Breaking down the question

The question has two demands. First, identify the distinct features of Islam as it is actually practised in India — that is, its Indian, lived character rather than its scriptural universals. Second, trace how these features have changed over time, giving the answer a diachronic dimension.

The key move is to distinguish textual Islam from Islam as a social reality shaped by the Indian environment. Imtiaz Ahmad's work on the sociology of Muslim communities shows that Indian Islam absorbed local caste-like divisions, syncretic customs and regional practices. A strong answer describes these features and then charts the shift from syncretism toward standardisation and sharpened communal identity.

For the descriptive context, see our note on religious communities in India.

How to approach it

Open by distinguishing normative Islam from its Indian practice. Organise the body as distinct features, then as processes of change, closing with an assessment of the direction of travel.

  • Features — syncretism, Sufi devotion, caste-like stratification, regional diversity.
  • Change — reform and revival movements pressing scriptural uniformity.
  • Change — colonial census, partition and communal politics hardening boundaries.
  • Assessment — from a plural, localised Islam toward a more standardised, self-conscious identity.

Model answer

Islam in India is best understood not through its scriptural universals but as a lived tradition shaped by the subcontinental environment. Imtiaz Ahmad's studies show that Indian Muslim society developed features that distinguish it from a purely textual model.

The first distinct feature is syncretism. Centuries of coexistence produced shared shrines, festivals and customs, so that Hindus and Muslims often venerated the same pirs and participated in one another's fairs. Sufi orders, with their emphasis on devotion, music and the dargah, gave Indian Islam a mystical, accommodating idiom that blended with local Bhakti sensibilities.

A second feature is caste-like stratification. Contrary to the doctrine of equality, Indian Muslim society is internally ranked into Ashraf, Ajlaf and Arzal categories, with endogamy, hereditary occupations and notions of high and low birth. Ghaus Ansari documented these divisions, which show the absorption of the surrounding caste ethos. Regional and linguistic diversity added a third feature, so that a Kerala Mappila and a Kashmiri Muslim practise the faith in visibly different cultural registers.

These features have changed over time. From the nineteenth century, reform and revival movements — Deoband, the Aligarh initiative, the Ahl-i-Hadith and later the Tablighi Jamaat — sought to purge syncretic and shrine-centred practices and to align belief with scriptural norms. This pressed Indian Islam toward greater standardisation and away from local accretions.

Political forces reinforced the shift. The colonial census fixed and counted religious communities, separate electorates institutionalised difference, and Partition and subsequent communal mobilisation hardened the boundary between Hindu and Muslim. As T. N. Madan observed, religion in modern India became increasingly a marker of communal identity rather than only a mode of devotion. Sufi eclecticism has consequently coexisted, at times uneasily, with a more self-conscious, textually oriented and politically assertive Islam.

In sum, Islam as practised in India has been marked by syncretism, Sufi devotion, caste-like stratification and regional plurality, but these features have been progressively reworked by reformist standardisation and by the politics of communal identity, moving a once localised and plural tradition toward greater uniformity and sharper self-definition.

Examiner's perspective

Examiners look for the lived sociology of Islam in India, not a theological summary. The strongest scripts name concrete features — syncretism, Sufism, Ashraf-Ajlaf-Arzal stratification, regional diversity — and cite Imtiaz Ahmad and Ansari.

The second demand, change over time, is often neglected; addressing reform movements and the colonial and communal reshaping of identity secures the higher band. A balanced tone that avoids polemic, British spelling and a clear features-then-change structure signal sociological command.