people belonging to various castes and professing various religions worship the bāyu, and may use the services of the same medium; the fact that this cult oversteps socially recognized barriers raises many problems which are discussed in passing.

La notion de classe a pris une grande importance dans les institutions politiques du Népal depuis la seconde guerre mondiale, sous l’influence des idées occidentales et des expériences de l’Inde indépendante. Jusqu’en 1950 le mot d’ordre officiel était le maintien de la hiérarchie des castes ; depuis 1960, le grand slogan est : « révolution sans lutte des classes ». Cette nouvelle vue implique d’une part la reconnaissance officielle de l’existence de classes sociales ; et d’autre part la volonté de la monarchie d’éviter tout antagonisme entre elles grâce au système des panchayats qui a été mis en place depuis 1960.Cet article décrit d’abord le contexte politique et social dans lequel ont pris forme ces nouvelles institutions. Puis il analyse l’établissement et le fonctionnement des organisations de classes, aspect du système des panchayats trop souvent négligé par les commentateurs. Pour finir il démêle les raisons complexes qui ont conduit la monarchie à adopter une telle idéologie et de telles institutions. The concept of social classes has gained a great importance in Nepal’s political institutions since the end of World War II, through the influence of Western ideas and the experiences of independent India. Up to 1950 the main official concern was to protect the caste hierarchy; from 1960 on the chief slogan is “revolution without class-struggle ".In this new perspective the existence of social classes is recognized. At the same time, the Monarchy wants to prevent the appearence of antagonism between these classes by means of the Panchayat System which it has been bringing into operation since 1960. The author describes the political and social context in which these institutions were shaped. He places particular emphasis on a too often neglected aspect of the Panchayat System: the class organizations. Finally he analyzes the complex of motives which have led the Nepalese Monarchy to adopt such an ideology and such institutions.

This is the third and last in a series of three studies dealing with ritual trances among Hindus and Muslims of the Himalaya. The enquiry was begun in central. Nepal, continued in Western Nepal and extended to Kumaon which is most probably the point of origin of the institutions here described and the place where the ceremonies are performed in the most elaborate fashion.I begin with a detailed description of a particular ceremony observed, photographed and recorded in Almora. The two main roles were played by mediums on the one hand, and, on the other, by a bard who sang the stories of the gods and directed the trances. In analysing this ceremony I compared it with other ritual trances which I have recorded. Four divergent interpretations of the trances, representing irreconciliable points of view, emerge from the material collected.There are two theological interpretations. The ritual trance is understood by the faithful as the descent of incarnations (avatār) of gods into the bodies of the mediums. The bard is assimilated to a meditating tantric guru who compells the gods to come down into the mediums. In both cases, differenciated by the text sung by the bard, the ritual trances are linked to the sacrifice offered on the following day. The vocabulary employed and the ideas expressed show the relationship existing between popular religion and more refined types of Hindu and Buddhist mysticism.In the two other interpretations, trances are conceived from a human point of view. The physical and emotional manifestations are seen as a temporary madness. This leads to questions as to the personnality of the medium, who is considered as an abnormal in his own society. In fact, not only the medium but three other personnages : the renouncer, the passionate lover and... the anthropologist are also perceived as madmen. This is important for the sociological interpretation of Hindu society. Up to now, only one borderline case, the one with the greatest prestige, that of the renouncer has been fully investigated. If we could now focus on two other less exalted cases, those of the medium and his alter ego the anthropologist, we could perhaps place the interpretation of Hindu society in a more human and reasonable perspective.

Dans les représentations courantes, l’Asie du Sud est avant tout le foyer d’une des plus anciennes civilisations du monde, la civilisa­tion indienne. On oublie trop souvent l’immense période de transition, entre l’ère classique et l’époque moderne, au cours de laquelle cette civilisation a été marquée par l’Islam. Comment les communautés musulmanes se sont-elles adaptées à un contexte indien où elles ont exercé une autorité tout en restant minoritaires ? Quels modèles économiques, politiques, religieux et sociaux ont surgi de la confrontation de l’Islam avec le monde de l’hindouisme ? Quel poids l’Islam a-t-il gardé dans le jeu politique moderne ? Treize spécialistes des multiples disciplines concernées tentent ici de répondre à ces questions.

