Book Review | 'Diverse Narratives And Shared Beliefs: Classical To Hybrid Deoband Islam In South Asia' By Dr Soumya Awasthi

The book makes a persuasive case for re-integrating religion into the analytical toolkit of international relations scholars and policy practitioners alike

In an era when geopolitics is increasingly shaped by identity, ideology and belief systems, the tendency of mainstream International Relations (IR) scholarship to marginalise religion appears increasingly untenable. “Diverse Narratives and Shared Beliefs: Classical to Hybrid Deoband Islam in South Asia" by Dr Soumya Awasthi intervenes decisively in that gap. By placing the Deobandi school of thought at the centre of South Asia’s geopolitical evolution, it offers a rigorous and timely reassessment of how religious movements interact with state power, security imperatives and international alignments. Rather than treating religion as an aberration or residual variable, the study convincingly demonstrates that faith-based ideologies–when institutionalised, politicised and externally leveraged–can become enduring drivers of regional and global politics.

The book’s core contribution lies in its conceptual framing. Drawing on realist, neoliberal and constructivist approaches, it treats Political Islam not merely as theology but as a strategic instrument, a source of legitimacy and a vehicle for identity formation. This theoretical grounding is not ornamental. It allows the author to move beyond reductionist explanations that attribute Islamist mobilisation solely to poverty or radicalisation, instead situating Deobandi thought within shifting power structures, colonial legacies and post-Cold War insecurities. In doing so, the book makes a persuasive case for re-integrating religion into the analytical toolkit of IR scholars and policy practitioners alike.

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Structure, Scope and Methodology

The book is structured thematically and geographically, moving from theory to history and then to contemporary geopolitics. It combines conceptual analysis, historical investigation, and empirical research to examine the Deobandi school’s trajectory in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and its broader implications for regional and global politics. Methodologically, the study employs a mixed approach. It draws on archival material, secondary scholarship and official documents, while also incorporating primary research, including interviews with Deobandi scholars, survey responses, madrassa publications, and fieldwork conducted in Afghanistan and virtually in Pakistan. This combination allows the author to link ideological evolution with lived practice, discourse and institutional behaviour. The introduction explicitly positions the work within IR scholarship, arguing that religion–long marginalised due to Westphalian and secular assumptions–must be reintegrated into analyses of power, security and identity.

Religion, Discourse and International Politics

The early chapters lay the conceptual foundation by exploring the relationship between religion and international politics. The book examines how religious discourse operates as a form of power–shaping identities, legitimising authority and mobilising communities. Drawing on discourse analysis, the author shows how religious language, symbols and narratives influence political behaviour, particularly in societies experiencing crisis, transition or external intervention. These chapters are especially valuable in linking abstract IR theory with the everyday political use of religion, including in electoral politics and state-building.

Classical Deoband in Colonial India

Historically, the study is at its strongest when tracing the evolution of classical Deoband in colonial India. The account of Darul Uloom Deoband’s founding in the aftermath of the 1857 revolt underscores its original character as an anti-colonial, reformist and intellectually rigorous movement. Importantly, the study highlights Deoband’s pluralist and accommodative orientation in India. It discusses internal debates among Deobandi scholars on nationalism, political participation and coexistence, showing that the movement was never ideologically monolithic. The ulema’s emphasis on religious education, moral reform and resistance to imperial domination positioned Deoband as both a spiritual and political force in post-independence India. By recovering this tradition, the book resists the temptation to read contemporary extremism backwards into Deoband’s origins–a common flaw in both popular and policy discourse.

A particularly valuable contribution is the discussion of primary research, including responses from Darul Uloom Deoband scholars to structured surveys. These responses reveal how religious scholars themselves perceive the relationship between Islam, the state, Sharia, democracy and the international community at large. By incorporating these voices, the book avoids abstract generalisation and instead shows how ideology is articulated, defended and rationalised by its proponents.

Pakistan: Neo-Deoband and State Power

The divergence of Deobandi trajectories after Partition forms the analytical spine of the book. While Deoband’s accommodation in India was within a secular, democratic framework–limiting its political ambitions largely to the preservation of religious instruction and community identity–the case in Pakistan for the same intellectual tradition underwent a profound transformation. The book details how state patronage, especially during periods of political instability and military rule, embedded Deobandi actors within Pakistan’s institutional and security architecture. Islamisation policies under General Zia-ul-Haq, sectarian competition, and the growing salience of jihad during the Cold War collectively reshaped Deobandi networks into politically assertive and, at times, militant formations. This shift, the author argues, was neither accidental nor purely doctrinal, but the outcome of deliberate state strategy interacting with external geopolitical pressures. The discussion of women is significant, as it highlights how Deobandi interpretations of gender are woven into broader political and social frameworks.

