Shaping Membership, Defining Nation explores and interprets the social politics, religion, and history of Africans (Habshis/Siddis) in Karnataka of South India. Focusing on the continuous dialog between African Indian historical formations and contemporary power structures, Pashington Obeng clearly explains the process of constructing socio-political and religious mores to respond to India's religious, socio-economic, and caste systems. The study begins by contextualizing the history of Africans in India before moving onto a sociological study. Pashington Obeng examines the formal and non-formal religious customs that stress African Indian agency in appropriating and shaping new forms of Indianness as well as African Diasporic realities. The book concludes with an important analysis of African Indian folksongs and dances.Shaping Membership, Defining Nation is a ground-breaking study of interest to scholars of African History and contemporary Indian society.

"Very few people within India-much less abroad-have heard of Indian people of African descent, and South Asian academics are no exception. It is thus refreshing to see a book on this subject from a native Africanist with appropriate academic training. Academics and non-academics alike are familiar with European slave trade that forced thousands of African people into cheap labour in the Americas, Caribbean islands, and elsewhere. Less familiar are the elite soldiers that Muslim rulers brought into medieval and early modern India as praetorian guards. Obeng compliments the works of historians by writing on the subject from the perspective of a student of religion. . . . The book is recommended for advanced students of Indian religious history and anthropology and African diaspora studies." - The Muslim World Book Review