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MI Interview with Richard K. Wolf FS Ritual, Music and Ethnography in South Asia

Richard K. Wolf is Professor of Ethnomusicology at Harvard University. While working first on the Kotas of South , he did fieldwork on Shia and Sufi rituals in . Dr Frédérique Pagani, a MIFS member, interviewed him in May 2009 about his fieldwork in , including his methodology.

How did you come to study ?

I started out studying ritual drumming. I looked at all the different contexts in which drumming was important. I didn’t start out with the intention of doing something Sufi at all. There was a close connection between Sufi and Shia things in a kind of a popular realm even though rather strict Shias don’t necessarily like to be associated with Sufism; still, we found a Shia family for example that was in charge of a Sufi shrine in , and I guess this is not all that uncommon.

You talk about a kind of porosity of religious boundaries between Shia and Sunni in Sindh which was very interesting. What was your understanding of this situation in Sindh?

Among , my impression was that Shias and Sunnis both practice Muharram in the same places and engage in some of the same kind of activities. In some processions, at least, both populations would be together; Shias would also be musicians and so the kinds of distinctions between the two groups, which is more pronounced in most urban areas and outside of Sindh, did not seem to be so pronounced even in the relatively urban area of .

You said that when you cannot attend a musical event, you ask the people to do a demonstration, can you explain in a more detailed way the way you work with the musicians? Perhaps if you take a precise example... For example, the drummers who played on my video tape of Madho Lal Hussain, I took their names and addresses at the event because I Conferences in Paris couldn’t talk with them there. And then, I tracked them down later and had 6 May 2009, EPHE them come to my apartment in . There I had a longer discussion with them about what they were doing there and their relationship with the The Shi’i faces of dancers; I asked them to play their versions of the different rhythms I had Nizamuddin: Nizami been studying. drumming and texts In Lahore the best place to record and interview was at my home; there, in and other people would not come and interrupt us, give their own opinions, and things like that. But sometimes I was forced to discuss these things in 7 May 2009, EHESS crowded places where there were a lot of interlopers and distractions. It Musical and other was sometimes difficult to find a place where drummers could demonstrate because it’s so loud. The drumming would alert people and social ‘beginnings’ in they would wonder why it was going on. South Asia and beyond

Has it also something to do with the fact that, you’re explaining in 14 May 2009, EHESS your paper on Madho Lal that there are appropriate ways to do The rhythm of raga: music and inappropriate ways. Is it sometimes inappropriate to do pulse, gesture and music in front of you? Is it disrespectful? For example if it’s a time in «free rhythmic» musical religious event and if it’s detached from the context, has it music of South Asia something which sounds a bit disrespectful? 28 May 2009, EHESS No. Not in that way. It’s not disrespectful. There are a number of different kinds of issues. So like among the Kotas, if you play funeral music when Music in Shrine Sufism it’s not a funeral, then you don’t play any of this stuff, loud instruments, of Pakistan outdoors except for maybe some celebratory and not particularly marked occasion; but it’s OK if you go at distance, away from the village. Because Emotionality in the otherwise people think that there is a funeral and they start feeling bad music of South Asia and so people would come and say, “Don’t do that.”

Mission Interdisciplinaire Française du Sindh – Newsletter 3 – September 2009 2 MI Interview with Richard K. Wolf FS Ritual, Music and Ethnography in South Asia

As for Muharram performance, if a group of They’re also exposed to certain kinds of poetry musicians agree to go out to an open field and in the respective languages that brings up so play the different rhythms, it usually doesn’t called Sufi themes... So it’s inevitable that there matter. But in urban contexts it could matter. In is going to a certain amount of common one Karachi neighbourhood, as I discussed in knowledge. my Muharram drumming article in the Yearbook for Traditional Music, a community that That means that you really need to be used supported Muharram drumming was under to the event... pressure to curtail this activity and a number of related rituals such as carrying the taziyah. Their Ideally yes. It’s pretty hard to get used to the processions and drumming during Muharram events themselves, but the picture starts to look were sort of tolerated; but reformers didn’t really more cohesive when you put together general think that’s a proper way to observe . So observations with the points that participants members of this community were under make repeatedly during interviews. pressure not to go outside and perform for me even though it was still the general period of Can you explain for instance how you Muharram (but not the first ten days). They did it worked on precise events? indoors for me. Sometimes playing out of immediate context can be a sensitive issue, but I usually heard that something was coming up it’s not a matter of musicians lacking respect for and I would decide I would go; I didn’t the context of the music exactly. necessarily have time to prepare...