India (in the historical sense of the whole of South Asia) has popularized in the 20th century, with Gandhi, the concept of non-violence, a-hiṃsā; but in 1947 it reached the climax of violence, hiṃsā, with the partition of the subcontinent between a Hindu majority in India and a Muslim majority in Pakistan, when 300 to 500.000 people were killed, and 10 to 15 million displaced… Between these two extremes (i.e. non-violence and “transgressive” violence) stands “legitimate” violence, which is r...

The study of the Islamic dimension of the History and Culture of South Asia has been rather neglected – particularly in France – as compared to the amount of scholarship devoted to Hindu and Buddhist India or even to South Asian tribal societies; and also as compared to studies of other parts of the Islamic world. The purpose of this volume is to draw the attention to the importance of this field and to acquaint the readers interested in South Asia or in the Islamic world with the present state of research on Islam and Society in India.This introduction has two parts. In the first part, as well as in the first paper by Jean Aubin, a few major facts have been stressed. Islam has been present in South Asia for more than a thousand years; and for more than six centuries (xiiith to xviiith) Muslim dynasties, mainly based in Delhi, were the paramount political power in the subcontinent: South Asia became an integral part of the Muslim world. Over these centuries a Muslim community made of immigrants, of converts and of their descendents was progressively formed. Muslims may be in a minority in the subcontinent: about 26 % of the population. They nevertheless make up the largest Muslim community in the world ; aroud 200 millions in 1975; that is to say that out of four Muslims in the world, one lives in South Asia; there are more South Asian Muslims than Arab Muslims or Indonesian Muslims. The Muslim population is unevenly distributed over the subcontinent: Pakistan and Bangladesh are the only two states with a Muslim majority and contain each about one third of the community; the remaining third is scattered as minorities mainly in India, but also in Nepal and Sri Lanka. Finally the political and cultural heritage of the Islamic period, even for the Hindu majority, should not be underestimated: it is in evidence in every field: from architecture to administrative techniques, from mystical writings to cooking recipes.The second part introduces and connects the twelve papers contained in this volume. They all concern a few themes connected to a central theme: Islam and Society. These themes may be summed up under the following questions: how did Muslim societies grow up in the subcontinent? How were these societies internally structured? What specifically Islamic institutions were built? Which types of Muslim leaders played specific rôles? What kind of religious and political ideologies did they produce to explain and legitimate their rôles in a predominently non-Muslim environment?The papers have been arranged into three sections. The five first papers present historical perspectives on medieval South Asia. The four papers of the second section are devoted to the study of various aspects of concrete Muslim societies, The third section studies the contempory political rôles of Islam and Muslims in Pakistan and India.In order to replace the papers in a wider perspective, I have set them against the historical background of the progressive discovery of Islamic India by Western Scholars.It should be recalled that India was the first Muslim country ever ruled by a Western colonial power starting from 1765. The British were thus in a position to get first hand knowledge not only of Islam in India, but of islamology in general. They availed themselves of this opportunity first in the field of Islamic Law which they administered from 1772 onward.They also did pioneering work on Indo-islamic history, particularly after 1840. The papers of Jean Aubin, Geneviève Bouchon and Peter Hardy in the first section of this volume show what has been since then the progress of this discipline.The next advance was in the field of ethnography. From the beginning of the xixth century, British administrators had been compiling descriptive accounts of the various provinces, which contain very often valuable ethnographic data on the Muslim society; but a real systematic ethnography