Jhulelal, Saeens and the Making of Religious

WHAT’S UP IN THE SINDHI DEVOTIONAL ? CALL FOR PAPERS JHULELAL, SAEENS AND THE MAKING OF RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS (provisional title) ‘What’s up in the Sindhi devotional?’ is an academic international conference organised by the CNRS. Part of the Udero Lal Research Project (URLP), the conference is the first in its series to broaden the field of Sindhi studies through the lens of the devotional. It intends to examine the interplay between the issue of authority and the transmission of devotional traditions in the context of the Sindhi religious. This conference will be the closing event of the first ever Jhulelal exhibition that will be organised in collaboration with the Sindhi Film Festival. The Jhulelal exhibition will have live cultural performances along with screenings of Sindhi films from both sides of the border. It will start from the concept of saeen [sā`īn], a well known Sindhi word which is translated in Permanand Mewaram’s Dictionary (1910) as follows: « a lord, master, sir, owner ». In Shah Abul Latif’s world, usually represented as the matrix of Sindhi devotional, the Saeen is the Master, what means God itself, and nowadays, Saeen is used to designate the masters of different religious traditions belonging to Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism. Also, interestingly, the word Saeen is used for both men and women in Sindhi context. The different forms of devotional expressions will be explored with the aim of deciphering how religious traditions are permanently constructed for fitting the needs of a given place and time. In this respect, the conference wishes to focus on a sacred figure known as Jhulelal, knowing that in Pakistan and in India, this name refers to a number of sacred figures also known as Udero Lal, Amar Lal, Khwajah Khizr, and even Lal Shahbaz Qalandar. These figures belong or are associated with different religious belongings, including Islam, Hinduism or Sikhism. A main contention is therefore to explore the mechanisms through which a shared religious culture is still at work, without minoring the extreme diversity of the traditions. Although the main hypothesis claims that Jhulelal’s case can be used as a template, the making of saeens could also be examined beyond the Jhulelal’s sphere, as long as the case study belongs to the Sindhicate world. Building upon terms such as Persianite and Islamicate, through the neologism Sindhicate, we wish to include regions where Sindhi language is dominant, as well as other areas where Sindhi is spoken as a non-dominant language, within the purview of this research. Finally, it also includes social and cultural expressions which are non-Sindhi but which have developed into Sindhi-dominant areas. Drawing on Eric Hobsbawm and Terence O. Ranger’s concept of the « invention of tradition », as well as Benedict Anderson’s one of « imagined communities », both published in 1983, the diversity of devotional in Sindhi language will be explored in how they articulate with the concept of authority, the latter being understood as the persons / people or institutions whose discourses and practices are legitimized and thus accepted as normative by the « users » and the « consumers » of the traditions, who can therefore be called followers or disciples. Consequently, the conference will also focus on how a community is built, shaped and delimited in this context. Beyond the diversity of the Sindhi devotional, the conference wishes to highlight how a distinct but varied Sindhi identity, or Sindhiyyat, is expressed through an array of mediums straddling from literature to films, but in implementing a critical perspective which will not undermine the competitions among the groups monopolizing the religious authority, or even developing strategies to conquer the religious legitimacy. Furthermore, the conference would like to emphasize new approaches in the field of Sindhi studies as well as devotional studies, including fresh topics for example: -street-shrines -almost-vanishing performances such as the bhagat or Sung Sufi -other transmitters of specific Sindhi traditions such as the thakurs Organized with the support of the CNRS (http://www.cnrs.fr/), the conference will be held on December 12 and 13 at the Centre for South Asian Studies (CEIAS) (http://ceias.ehess.fr/) at the School of Advanced Studies for Social Sciences (EHESS) (https://www.ehess.fr/en) in Paris. It is open to academics and non academics. Proposals will include an abstract of about 500 words, with a short bio and should be sent at the latest by September 20 to [email protected]. They will be examined by an international scientific committee made of specialists in Sindhi Studies. Since the committee aims at favoring advanced students, two scholars will be fully-funded: a non-French European applicant, and another a non-European applicant, especially from Pakistan or India. No other bursaries will be available: consequently, every participant will have to fund his trip and stay. The decision of the committee will be published on October 5, 2016. After acceptance, the participants will be asked to send their full papers by November 15 at the latest. In case of queries, please contact : Michel Boivin, CEIAS-CNRS [email protected] Bhavna Rajpal, University of Westminster [email protected] .

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