You give the concept of emotion a Yes, for example, you record, you try to fundamental place in your paper on analyse this, you show it to the participants... Muharram drumming and in several other publications. Can you detail a bit more the Yes, that’s what I try to do. I would record relation between emotion and music? interviews. Back in 1996, I would go over the recordings carefully with my Urdu teacher, and Well I got interested in that mainly because of listen for where our discussions were funerals. Many people have been interested in ambiguous; there was often an issue to be why there are celebrations even on occasions of explored at such places in the interview. So in mourning. I was particularly interested in how we general just working through the materials in deal with the combination of different emotions multiple ways is very helpful. Often I found out that are associated with occasions like this – and about interesting places to research from these the fact that musical pieces or styles can be interviews with drummers. I would ask them to associated with some components that have tell me stories of what happened when they were explicit emotional connotations. playing or about the pieces. Then I would want to go and see them in those contexts. In your paper on Madho Lal Hussain, you speak of the ` as a “highly heterogeneous More on Richard K. Wolf event”. Can you explain the notion of heterogeneity in relation to the rituals and Richard K. Wolf has written about classical, the way you try to deal with this? folk and tribal musical traditions in South India as well as on musical traditions I think it’s very hard to talk as if you are dealing associated with Shi'ism and Sufism in North with a single culture when you’re looking at a India and Pakistan. very complex event. So many things are going on at once. But it turns out that there are usually (ed.) Theorizing the Local: Music, Practice, some themes that people hold in common. They and Experience in South Asia and Beyond, might deal with them differently. We can’t just Oxford University Press, New York, 2009. say: “This is so heterogeneous, there is nothing at all in common and we have no grounding The Black Cow's Footprint: Time, Space, whatsoever.” People experience the same kinds and Music in the Lives of the Kotas of South of events over and over and develop certain India, Permanent Black, 2005 and University expectations that are based on that experience. of Illinois Press, 2006.

Mission Interdisciplinaire Française du Sindh – Newsletter 3 – September 2009 3 MI A workshop on FS 27 January 2009, CEIAS-EHESS

As part of activity of the research team “History ceramics. With numismatic and paleographic and Sufism in the Indus Valley” (CEIAS), led by findings, they allowed to draw the historical Michel Boivin, a workshop was held on 27 chronology of the site between the Arab Period, January 2009 at the EHESS in Paris: Plurality of which begins in 93H/711-712, and the Mughal sources and interdisciplinary approach: a case Period (11th cent. H/ 17th C. AD). Besides, the study of Sehwan Sharif in Sindh. chrono-typology of this material and its regional characterization were deciphered. The painted red wares, burnished black and grey wares, J. Blayac – Epigraphy and Architecture in moulded red wares and glazed wares found Sehwan Sharif and Southern Sindh during the excavations were studied, and for the first time, the ceramic productions of Sindh from the early Islamic Period up to modern one can The paper presented the epigraphical material be presented. surveyed in Sehwan Sharif, and showed the main palaeographical and architectural features observed in the region, chiefly in Sehwan and the necropolis of Makli with references from the 14th up to the 18th century. Through Lal Shahbâz's mausoleum's inscriptions for about the same period, it notably threw light on the evolution of the name of the saint and the successive constructions, and noticed that the modern Shia phraseology has been mostly removed from the building after its nationalization. More generally, it finally asked about the extent and impact of the medieval central authorities on the town and the region.

M. Boivin – Lal Shahbâz in local written sources

La’l Shahbâz Qalandar (d. 1274) appears first as R. Dehghan – Sindh and trade between India `Usman Marandi in two authors from the 14th and Baghdad according to Abbasid Period century. Three centuries later, the Tazkira-ye writings mashaykh-e Siwistan gave the basic elements which constitute Lal Shahbâz Qalandar’s During the Abbasid period international trade “legend”. But while he is described as a pious covering vast areas from China to Spain Sufi, others sources depicted him as an developed. One of the centers of this vast antinomian Sufi who did not strictly follow the network of trade exchange was Baghdad. From . This paradoxical representation will be there a wide variety of commodities were discarded in the first biography published in shipped, particularly from Sindh. From the 1904. Here, La’l Shahbâz is an “orthodox” Sufi chroniclers’ testimony, we are able to retrace who is found of music and dance, and who is various commodities and products that came worshiped by and alike. After from Sindh or those that were in transit. The the mausoleum was nationalized in the 1960s, commodities were scent for medical use: musk, this publication will be the basis for many others agallocha wood, camphor, sandalwood, costus, published by Awqaf Department. rattan, and bamboo stalks used as construction materials particularly for scaffoldings. These A. Collinet – Ceramics in Sehwan Sharif from sources were very valuable and offer 2nd/7th century to 12th/17th century complementary testimonies to archaeological discoveries in order to develop a portrait of this From 1996 to 2002, the archaeological region and exchanges that made its prosperity excavations made by the MAFS in the Purana and its importance throughout the centuries, Qil’a, situated at the north of the most remote especially during the Abbasid era. part of Sehwan, gave light to a huge quantity of

Mission Interdisciplinaire Française du Sindh – Newsletter 3 – September 2009 4 MI A workshop on Sehwan Sharif FS 27 January 2009, CEIAS-EHESS

