Degree

BS (Social Sciences & Liberal Arts)

Faculty / School

School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS)

Department

Department of Social Sciences & Liberal Arts

Date of Award

Spring 2022

Date of Submission

2022-07-20

Advisor

Zahra Sabri, Lecturer, Department of Social Sciences

Project Type

SSLA Culminating Experience

Access Type

Restricted Access

Abstract

The paper tries to achieve a philosophic and poetic understanding of the Iqbalian concept of nationalism in the context of India. Viewing Muhammad Iqbal through the lens of his texts, the paper navigates through the poet’s lifetime to understand the development in his ideas. It aims to flesh out a nuanced and a largely unconventional understanding of his literary impressions as compared to their popularly accepted misreadings. The thesis draws majorly from one diwa̅n and a few historical statements of Iqbal as primary sources. It also refers to a few secondary research works, which help to contextualize and investigate the philosopher’s ideological and political beliefs.

An important learning achieved from perusing the primary sources is that Iqbal’s humanism is rather an underestimated subject of study. His love and concern for fellow human beings—regardless of their cultural and religious affiliation—stands beautifully in agreement with his appreciation of the communal differences that existed among Indian peoples. And that is the major reason that motivated Iqbal to demand ‘federated units’, where smaller yet holistic aggregations of people could thrive according to their distinct values. While the post-partition narratives imposed on the poet-philosopher compel us to perceive him as a separatist, the following paper redefines the notions of geographical borders, nationalism and statehood, and contends for Iqbal as a proponent of United India.

Pages

1,119

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