Click to play videoRampur (Uttar Pradesh): The vocal hardliner Muslim tends to be in the headlines, the liberal is often consigned to the margins. But, in a small corner of Uttar Pradesh, in Rampur, beats the heart of Muslim liberalism.
Heading north from Deoband, the centre of orthodox Islam, the road curves into the little town of Rampur - Islam is far more easy going here.
Hindus and Muslims go shopping together, celebrate Eid and Diwali and the Rampuri knife and topi (cap) are markers of a local pluralist identity.
And perhaps the best symbol of Rampur's cosmopolitan Islam is the Rampur Raza Library. There, secularism is cast in stone.
The library's four minarets are divided into four segments. A gurudwara at the top, then a mandir, next a church and last, a masjid.
This Islamic library is dedicated to all the gods of India.
"We have the Ramayan, which was translated from Valmik Ramayan by Sumer Chand during the days of Aurangzeb," Rampur Library’s Librarian, W H Siddiqi said.
The architecture of the Raza Library might make the hardliner maulanas shudder. Built by Nawab Hamid Ali Khan of Rampur in 1905, a fatwa would seem quite out of place in this building. And there are some statues in marble who are definitely not wearing a burqa.
Locals say that Rampur can repair the image of Islam in this country. After all, even during the Moradabad riots of the 80s, Rampur remained calm.
"The unity of Rampur lies in the fact that people don’t see each other as Hindu or Muslim," Aide-De-Camp to Rampur, Nawab Salim Ahmed Khan said.
Rampur and its Raza Library are reminders that Indian Islam is not just about fatwas and clerics, but also about high culture and some great books.
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