Ayesha Jalal
Encyclopedia
Ayesha Jalal is a Pakistani-American sociologist and historian. She is a professor of history at Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...

 and a 1998 MacArthur Fellow
MacArthur Fellows Program
The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...

. The bulk of her work deals with the creation of Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 identities in modern South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...

.
She is the daughter of Hamid Jalal, a niece of the famous Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

 fiction writer Saadat Hasan Manto
Saadat Hasan Manto
Saadat Hassan Manto was a short story writer of the Urdu language. He is best known for his short stories, 'Bu' , 'Khol Do' , 'Thanda Gosht' , and his magnum opus, 'Toba Tek Singh'....

 and a civil servant. Ms. Jalal came to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 at the age of 16.

Education

She obtained her BA, majoring in History and Political Science, from Wellesley College, USA, and her doctorate in history from the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

. Jalal has been Fellow of Trinity College
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

, Cambridge (1980-84), Leverhulme Fellow at the Center of South Asian Studies, Cambridge (1984-87), Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, DC (1985-86) and Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies(1988-90). She has taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

, Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...

, Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 and Lahore University of Management Sciences
Lahore University of Management Sciences
The Lahore University of Management Sciences, usually referred to by its acronym LUMS, is a university located in Lahore, Pakistan. LUMS was established in 1984 by a group of industrialists and people belonging to Pakistan's leading private and public sector corporations, to provide rigorous...

.

She is the author of The Sole Spokesman and many other books on the partition of the British India in 1947. She received Sitara-i-Imtiaz
Sitara-i-Imtiaz
The Sitara-i-Imtiaz , is the third highest honour and civilian award in the State of Pakistan. It recognizes the individuals who made an "especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of Pakistan, world peace, cultural or other significant public endeavors"...

 from the Pakistani government on 23rd March 2010.

Scholarship

Jalal is among the most prominent American academics who writes on the history of South Asia. Her innovative scholarship has led to frequent criticisms by the governments of both Pakistani and Indian establishment scholars. Her most prominent works are on the role of Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a Muslim lawyer, politician, statesman and the founder of Pakistan. He is popularly and officially known in Pakistan as Quaid-e-Azam and Baba-e-Qaum ....

 and the partition of India
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...

.

She lays a greater share of the blame for lack of cohesion on the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

 and leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...

 and Sardar Patel, who saw partition as a way of eliminating its main competition and leaving it the dominant player in a centralised state.

In the book The Sole Spokesman, Jalal examines what happened in the years between the 1937 elections and the partition, identifying the factors which led to the creation of Pakistan and providing new insights into the nature of the British transfer of power in India.

In particular, Jalal focuses on the role of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the All-India Muslim League, and the main proponent of the Two Nation Theory on which the demand for 'Pakistan' was based. Jinnah claimed to be the sole spokesman of all Indian Muslims, not only in provinces where they were in a majority but also in the provinces where they were in a minority. Yet given the political geography of the subcontinent it was clear that there would always be as many Muslims outside a specifically Muslim state as inside it.

This book investigates how Jinnah proposed to resolve the contradiction between assertions of a separate Muslim "nation" and the need for a strategy which could safeguard the interests of all Indian Muslims. It does so by identifying Jinnah's real political aims, the reasons why he was reluctant to bring them into the open, and his success or failure in achieving them.

Democracy and Authoritarianism in South Asia is her second major work, where she examines the histories of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh over the last fifty years. She argues that the authoritarian nature of the colonial state continues and the only difference between the Indian and the Pakistani versions, is that of overt and covert authoritarianism.

Coauthored with her husband Sugata Bose
Sugata Bose
Sugata Bose is the Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University.-Early life:Sugata Bose was born in Calcutta, India. He studied at the Presidency College, Kolkata. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge under Eric Stokes...

, Modern South Asia is the first exploration of modern South Asian history by an Indian and Pakistani in collaboration.

Lawsuit and Controversy

Jalal taught at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 for several years during which period the number of students taking her course on Modern South Asia doubled. However, she was denied tenure in 1995 amidst great controversy. This occurred just after Jalal vociferously opposed Columbia accepting a large grant from the powerful Indian business Hinduja Group
Hinduja Group
The Hinduja Group is a conglomerate company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1914 by Parmanand Deepchand Hinduja, initially operating in Mumbai, India, and setting up its first international operation in Iran in 1919. The headquarters of the Group moved to Iran where it...

 to establish a research institute for Indic studies (which has since been closed by the university). Jalal alleged that Indian and India-centric faculty "were uncomfortable with a Pakistani woman teaching Indian history" and sued Columbia claiming religious and ethnic discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...

. The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted summary judgment in favor of Columbia and called Jalal's allegation "thin . . . but suggestive".

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK