Devotion, Religious Authority, and Social Structures in Sindh

Michel Boivin, PhD (1990), University of Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris) and HDR (2005), University of Paris X-Nanterre, is Emeritus Research Director at CNRS. Former director of the Centre for Indian and South Studies (CNRS-EHESS), he is currently member of the Centre for the Study of South Asia and the Himalayas (CESAH). His last books are The Hindu Sufis of South Asia. Partition, Shrine Culture and the Sindhis of India, London, I. B. Tauris, 2019, and The Sufi Paradigm and the Makings of Vernacular Knowledge in Colonial India: The Case of Sindh (1851-1929), New York, Palgrave McMillan, 2021.

• AcknowledgementsList of Maps, Tables and FiguresAbbreviationsTransliterationNoticeMapsIntroduction1 Setting the Scene2 Social Structure and Sindh3 Religious Authority and Devotion4 Three Case Studies1 The Making of the Ismaili Jamat1 The Khojas, Karachi and the Khojisation Process2 The Aga Khan and the Establishing Myths: Jherruk and Amir Pir3 The Eviction of the Sayyids4 The Institutional Pillars5 Creation of a New Elite and Intra-community Rivalries6 Reinforcing the Jamat7 Conclusion2 The Road to Islamization and the Partition of India1 The Standardization of the Satpanth2 The Stages of the Islamization of the Dua3 Other Islamization Processes and the Extinction of Dissent4 The Rites of Passage5 The Liturgical Calendar and the Religious Rituals6 Conclusion3 The Karachi Cosmopolis, The Vanyos, and Jhulelal1 Introduction2 The Making of Modern Hinduism and the Domination of Merchant Castes3 Frere’s Impulse and the “Cosmopolitanizing” Process of Karachi4 The Failure of the Khudawadi Project5 The Issue of the Social Structure of the Lohanas6 The Bhaibands-Amils Divide and Its Consequences7 The Darbar of Uderolal and the Jhulelal Tirathdham in India8 Conclusion4 Lal Shahbaz Qalandar’s Baraka and the Rise of the Ritual City1 The Emergence of the Saint2 Capturing the Baraka in Buildings3 The Baraka as an Ethnographic Object4 Authority and Baraka: Lal Shahbaz Qalandar’s Mazar5 The Extension of Baraka beyond Sehwan: The Maqams6 The System of the Kafis7 The Economy of Devotion: The Bazars8 Conclusion5 Devotion and Competion: The Sehwan System1 The Succession to Lal Shahbaz Qalandar’s Baraka2 The Domination of the Sayyids and the Nationalization of the Mazar3 The Faqirs, the Murids, and the Other Professionals of Charisma4 The Sajjada Nashini Muridi Relationship, the Linchpin of the Exercise of Authority5 The Ziyarat, and the Dhammal6 The Relics7 The Festive Calendar8 The Processions for Gridding the City to Strengthen Allegiances9 ConclusionGeneral ConclusionGlossaryBibliographyIndex