Poetry of Belonging’ by Ali Khan Mahmudabad is an exploration of north-Indian Muslim identity through poetry at a time when the Indian nation-state did not exist. Between 1850 and 1950, when pre-colonial forms of cultural traditions, such as the musha’irah, were undergoing massive transformations to remain relevant, certain Muslim voices articulated their imaginings of what it meant to be Muslim.
The book traces the history of the musha’irah as a way of understanding public spaces through the changing contexts of the time. It offers new perspectives on how Muslim intellectuals, poets, political leaders and journalists conceived of and expressed their relationship to India and to the larger Muslim community.