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

By:

Taneja, Anand Vivek, 1980- [author.]

Material type: Text

TextSeries: South Asia in motionPublisher: Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2018Description: xvi, 313 pages : 24 cmContent type:

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

9781503603936 (pbk.)

Subject(s):

Additional physical formats: Online version:: JinnealogyDDC classification:

297.39095456 TEN 23 014680

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.

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.

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Book	Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bangalore	297.39095456 VIV 014680 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		014680

Online version Taneja, Anand Vivek, 1980- author. Jinnealogy Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2017 9781503603950 (DLC) 2017014062

Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-305) and index.

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.

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.

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