R. Delage – Sehwan Sharif and Sindh F. Pagani – Studying the : an represented cartographically anthropological approach

The aim of this paper is to situate the small Our research on was initiated locality of Sehwan Sharif within its regional through a study of their philanthropic practices environment and to describe its transformations and conceptions based on an ethnographic since the 18th century. The materials used for fieldwork in a charitable trust in the outskirts of this description includes numerous travel . We showed how their philanthropy, as accounts dating from the pre-colonial and merchants, they are generous (and expected to colonial period, i.e. expedition reports dating be), has to be understood through their from the period preceding the annexation of dispersal and transnationalism. This research Sindh by the British. The regional maps drawn fits into recent studies focusing on the by these travellers and colonial agents, as well construction of their religious identity. We are as water-colour paintings and sketches of the particularly interested by trends with complex site help to illustrate this aspect of urban history. interrelations in the construction of the Sindhi In conclusion, we offer an hypothesis about the identity such as the perpetuation and the rapid changes taking place in Sehwan due to the recomposition of their religious eclecticism, an booming pilgrimage activity. affirmation of the Sindhi identity (sindhiyat), a hardening of their Hindu identity and a strong M. Kervran – The archaeology of Sindh and involvement in neo-Hindu religious movements. the Indus valley: the work of the MAFS PARTICIPANTS Between 1989 and 2002, the aim of the French Archaeological Mission in Sindh (MAFS) was to Johanna Blayac discover the ports of export for red ceramics Historian, PhD, University of Sorbonne, Paris heading for Arab countries. During the first phase of this project (1989-1995), we Michel Boivin concentrated on six ancient ports and few other Historian, CEIAS-CNRS-EHESS, Paris localities in the Southern valley of the . In this paper, I provide a broad outline of Véronique Bouiller this scientific expedition, through the description Anthropologist, CEIAS-CNRS-EHESS, Paris of the geography of places visited, and eventually excavated, as well as of the difficult Anabelle Collinet fieldworking conditions in the Indus delta due to Historian, PhD, Musée du Louvre, Paris rapid turning of the tide and other local constraints. Reza Dehghan Historian, PhD, University of Aix-Marseille C. Markovits – Colonial sources on the Rémy Delage Geographer, CEIAS-CNRS-EHESS, Paris This presentation gave an overall idea of the official sources available on the history of Christophe Z. Guilmoto colonial Sindh (1843-1947). It focused firstly on Demographer, IRD-CEPED, Paris the archival sources, i.e. the India Office Records, found in the African and Asian Monique Kervran collections of the British Library, and secondly on Archaeologist, CNRS, Paris printed material, such as Gazetteers, in particular Aitken's 1907 volume. The conclusion Claude Markovits was that, while these sources were fairly rich, Historian, CEIAS-CNRS-EHESS, Paris they had to be complemented with other non- official written and oral sources to produce a Frédérique Pagani balanced picture of the history of colonial Sindh. Anthropologist, Post-doc, Paris 10-Nanterre

Mission Interdisciplinaire Française du Sindh – Newsletter 3 – September 2009 5 MI A paper by Pnina Werbner FS Transnationalism and Regional Cults

Pnina Werbner is Professor of social anthropology at Keele Conferences in Paris University (UK). Her fields of interest include urbanism, ritual and religion, cultural politics, migration, diaspora, and ethnicity. She was 3 March 2009, CEIAS-EHESS invited by IISMM-EHESS in March 2009 during which she delivered four papers and co-animated a workshop. During her stay in Paris, Regional Cults in Islam: she also wrote a seminal paper on Transnationalism and Regional Religious, Ethnic and Cults: The Dialectics of Sufism in the Plurivocal Muslim World, Organisational Inclusiveness which will be put online in the forthcoming MIFS website. You can have here a brief outline of this paper: 11 March 2009, CERI

Introduction: the Problem of Comparison in Sufi Orders The Muslim Diasporic Sphere Revisited at a Time of Global I have been thinking for some time about the possibility of Terror comparing Sufi orders, conceived of as focused, central place organizations, as they exist in different parts of the Muslim world. 20 March 2009, INALCO The challenge is, as I see it, how to formulate a set of analytical concepts to create a theoretical approach that encompasses Sufi Islamic utopian Discourse and ritual and religious movement, and which can be applied to Sufi Indo-Pak Asian Diaspora after practice in geographically distant geographical locations, from September 11, 2001 North Africa in the West to Pakistan and Indonesia in the East. I 27 March 2009, IISMM stress practice as against or poetry, since my aim is to understand the sociological and economic dimensions of Sufi Sufi orders, Sufi orders. transnationalism and the Problem of Comparison: from Of course, it cannot be taken for granted in advance that Morocco and Pakistan to comparison is a valid project. Superficially, even in a single locality, Indonesia there is an enormously wide range of types and styles of Sufi shrines and saints, from major shrines of great antiquity, managed 27 March 2009, CEIAS-IISMM by descendants of the original saintly founder and guardians of his tomb, to minor saints with a highly localised clientele (see Troll A workshop on “Pilgrimages 1989; Werbner and Basu 1998). The question is: if even in a single and Regional Cults in South locality, shrines differ markedly, how much more so if we try to Asia” was co-organized by compare, for example, Sufi orders in Pakistan and Indonesia? In Pnina Werber, Michel Boivin and the following discussion, I highlight key analytical terms that I Rémy Delage believe are crucial for a comparative account of Sufi orders.

One problem in the project of comparison I am proposing has to do with language. In parts of the Muslim world there appears to be a reluctance to use the analytic armoury of concepts developed elsewhere. Hence, Indonesian scholars, for example, prefer to use vernacular concepts to describe the ritual and organisational practices of Sufi orders, and this then leads a description of these cults that seems to imply that they are quite different from Sufi orders and cult practices in Pakistan, for example, or Morocco. One challenge, then, in the project of comparison is to begin to disentangle the meanings of vernacular terms in order to be able to explore if comparison is, firstly, possible and second, where difference lies. I began this project when I undertook a reanalysis of research on Sufi orders in Indonesia, which seemed to expose many unacknowledged areas of possible comparison between Indonesia, Pakistani and North African Sufi orders and the cults they generate (Werbner 2008). While it had been recognised in Indonesian studies that the ideas of Sufi theosophy were shared with the rest of the Muslim world, rituals practices seemed quite different. My reanalysis highlighted aspects of the cults that were described but left untheorised by south-east Asian scholars.

