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Download File Dīn and Duniyā: Debating Sufism, Saint Shrines, and Money in the Lucknow Area Quinn A. Clark Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2021 © 2021 Quinn A. Clark All Rights Reserved Abstract Dīn and Duniyā: Debating Sufism, Saint Shrines, and Money in the Lucknow Area Quinn A. Clark This dissertation asks how Muslims in north India today understand four paradoxical aspects of Sufi saint shrine traditions. The shrines of Sufi saints are sometimes regarded as apolitical, sacred, all-inclusive, and anti-elite religious spaces. At the same time, they are sites that are politicized, illegally bought and sold as commercial real estate, fuel for Islamic sectarian divisions, and often controlled by upper-caste Muslim elites. Based on the analysis of historical archival materials and twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork in Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), this dissertation argues that shrines are sites that straddle the dīn-duniyā distinction in Islam. Dīn (understood as “religion” in the modern period) is the atemporal, immaterial domain of true spirituality, whereas duniyā (“world”) is the realm of this-worldly material concerns and temporal impermanence. As sites imbued with the ethereal barakah (love of God manifest as the power of a blessing) of Sufi saints that aid individuals in drawing near to God by transcending “worldly” desires and also material commodities that are aggressively competed over by adversarial stakeholders (e.g., the state, real estate mafias, sectarian rivals), these shrines are paradoxically both of dīn and of duniyā. When asked how one can differentiate between dīn and duniyā—for example, when a Sufi politician is acting a religious manner or in a worldly manner—many of my interviewees explained that one can distinguish between these two domains based on the material presence of money. In this dissertation, I argue that the concept of money (paisā; also, “money” in English) acts as a symbol to help Muslims in Lucknow navigate this paradoxical quality. By attributing to the materiality of money those aspect of shrine operations associated with duniyā, interviewees effectively identified the boundary line dividing dīn from duniyā, thereby resolving the ostensibly contradictory nature of, for example, the politicization of an apolitical space. As a key signifier in the broader neoliberal context of Lucknow and the global politics of Sufism, money is an important concept by which Muslims make sense of the social, economic, and political complexities of Muslim life in the north India. Table of Contents Acknowledgements......................................................................................................................iii Dedication.....................................................................................................................................v Note on Orthography....................................................................................................................vi Introduction Love, Money, and the Shrines of Sufi Saints in Lucknow.................................................1 Dīn and Duniyā in Islam and the Sufi Orders....................................................................8 Anthropological Approaches to Sufism, Shrines, and Politics........................................13 The Anthropology of Money and Disavowal...................................................................17 Fieldsite............................................................................................................................22 Method..............................................................................................................................27 Chapter Outline.................................................................................................................30 Chapter One: Who Are the Real Kings? Scarcity and Coercion, Indian Politics, and Money Introduction: Passing Money at Shāhmīnā Shāh..............................................................35 “It’s All About Money These Days” ...............................................................................41 Love and Money................................................................................................................56 The Political Framing of Sufism.......................................................................................70 Conclusion.........................................................................................................................74 Chapter Two: 100 Years of Waqf: Sacred Real Estate in the 20th Century Introduction: Dewa Sharīf, Politics, and Sacred Real Estate............................................78 Shrines without Sufism......................................................................................................83 Waqf and the Law..............................................................................................................98 Sacred Real Estate after Liberalization...........................................................................112 i Conclusion.......................................................................................................................125 Chapter Three: Who Is the Wahhābī? Islamic Sectarianism, Oil Dollars, and Abjection Introduction: “We’re All Chaubīs Here”.........................................................................129 What Threat Do Wahhābīs Pose to India? ......................................................................136 What Is a Wahhābī? ........................................................................................................149 The Wahhābī Pehchān.....................................................................................................156 Double-Consciousness....................................................................................................171 Conclusion: What is Hindutva’s Other? ........................................................................181 Chapter Four: Who Carries the Pure Blood of the Prophet? Caste Hierarchy, Sufi Authority, and the Sacred Bloodlines of Sayyids Introduction: Zainuddīn Shāh’s Warning and Sacred Bloodlines...................................186 Two Mythologies of Sayyidī............................................................................................190 The Theological Stakes of Sayyidī...................................................................................205 Sayyidī and Sufism...........................................................................................................212 Caste on the Edges of Consciousness..............................................................................221 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................226 Conclusion...................................................................................................................................229 References...................................................................................................................................233 ii Acknowledgments Some psychoanalysts view the self, or at least the ego, as something that is formed when disparate and sometimes even contradictory forces meet in the unconscious. When these distinct forces meet, they push up to the surface of consciousness something that appears as a singular entity: you, or at least the version of yourself that you are aware of. It seems that a dissertation is not so different. While my name is on this unified, (hopefully) coherent work, it is the manifestation of the sum total of the unique, distinct, and sometimes disparate perspectives of those individuals that took the time and energy to help me. My advisor, Katherine P. Ewing, has been a source of stability throughout the entire process of completing this dissertation, and the spirit of curiosity and earnestness she brings to her work and her mentorship have been truly formative. Rachel McDermott and John Stratton Hawley have been as encouraging as they have been profoundly influential on the themes and quality of this work. Najam Haider and Anna Bigelow have provided indispensable feedback, without which this work simply could not have been completed. I would like to thank Erez DeGolan, Daniel Esparza, and Verena Meyer for guidance and comments throughout this research and the time that they dedicated to carefully reading earlier drafts. Verena Meyer taught me the German notion of a “Doktorbruder/Doktorschwester” (Doctor-brother/Doctor-sister), and our “sibling” relationship has been crucial to completing this work. My Fulbright sponsor and friend, Dr. Abdul Matin, has remained a steadfast mentor and was there for me at crucial junctures during my fieldwork. Like those forces in the unconscious, this study was shaped by a number of chance encounters, generous mentors, and bright minds: Masood Alam, Manjur Ali, Faisal Hassan, Nabiha Khwaja, Joel Lee, “Moḥsin,” Khahkashan Y. Sanyal, and “Ṣabīḥā.” I would like to thank a number of organizations for financial and institutional support: the United States-India Education iii Foundation’s Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship, the South Asia Institute at Columbia University, the American Institute for Indian Studies, and the Sociology Department at Aligarh University. Finally, but perhaps most importantly, I would like to thank my family for their
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