1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910813468903321

Autore

Bellamy Carla <1971->

Titolo

The powerful ephemeral [[electronic resource] ] : everyday healing in an ambiguously Islamic place / / Carla Bellamy

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, 2011

ISBN

1-280-10762-6

0-520-95045-3

9786613520623

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (308 p.)

Collana

South Asia across the disciplines

Disciplina

297.4/3554

Soggetti

Healing - Religious aspects - Islam

Spiritual healing - India

Islamic shrines - India

Sufism - India

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction. Ambiguity: Hụsain Tẹkrī and Indian dargāh ̣culture -- Place: the making of a pilgrimage and a pilgrimage center -- People: the tale of the four virtuous women -- Absence: lobān, volunteerism, and abundance -- Presence: the work and the workings of hạ̄zịrī -- Personae: transgression, otherness, cosmopolitanism, and kinship -- Conclusion: The powerful ephemeral: dargāh ̣culture in contemporary India.

Sommario/riassunto

The violent partitioning of British India along religious lines and ongoing communalist aggression have compelled Indian citizens to contend with the notion that an exclusive, fixed religious identity is fundamental to selfhood. Even so, Muslim saint shrines known as dargahs attract a religiously diverse range of pilgrims. In this accessible and groundbreaking ethnography, Carla Bellamy traces the long-term healing processes of Muslim and Hindu devotees of a complex of dargahs in northwestern India. Drawing on pilgrims' narratives, ritual and everyday practices, archival documents, and popular publications in Hindi and Urdu, Bellamy considers questions about the nature of religion in general and Indian religion in particular. Grounded in stories



from individual lives and experiences, The Powerful Ephemeral offers not only a humane, highly readable portrait of dargah culture, but also new insight into notions of selfhood and religious difference in contemporary India.