Key Terms

Broadly speaking, charting the differences and similarities between Sufi orders as embodied traditions requires attention beyond mystical-philosophical and ethical ideas, to the ritual performances and religious organisational patterns that shape Sufi orders and cults in widely separated locations. We need, in other words, to seek to understand comparatively four interrelated symbolic complexes: first, the sacred division of labour – the ritual roles that perpetuate and reproduce the cult; second, the sacred exchanges between

Mission Interdisciplinaire Française du Sindh – Newsletter 3 – September 2009 6 MI A paper by Pnina Werbner FS Transnationalism and Regional Cults

places and persons, often across great ‘marriage’ of a deceased saint with God. Some distances; third, the sacred region, its catchment pilgrims arrived for the festival as individuals, but area and the sanctified central places that shape most came in convoys of trucks and buses from it; and fourth, the sacred indexical events - the established branches, travelling in some cases rituals – that co-ordinate and revitalise for over 24 hours. The sacred exchange at the organisational and symbolic unities and enable cult centre was extensive: the groups arrived managerial and logistical planning and decision- bearing with them sacrificial offerings of grain, making. Comparison requires that we examine butter and animals. They returned bearing gifts the way in which these four dimensions of ritual from the saint – gowns or caps, and in some sanctification and performance are linked, and instances, the sacred soil of the lodge itself. are embedded in a particular symbolic logic and During their three-day stay at the ‘urs, all the local environment. participants were fed and nurtured by the saint himself. The hundreds of beasts sacrificed, the I begin with an example from my own research. hundreds of thousands of baked chappatis and The Sufi cult I studied in Pakistan (P. Werbner nans, the enormous cauldrons of sweet and 2003), was in many senses remarkably similar pilau rice distributed during the ‘urs, feed some organisationally to other, non-Muslim regional 30,000 people over three days, a major logistical cults and pilgrimage systems elsewhere (for challenge. But the saint also feeds pilgrims to examples, see R. Werbner 1977). It also fitted the lodge throughout the year, in what may be the model of Sufi order cults analysed by conceived of as a form of perpetual sacrifice. Trimingham (1971), which was mainly based on The lodge itself has been built with voluntary his extensive knowledge of Sufi orders in the labour in the name of God, usually in the weeks Middle East and Africa. preceding the annual ‘urs. The crowds depart following the final du‘a, the supplicatory prayer During his lifetime, Zindapir, founder of the Sufi enunciated by the saint himself on behalf of the order of the saint I studied, established a lodge whole community. that extended globally: to Britain and Europe, the ... Middle East and even South Africa. Emerging as a saint during the 1940s, in the dying days of Empire, Zindapir began his career as an army tailor contractor for the seventh Baluch regiment, More on Pnina Werbner and his cult membership expanded through the recruitment of state employees, in this case Anthropology and the New Cosmopolitanism. soldiers and army personnel. These in turn Rooted, Feminist and Vernacular Perspectives, recruited members of their families and, when Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2008. they retired to civilian life, their co-villagers or townsmen. The cult expanded further as these Pilgrims of Love: the Anthropology of a Global soldiers went to work as labour migrants in the Sufi Cult. London: Hurst Publishers and Gulf or Britain. Disciples were also recruited Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003. from among the stream of supplicants coming to the lodge to seek blessings and remedies for Imagined Diasporas among Manchester their afflictions from the saint, and from among Muslims. The Public Performance of Pakistani casual visitors curious to see the saint and lodge Transnational Identity Politics, Oxford: James itself, a place renown for its beauty. Some Currey/Santa Fe, School of American Research disciples joined the cult after meeting Zindapir or Press, 2002. his vicegerents on the annual Hajj to Mecca. Such recruitment chains form network clusters Werbner, Pnina and Helene Basu, eds, whose members share either occupational or Embodying Charisma: Modernity, Locality and geographical proximity (or both). the Performance of Emotion in Sufi Cults, London: Routledge, 1998. Zindapir’s disciples met regularly to perform zikr at the lodge branches of the order, located The Migration Process: Capital, Gifts and throughout Pakistan. They gathered at the Offerings among , Oxford: central lodge of Zindapir weekly, monthly, and in Berg Publishers, 1990. most cases, annually, at the ‘urs, the three-day ritual festival commemorating the mystical

Mission Interdisciplinaire Française du Sindh – Newsletter 3 – September 2009 7 MI Three panjrâs of Udero Lâl Translated from Sindhî to English by FS Dr. Charu J. Gidwani

