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Defending Sufism, Defining Islam: Asserting Islamic Identity in India

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Defending Sufism, Defining Islam: Asserting Islamic Identity in India DEFENDING SUFISM, DEFINING ISLAM: ASSERTING ISLAMIC IDENTITY IN INDIA Rachana Rao Umashankar A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Anthropology. Chapel Hill 2012 Approved by: Dr. James L. Peacock Dr. Carl W. Ernst Dr. Margaret J. Wiener Dr. Lauren G. Leve Dr. Lorraine V. Aragon Dr. Katherine Pratt Ewing © 2012 Rachana Rao Umashankar ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT RACHANA RAO UMASHANKAR: Defending Sufism, Defining Islam: Asserting Islamic identity in India (Under the direction of Dr. James L. Peacock and Dr. Lauren G. Leve) Based on thirteen months of intensive fieldwork at two primary sites in India, this dissertation describes how adherents of shrine-based Sufism assert their identity as Indian Muslims in the contexts of public debates over religion and belonging in India, and of reformist critiques of their Islamic beliefs and practices. Faced with opposition to their mode of Islam from reformist Muslim groups, and the challenges to their sense of national identity as members of a religious minority in India, I argue that adherents of shrine-based Sufism claim the sacred space of the Sufi shrine as a venue where both the core values of Islam and of India are given form and reproduced. For these adherents, contemporary shrine-based Sufism is a dynamic and creative force that manifests essential aspects of Islam that are also fundamental Indian values, and which are critical to the health of the nation today. The dissertation reveals that contested identities and internal religious debates can only be understood and interpreted within the broader framework of national and global debates over Islam and over the place of Islam in the Indian polity that shape them. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are so many to whom I owe a debt of gratitude for helping me bring this dissertation to fruition. There are faculty, friends, family, colleagues, and interlocutors who gave generously of their time and their wisdom, and without whom this project would not have been possible. I would like to start by thanking the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for providing me the opportunity to pursue my graduate degree, and for being my intellectual home for the past seven years. Many thanks to the members of my dissertation committee—Dr. James Peacock, Dr. Carl Ernst, Dr. Margaret Wiener, Dr. Lauren Leve, Dr. Lorraine Aragon, and Dr. Katherine Pratt Ewing—for their guidance and their insight in framing my research and shaping my dissertation. Special thanks also go to Ms. Suphronia Cheek, the oracle of the department, for the patience and diligence with which she answers our incessant questions, and for unraveling so many of our bureaucratic tangles. My dissertation research in India was funded by the Off-Campus Dissertation Research Fellowship that I received from the Graduate School at UNC-Chapel Hill, and the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship. I would like to especially acknowledge Beth-Ann Kutchma of the Center for Global Initiatives at UNC- Chapel Hill for her assistance in applying for the Fulbright-Hays program, and the Fulbright team in India for all the support they provide to fellows during our long months iv of research. Thanks also to my Fulbright-Hays advisor in India, Dr. Azizuddin Husain of Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi. Many thanks to Dr. S. L. Peeran, who granted me so many deeply insightful interviews, and to Mrs. Peeran for her warmth and hospitality. For many productive months in Gulbarga, I owe thanks to the sajjada nasheen of the shrine of Khaja Bandanawaz Gesudaraz, Syed Shah Khusro Hussaini, who granted me unfettered access to the shrine and took a keen interest in my research. Many thanks to the teachers at the shrine’s madrassa for the daily lectures and conversations on Sufism, of course; but also for their trust, respect, and acceptance. I was touched by the kindness shown me by the administrative staff at the shrine— the cups of tea and the welcoming smiles made the hot months in Gulbarga seem less harsh. Thanks, especially, to Abdul Ghani Sahab for his warmth and affection, and the fresh guavas from his courtyard. My stay in Gulbarga was made so much easier by the Lagares, who graciously opened their home to me during my months there. Thanks also to the warden of the girls’ medical college hostel in Gulbarga and her daughters, and to Mrs. Humaira, who made me feel so welcome. My experiences at the shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia in Delhi were made richer by the hours I spent there with Nooruddin Nizami Sahab. Many thanks also to Syed Hassan Sani Nizami Sahab who granted me so much of his time in spite his years, and to Ms. Dehlvi for allowing me a glimpse into her spiritual journey. For company, conversation, and a place to call home in Delhi, I’d like to thank my good friend, Shalini— I do miss our expeditions through Shahpur Jat! I thank my colleagues and friends at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University for the community we built together, for the camaraderie, and for the shared joys and trials of v graduate school. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their unquestioning love and unfailing support. I especially want to thank my mother for being my first friend and first teacher, and for giving up so much so that I could have a limitless canvass on which to paint my dreams. — Thank you vi NOTE ON PSEUDONYMS AND ORTHOGRAPHY I have used pseudonyms throughout this dissertation for all my interlocutors, with only a few exceptions. Some interlocutors are easily identifiable because of the positions they occupy within the Sufi community: as authors, leaders, and scholars. These interlocutors participated in my research knowing this, and in many cases wanting to be identified as representatives of their larger community. In order to honor their position within the community, and not to obscure their contribution, I have retained their real names. This dissertation includes terms and quotes in many different languages: Hindi- Urdu, Kannada, Persian, and Arabic. I have used a system of orthography that reflects the pronunciation of my interlocutors, rather than on standard, formal pronunciation. This bias is especially obvious for Islamic terms that have their roots in Arabic. I have chosen to err on the side of spoken, colloquial usage of these terms. My interlocutors were for the most part native speakers of Hindi-Urdu, and the transliteration I employ reflects their native accents, and not formal Arabic (fusha) pronunciation. The exception to this is when I discuss specifically theological debates in chapter 2, and when I quote from the quran in chapter 4. Here, I use transliteration that is standard in the academic study of Islam in the United States. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................................... iv NOTE ON PSEUDONYMS AND ORTHOGRAPHY ................................................................................ vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................ viii LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................................... xi Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 1 Constructing a Muslim identity in India ............................................................................................. 4 Sufism ............................................................................................................................................. 5 Reformist Islam and reformist Sufism ...........................................................................................11 Narratives of Indian multiculturalist secularism ............................................................................16 Field sites ...........................................................................................................................................20 Methods .............................................................................................................................................22 Languages, texts, and narratives ....................................................................................................33 Positioning myself in the field .......................................................................................................37 Broadening the field-site ...............................................................................................................41 Discussions of Islam and Sufism in public discourse ........................................................................44 How is a ‘Sufi’ defined in the public discourse? ...........................................................................46 Problematizing the good (Sufi) Muslim ........................................................................................48 Muslim engagement in public discourse .......................................................................................53 I. Shrine-based Sufism and the Sacred Space of the Sufi Shrine ...................................................................57 viii The Sufi shrine
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