This dissertation examines how Indian Muslim thinkers participated in and contributed to regional and global debates about the concept of minority as a category of governance and identity constituted through law, politics, and daily life. Focusing on the period from the end of the Crimean War in 1856 to the 1947 partition of India, it follows the writings of Islamic modernists, a transregional group of thinkers who championed an egalitarian view of Islam as an alternative vision for universal rights and ethics. Using periodicals, letters, memoirs, pamphlets, treatises, official documents, and other sources (mainly in Urdu, Arabic, Russian, and, English, and, to a lesser extent, in Persian, Hebrew, and French) mostly from archives and libraries across India, Britain, and Israel/Palestine, this dissertation traces how Britain’s classification of Indian Muslims as a minority put them at the center of global conversations about rights, citizenship, and emancipation. It also shows how South Asian Islamic modernists, in dialogue with one another and political and intellectual projects across the British Empire, Khedival Egypt, Ottoman and post-Ottoman Middle East, Tsarist Empire, and Soviet Russia and Central Asia, formulated novel modes of belonging that challenged both colonial rule and national territorial partitions. The concept of a Muslim minority emerged in the context of the trans-imperial “Muslim Question”—i.e., how European powers sought to “manage” Muslim subjects, and how Muslims responded to such politics and sought to transform them. After the Crimean War (1853-56), Britain began to link its governance over Muslims in the Indian subcontinent to its diplomacy with the Ottoman Empire and Khedival Egypt. On the one hand, British officials now invoked their status as rulers over the largest Muslim population in the world to increase their influence in Ottoman and Egyptian politics. On the other hand, these officials pointed to their military and diplomatic support of Ottoman sovereignty in the Crimean War in an attempt to win over “Indian Muslim public opinion.” At the same time, by creating the categories of “Muslim minority” and “Hindu majority” through technologies of enumeration and identification, most notably the All-India Census of 1871-1872, Britain quantified and politicized religious difference among Indians. Amidst these upheavals, Islamic scholars and activists in North India joined hands and articulated new visions of rights, identity, and unity across difference. However, this was not only a subcontinental story. Rather than historicizing the minority question only via European imperial or local lenses, this dissertation breaks new ground by showing how Islamic modernists interpreted, applied and produced models of mutilingualism, multiconfessionalism, and federalism from and across the British, Ottoman, and Tsarist empires and Khedival Egypt, and, after 1917, Soviet Russia and Central Asia to challenge both imperial and national “solutions” to the minority question. Taking an interdisciplinary view of “minority” as a complex interplay between demography, bureaucracy, discourse, practice, and experience, “Recasting Minority” argues that the concept of minority structured core debates about and in modern South Asia and the Middle East and their transregional linkages, from the conception of halal meat, to questions of Arabic as a language of belonging for Muslims and non-Muslims alike, to the creation of anticolonial solidarities. In so doing, this dissertation questions the dominant historiography that binds minority within European genealogies of nation-state formation and politicization of religious difference. Rather than regarding minority solely as a persecuted group or a predicament produced by “secular governance,” this dissertation shows that the emergence of this concept in trans-imperial geopolitics, and the precarious position of Muslims working within and beyond them, enabled Islamic modernists to produce alternative visions of sovereignty, religious difference, and worldmaking. In so doing, my dissertation synthesizes the global intellectual history of the concept of minority with the socio-political and cultural history of South and West Asia and Eurasia, helping explain the enduring potency of this concept in these regions today.

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La storia della Chiesa valdese nel secondo dopoguerra si inserisce nel filone di ricerca che ha come oggetto lo studio delle minoranze religiose in Italia. La vicenda delle minoranze evangeliche nel secondo dopoguerra si colloca nella storia più vasta della creazione dello Stato repubblicano, verso cui è aumentato l'interesse degli storici soprattutto a partire dagli anni novanta. il processo di reinserimento della Chiesa valdese nel dopoguerra fu complesso e problematico. Il tramonto definitivo dello Stato liberale, l'esperienza del fascismo scardinarono il quadro di riferimento politico e culturale entro cui si era sviluppata la presenza delle chiese evangeliche. Fu presto evidente che l'avvento dello Stato repubblicano, caratterizzato da una forte polarizzazione tra cattolici e comunisti, non avrebbe permesso un ritorno allo status quo anteriore al fascismo. In questo contesto, vanno inquadrati gli sforzi della Chiesa valdese di elaborare delle strategie volte ad ottenere un riconoscimento giuridico, culturale e religioso. / The history of the Waldesian Church after World War two is the object of a study on religious minorities in Italy. The Evangelical minorities and their vicissitudes after World War two belong to the wider history of the creation of the Republican State, which historians have been increasingly interested in especially from the nineties onwards. The process of reintegration of the Waldesian Church after the war was complex and troublesome. The final collapse of the Liberal State and the experience of fascism tore down the political and cultural framework where Evangelical Churches had developed. It was soon clear that the rising of the Republican State, characterised by a powerful polarisation between Catholics and communists, would not allow to return to the status quo before fascism. The efforts of the Waldesian Church to elaborate strategies aiming at a juridical, cultural and religious recognition, need to be placed in such a context.