started only from 1872-1874 with the instauration of decennial censuses accompanied by monographs and gazeteers. They provided the first realistic knowledge of South Asian Muslim societies. In spite of many biases (which have been corrected by later research) this colonial ethnography remains our main source on the subject. It gives detailed nomenclatures and statistics on the internal configuration of Muslim societies with their many cleavages between sects, ethnic groups, status groups, socio-economic strata... The paper of M. R. Tarafdar beautifully illustrates, in a historical perspective, the complexity of Muslim society in Bengal, with a very wide range of status from the upper strata of immigrants, ashrāf, to the low caste converts. Two other papers by Claude Markovits and Gerard Heuzé show the results of recent research, on an all-India basis, on two socio-economic groups: big businessmen and low status artisans now working in modernized industries. Finally John Argyle studies the diaspora of South Asian Muslims in East and South Africa, showing how traditional structures and cleavages have been preserved in the new environment.In the XXth century, the interest on South Asian Islam went in two directions. On the one hand, in the light of the growing Muslim separatism, more and more attention was given to the political rôle of the Muslim community. On the other hand – with the development of properly islamological studies – attention was progressively focussed on the rôles and thoughts of the Muslim religious specialists.Let us examine first this second pole of interest. The religious specialists who were studied fall into two classes: the Sufi mystics and the ‘ulāmā’ (experts in exoteric religious sciences). For both religious and political reasons, the interest was first concentrated on the Sufis: in order to bridge the ever widening gap between Hindus and Muslims, emphasis was put on their roles as peaceful missionnaries and as promovers of religious syncretism, at the popular level throughout the Middle Ages, and even at the higher levels during a brief period (xvth-xviith). Gradually these researches evolved in a distinct discipline devoted to the study of sufi orders in India. Simon Digby give here a remarkable synthesis of these researches, focussing on the most important Indian order, the Chishtiyya, in relation to the other orders.The ‘ulāmā.’ came to the foreground only in the modern period with the rise of reform movements. And they first attracted the attention of scholars for their social and political rôles which are now rather well known after the works of Peter Hardy, Francis Robinson and Barbara Metcalf. Research on thought in the field of traditional religious sciences somewhat lagged behind; but the field was first explored by Aziz Ahmad ; it is now the most promising subject of research : in addition to the work of Yohanan Friedmann, whose very stimulating article will be read below, we should mention, among many others, the work of Christian Troll.The political situation of South Asian Muslims in relation with the Hindu majority has been the main focus of research, not a surprising fact in view of the tragic events which led to the Partition of the subcontinent in 1947. Since there are many excellents studies of the British period and of the first two decades following the partition, we have selected for this volume papers dealing with the recent political trends. Akbar S. Ahmed and Mariam Abou Zahab study the interplay of religious and ethnical factors in Pakistan. Violette Graff analyzes the present political situation of Muslims in India in the light of the 1984 elections. More research would be needed on the rôles of Islam and Muslims in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.At the end I want to thank our colleagues, informants and institutions in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nepal, as well as our Western colleagues and institutions. By facilitating our work in the field, by teaching at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences sociales, participating in Conferences organized here and inviting us in their countries, and by contributing articles for this volume they made possible the development of studies on South Asian Islam here. This volume, and particularly this introduction, is the result of this long collaboration which, we very much hope, will continue.

