Suchergebnisse

Based on three case-studies of popular Sufi shrines that have been in continuous existence in post-Partition Indian Punjab, this article examines the prevalent discourse of 'secular' historiography in India that privileges the archive and situates the narrative strategy of the popular as marginal or outside of historical discourse. Instead, I argue that a fuller understanding of social processes, outside of prescribed imaginary binaries of secularity and/or conflict, can take place only through attention to lived experience and communitarian formation. It is these registers of religious practice that suggests non-statist histories which demand the evolution of critical theories and methods to account for lived experiences that persist outside of nationalising discourses.

Himachal's interaction with colonialism led to the creation of a complex socio-political milieu. Administrative necessities triggered migrations to this region from other parts of Punjab, and brought local customs like reet in contact with the people from the plains. In the 1920s a con-certed campaign began for the abolition of reet. Reet was regarded lewd and an immoral form of marriage, remarriage and divorce. Motivated by the reformist zeal of emulated social reformers, conjugal relations of the locals became a site for contestation. Reformism sought to counter this custom through shastric invalidation, which led to the development of a situation where native hills states and the British government debated, and some of the former enacted rules to abolish this custom. This article tries to evolve a critical understanding of the origins and nature of the debate on the abolition of reet.

Hindutva, the ideology of militant Hindu nationalism, has precipitated violent hatreds between the Hindus and Muslims of India, as was evidenced in the recent rioting in the State of Gujarat, which was unprecedented in history. The factors which led to the emergence of Hindutva are reviewed and the hollowness of the ideology exposed. It is imperative to critique Hindutva's communalist approach and make concrete efforts to debunk it, it is argued.