Uderolal and the panjrâs About the translator

Uderolâl, also known as , is God to some Charu P. Gidwani holds a PhD from Sindhi-Hindu believers. Legend has it that University, May 2004, Depiction of Childhood in Uderolâl was born as saviour of the people of the Works of . She is the in Sindh. The people here felt helpless daughter of a Sindhi linguist and lexicographer, when faced with the atrocities of the Muslim ruler Dr Parso J. Gidwani. She has inherited her love Mirkshah who forced them to follow Islam. They for Sindh and Sindhi from him. She teaches offered prayers at the banks of river Sindhu English Literature at RKT College, affiliated to (Indus). Uderolâl was an answer to their prayers. the University. For the Sindhi-Hindus in India, He has become an important mark of identity; especially because 1. O my Jhulelal Sain they were forced to leave Sindh due to the . Sindh is now in Pakistan. Mounted on a blue* horse, my Lal Sain Riding a pallo* fish, my Lal Sain Jhulelal offers a distinct mark of identity to the community in India. Makes every Sindhi prosper, my Lal Sain Makes us carry offerings* every year, my Lal Sain The panjrâs of Jhulelal are prayers sung to the glory of Jhulelal. It is the panjrâs that add to the Makes us keep bairanas*, fulfils all our wishes, my liveliness of the bairanas, a festive occasion to Lal Sain offer prayers and thanksgiving to Jhulelal. The He is the true glory of Sindhunagar*, my Lal Sain crowd gathered for the occasion, colourfully dressed, sing loudly the panjrâs to the beat of Ferries* everyone across, my Lal Sain Fulfils hopes of devotees, my Lal Sain musical instruments. Of these the dhol, a kind of drum, is the most important. Another important At your feet, all bow their heads, instrument is the earthen pot, which is turned My Lal Sain, O my Lal Sain upside down and tapped rhythmically. Devotees accompany the music with their claps. As the force of the music and singing catches on Source: Anonymous panjra, Jhulelal Ji Mahima, second devotees also start dancing. edition, April 2008, edited by Kavi Bharat (Bhagat) Bhatya, p. 14.

Glossary

blue: blue colour is the colour of gods, it represents divinity in the Hindu religion.

pallo: a kind of a fish that belongs to the clupa ilisha genre. Legend has it that Jhulelal, referred here as ‘Lal Sain’, had this fish for his vehicle. A special feature of this fish is that it swims against the current.

t

e l offerings: offerings to Jhulelal are made in pots, these are

ok then immersed in a river or flowing water, after the bairana is

bo

over.

a

on bairana: it is an occasion to worship, offer prays, offer

l thanks to Jhulelal. One of the most important times of La bairana is conducted is on , the time, in March, marking the birth of Jhulelal. This is also the Sindhi .

Udero

of Sindhunagar: This is the proposed name for , a

on place of British horse-stables converted to a camp for Sindhi

ti

a refugees. Literally, ‘Sindhunagar’ means ‘settlement of Sindhis’.

sent

pre ferries everyone across: in very often life is

e

r

compared to an ocean. Faith in God, and God alone, can A carry a human being safely across this ocean of life. To put it simply, faith in God makes life smooth.

Mission Interdisciplinaire Française du Sindh – Newsletter 3 – September 2009 8 MI Three panjrâs of Udero Lal Translated from Sindhî to English by FS Dr. Charu J. Gidwani

2. O Lal keep my honour safe Jhulelan Peer: a peer is believed to be close to the Almighty. Peers are known to have shown miracles to save their followers This anonymous panjrâ is a favourite of Sufi from trouble. There have been many peers in Sindh. It is not unusual to hear of Sindhi Hindu families in India also singers in and around Sindh. Famous Sufi knowing and believing a peer. Even today festivities are held singers in Sindh, Punjab and even Bangladesh related to one peer or the other which are attended in huge have sung it. numbers by both Hindus and Muslims. Singing of folk devotional songs throughout the night are a special feature Lal keep my honour safe* Jhulelalan*, of these fairs. These fairs are held in Sindh (Pakistan) and also in Kutch (India) even today. O thou of Sindhdi*, of Sewan*, of Sakhar*, Hail Mast Qalandar*, we’ve Dulhe* in our hearts 3. Panjrâ by Ram Panjwani Four lamps always burn at your shrine, The fifth one I have come to light O Jhulelalan, Ram Panjwani was a Sindhi writer (1911-1987). O thou of Sindhdi, of Sewan, of Sakhar… He has written many plays, novels, essays mainly on social issues. His most important You bless mothers with children, contribution to the Sindhi community lies in the You safeguard fortunes of young girls*, fact that he reintroduced Uderolâl to Sindhi- O thou of Sindhdi, of Sewan, of Sakhar… Hindus in India, especially in Ulhasnagar, after the Partition. All who have lit the flame of Dulhe, You fill their coffers Jhulelalan, O thou of Sindhdi, of Sewan, of Sakhar… Jhule Jhule Jhule Jhulelal O Peer* of Peers come to the centre of the ocean, Lal Sain Uderolal In the name of the Lord ferry my boat across We, humble, full of vices, Jhulelalan, O thou of Sindhdi, of Sewan, of Sakhar… Dulaah*, at your door sell ourselves*

Sources: Jai Jhulelal Beda I Paar (Collection of stories, Our state is not hidden from you songs, prayers of Jhulelal), Ahemadabad; Ke Saahitun Please keep us well Sajanan Saan: Sain Dr Rochaldas Sahibun Ji Satsangi Rihaan (Some Conversations with Dr Rochaldas), by Shri Satguru* Sain* you fulfil our hopes H.M. Damodar, 1991. Babal* Sain you ferry us across the ocean of life

