BEYOND RELIGION in INDIA and PAKISTAN Gender and Caste, Borders and Boundaries Beyond Religion in India and Pakistan
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BLOOMSBURY STUDIES IN RELIGION, GENDER AND SEXUALITY Navtej K. Purewal & Virinder S. Kalra BEYOND RELIGION IN INDIA AND PAKISTAN Gender and Caste, Borders and Boundaries Beyond Religion in India and Pakistan 9781350041752_txt_final.indd 1 24-09-2019 21:23:27 Bloomsbury Studies in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality Series Editors: Dawn Llewellyn, Sîan Hawthorne and Sonya Sharma This interdisciplinary series explores the intersections of religions, genders, and sexualities. It promotes the dynamic connections between gender and sexuality across a diverse range of religious and spiritual lives, cultures, histories, and geographical locations, as well as contemporary discourses around secularism and non-religion. The series publishes cutting-edge research that considers religious experiences, communities, institutions, and discourses in global and transnational contexts, and examines the fluid and intersecting features of identity and social positioning. Using theoretical and methodological approaches from inter/transdisciplinary perspectives, Bloomsbury Studies in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality addresses the neglect of religious studies perspectives in gender, queer, and feminist studies, and offers a space in which gender-critical approaches to religions engage with questions of intersectionality, particularly with respect to critical race, disability, post-colonial and decolonial theories. 9781350041752_txt_final.indd 2 24-09-2019 21:23:27 Beyond Religion in India and Pakistan Gender and Caste, Borders and Boundaries Virinder S. Kalra and Navtej K. Purewal 9781350041752_txt_final.indd 3 24-09-2019 21:23:27 BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC Bloomsbury Publishing plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain 2020 Copyright © Virinder S. Kalra and Navtej K. Purewal, 2020 Virinder S. Kalra and Navtej K. Purewal have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Authors of this work. For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. ix constitute an extension of this copyright page. Cover design: 393rd death anniversary of Saint Mian Mir (© Anadolu Agency / Getty Images) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third- party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Control Number: 2019949345. ISBN: HB: 978-1-3500-4175-2 ePDF: 978-1-3500-4176-9 eBook: 978-1-3500-4177-6 Series: Bloomsbury Studies in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality Typeset by Integra Software services Pvt. Ltd. Printed and bound in Great Britain To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters. 9781350041752_txt_final.indd 4 24-09-2019 21:23:27 To the resilience and resistance of the social For Nuvpreet and Eesher 9781350041752_txt_final.indd 5 24-09-2019 21:23:27 9781350041752_txt_final.indd 6 24-09-2019 21:23:27 Contents List of illustrations viii Acknowledgements ix Note on translation, transliteration and digital resource xii 1 Introduction 1 2 Conceptual pilgrimage 13 3 Bordering logics 39 4 Sacred spaces and their limits 77 5 Openness and closure 103 6 Authority as religion-making and religion-breaking 131 7 Devotion, hegemony and resistance at the margins 167 Appendix 1 178 Glossary 179 Notes 181 Bibliography 202 Index 218 9781350041752_txt_final.indd 7 24-09-2019 21:23:27 Illustrations Figures 1 A faqir and female devotees, Mian Mir, Lahore 45 2 The myriad life of a shrine, Mian Mir, Lahore 50 3 Marraka village, Pappu Masih, shrine caretaker and son of Baba Suba Masih 64 4 Ladoo (sweets) left as mannats outside the tomb of Mian Mir, Lahore 81 5 Grave markings at a shrine of Gugga Pir, Chandigarh-Patiala Road 116 6 Grave tombstones at a shrine of Gugga Pir, Chandigarh-Patiala Road 116 7 Inside the shrine of Vicky Saain in Nakodar 163 Map 1 The region of Punjab xiv 9781350041752_txt_print.indd 8 26-09-2019 16:45:58 Acknowledgements There are many people who have been a part of the making of this book, especially as it has been over ten years in the making. At the forefront are all of the people who spoke with us at the shrines and sites of the research, as well as those who live in the localities or work at the universities near the research sites. Our two bases during the field research, Lahore and Chandigarh, became enabling, fortifying and