On tient généralement pour établi qu’il n’y a pas de prêtres dans l’Islam. Cet article s’inscrit en faux contre cette vue fondamentaliste et soutient que dans les formes médiévales de l’Islam qui survivent jusqu’à nos jours il y a des spécialistes religieux doués de pouvoirs surnaturels et investis d’autorité qui jouent le rôle de prêtres : ce sont les saints et les soufis qui desservent leurs tombes.Le présent article est bâti sur des matériaux qui ont été recueillis au Népal et au Tibet et qui sont interprétés à la lumière des recherches récentes sur le soufisme en Inde et au-delà. L’argumentation est développée en trois étapes. Un aperçu de la théosophie soufie montre quels sont les fondements théologiques des croyances relatives aux pouvoirs surnaturels des saints et à leur autorité. Puis une étude des légendes d’origine et des rites célébrés sur les tombes permet d’analyser les fonctions des saints comme médiateurs entre la communauté musulmane d’une part, et, d’autre part, un large éventail de puissances surnaturelles ou naturelles plus ou moins personnalisées (Allah, dieux païens, esprits, magiciens, rois, forces cosmiques...). En troisième lieu est présentée une étude sociologique du recrutement des spécialistes religieux qui desservent comme prêtres les tombes des saints ; la hiérarchie de ces spécialistes reflète la stratification sociale de la société musulmane : au sommet, d’authentiques membres d’ordres soufis « orthodoxes » ; au niveau médian, des ordres « hétérodoxes » devenus de basses castes ; enfin au niveau le plus bas, des musiciens intouchables.Des conclusions sociologiques sont esquissées dans la quatrième partie, à travers une comparaison historique entre les soufis et les renonçants hindous. Contre les interprétations fondamentalistes de l’hindouisme et de l’Islam, je soutiens que les renonçants des deux religions (Yogis et Soufis) ne doivent pas être relégués dans la sphère ultra mondaine : ils jouent de multiples rôles dans la sphère mondaine où ils constituent un troisième niveau trop souvent ignoré de la réalité sociologique. One usually assumes that there are no priests in Islam. Against this fundamentalist view, it is argued here that in the medieval forms of Islam which survive to this day there are religious specialists endowed with supernatural powers and invested with authority who act as priests: they are the Sufis and the members of Sufi orders who serve at their tombs.The present paper is based on data which were collected in Nepal and in Tibet and are interpreted in the light of recent research on Sufism in India and beyond. The argumentation is developped in three steps. First a brief survey of the theosophy of the Sufis shows what is the theological basis of the belief in the supernatural powers and the authority of saints. Then through a study of the legends of origin and of the rites performed around the tombs of the saints, I analyse the functions of the saints as mediators between the Muslim community on the one hand and, on the other, a large array of more or less personalized supernatural and natural powers (Allah, heathen gods, spirits, magicians, kings, cosmic force...). Finally a sociological study of the recruitment of the religious specialists who serve as priests at the tombs of the saints shows that their hierarchy reflects the social stratification of the Muslim society: at the top authentic members of « orthodox » Sufi orders; in the middle range « heterodox » Sufi orders which have become low castes; at the lowest level untouchable musicians.Sociological conclusions are drawn in the fourth part through a historical comparison between Sufis and Hindu renouncers. It is argued against fundamentalist interpretations of both Hinduism and Islam that the renouncers of both religions (Yogis and Sufis) must not be relegated into the otherworldly sphere: they play multiple roles in the worldly sphere, where they constitute a – too often ignored – third level of the sociological reality.

