Such convictions presumed a singular Islam that required all adherents to act in prescribed ways. This helped make a pan-Indian conspiracy plausible in many British imaginations. The stereotype of the inherently intolerant, aggressive jihadi which helped convince Britons of a potentially India-wide Wahhabi conspiracy rested on a reified understanding of Islam that pictured the religion as a self-motivating agent.

DEFINE: Clarifies the concept of reification as treating a religion as a singular, self-motivating agent rather than a diverse set of adherents and practices. Builds on: "Imperial administration distorted Western knowledge of Islam."

Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon F…, loc. 119