enriching spaces for us to make sense of our field research. Our insights were shaped by their insights. We were fortunate to have people around us who understood our project and supported us in our endeavour to engage with the underlying dynamics of a society overtly shaped by nationalism and religious identity but intrinsically connected: Ishaque Chaudhary, for his unrelenting and cutting critique of the overarching discourses of religion and nationalism; Najm Hosain Syed and late Bibi Samina for creating the space of Sangat in Lahore for the appreciation and distillation of Punjab’s rich poetic-philosophical heritage; and B.S. Rattan and Rama Rattan for providing a base in Chandigarh from which we could develop our fieldwork. We are indebted to Iqbal Kaiser, whose lifelong commitment to sustaining the continuities across the border despite the ruptures of nationalism has provided much inspiration for this book. We are grateful to Ursula Sharma, who accompanied us to east and west Punjab and provided us with much clarifying advice during an otherwise bewildering ethnographic experience in helping us to make sense of our complex field. Her assurances and uniquely rich insights were invaluable to us in the depths of the field. For conversations, facilitations and critical engagement with the research at its various stages to make this text possible, we are indebted to colleagues at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) – Ali Khan, Furrukh Khan and Turab Hussain; Government College Lahore – Tahir Kamran, Umber Ibad and Tahir Jamil; Chitrkar – Shahid Mirza; Punjabi University, Patiala – H.S. Bhatti and Gurpreet S. Lehal; Panjab University, Chandigarh – Ishwar Dayal Gaur, Surinder Singh, Sherry Sabbarwal and Ronki Ram; Guru Nanak National College for Women – Principal Mrs Gurmeet K. Atwal. To our research assistants in their various capacities with their multiple skills in the research: Muhammad Abbas for fieldwork assistance in west Punjab; Hani Taha for assisting with 9781350041752_txt_final.indd 9 24-09-2019 21:23:27 x Acknowledgements various aspects of coding our material in west Punjab; Manpreet K. Gill who assisted with processing and coding the survey data; Gagun Chhina for helping with organizing the visual data; Irshad for acting beyond the call of duty of a driver by being a companion and advisor during extended shrine visits across west Punjab; and Kirpal Singh, whose understanding of the field was invaluable to our analysis of the fieldwork which he continued on an ongoing level in east Punjab. We are grateful to the team of students from D.A.V. College in Amritsar for the surveys and interviews carried out in Amritsar and Himachal. To other colleagues/friends for their comradery over the years which was essential as the ideas percolated across sites, borders, debates and contexts: Ajay Bhardwaj, Darshan S. Tatla, Mandeep Kaur, Jasdeep Kaur, Nida Kirmani, Shams Rehman, Ayesha Siddiqa, Geoffrey Samuel and Santi Rozario. The generosity of friends in Lahore made our fieldwork in west Punjab not only possible, but also a memorable and fond time. In particular, we thank Mariyam and Ali Khan, Rabeea and Furrukh Khan, and Sara Zaidi and family. We are grateful to relatives who made the fieldwork in east Punjab a continuum of the west Punjab fieldwork. Special thanks to Mano ‘Mami ji’ Bedi, Vicky and Hema Bedi, K.P. Singh, Rana, Manak and Raunak for their kind hospitality and interested questions about what it was we were actually doing. We also thank Jagmohan Singh Kalra and Honey, Daljit Bhua, Nimmi, Sahil, Henna, Balbir Bhabi, Timmy, Keenu and all the other cousins and branches of family who supported us not only during the core fieldwork time but also during our numerous trips. On another level of inspiration are those who passed away over the span of the research: Ustad Hafeez Khan Sahib, whose wisdom and knowledge of Punjab’s musical heritage we were fortunate to behold; Bhai Ghulam Muhammad Chand who was the last of a generation who embodied the spirit of the resilience of the ‘shared’ philosophical-poetic tradition of Punjab; Bibi Samina who in many ways introduced these learned souls to us; Bilal Ahmed for a Diwali in Lahore in 2008 which implemented border crossing; Gurdeep Bhua whose joy at calling us the ‘Lahore waale’ and whose own childhood memories of Lyallpur, a city she left in 1947, continue to coalesce her extended family; and finally, Surjit Singh Kalra whose passion and spark for Punjabi lit