HISTORY AND HERITAGE: THE AFTERLIFE OF MONUMENTS

Emerging from the Partition: Afterlives of Popular Sufi Shrines in Punjab

Illustrated lecture by Dr. Yogesh Snehi, Assistant Professor, School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University, Delhi and author of Spatializing Popular Sufi Shrines in Punjab: Dreams, Memories, Territoriality (co-published by Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla and Routledge, Delhi 2019)

Chair: Prof. Partho Datta, Professor, School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University

A large plethora of sacred spaces associated with Muslim piety or popular veneration in (Indian) Punjab were abandoned during Partition. These sacred spaces consisted of mosques, dargahs, khanqahs, takiyas or pirkhanas. One of the immediate repercussions of this tragedy was a break in ritual practice. While spaces like mosques came to disuse, the same wasn’t true for Sufi saint shrines. This lecture aims to evolve a discussion on complex ways in which Sufi saint shrines emerged from Partition. This presentation will share some narratives of the afterlives of Sufi saint shrines in Punjab.