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| Srl | Item |
| 1 |
ID:
146080
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| Summary/Abstract |
In this article, I examine the seeming paradox of Hindu–Muslim romantic affairs in the wider context of communalism in Gujarat in the wake of the 2002 anti-Muslim violence. At the outset, such affairs appear to embody the most extreme form of taboo, both in their defiance of conventional arranged marriage systems (where caste endogamy and shared religious affiliation play a paramount role) as well as in the wider socio-political context in which Hindus and Muslims are viewed as irreconcilable enemies, or at least oppositional in lifestyle, beliefs, and values. Yet, while media reports in recent years have highlighted similar cases of transgressive liaisons elsewhere in India which have been met with extreme violence, the couplings which I describe in this article, are in practice tolerated by kin and neighbours as an ‘open secret’ which, while public knowledge, has not incurred strong retribution. While love has often been presented as a force for emancipation from the constraints of social conventions and norms in the popular media, I argue that this ‘toleration’ of inter-religious liaisons in the cases I describe suggests the very opposite: namely, that they do not present a significant challenge to entrenched social divisions at the local level.
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| 2 |
ID:
109009
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The role of religion in contemporary Gujarat remains both contradictory and highly contested: the rise of politicised Hinduism and Islamism, which has gained strength in recent decades, remains at odds with the many forms of everyday religious practice which blur the boundaries of more reified religious doctrine. This article examines the practices around Sufi shrines in a commuter town in Central Gujarat and, in particular, the lives of three pirs (saints) who maintain a significant following among different religious communities. Through an analysis of the precarious position of Sufi shrines in contemporary Gujarat, I will suggest that Islam has, much akin to Hinduism, become a site of contestation in which the politics of identity formation do not necessarily sit easily with everyday beliefs and practices that continue to be widely practised. As such, the article seeks to problematise widespread assumptions which often conflate religion as a personal experience with its role as a marker of social and political identity.
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