Glossary I am naked*, O pall-giver* Saviour of the helpless ‘Keep my honour safe’: is reference to the fact that the devotee has surrendered to God. Here the devotee pleads Jhule Jhule Jhule Jhulelal Sain with God to keep his name, respect, dignity in society intact. That is all what the devotee seeks of God in humility. Source: Bharatiya Sindhu Sabha, Mumbai, Volume VI, Oct- Jhulelalan: the ‘an’ ending is the suffix used to show Nov 2000, “Sindhi of the Millenium: Bhagat Kanwar Ram”, endearment. Editor and Publisher: Mohan Motwani, 5, Sai Parsad, Shivaji Park, Mumbai 400028. Sindhdi: the ‘di’ suffix is one showing endearment. Literally, Sindhdi, means Sindh. Sewan, Sakhar: places in Sindh. Glossary

Mast Qalandar: refers to Qalandar Lal Shahbaaz, a peer. Dulaah: a term for Jhulelal. History gives different versions of him. According to Dr Rochaldas, a well-known saint from Sindh, Shahbaaz sell-ourselves: the idea here is that the devotee is worth Qalandar even met Jhulelal. Shahbaaz Qalandar, fond of nothing at the doorstep of God. excursions, breathed his last at Sehwan, where a shrine is built in his name. Because his name as well as Jhulelal’s Satguru: ‘guru’ refers to teacher. ‘Sat’ refers to truth or the name has ‘Lal’, today, many consider both names referring ultimate reality. Satguru here refers to Jhulelal. to one person. This song is a fine example of how the Sindhi mind is not rigidly fanatic about one religion. Here Jhulelal -a Babal: endearing form of Baba. Baba is a term of reverence Hindu God- is seen as one with Mast Qalandar -a Muslim used to address any old man. Grandchildren usually Peer. address their grandfather as Baba.

Dulhe: another name of Jhulelal. Sain: term of address showing respect.

You safeguard fortunes of young girls: this is a subtle way of ‘I am naked’: this line suggests complete surrender of the praying to Jhulelal that he bless young girls with good devotee to God. The devotee has nothing to hide from God. husbands. A girl’s getting married to a worthy boy was seen as all that was needed for her well-being. This concept of a Pall-giver: God as giving the protective cover of the pall, girl’s good life has not changed much even today. covering the devotee’s nakedness to protect his honour.

Mission Interdisciplinaire Française du Sindh – Newsletter 3 – September 2009 9 MI Special book review FS The figure of Qalandar in Islam

Christiane Tortel, L’ascète et le bouffon. Qalandars, vrais et faux renonçants en islam ou l’Orient indianisé, Arles, Actes Sud, 2009.

The publication of an academic book on the qalandars is a true event. Despite the existence of a book by Ahmed Karamustafa (1994), another one by Katherine Ewing (1977) and masterful papers by Simon Digby (1984), the article of the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Islam gives evidence of the scarcity of academic works on the topic. Christiane Tortel is a freelance specialist of Persian literature who is a recognized translator of referent treatises of Sufism (1998). Christiane Tortel, an expert in the collection of rare manuscripts, is also well acquainted with fieldwork since she has visited numerous shrines and temples in different parts of Asia.

This 439 pages book is a very ambitious work, in a previous version, a Ph. D. defended at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Études in Sorbonne University. After an introduction, the first part is devoted to “, transgression and quackery. The pariah and the jester” (pp. 25-228). The second part is devoted to “Unpublished texts: presentation and translation” (pp. 229-305). Beyond the notes, bibliography and index, one will appreciate wonderful pictures discovered in various libraries of References Europe and Asia. Paroles d’un soufi. Abû’l- The main thesis proposed by the author is that the role played by India Hasan Kharaqânî 352- in Islamic and Christian worlds has been under evaluated. The main 425/960-1033, présentation, basis of this misunderstanding is that since Antiquity, the historians traduction du persan et always classified the Indians among the Africans since they were seen notes par Christiane Tortel, as Blacks. The author uses the figure of the qalandar to track the way Paris, Editions du Seuil, by which Indian characteristics have penetrated Islam and . 1998. The problem is that this policy implies the use of innumerable references written in innumerable languages over many centuries. The A. T. Karamustafa, God's consequence is the details makes one lose the thread of the Unruly Friends: demonstration implemented by the author. The argument would have Groups in the Islamic Later been more convincing if it had been more tightly focused on the figure Middle Period, 1200-1550, of the qalandar, and possibly the main transmitters of this figure, the Salt Lake City, University gypsies. of Utah Press, 1994.

The second part provides very useful data. The author also gives S. Digby, “Qalandars and useful summaries of the relations between the and related groups: elements “institutionalized” tarîqas like the Sohrawardiyyas or the Chishtiyyas, of social deviance in the especially in South Asia. Last but not least, Christiane Tortel provides religious life of the Delhi us the French translation of unpublished manuscripts. They include Sultanate”, in Y. Friedman, treatises of the Faqr-nâma genre, like Risâla-yi tawba attributed to Islam in Asia, Jerusalem, Abû’l-Hasan Kharaqânî (d. 1033), or the Risâla-yi qalandarî, translated The Magnes Press, 1984, into French from an anonymous Persian manuscript she has found in pp. 60-108. Tashkent. Another remarkable piece is a rare example of scholarly literature of the qalandarî type, the Qalandar-nâme composed by Abû K. P. Ewing, Arguing Bakr Qalandar Rûmî (d. 1321) from Crimea. Although the conclusion Sainthood. Modernity, of this huge work is contained in a single page, where the author re- Psychoanalysis, and Islam, states that Qalandariyya is a late extension of Indian renunciation, this Durham and London, Duke book ultimately provides a useful basis for further study of the topic of University Press, 1977. qalandar, as the author states herself (p. 188).

