Table Of ContentNew Perspectives on India
and Turkey
India and Turkey, Asia Minor and the subcontinent of Hindustan, and the Ottomans
and Mughals have had shared histories of contact, engagement, and dialogue over
the centuries. Much of northern India was under the control of rulers from Central
Asia since at least the thirteenth century. Startling glimpses of the presence of
Turkic-speaking peoples from Central Asia are still visible, for example, in north
Indian material cultures – languages, cuisine, religion, architecture, and medicine.
This book places the Indian subcontinent side by side with the Turkic-speaking
world, both past and present, in order to understand one geographical context
in relation to the other. The juxtaposition of the two countries throws up some
startling commonalities as well as considerable differences, and it is the variations
as well as the similarities that allow for comparability. By exploring historical
connections and providing a comparative perspective in terms of spirituality
and religion, social movements, political economy, and foreign policy, the book
initiates productive cross-cultural conversations, allowing concerns from one
location to illuminate the other. The book is split into five parts: History and
Memory, Nationhood and Leadership, Secularism, Debating Development, and
Claiming the City.
The first comparison of the subcontinent and present-day Turkey, the book
emphasizes the importance of cross-regional comparative analysis in order to
overcome some of the pitfalls of area-focused analysis. Filling a gap in the existing
literature, it will be of interest to scholars in various disciplines, including politics,
religion, history, urbanization, and development in the Middle East and Asia.
Smita Tewari Jassal is Professor of Sociology at Ambedkar University, Kashmere
Gate, Delhi, India at the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.
Halil Turan is Professor and Chairperson, Department of Philosophy, Middle
East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.
Routledge Contemporary South Asia
Sri Lanka’s Global Factory Workers
(Un) Disciplined Desires and Sexual Struggles
in a Post-Colonial Society
Sandya Hewamanne
Migration of Labour in India
The squatter settlements of Delhi
Himmat Singh Ratnoo
Gender, Nation and Popular Film in India
Globalizing Muscular Nationalism
Sikata Banerjee
Media as Politics in South Asia
Edited by Sahana Udupa and Stephen D. McDowell
Death and Dying in India
Ageing and end-of-life care of the elderly
Suhita Chopra Chatterjee and Jaydeep Sengupta
Documentary Film in India
An Anthropological History
Giulia Battaglia
The Rule of Law in Developing Countries
The Case of Bangladesh
Chowdhury Ishrak Ahmed Siddiky
New Perspectives on India and Turkey
Connections and Debates
Edited by Smita Tewari Jassal and Halil Turan
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com
New Perspectives on India
and Turkey
Connections and Debates
Edited by Smita Tewari Jassal
and Halil Turan
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 selection and editorial matter, Smita Tewari Jassal and Halil
Turan; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Smita Tewari Jassal and Halil Turan to be identified as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
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without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-138-68932-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-53775-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
In memory of H.E. Raminder Singh Jassal
Contents
ContentsContents
List of contributors x
Foreword xiii
MELIHA BENLI ALTUNIŞIK
Introduction 1
SMITA TEWARI JASSAL AND HALIL TURAN
PART I
History and memory 15
1 India and Turkey: interplay of shadows and trajectories
in the longue durée 17
EYÜP ÖZVEREN
2 Sufis and Salafis in Ottoman and Mughal cities: reflections
on love and violence in Islamic thought and politics 32
SHAIL MAYARAM
3 Echoes in the shrine: remembering and forgetting
in two contexts 47
SMITA TEWARI JASSAL
PART II
Nationhood and leadership 63
4 Republican Turkey and Tamil self-respecters: Kemal Pasha
in southern India 65
V. GEETHA
viii Contents
5 Halide Edib and Gandhi: literary modernity in India
and Turkey 76
EMRAH EFE KHAYYAT
PART III
Secularism 89
6 Temple and dam, fez and hat: the secular roots of religious
politics in India and Turkey 91
SRIRUPA ROY
7 Nehru against Nehruvians: On religion and secularism 113
RAJEEV BHARGAVA
8 Redefining the minority: Alevis in Turkey 127
MUSTAFA ŞEN
PART IV
Development debates 139
9 Locating agency in global connections: the case of India
and Turkey as ‘rising powers’ 141
DERYA GÖÇER AKDER AND MELIHA BENLI ALTUNIŞIK
10 Diaspora engagement in the United States: the case
of India and Turkey 155
ŞEBNEM KÖŞER AKÇAPAR
11 Perspectives on development incentives: 18th-century
philosophers, India and Turkey 168
HALIL TURAN
12 Waterproof development? Impact of advocacy networks
on anti-dam movements in India and Turkey 182
ZEYNEP KADIRBEYOĞLU
PART V
Claiming the city 195
13 Notes on informal vending in Istanbul and Calcutta 197
DURBA CHATTARAJ
Contents ix
14 The endangered pleasures of Indian cities: notes from the
good life in Istanbul 209
KUSHANAVA CHOUDHURY
15 A political analysis of middle-class-based social movements:
India and Turkey compared 219
CEREN ERGENÇ
Index 235
