India is a country made up of people from many cultural backgrounds and religious groups who practise a variety of understandings and ways of life. India’s inhabitants have never been homogeneous based on caste, class, religion, area, ethnicity, or linguistic ties. Debates and narratives regarding the everyday lives of ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural minorities are misinterpreted in encounters and understanding in public space. Political interventions impact problems and contentious politics in India exacerbate minority problems. How two separate minority groups are discriminated against and oppressed in society are vastly different. The only thing they have in common is that they are treated differently and less than the rest of the population. This book examines how India’s minorities become victims of marginalisation and exclusion from the larger political and social structure. The book focuses on understanding the shifting paradigm in academic understanding of a few minority populations that have been disregarded. Further, sexual minorities (such as LGBTQ), women of colour (within the same race), and immigrant or refugee groups are examples of groups that deserve to be examined in a shared forum. Anyone interested in reading about minorities in India will find food for thought in the book as there is a substantial contribution in forms and perspectives throughout this anthology. CONTENTS 1 Introduction I K.M. Ziyauddin 2 Minority Studies in India: An Observation of the Realities I Imtiaz Ahmad 3 Sociology of Minority Studies: Context and Problems I K.M. Ziyauddin 4 Is There a Discourse on Ethnicities and Minorities in Contemporary India? I Rowena Robinson 5 Muslim Women Entrepreneurs: Towards the Changing Pattern of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice in Usage of Health Services in Rural Nadia West Bengal I Sharmistha Bhattacharjee 6 Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Xenophobia: Portrayal of Muslims in Global Media I Fowzia Afaq and Danish Nabi 7 Religion and Attitudes towards the Use of Contraception: A Study of Male Students of MANUU, Hyderabad I Md. Tarique Enam and Md. Raghib Baber 8 Asna Ashri Shia Muslim Women in India: A Minority within the Minority I Azra Abidi 9 Mapping the Relationship between the Manipuri Muslims and Meiteis in the Pre-Colonial Period I Md. Chingiz Khan 10 Emotion and Stereotypes: A Study on Left-behind Muslim Wives in Northern Kerala I Nusarath Jahan P. 11 Education, Employment, and Caste among Muslims of Kashmir: An Empirical Study I Rabiya Yaseen Bazaz and Mohammad Akram 12 Health and Occupation of Minority Group: A Study of Funeral Workers from Dom Community in Varanasi I Sarita Kumari 13 Migrants as Minorities: A Study on the Health Prospects of Construction Workers in Malappuram District in Kerala I N.C. Sreekumar 14 Islamic Feminism in India: An Overview I Tarannum Siddiqui 15 Discrimination and Segregation in Urban Landscape: Emerging Dimensions I Md. Tabrez Alam 16 Refugees as Minorities: Rohingya Refugees in India, Possibilities and Challenges I Mohamed Musthafa KT 17 Systemic Violence and Structural Marginalisation of Minorities: The Case of Jharkhand I Md. Afroz 18 Contemporary Racism in India: A Case Study of North-Eastern Students in Delhi I Nemthianngai Guite and Meijianthaipou Ruangmei 19 'Chinky': Stereotyping India's North-East I Bhargavi Das 20 Campaign for Muslim Reservation in Telangana: A Critical Reflection I Afroz Alam 21 Role of Caste, Occupation, and Exclusion in Rural Economy: A Study of the Life of Handloom Weavers of Telangana I J. Rani Ratna Prabha and D. Srinivas ABOUT THE AUTHOR / EDITOR K.M. Ziyauddin, a trained sociologist, currently teaches in the Department of Sociology and has also worked at the Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy of Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad for over a decade. He began his passionate teaching career in the Department of Sociology in 2001 at the Jamia Millia Islamia. He published research papers on Sociology of Minorities, Dalit Studies, Health and Sanitation, Urban Sociology, Ethnography, Gender Politics etc. His books include Muslims of India (ed.) (2012), Dimensions of Social Exclusion: An Ethnographic Exploration (2009) and Sociology of Health in a Dalit Community: Axes of Exclusion. He serves as an executive editor for the Journal of Exclusion Studies and is invited editor of the Journal on Sociology of Race and Ethnicity by the American Sociological Association. He served as second Convener (2018–2021) of the Research Committee on Minority Studies (RC-26) of the Indian Sociological Society and a founding member of Democracy Dialogue, Hyderabad. He is a fellow International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) sponsored by the Department of Home, USA (2019).