Michel Boivin

Mission Interdisciplinaire Française du Sindh – Newsletter 3 – September 2009 10 MI What is new? FS Recent publications

Pratapaditya Pal (ed.), 2008, Sindh. Past Glory, Present Nostalgia, Mumbai, Marg Publications, vol. 60, n° 1, 180 p.

This collective book aims at making the public aware of the long and rich cultural heritage of Sindh, at the crossroads of Iranian, Central Asiatic and Indian Rajasthani-Gujarati worlds, and open on the Arabian Sea. From the remains of the protohistoric Mohenjodaro to the history of the modern Karachi and its inhabitants; from Budhhist and and architecture, Islamic conquest and the development of Islamic architecture, to contemporary art, traditional crafts, and regional cookery; from history, political and cultural encounters through coinages to British production of representations on the region. It also points out some crucial studies that should be undertaken, for example about Buddhist sculptures, Hindu art and architecture, the medieval port of Banbhore which needs a new survey, etc. In sum, it highlights a composite Sindhi culture and identity, spoiled with the Indo-Pakistan Partition, in 1947. JB

Véronique Bouillier, 2008, Itinérance et vie monastique. Les ascètes en Inde contemporaine, Paris, Editions de la MSH, 310 p.

In this book, Véronique Bouillier gives a description of an Indian Saivaite sect, the Nath Yogis. Through the example of this sect, the social anthropologist examines the main features of Hindu asceticism i.e. the interweaving of a tradition of personal spiritual and ascetic quest and a collective organisation. She suggests that this collective organisation which relies on monastic institutions has enabled Hindu asceticism to endure and innovate. This volume, which draws on detailed ethnographic fieldworks as well as various historical sources to portray a vivid sect, is divided into three parts. The first part is a general presentation of the Nath Yogis, the second and the third parts describe the double configuration of the sect through the collective and personal monasteries. The author builds step by step her argument and her rich and detailed book can be read as an in-depth journey within the Nath world which leads us to Nepal, , and Haryana. FP

Louis-José Lestocart, Entendre l’esthétique dans ses complexités, coll. Ingenium, L’Harmattan, 2008.

This book about aesthetics in its complexities is primarily a philosophical and epistemological work. Constructed thematically around the main concepts of contemporary science (emergence, feedback, self- organization, recursivity, or more generally dynamic/nonlinear systems), it opens with a questionning about perception and the immediate data of consciousness, and offers a pragmatic examination of the connections and mutual influences among scientists and artists, which underline the complex and incessant weaving of knowledge and meaning. This Unitas Multiplex according to Valery's expression, the unity in the multiplicity ("I have a unitary mind in a thousand pieces"), which is understood at a multi-scale level in nonlinear science and each of its branches, and in art as a mirror of individual and social human being, comes de facto within and brings an important contribution to the development of new concepts and interdisciplinary and epistemological research in social sciences. JB

Mission Interdisciplinaire Française du Sindh – Newsletter 3 – September 2009 11 MI What is new? FS PhD dissertations

The Islamic monuments of the walled city of , India (15-18th Author century): an archeological study. Sara Keller (University of Paris IV Sorbonne, Unlike many medieval and modern royal urban foundations in the Indian France; and Otto- subcontinent, the city of Ahmedabad survived till now as the politic and Friedrich Universität economic heart of . Today, the historical Islamic monuments are the sole Bamberg, Germany) witnesses of the splendor of a city which used to controlled the trade ways linking Delhi and central India with the arabic countries and the eastern African Discipline coast. Building Archaeology Our archeological study not only identified the vast corpus of Islamic monuments still existing of the walled city of Ahmedabad, it also permitted a Supervisors detailed analysis of the sites and buildings, bringing informations concerning the Lorenz Korn, Marianne evolution of architectural forms and technics over more than four centuries. Barrucand and Jean- Those researches brought new lights on the urban history of Ahmedabad and Pierre Van Staëvel the history of Gujarat, as well as on the importance of the “Gujarati style” within the Indian architecture and the architecture of the islamic world. Date 16 October 2009 The study finally could show the survival, in Gujarat, of feudal systems deeply Jury rooted in the local culture till the end of the 16th century, and the transition to a - Marc Gaborieau modern type of administration spread in India by the . - Yves Porter Keywords: India, architecture, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, Islam, mosque, - Elizabeth Lambourn mausoleum, madrasa, Sultanate, Mughal, minaret, sufi, art, jain, brahmanical, - Lorenz Korn indic, urban structures, city, monuments, water, tank, measurement, proportion, - Jean-Pierre Van vastu, ornementation, arche, technique, pietra dura. Staëvel

Laurence Gautier, The evolution of the role and Manan Ahmed, The Many Histories of status of the Imam within the Imami Ismaili Muhammad b. Qasim: Narrating the Muslim community in South Asia (1947-1993), M.A. conquest of Sindh, Ph.D., The University of thesis, ENS/EHESS (Paris), June 2009. Chicago, December 2008.

