The catchwords for Muslim students on Uttar Pradesh’s campuses are economic growth and jobs. But in Azamgarh’s imposing Shibli National College, such enticing words seemed out of immediate grasp, while these appeared reachable in Allahabad’s Muslim Boarding House.
The variations in the understanding of what it meant to be a young Muslim in current times on two campuses 166 km apart come from lived and shared experiences. For students living in a boarding house, popularly known as the Muslim hostel of Allahabad University, life falls into a quotidian pattern: Never-to-be-missed classes and tutorials, organising meals in the mess and prepping for