Introduction. The Gulf - South Asia Religious Connections: Indo-Islamic Civilization vs. pan-Islamism?
Résumé
South Asia and the Gulf countries are often seen as belonging to two different universes. Indeed, the contemporary geopolitical division of the world situates the former in Asia and the latter in the Middle East. This geographical slicing matches part of the dynamics that shape contemporary world politics, in which the Gulf, in great part because of the oil wealth, has emerged as a new economic, political and religious hub but also as an area of tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran, two states that struggle to impose themselves as representing 'true Islam' ands to lead the Muslim world. South Asia, for its part, tends to be seen from the Middle East mainly as a supplier of cheap labour to the Gulf and, as far as religion is concerned, as a recipient of 'orthodox' Islamic religious influences from the Gulf - be they Sunni or Shi'a - which rework the Indian Islamic civilization that developed in close relation with Sufism and Hinduism over several centuries...