Crucially, the book links Deobandi norms to Pakistan’s external posture. The Deobandi emphasis on moral order, Islamic solidarity and resistance to Western cultural influence is shown to extend beyond Pakistan’s borders, influencing how the state positions itself in the Muslim world. The chapter argues that Pakistan’s support for religious causes abroad–most notably in Afghanistan and Kashmir–cannot be fully understood without recognising how Deobandi ideology frames these spaces as sites of Islamic responsibility and obligation.

By the end of the chapter, Pakistan emerges as a case where Deobandi Islam is no longer simply a religious school but a foreign-policy-relevant ideology. The state’s regional behaviour–its approach to Afghanistan, its posture on Islamic causes, and its resistance to Western normative pressure–is shown to be deeply intertwined with the internal consolidation of Deobandi thought. In this sense, the chapter convincingly demonstrates that Pakistan’s domestic religious architecture and its external conduct are mutually reinforcing, making Deoband a critical lens through which to understand both.

Afghanistan: Hybridisation and Fieldwork Insights

The Afghanistan chapters extend this argument further, illustrating how Deobandi thought hybridised under conditions of prolonged conflict. The Soviet invasion, followed by American, British and Pakistani involvement, transformed Afghanistan into a laboratory for transnational jihad. Madrassa networks along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, infused with Deobandi and Wahhabi influences, became mechanisms for mobilisation, indoctrination and recruitment. The Taliban’s rise is presented not as an ideological anomaly but as the culmination of these intersecting forces–local Pashtun norms, imported religious doctrines and geopolitical engineering.

The chapter stands out for its field-based richness. One striking example comes from madrassa textbooks documented during fieldwork in Kabul. The book reproduces images showing basic arithmetic taught through violent symbolism, for instance, subtraction lessons illustrated using bullets, guns or grenades instead of neutral objects. The chapter also analyses Taliban discourse, educational practices and propaganda tools, showing how religious instruction, language and poetry, and concepts like justice, victimisation and martyrdom are used to normalise jihad and obedience. By tracing how ideology is transmitted through schooling, sermons and informal education, the book explains how Deobandi-inspired militancy acquired both depth and durability in Afghanistan. By grounding these analyses in field evidence, educational material and discourse patterns, the book avoids caricature while underscoring the long-term consequences of instrumentalising religion for strategic ends.

The Grand Game and Regional Geopolitics

The chapter on the Grand Game situates these national trajectories within a wider regional and global context as well as a longer historical arc–revisiting 19th-century imperial rivalries, Cold War interventions and post-Cold War realignments. Afghanistan, which has repeatedly functioned as a contested space for great power competition, is presented as a persistent geopolitical crossroads, shaped by external interests from Pakistan, Russia, the US and Iran. What distinguishes the contemporary phase, however, is the durability of religious actors once the original strategic objectives have faded. The argument that jihadist networks outlived their Cold War utility and subsequently destabilised regional security architectures is not new, but the book strengthens it by explicitly linking ideology, institutionalisation and geopolitics.

The concluding chapter draws these threads together with clarity and synthesises the book’s arguments by reiterating that religion never truly disappeared from international politics–it was merely under-analysed. It challenges the assumption that modernisation necessarily marginalises religion, demonstrating instead how faith re-enters politics under conditions of social disruption, identity anxiety and external intervention. The Deobandi case, the book argues, exemplifies a broader global pattern in which religious movements adapt, mutate and acquire geopolitical salience when embedded within state and transnational power structures.

The book’s foremost strength lies in its depth of research and contextual richness. It is thoroughly grounded in history while remaining analytically relevant to contemporary geopolitics. The use of primary research adds a level of authenticity that distinguishes it from purely theoretical studies. The work is also notable for its clarity and accessibility. Despite engaging with complex theoretical debates, it remains readable and well-structured. Its careful differentiation between Indian, Pakistani and Afghan trajectories avoids oversimplification and highlights the contingent nature of religious movements. For scholars, it offers a corrective to secular blind spots in IR theory. For policymakers and security analysts, it serves as a reminder that religious ideologies, once mobilised for strategic gain, rarely remain confined to their original purposes. Finally, the book succeeds in demonstrating that religion, ideology and geopolitics are deeply intertwined. By tracing Deoband’s evolution across borders and decades, it offers a nuanced understanding of how belief systems operate within power structures–making it a significant contribution to the study of South Asia and international relations.

The writer is a former Director, National Security Council Secretariat. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.

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