"This book traces the history of Indian Shi'ism through the colonial period toward Independence in 1947"-- "Interest in Shiʻism Islam has increased greatly in recent years, although Shiʻism in the Indian subcontinent has remained largely underexplored. Focusing on the influential Shiʻa minority of Lucknow and the United Provinces, a region that was largely under Shiʻa rule until 1856, this book traces the history of Indian Shiʻism through the colonial period toward Independence in 1947. Drawing on a range of new sources, including religious writing, polemical literature, and clerical biography, it assesses seminal developments including the growth of Shiʻa religious activism, madrasa education, missionary activity, ritual innovation, and the politicization of the Shiʻa community. As a consequence of these significant religious and social transformations, a Shiʻa sectarian identity developed that existed in separation from rather than in interaction with its Sunni counterparts. In this way the painful birth of modern sectarianism was initiated, the consequences of which are very much alive in South Asia today. The book makes a significant contribution to the global history of Shiʻism, and to understandings of inner-Islamic conflicts in the colonial and post-colonial worlds"--