Although the Muslims in India form a single religious community sharing basic Islamic precepts, they do not form a 'community' in anthropolitical/sociological terms. They are differentiated into various groups and sub-groups along ethnic, social and cultural lines and are organised in a stratified social order. Only in recent years have various marginalised Muslim groups begun to struggle for empowerment and self-development. The nature of their struggle has created a complex situation under the pluri-cultural set-up of the Indian nation state.
