Abstract
<p>Since a right-wing Hindu nationalist government came to power in 2014, Indian Muslims have faced rampant Islamophobia, mob violence, discriminatory legislation, and economic ostracism. How have Indian Muslims–the largest religious minority in the world’s largest democracy–responded to the failure of state secularism? Using the lens of Urdu poetry, this beautiful ethnography explores how Indian Muslims have drawn upon Islamic traditions to actualize free-thinking selves and imagine a pluralistic society unbeholden to coercive state power. Through poetic symposiums, interviews, social media, and conversations with diverse Muslim interlocutors, Anand Vivek Taneja paints a portrait of the vitality of Indian Muslim artistic, ethical, and spiritual life at a moment of existential crisis.</p>