A Place where “Mahol” is Right: The Impact of Religious Practices on the Settlement and Mobility of Muslim Communities in Northern India

Abstract

India is the country with the third largest Muslim population in the world, and most of this Muslim population can be called indigenous. However, the uneven distribution of Muslims in India is not only visible at the regional level (which has a historical explanation), but it is also prominent on the local level: in cities and villages with a significant percentage of the Muslim population, one can see separate clusters and districts where various Muslim communities live. In our article, based on the field observations made in Northern India (in Aligarh, Delhi, Agra, Sikri, Fatehpur Sikri, Lucknow, Dewa Sharif) 2023 and 2024, we will examine the settlement and mobility patterns of local communities of Indian Muslims and focus on religiously conditioned strategies for choosing a suitable place to live and the characteristics of religious locations, which, as we suggest, define, along with socio-political reasons, the territorial coun daries of the communities.