‘Respectability can be preserved like pickle in gold and silver’: Delineating the Pasmanda in Ahmed Ali’s Twilight in Delhi

Abstract

Given the professed egalitarian philosophy of their religion, Muslims are generally seen
as a homogenous community, bereft of any divisions. However, recent scholarship,
particularly sociological research suggests a pluralism among Muslims which is as
rampant as in any other society. Furthermore, this stratification finds a comprehensible
expression in literature. The main focus of this study is how such demarcations hold
sway over a multifarious community like India’s Muslims, influencing their
interactions, perceptions, ideology and identity. The present paper seeks to study the
problem of social stratification among the Muslims of India through its fictional
representations. The text taken under consideration is Ahmed Ali’s celebrated novel,
Twilight in Delhi (1940). Since Muslims form an intrinsic part of Indian polity and have
an equal share in the history and identity-formation of the subcontinent, a study of the
intrinsic hierarchy in an otherwise apparent homogenous community is valuable.