Hindouisme, bouddhisme, cha­manisme coexistent en Hima­laya. Loin de se juxtaposer simplement, ces mondes reli­gieux s’influencent. De cette complexité, les prêtres sont le témoignage. Comment se situent-ils par rapport à la tradition dont ils se réclament ? De quelle nature sont leurs pouvoirs ? Sur quel héritage s’ancre leur autorité ? Comment se partagent-ils le champ du sacré ? Ces questions sont soulevées ici à propos de plusieurs populations représentatives de la variété ethnique et culturelle de l’arc himalayen. Derrière la diversité des solutions qu’elles reçoivent, un fonds commun, une dimension autochtone, dominés par les divinités maîtresses du sol et les forces maléfiques, se laissent percevoir.

Dès 1903, Durkheim et Mauss ont introduit en ethnologie le concept de systèmes primitifs de classification fondés sur des correspondances terme à terme entre les différents domaines de la réalité (directions de l’espace, moments du temps, éléments de l’univers, plantes, animaux, dieux, ...). Ils s’appuyaient sur des matériaux empruntés aux peuples primitifs d’Amérique et d’Australie et aux lettrés chinois. Ils suggéraient en passant que les conceptions de l’Inde classique pouvaient relever du même type d’analyse : c’est cette hypothèse qui est testée ici en étudiant plus particulièrement les correspondances entre deux domaines : l’espace et le panthéon. Une première partie est consacrée à la conception indienne d’un espace qualifié, défini comme une somme de dix directions polarisées en fonction du corps humain. La seconde partie montre, en s’appuyant sur les données fournies par le rituel et par l’architecture, comment les dieux sont systématiquement mis en correspondance avec les directions de l’espace. Il est donc évident que nous sommes en présence d’un système primitif de classification au sens où l’entendaient Durkheim et Mauss. Cette conclusion est étoffée par une réflexion épistémologique sur les systèmes primitifs de classification, leurs supports et leurs fonctions : loin d’être (comme l’objecte J. Goody) largement reconstruits par les ethnologues sur la base de procédés d’écriture, ils reposent (comme l’avait bien vu Mauss) sur le rituel et les objets architecturaux qui symbolisent l’insertion de l’homme dans l’espace ; ils servent d’ailleurs moins à consigner les connaissances (comme le voulaient Durkheim puis Lévi-Strauss) qu’à agir magiquement sur le monde (comme le soulignait Leroi-Gourhan à la suite de Mauss). In 1903, Durkheim and Mauss introduced the concept of primitive forms of classification which consisted in Systems of correspondances between elements of various domains of reality (directions of space, moments of time, elements of the universe, plants, animals, gods, etc.). They relied on materials collected among primitive people of Australia and America, and on Chinese classical texts. They also suggested casually that classical Indian views could be analyzed in the same way: this is the hypothesis which is tested here by studying in particular the correspondances between two domains, space and pantheon. The first part of this paper deals with the Indian conception of a qualified space, defined as the summation of ten directions which are polarized in reference to human body. The second part shows, with the help of examples drawn from rites and from architecture, how gods are systematically related to the directions of space. It is therefore evident that we are here dealing with a primitive system of classification as defined by Durkheim and Mauss. This conclusion is completed by epistemological considerations on primitive Systems of classification, their material base and their functions: far from being (according to J. Goody’s objections) in a large part reconstructed by the ethnologists through graphical methods, they are founded (as shown by Mauss) on rites and on architectural objects which symbolize the setting of man in his spatial environment; they are used less to sum up man’s knowledge of the universe (as suggested by Durkheim and Lévi-Strauss) than to act magically on the universe (as emphasized by Leroi-Gourhan following Mauss).

Dans un monde indien connu pour le foisonnement de son panthéon, comment penser les dieux ? Śiva, Mahddev, Yellamma, Taleju... Les dieux sont dotés de formes et d’attributions multiples, leurs champs d’action se recouvrent et se mêlent. Mais aussi des hiérarchies se dessinent, des regroupements s’opèrent et la diversité peut s’inclure dans l’unicité d’une figure englobante. Du Kérala jusqu’à l’Himalaya, les questions se retrouvent, comparables : comment appréhender un panthéon aussi labile ? Comment définir l’infinité du divin ? Comment classer l’inclassable ? À ces questions, les auteurs de ce recueil répondent de diverses manières mais tous ont un même regard pour saisir les dieux dans la précision des gestes du rituel, selon leur contexte, et ainsi comprendre comment les perçoivent ceux qui les vénèrent.

