Malayāḷa Islam and Modernity: Being ‘Muslim’ and Being ‘Modern’ in Colonial Kerala

Abstract This paper analyses the contours of the vision of Islamic modernity in Kerala as articulated in the work of Sayyid Sanaullah Makti Taṅṅaḷ, a reformer, thinker, writer, polemist, printer, and publisher of the nineteenth century. He was regarded as the first Muslim reformer to make an influential presence in the modern Malayalam sphere. Hence, the study would offer an assessment of Makti’s reformist initiatives and writings in Malayalam between the closing decades of the nineteenth century. Locating him as a central figure in the new public arena, this study seeks to analyze his multi-faceted efforts to the emergence of a Mappila/Muslim modernist discourse along with the realms of religion, language and education.