Speaking Otherwise is a podcast series on the Contemporary, hosted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS).  In this podcast, we speak to well-known scholars from the humanities and the social sciences on the critical questions of our times. 

Islamic Globalism 

In this episode, Prathama Banerjee speaks to Faisal Devji on the post Cold War phenomenon of Islamism. What is the historical relationship of Islamism with colonialism, liberalism, anarchism, communism, nationalism?  What has been the changing role of theology in twentieth and twenty first century global politics?  How does the sovereignty of God relate to state sovereignty and popular sovereignty? How does gender figure in this story?  What are the parallels between the evolution of the place of caste in modern Hinduism and law in modern Islam? Do we need to think beyond the nation and beyond the liberal-national concept of citizenship in order to make sense of a new kind of global politics that works at a planetary scale and through structural mediation rather than through connected histories and ideological persuasion?

For listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or SoundCloud, click the appropriate links below.

Faisal Devji is a political philosopher and an intellectual historian.  He is Professor of Indian History and Director of the Asian Studies Centre at St Anthony’s College, Oxford University. His books include Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea (2013); The Impossible Indian: Gandhi and the Temptation of Violence (2012); The Terrorist in Search of Humanity: Militant Islam and Global Politics (2009); Landscapes of the Jihad: Militancy, Morality, Modernity (2005) and the co-edited volume Islam after Liberalism (2017).