L’islam et le christianisme, présents en Inde depuis plus d’un millénaire, y comptent respectivement 10 et 20 mil­lions d’adeptes (sur un total de 850 millions d’habitants). Ces deux religions du Livre se sont acclimatées aux contextes lo­caux, et leur adaptation, sous des formes plurielles, variables selon les époques, a suscité des débats sans fin parmi leurs fidèles. Un tel développement, s’il a parfois engendré des ten­sions dans les rapports inter-communautaires, ne peut se comprendre sans être replacé dans le cadre plus global des acculturations incessantes que connaît la société indienne, que ce soit celles entre mouvements religieux, ou régions, langues, castes, etc. Les auteurs des douze contributions à ce volume, qui couvrent le Nord comme le Sud de la péninsule, ont choisi d’aborder la question des musulmans et des chrétiens en Inde en mettant l’accent sur les mille et une façons dont les acteurs sociaux construisent et définissent in situ leur(s) identité(s) et leur altérité. Ils se sont intéressés aussi bien aux pratiques qu’aux controverses, en faisant appel à des disciplines variées : anthropologie, histoire, philologie, linguistique, sociologie urbaine. S’opposant aux discours que tiennent sur les chrétiens et les musulmans les militants radicaux du nationalisme hindou, cette approche souligne les spécifi­cités des formes multiples de l’islam et du christianisme indiens, désormais confrontés aux transformations de l’hindouisme et aux interrogations profondes nées d’une « modernisation » prenant l’Occident pour modèle. Ces études invitent à la comparaison avec les autres aires culturelles où s’épanouissent également ces deux religions du Livre.

Partition de l’Inde en 1947, partition du Pakistan en 1971, sécessionnisme des Tigres tamouls à Sri Lanka, régionalisme tournant à la lutte armée dans plusieurs États indiens, conflits inter-religieux et divisions sectaires, revendications linguistiques, poussée du nationalisme hindou mais aussi des mouvements de castes : les tensions identitaires ont marqué de leur sceau l’histoire du dernier demi-siècle en Asie du Sud. Récusant l’approche essentialiste qui enferme les hommes et les communautés dans des stéréotypes propices à toutes les manipulations, ce volume souligne comment se construisent, dans un sous-continent extraordinairement divers, les figures de l’identité, et comment elles se croisent dans des superpositions, des enchevêtrements, des glissements d’appartenances. Identités religieuses, culturelles, sociales, politiques, voire économiques ; identités nationales et régionales : c’est à diverses échelles et par des voies multiples — anthropologie, histoire, sociologie, littérature, sciences politiques — que les auteurs de cet ouvrage éclairent les complexes réalités du champ sud-asiatique. Mais en se penchant sur l’Inde, le Pakistan, le Bangladesh, Sri Lanka ou le Népal, ils apportent aussi leur contribution à des débats plus larges sur l’ethnographie coloniale, l’orientalisme, les lectures et usages de l’histoire, les constructions culturelles de l’identité, les pratiques identitaires des communismes asiatiques, la critique post-moderne de l’État-nation et du sécularisme, pour enrichir une problématique majeure qui agite aujourd’hui, à travers un monde dit globalisé, tant les peuples que les intellectuels et les politiques.

La communauté indienne d’Afrique du Sud, présente depuis le xixe siècle, est divisée par religions (notamment hindouisme et islam). Cette division, mise à profit par l’apartheid, a eu pour effet de souder fortement la communauté musulmane. Dès lors, certains religieux, et notamment Ahmed Deedat, ont prôné une lutte idéologique contre le christianisme, parallèlement à un développement des services sociaux. Dépendant des aides financières du Pakistan et de l’Arabie Saoudite, Deedat n’a jamais remis en cause l’apartheid, système qui a permis son émergence. Sa polémique anti-chrétienne est pacifique et fondée sur le prêche, à la manière des évangélistes américains. Deedat, entièrement paralysé durant les dernières années de sa vie, a exercé une influence profonde sur la « prédication mondialisée ».

À la fin des années quatre-vingt-dix, alors que j’enseignais l’islam indo-pakistanais à l’EHESS, Samadia Sadouni vint me consulter pour un projet de thèse sur Ahmad Deedat (1918-2005), prédicateur musulman d’origine indienne formé en Afrique du Sud ; mondialement connu comme controversiste et débatteur. Je l’encourageai vivement dans ce projet inédit. Il n’y avait pas de travaux sur lui en français, et peu dans les autres langues. Il présentait d’autre part un profil d’entrepreneur religieux ...