Devotion, Religious Authority, and Social Structures in Sindh
Khojas, Vanyos, and Faqirs
Published on 28. March 2024
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-90-04-53992-1 (ISBN)
Description
In a context of rigidification of religious boundaries, especially between Hinduism and Islam, the book argues that many physical and non-physical sites of religious encountering are still at work, both in Pakistan and in India. In India, the Hindu Sindhis worshipped a god, Jhulelal, who is also venerated in Pakistan as a saint. In Sehwan Sharif, in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, there are Hindu Sufi masters who initiate Muslims to Sufism.
This study is the first to involve both Muslim and Hindu communities in a comparative perspective, and to underscore that the process of constructing communities in South Asia follow the same social pattern, the patrilineal lineage (baradari or khandan).
The study is based on an array of sources collected in three continents, such as manuscripts, printed and oral sources, as well as artefacts from material cultures, most of which was never published before.
This study is the first to involve both Muslim and Hindu communities in a comparative perspective, and to underscore that the process of constructing communities in South Asia follow the same social pattern, the patrilineal lineage (baradari or khandan).
The study is based on an array of sources collected in three continents, such as manuscripts, printed and oral sources, as well as artefacts from material cultures, most of which was never published before.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
576 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-04-53992-1 (9789004539921)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Michel Boivin, PhD (1990), University of Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris) and HDR (2005), University of Paris X-Nanterre, is Emeritus Research Director at CNRS. Former director of the Centre for Indian and South Studies (CNRS-EHESS), he is currently member of the Centre for the Study of South Asia and the Himalayas (CESAH). His last books are The Hindu Sufis of South Asia. Partition, Shrine Culture and the Sindhis of India, London, I. B. Tauris, 2019, and The Sufi Paradigm and the Makings of Vernacular Knowledge in Colonial India: The Case of Sindh (1851-1929), New York, Palgrave McMillan, 2021.
Content
Acknowledgements
List of Maps, Tables and Figures
Abbreviations
Transliteration
Notice
Maps
Introduction
?1?Setting the Scene
?2?Social Structure and Sindh
?3?Religious Authority and Devotion
?4?Three Case Studies
1 The Making of the Ismaili Jamat
?1?The Khojas, Karachi and the Khojisation Process
?2?The Aga Khan and the Establishing Myths: Jherruk and Amir Pir
?3?The Eviction of the Sayyids
?4?The Institutional Pillars
?5?Creation of a New Elite and Intra-community Rivalries
?6?Reinforcing the Jamat
?7?Conclusion
2 The Road to Islamization and the Partition of India
?1?The Standardization of the Satpanth
?2?The Stages of the Islamization of the Dua
?3?Other Islamization Processes and the Extinction of Dissent
?4?The Rites of Passage
?5?The Liturgical Calendar and the Religious Rituals
?6?Conclusion
3 The Karachi Cosmopolis, The Vanyos, and Jhulelal
?1?Introduction
?2?The Making of Modern Hinduism and the Domination of Merchant Castes
?3?Frere's Impulse and the "Cosmopolitanizing" Process of Karachi
?4?The Failure of the Khudawadi Project
?5?The Issue of the Social Structure of the Lohanas
?6?The Bhaibands-Amils Divide and Its Consequences
?7?The Darbar of Uderolal and the Jhulelal Tirathdham in India
?8?Conclusion
4 Lal Shahbaz Qalandar's Baraka and the Rise of the Ritual City
?1?The Emergence of the Saint
?2?Capturing the Baraka in Buildings
?3?The Baraka as an Ethnographic Object
?4?Authority and Baraka: Lal Shahbaz Qalandar's Mazar
?5?The Extension of Baraka beyond Sehwan: The Maqams
?6?The System of the Kafis
?7?The Economy of Devotion: The Bazars
?8?Conclusion
5 Devotion and Competion: The Sehwan System
?1?The Succession to Lal Shahbaz Qalandar's Baraka
?2?The Domination of the Sayyids and the Nationalization of the Mazar
?3?The Faqirs, the Murids, and the Other Professionals of Charisma
?4?The Sajjada Nashini Muridi Relationship, the Linchpin of the Exercise of Authority
?5?The Ziyarat, and the Dhammal
?6?The Relics
?7?The Festive Calendar
?8?The Processions for Gridding the City to Strengthen Allegiances
?9?Conclusion
General Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
List of Maps, Tables and Figures
Abbreviations
Transliteration
Notice
Maps
Introduction
?1?Setting the Scene
?2?Social Structure and Sindh
?3?Religious Authority and Devotion
?4?Three Case Studies
1 The Making of the Ismaili Jamat
?1?The Khojas, Karachi and the Khojisation Process
?2?The Aga Khan and the Establishing Myths: Jherruk and Amir Pir
?3?The Eviction of the Sayyids
?4?The Institutional Pillars
?5?Creation of a New Elite and Intra-community Rivalries
?6?Reinforcing the Jamat
?7?Conclusion
2 The Road to Islamization and the Partition of India
?1?The Standardization of the Satpanth
?2?The Stages of the Islamization of the Dua
?3?Other Islamization Processes and the Extinction of Dissent
?4?The Rites of Passage
?5?The Liturgical Calendar and the Religious Rituals
?6?Conclusion
3 The Karachi Cosmopolis, The Vanyos, and Jhulelal
?1?Introduction
?2?The Making of Modern Hinduism and the Domination of Merchant Castes
?3?Frere's Impulse and the "Cosmopolitanizing" Process of Karachi
?4?The Failure of the Khudawadi Project
?5?The Issue of the Social Structure of the Lohanas
?6?The Bhaibands-Amils Divide and Its Consequences
?7?The Darbar of Uderolal and the Jhulelal Tirathdham in India
?8?Conclusion
4 Lal Shahbaz Qalandar's Baraka and the Rise of the Ritual City
?1?The Emergence of the Saint
?2?Capturing the Baraka in Buildings
?3?The Baraka as an Ethnographic Object
?4?Authority and Baraka: Lal Shahbaz Qalandar's Mazar
?5?The Extension of Baraka beyond Sehwan: The Maqams
?6?The System of the Kafis
?7?The Economy of Devotion: The Bazars
?8?Conclusion
5 Devotion and Competion: The Sehwan System
?1?The Succession to Lal Shahbaz Qalandar's Baraka
?2?The Domination of the Sayyids and the Nationalization of the Mazar
?3?The Faqirs, the Murids, and the Other Professionals of Charisma
?4?The Sajjada Nashini Muridi Relationship, the Linchpin of the Exercise of Authority
?5?The Ziyarat, and the Dhammal
?6?The Relics
?7?The Festive Calendar
?8?The Processions for Gridding the City to Strengthen Allegiances
?9?Conclusion
General Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
Index