Pays à majorité musulmane sunnite de rite malékite, l'Algérie connaît néanmoins une pluralité religieuse. Ce pluralisme existe au sein même de l'islam, avec la présence d'ibadites et de chiites. Les ahmadis, eux, ne sont apparus dans le paysage juridique algérien qu'en 2016, à la suite d'une série d'arrestations. Quant aux non-musulmans, si la présence de catholiques et de juifs fait partie de l'histoire de l'Algérie, celle des protestants évangéliques n'a acquis une véritable visibilité qu'à la suite d'une campagne de presse faisant état de conversions massives en 2004. Une ordonnance fixant les conditions et règles d'exercice des cultes autres que musulman a alors été adoptée en 2006 avant d'être approuvée par une loi. A travers l'étude du statut juridique des minorités religieuses, la question plus générale de la place de la liberté religieuse en Algérie se pose. Comment est-elle garantie? L'est-elle de jure, au regard de la Constitution algérienne et des engagements internationaux de l'Algérie et l'est-elle également de facto? Dans quelle mesure l'Ordonnance de 2006 et les dispositions du Code pénal concernant l'atteinte à l'islam sont-elles appliquées ? Les arrestations et les condamnations de citoyens pour prosélytisme ou atteinte à l'islam sont-elles révélatrices d'une volonté des autorités et de la justice algériennes de lutter contre la présence des minorités religieuses et de préserver la place de l' islam, religion de l’État ? Cette thèse cherche à montrer que malgré le refus de l’État de qualifier juridiquement les non-musulmans de minorités religieuses, ces groupes répondent bien à la définition qui en est donnée par le droit international. Elle analyse également leur statut dans le droit algérien contemporain, aussi bien dans la sphère publique - références religieuses dans la constitution et exercice collectif du culte - qu'au niveau du droit privé - statut personnel y compris le droit successoral mais aussi pénalisation de certains comportements. En guise de conclusion, des pistes de réformes sont proposées afin d'améliorer le statut juridique des minorités religieuses en Algérie. / A mostly Sunni Muslim country -of Malaki rite -Algeria nonetheless presents a religious plurality. This plurality exists within Islam, with the presence of Ibadis and Shias. Ahmadis only appeared in the Algerian legal landscape in 2016, after a series of arrests. As for non-Muslims, if the presence of Jews and Catholics is part of Algeria's history, that of evangelical Protestants only acquired a real visibility after a press campaign reporting mass conversion in 2004. An ordinance setting conditions for public worship of other cults than Islam was then adopted in 2006, before being approved by a law. Through the study of the legal status of religions minorities, a broader interrogation about the place of freedom of religion in Algeria can be raised. How is this freedom guaranteed ? Is it de jure, in view of the Algerian Constitution and Algeria's international commitments, or is it also de facto? To what extent are the 2006 ordinance and the provisions of the Penal Code implemented regarding offences against Islam ? Are arrests and convictions of citizens for proselytism or offence against Islam an indication of the willingness of the authorities and of the Algerian judiciary to fight against the presence of religious minorities and to maintain Islam's status as the state's religion ? This thesis seeks to show that despite the state's refusal to qualify legally non-Muslims as religious minorities, these groups do meet the definition of minorities given by international law. It also analyzes their status in contemporary Algerian law, both in the public sphere -religious references in the Constitution and collective public worship -and in private law -persona! status, including inheritance rights and the penalization of certain behaviors. As a conclusion, some leads towards reforms are suggested in order to improve the legal status of religious minorities in Algeria.

