One of the conceived wisdoms of my discipline holds hat it's usually women who bear the fallout of groupism.1 Women are told to uphold "traditional values", women have to be protected from honor attacks on men, in short: women are the signifier of community. I was thus surprised when I discovered last week that the rise of groupism in India seems to have an impact on male Muslim names - but not on female ones. Many of the most prominent male names among Muslims have a religious connotation, whereas female names tend not to. We also saw that female names are much more diverse, with less clear trends. Take today's picture as an example, an election hoarding in Lucknow's recent municipal polls: the woman candidate is a Saniya - no religious meaning - but her husband (included here, of course, since he runs the show even if his ward became a woman's reserved seat this time around) is a Mohammad.
