TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘In Any Case We are Sufis’:
T2 - The Creation of Hijra Spiritual Identity in South Asia
AU - Kuehn, Sara
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PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Providing spiritual ‘safe spaces’, the Sufi shrine-world throughout the Indian Subcontinent is generally open to those who do not identify with conventional gender categories. Ajmer Sharif Shrine (dargāh) in the northern Indian town of Ajmer in Rajasthan is renowned for being particularly ‘inclusive’. It accepts all pilgrims without discrimination, including the so-called ‘third gender’, often referred to as hijras or kinnars, terms that transgress the socially-defined binary gender divide. Marginalized, and often socially stigmatized, these groups are naturally drawn towards liminal spaces such as Sufi dargāhs which encourage the transcendence of socio-religious boundaries. This paper explores certain typological aspects of traditional Sufi ritual and belief that make it particularly receptive to hijras, and the way in which hijras in turn appropriate and reconfigure Sufi religious belief to negotiate the tension between the liminality of their lived experience and the exclusive duality of the society around them. As well as utilizing fieldwork undertaken at the 808th ʿurs festival in 2020, the paper also draws upon the experiences of the fictional protagonist Anjum of Arundhati Roy’s second novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, together with those of Mona Ahmed (1937–2017), the inspiration behind Roy’s novel and the most famous hijra of Delhi.
AB - Providing spiritual ‘safe spaces’, the Sufi shrine-world throughout the Indian Subcontinent is generally open to those who do not identify with conventional gender categories. Ajmer Sharif Shrine (dargāh) in the northern Indian town of Ajmer in Rajasthan is renowned for being particularly ‘inclusive’. It accepts all pilgrims without discrimination, including the so-called ‘third gender’, often referred to as hijras or kinnars, terms that transgress the socially-defined binary gender divide. Marginalized, and often socially stigmatized, these groups are naturally drawn towards liminal spaces such as Sufi dargāhs which encourage the transcendence of socio-religious boundaries. This paper explores certain typological aspects of traditional Sufi ritual and belief that make it particularly receptive to hijras, and the way in which hijras in turn appropriate and reconfigure Sufi religious belief to negotiate the tension between the liminality of their lived experience and the exclusive duality of the society around them. As well as utilizing fieldwork undertaken at the 808th ʿurs festival in 2020, the paper also draws upon the experiences of the fictional protagonist Anjum of Arundhati Roy’s second novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, together with those of Mona Ahmed (1937–2017), the inspiration behind Roy’s novel and the most famous hijra of Delhi.
KW - Hijras and gender in India
KW - Transgender Studies
KW - South Asia
KW - Indian Sufism
KW - Kinnars
KW - Ajmer Dargāh Sharif
KW - ʿurs festival
KW - Mona Ahmed
KW - Arundhati Roy
UR - https://www.islamology.in/journal/issue/view/18
U2 - http://dx.doi.org/10.24848/islmlg.11.1.04
DO - http://dx.doi.org/10.24848/islmlg.11.1.04
M3 - Article
VL - 11
SP - 38
EP - 61
JO - Islamology : žurnal issledovanij islama i musul'manskich obščestv
JF - Islamology : žurnal issledovanij islama i musul'manskich obščestv
SN - 2541-884X
IS - 1
ER -