Bibliograph

Jinnealogy, time, Islam, and ecological thought in the medieval ruins of Delhi, Anand Vivek Taneja

Type

Label

Jinnealogy, time, Islam, and ecological thought in the medieval ruins of Delhi, Anand Vivek Taneja

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-305) and index

Illustrations

mapsillustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Jinnealogy

Nature of contents

bibliography

Responsibility statement

Anand Vivek Taneja

Series statement

South Asia in motion

Sub title

time, Islam, and ecological thought in the medieval ruins of Delhi

Summary

In the ruins of a medieval palace in Delhi, a unique phenomenon occurs: Indians of all castes and creeds meet to socialize and ask the spirits for help. The spirits they entreat are Islamic jinns, and they write out requests as if petitioning the state. At a time when a Hindu right wing government in India is committed to normalizing a view of the past that paints Muslims as oppressors, Anand Vivek Taneja's Jinnealogy provides a fresh vision of religion, identity, and sacrality that runs counter to state-sanctioned history. The ruin, Firoz Shah Kotla, is an unusually democratic religious space, characterized by freewheeling theological conversations, DIY rituals, and the sanctification of animals. Taneja observes the visitors, who come mainly from the Muslim and Dalit neighborhoods of Delhi, and uses their conversations and letters to the jinns as an archive of voices so often silenced. He finds that their veneration of the jinns recalls pre-modern religious traditions in which spiritual experience was inextricably tied to ecological surroundings. In this enchanted space, Taneja encounters a form of popular Islam that is not a relic of bygone days, but a vibrant form of resistance to state repression and post-colonial visions of India.--Publisher description

Table Of Contents

Introduction : walking away from the theater of history -- Jinnealogy : archival amnesia and Islamic theology in post-partition Delhi -- Saintly visions : the ethics of elsewhen -- Strange(r)ness -- Desiring women -- Translation -- Stones, snakes, and saints : remembering the vanished sacred geographies of Delhi -- The shifting enchantments of ruins and laws in Delhi -- Conclusion : remnants of despair; traces of hope

resource.variantTitle

Time, Islam, and ecological thought in the medieval ruins of Delhi

Classification

Creator