This dissertation examines the evolution of the This study focuses on the history and concept of Imama after 1947, in a context of representation of Muhammad b. Qasim, the communal tensions and rising Islamic commander of the Muslim forces, which fundamentalism in South Asia. It puts the emphasis conquered the region of Sindh (present day on the efforts of Sultan Muhammad Shah and of Pakistan) in the eighth century. The history of his successor Shah Karim, imams of the Imami Muhammad b. Qasim emerged as a central Ismailis, to defend their community - a religious origin myth for the postcolonial state of Pakistan. minority in both India and Pakistan, and to preserve It formed a piece of the nationalist struggle their own authority - the target of many against the British, and remains a contested controversies. To achieve both objectives, they historical symbol. To understand the many social developed privileged relationships with the and political functions of the history of authorities in the two new independent states, Muhammad b. Qasim, the study begins with the especially in Pakistan. Above all, they reinterpreted earliest extant accounts of the conquest and their role and status as imams by using the attempt to delineate “what happened” from “what elements of the Ismaili tradition, which would is said to have happened.” It argues for the re- strengthen the Muslim identity of their community casting of these histories outside of and legitimize their own authority. The temporal nationalist/postcolonial paradigms, in order to dimension of the Imama became essential. Shah situate them as regional histories, produced Karim later created a large network of NGOs, within the “frontier of Sindh” - a liminal further shifting the focus of attention from religious perspective mediating between the global and controversies to development issues. Being the the local. This perspective allows examining the “Imam of the Time”, Shah Karim not only adapted production of such histories, and the afterlives of the understanding of faith to the changing times, he the texts, in political and cultural memory, within also gave a new definition of his role as imam. The their historiographical, literary and political Imama, considered as a fundamental of faith, contexts across the longue durée. therefore appeared as a concept in constant evolution.

Mission Interdisciplinaire Française du Sindh – Newsletter 3 – September 2009 12 MI Agenda FS Conferences, workshops and exhibitions

15 September-15 October 2009 17 November 2009 Aix-en-Provence, France Paris, France Photo exhibition Workshop Soufisme et politique au Pakistan Rapports de domination et inégalités dans le Organized by Alix Philippon and the MMSH sous-continent indien http://www.mmsh.univ-aix.fr/ Organized by the AJEI and hosted by the CHAC (Sorbonne) 22-23 September 2009 [email protected] Tokyo, Japan Conference 20-21 November 2009 The role and position of Sayyid/Sharifs in Houston, USA Muslim societies Conference Organized by the Institute of Oriental Culture Hindu Trans-Nationalism: Organizations, http://www.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/eng/front.shtml Ideologies, Networks Organized by Rice University 30 September-2 October 2009 [email protected] Brussels, Belgium Conference 25-27 November 2009 Sunni-Shia Contemporary Relations , India Organized by Université catholique de Conference Louvain Region Formation in Contemporary South Asia [email protected] Organized by University of Delhi [email protected] 30 September-3 October 2009 Frankfurt, Germany 26-27 November 2009 Workshop Leiden, the Netherlands Local Modernities? Articulating transnational Workshop ideas in South Asia Young Scholars Workshop on Changing German Anthropological Association Governance in Asia [email protected] Organized by the IIAS Centre for Regulation [email protected] and Governance Contact: Martina van den Haak 6-8 October 2009 [email protected] Semarang, Indonesia Conference 3-4 December 2009 Islam, Democracy and Good Governance in Aix-en-Provence, France Indonesia Conference Joint conference organized by: Les féminismes islamiques: de leurs -Leiden University, the Netherlands frontières au politique -IAIN Walisongo Semarang, Indonesia Organized by IREMAM -Ministry of Religious Affairs, Indonesia Contact: Stéphanie Latte Abdallah [email protected] [email protected]

22-25 October 2009 9-10 April 2010 Madison, USA London, UK Conference Conference The 38th Annual Conference on South Asia Cosmopolitan Connections: Encountering Sponsored by the Center for South Asia at Gujaratis in Multiple Contexts the University of Wisconsin-Madison Organized by GSA and SOAS http://southasiaconference.wisc.edu/ [email protected]

Mission Interdisciplinaire Française du Sindh – Newsletter 3 – September 2009 13 MI About us FS

Editors of the Newsletter

Michel Boivin ([email protected]) and Rémy Delage ([email protected])

Contributors

Johanna Blayac, Michel Boivin, Rémy Delage, Charu P. Gidwani, Frédérique Pagani, Pnina Werbner, Richard K. Wolf

Compilation and layout

Rémy Delage

Translation

Michel Boivin and Rémy Delage (with the help of the H team)

Photos

© MIFS

Centre d'Etudes de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud (CEIAS), Paris http://ceias.ehess.fr/

Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (FMSH), Paris http://www.msh-paris.fr/

Fondation Max Van Berchem, Geneva http://www.maxvanberchem.org/

Mission Interdisciplinaire Française du Sindh – Newsletter 3 – September 2009 14