Cette thèse analyse les politiques à l’égard des minorités ethniques et religieuses sous une perspective comparative entre la Roumanie et la Bulgarie. La première partie s’interroge sur les politiques à l’égard des minorités dès la création des Etats-Nations et ensuite leur situation durant les régimes communistes dans les deux pays. La deuxième partie met l’accent sur l’analyse des deux modèles d’intégration des minorités après 1989 et étudie la question de l’émergence de la représentation politique des Turcs en Bulgarie, des Hongrois en Roumanie et des Roms dans les deux pays. La recherche étudie comment les politiques et les dispositifs sont destinés à favoriser l’intégration des groupes minoritaires dans les deux pays. Une attention est accordée à la genèse et à l’évolution, ainsi qu’à la mise en œuvre de ces projets d’action publique.Cette recherche est enrichie par l’analyse des entretiens semi directifs, des observations ainsi qu’une analyse des statistiques, de la presse nationale et locale, des dispositifs juridiques et des programmes des partis. Quatre hypothèses principales sont défendues dans cette thèse : la transformation des identités ethniques en identités politiques- l'idéologisation des politiques à l'égard de minorités- l'autonomisation du religieux par rapport à l'ethnique et, enfin, de l'impact indirect de l'européanisation sur le traitement des minorités. / This thesis analyzes the politics about national and religious minorities in a comparative perspective between Romania and Bulgaria. The first part examines the policies toward minorities since the creation of Nation-State and their situation during the communist regime in both countries. The second part focuses on the analysis of the two models of minorities’ integration after 1989 and examines the question of emergence of political representation of Turks in Bulgaria, Hungarians in Romania and Roma. The research studies how the policies and the devices are intended to facilitate the integration of the minority groups in both countries. An attention is granted to the genesis and to the evolution, as well as to the implementation of these projects of public action.This research analyzes semi directive conversations, observations as well an analysis of the statistics, the national and local press, the legal devices and the programs of the political parties.

"Every country has religious minorities. Any study of religious minorities and the protections afforded to them must also examine the significance of minorities per se. Minorities have no internationally accepted definition. Definitions are either broad and with little specificity or narrow and exclusive. Generally, two trends with regard to minority rights can be observed. On the one hand, in many countries, a comprehensive system of the legal protection of minorities has been introduced. Here the biggest problems stem from the difference between formal and informal rights. On the other hand, a number of countries have not legally committed themselves to the protection of minorities; ranging from inadequate safeguards to non-recognition of the minority. National minorities have received broad, although not well-differentiated, reporting in the international media and attention in international organisations and its impact on the discourse on religious rights have been minimal. However, minority religious rights have featured less significantly on the public agenda. The implications of the status of national minorities and religious groups are that many minorities believe that the majority group generally receive privileged status in state structures, while the minorities are viewed with suspicion. The issue of religious representation and safeguards arose within the Constitution of the Republic of Kenya ("Kenyan Constitution") where there is a recently concluded Constitutional Review Commission that had the Christian majority object to the "excessive protection" being granted to the Muslim minority. There was a huge debate as to the extent of inclusion of Sharia in the resultant draft constitution as well as the protection of fundamental principles of human rights and Islam. The question thus arises, should one apply Sharia or enshrine it in the constitution of a country, or will this involve overprotection that may lead to long-term exploitation of the law by the minority. The Arab Republic of Egypt ("Egypt") and the Republic of Kenya ("Kenya") have been chosen as case studies as they are interesting reflections of the development of states in Africa: Kenya with a Muslim minority maintaining a hold on the application of Islamic law where there is a Christian majority, while in Egypt the Copt and Shia Muslim populations are trying to assimilate into the state. Sharia is of imporance both to Kenya and Egypt. In Egypt the entire legal system is premised on the constitutional provision that Sharia is the principle source of law, thus some religious minorities in Egypt look for ways to maintain their identity and circumvent the application of Sharia provisions. Kenya, with a Muslim religious minority, is grappling with the concept of Sharia and how far it should apply to Muslims in a country. Thus these two countries have an inverse mirror image problem of each other as between the two major world religouns, Christianity and Islam. ... Chapter one sets out the content of the research, identifies the problem and applies the methodology. Chapter two discusses the international and regional law on religious minorities with a regional emphasis on African and the Arab region. Chapter three discusses the Islamic law on religious minorities, both Muslim minorities in non-Muslim states and non-Muslim minorities in Muslim states. Chapter four will focus on case studies comparing the protection accorded to the Muslims in Kenya with the Copts in Egypt, and analysing the extent to which Kenya and Egpyt have complied with international and regional law. Chapter five will set out recommendations and conclusions." -- Introduction. / Prepared under the supervision of Dr. Naz Modirzadeh at the Department of Political Sciences, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, The American University in Cairo, Egypt / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2004. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

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Univ., Diss.--Münster, 2002. / Literaturverz. S. 255 - 278.