On the Cusp of Colonial Modernity

The chapter discusses the exceptional case of the mid–19th-century Muslim woman ruler Sikandar Begum in the princely state of Bhopal in central India, whose mother had also been the regent of Bhopal state and whose daughter followed her as ruler. The author depicts this as transition from an earlier local form of Islamic statecraft that did not shy away from the use of force and relied on a decentralized structure, to a new mode of more centralized administration following the British model. Instead of engaging in Sufism or in reformist Islam, Sikandar Begum personally practised what the author calls a protestant-style Islam, without, however, attempting to curb other denominational observances. There was no idea yet of a distinct ‘Muslim world’, rather a fusion of traditional and what was considered modern (administrative) practices from the top down, appropriating Mughal paraphernalia, without raising the issue of religious identity in any emphatic sense.