Muslims in Indian Cities

According to the 2011 Census, the Muslims of India constitute about 13% of the total Indian population. The editors of this book, however, estimate that their total number is 150 million higher than the Census figure. In undivided India, before the creation of Pakistan, the total number of Muslims was estimated at 100 million compared to the overall population of 400 million, which means that 25% of the Indian population at that time were Muslims, from Peshawar to Cochin through to Chittagong, from north to south and from east to west. The book under review is made up of a collection of research papers by some 23 researchers who conducted their research under the aegis of the Centre des Sciences Humaines (CSH), Delhi, a joint research programme of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the French Ministry of European and Foreign Affairs. One of the laudable aspects of these researches is that they were also discussed collectively in a seminar organised in 2010 before finalising them in a book form.