There must be some way out of here: Beyond a spatial conception of Muslim ghettoization in Mumbai?

In contemporary India, large numbers of Muslims tend to be segregated into ghettoes. Even when this is not the case, the study of Muslims is often stalked by a ghetto mentality reflected in thematic choices made by the researcher. Can consideration of everyday aspirations enable a shift away from this ghetto mentality? Or does the ghetto reassert itself as effect, beyond its spatiality, in a wider culture of suspicion that marks the relationship with the other in an urban milieu? This article ponders whether there is a way out of the ghetto for Muslims. I consider this through a reflexive narrative of my personal experience of conducting research among Shia Muslims in Mumbai. I reflect upon whether the paradoxical dynamic between keeping at a distance yet reaching out is intrinsic to any ethnographic research or acquires a distinct edge when conducting research among Muslims in urban India.