An effort in mediating Islam and modernity, and reconciling traditionalism with modernism, this book—building on, and blending, the scholarship of past and present—brings together some major themes and issues of diverse nature (from educational and religious to political and contemporary issues) as propounded and promoted by Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Muhammad Iqbal, and Abul Kalam Azad—the three pioneering and prominent South Asian modernist/reformist thinkers—within the broader context, and reveals their contemporary relevance. It analyses and examines their thoughts and visions on some important, contemporary and crucial issues like Islam-democracy discourse, Ijma and Ijtihad as dynamic legal tools and their relevance, ‘integration’ (and adoption of some Western values, like educational system) as one of the Muslim responses to ‘Imperialism’, and other interrelated issues. It will, thus, prove useful and helpful to the students in the field of South Asian History and Islamic Studies and general readers as well.

Contents: Foreword. Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Muslims responses to imperialism. 3. Islamic modernist and reformist thought in colonial India. 4. Islamic democracy or democratic Islam. Bibliography. Index.