University of Oxford

Graduate Student, Department of Politics and International Relations

Brasenose College

Thesis Title: Limits of Islamism: Ideological Articulations of Jamaat-e-Islami in Contemporary India and Bangladesh

About

I have successfully defended my doctoral thesis on 4th May, 2012. My research interests include Political Theory, Political Philosophy, Contemporary South Asian Politics, Politics and issues of the Muslim world, Identity Politics and Public Policy in India. I completed the B.A. (Honours) in Political Science with Economics and History as subsidiary subjects from Presidency College, Kolkata. I completed the M.A. and MPhil in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

My doctoral thesis focuses on Islamism as a political ideology by taking up the case study of Jamaat-e-Islami in contemporary India and Bangladesh. The study is in the domain of political theory and comparative politics, particularly comparing the similarities and differences of ideological articulations of a mainstream Islamist political group in a Muslim minority context of India and in a Muslim majority context of Bangladesh. In this respect, the study focuses upon how Islamism is responding to varied economic and cultural issues under neoliberal policy regimes in contemporary India and Bangladesh. The study tries to answer a core question: can Islamism articulate a ‘politics of alternative’ in a world marked by capitalist globalization and neoliberal consensus? Primarily, the study is anchored by the theoretical framework of Ernesto Laclau in ideology studies. In this respect, this research elaborates upon the politics of Islamism with reference to Laclau’s theoretical insights on ideology and discourse analysis, particularly with regard to identification of the enemy/antagonistic frontier and construction of populist political discourses as a strategy of political mobilization. That is to say, the thesis addresses how, in a contemporary globalized world, Islamism constructs an antagonistic frontier and how it mobilizes/rallies ‘people’ behind its political project. In this respect, I show the limits of the political project of what I call 'Islamist populism' in providing an alternative to neoliberal capitalism. Secondly, I show the ideological contradictions of Islamism between what I call 'Islamic universalism' and 'Muslim particularism' and the limits and inability of Islamism to become a hegemonic political ideology among its prime constituency: the Muslim populations in contemporary India and Bangladesh.   

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