Boundaries and Belonging: Different Lives of Muslim Youth in a College Campus, North India

Keywords: Muslim youth, university violence, campus lives, mis-recognition, masculinity, Patna university
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 67

Abstract

Students clash at the Patna College campus very often, and engage in violence on the university site. The issues of dispute are both sacred and profane, and arise as much from the ordinary, quotidian lives of students in the campus hostels, as from extraordinary moments of celebration of religious festivals. These students are residents of different hostels on campus. They are youth drawn to this historic public university, by their social imaginary of modern higher education, and their aspirations for future-making in a capitalist economy. This “great disembedding” of youth from erstwhile geographies characterized by hierarchical, pre-modern social structures and religiosity, is premised on principles of participation as equals, and anticipates secularization of beliefs and attitudes. However, there is a materiality to realizing youth aspirations— a local context in which students stay in hostels divided by religion and caste, and informal power and control creates imaginary boundaries.
The violence is passed off as lumpen youth groups clashing for power. Yet sighting of the ordinary lives on campus gives us an account of the segregation and boundaries within which Muslim youth must contain themselves. They belong to the campus, but with a difference. A complex matrix of the politics of mis-recognition, absence of state support, and exclusionary media helps script targeted violence and perpetuates their ghettoization. The campus assertions however have a distinct masculinity, as girls and women are missing in this discourse of violence.