Sabera Bhayat

I am a cultural and social historian of Modern South Asia. I completed my PhD at the University of Warwick and am currently an Early Career Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Warwick.

My research interests include the history of modern South Asia, Islam, gender, sexuality, feminisms and religious politics.

Research Overview

My doctoral research asks questions about the cultural and social history of sexuality in late colonial India.

My Phd thesis was titled: ‘The Problem of Polygamy in Modern India, 1861-1947’ and explores the interlinking legal and cultural history of polygamy in modern South Asia. It examines the discursive invention of the ‘problem of Muslim polygamy’ in late nineteenth century colonial India and its consolidation as a social ‘common sense’ of Muslim marriage and sexuality. In turn, my work denaturalises the ‘common sense’ of naturally polygamous Muslims by placing the trope of the ‘polygamous Muslim man’ in a history of sexuality in modern India by which the superficial nature of the ‘problem’ is revealed, as various groups used the practice to deconstruct and reconstruct their own sexual and conjugal configurations. It intervenes with debates in the history of gender, sexuality, religious politics, and law by explaining the often fraught political identity of Indian Muslims, bringing these formal political identities into conversation with the realm of the intimate.

‘Muslim polygamy’ became something of a phenomenon in Muslim reform conversations, the women’s movement, and nationalist and legal debates throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was articulated as a different kind of problem by different people, from one of civilisation to modernity, patriarchy to demography. Discussions on polygamy thus acquired different characteristics, shed old ones, and evolved as they moved through different cultural, gendered, political, and social locations.

Polygamy has remained a controversial issue in India, and the ‘problem of Muslim polygamy’ still holds contemporary relevance, as Muslim personal law has remained largely unchanged since its legislative enactment by the colonial government in the 1930s. The ‘problem’ thus continues to raise questions of gender inequalities under personal laws, minority rights and nationalism, and has contributed to ongoing discussions on the relevance of a uniform civil code for all cultural groups in India.

Through a close reading of primary literature in English, Urdu and Hindi, including popular periodicals and government documents, my research demonstrates how the problem of Muslim polygamy was mobilised by various groups in response to western notions of a sexual and conjugal modernity. By intervening in a history of sexuality and modern biopolitics, I argue that the problem of Muslim polygamy was implicated through ideas of religious identity, feminism and nationalism by which different groups sought to reconfigure the sexual regime in response to the various socio-political challenges facing modern Indian society. ‘Muslim polygamy’ thus became a site on which identities were formed and power structures reconfigured through the social governance of bodily practices.

prominent figures in the history of Muslim social and legal reform in late colonial India

Academic Profile

Early Career Fellow, Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Warwick , 2021-22.

PhD History, University of Warwick, 2016-2021

MA History, University of Warwick, 2014-2016 – Dissertation entitled: ‘Education and Evangelisation: The Missionary Affect in Indian Women’s Social Reform, 1800-1940’.

BA(hons) History (First Class), The Open University, 2010-2014

Scholarships and Awards

2016 – Departmental Doctoral Scholarship

2014 – Warwick Taught Masters Scholarship

2010 – The Open University Fee and Maintenance Grant

Conference Papers and Workshops

April 2021 – ‘Muslim Feminism and the Question of Polygamy in Modern South Asia, 1898-1939’, British Association of South Asian Studies Annual Conference 2021, University of Edinburgh (Online).

January 2020 – ‘The Role of Urdu Periodicals in the Indian Muslim Women’s Movement, 1898-1961’, Print Unbound: The Making/Unmaking of Newspapers and Periodicals in Asia, Royal Asiatic Society, London.

March 2019 – ‘Christianisation and Civilisation: Colonialist and Missionary Constructions of Indian Muslim Sexuality, 1860-1910’, The British Empire: Networks, Mobilities, Culture (Doctoral Workshop), University of Warwick.

July 2018 – ‘Wives Talk Back: Muslim Women’s Discourses on Polygamy and Marriage Reform in Early Twentieth Century India’, 25th European Conference on South Asian Studies (ECSAS), Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris.

 

Skills in South Asian Languages

English (native), Hindi, Urdu, and Gujarati (fluent in reading and speaking).

Memberships and Academic Affiliations

Teaching

HI153: Making of the Modern World, University of Warwick, 2020.

Additional Responsibilities and Experience

2021-22 – Research Assistant on the project: ‘What’s at Stake in the Fake? Indian Pharmaceuticals, African Markets and Global Health‘

2021 – Sprint Programme: Women’s Development for Postgraduates

2020-1 – Member of the Organising committee for the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender Seminar Series, University of Warwick.

2017 – Exam invigilation, University of Warwick.

2015-16 – Student Staff Liaison Committee Member, Student Representative.

2012-13 – History live guide (volunteer) at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry.

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