Conférences de Carla Bellamy, Professeure associée à Baruch College, City University of New York – 16-22-23-24/05/2018

Carla Bellamy est professeure associée des religions d’Asie du sud dans le département de sociologie et d’anthropologie de Baruch College, City University of New York. Elle a publié en 2011 The Powerful Ephemeral : Everyday Healing in an Ambiguously Islamic Place (University of California Press). Sa recherche se concentre sur l’intersection dynamique de l’identité religieuse, des conflits religieux, et des conceptions relatives à l’individualité et à la guérison dans l’Inde contemporaine.

Attention, il y a quelques changements au programme !

Conférences

Kingship, citizenship, and Sufi Shrine Culture in Indian Muslim Princely States

This lecture explores the changing relationship between the small princely state of Jaora and a collection of Islamic shrines located on the outskirts of the present-day town of Jaora (population 75,000) known as Husain Tekri (Husain Hill).  Drawing upon colonial and court documents in English and Urdu as well as contemporary interviews and ethnographic research, the talk will focus on three moments in Husain Tekri’s history: its founding in 1886; the development of its shrines from the 1920’s through the 1940’s, highlighting, in particular, connections between Husain Tekri and Bombay’s Shi‘a Khoja community; and the modern life of the shrines as they relate to Jaora’s current nawab (king). Throughout, the unique nature of the shrines as hybrid Sunni-Shi’a spaces unaffiliated with Sufi lineages has facilitated – and continues to facilitate – novel articulations of sovereignty that differ from more well-documented Sufi patronage structures that granted medieval and early modern Muslim rulers of the subcontinent their sovereignty.

Dans le cadre du séminaire « Histoire et anthropologie des sociétés musulmanes dans l’Asie du sud contemporaine (SOMA) », séminaire EHESS coordonné par Michel Boivin (CNRS-CEIAS), Delphine Ortis (INALCO), Fabrizio Speziale (CNRS-Université Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle)

• (Changement) Mercredi 16 mai 2018, 9h30-12h30 – EHESS (Salle 5) – 105 boulevard Raspail 75006 Paris

Stories of Conversion, Sufis and Caste: Chippa religious identity in 19^th and 20^th century Northern India

Through archival materials, genealogical records, and ethnographic observations, this talk will examine ways in which the tension inherent in OBC (“low” caste) Muslim identity has inspired innovative understandings of the nature of Islam and the meaning of being Muslim. For the OBC Muslim Chippa community of the Indian town of Jaora, their status as  “Muslim” (a religious designation) and “backward” (a staple of caste discourse) has been endowed with new meanings associated with socio-economic status and education.  At the same time, the enduring “low” status of various groups (as delineated by caste or religion) maintain resonance and rely upon notions of caste as embodied, or intrinsic.  How have low caste status and the identity of “convert” been reimagined and strategically deployed as markers of respectability? Are there losses resulting from or limits to these new formulations?

Dans le cadre de l’Atelier thématique « Cultures vernaculaires et nouvelles élites musulmanes dans l’Asie du Sud coloniale et postcoloniale » coordonné par Michel Boivin (CNRS-CEIAS) et Julien Levesque (EHESS-CEIAS)

• (Changement) Mardi 22 mai 2018, 16h-17h – EHESS (Salle 4) – 105 boulevard Raspail 75006 Paris

The Changing Nature of Nature in Contemporary Sufi Saint Shrine Culture

This lecture discusses ritual and narrative innovations that have developed in South Asian pilgrimage centers in response to environmental degradation and population growth.  Drawing on archival documents, local histories, popular guidebooks, and ethnographic observation, this talk will focus on the history and current ritual life of Husain Tekri, a popular regional pilgrimage center in Madhya Pradesh, India. By placing Husain Tekri in the larger context of Indian sacred spaces, it will suggest that environmental change has forced pilgrims to reconceptualize supernatural efficacy and the ways in which the natural is imagined in relation to divine.  Are scholarly definitions of “sacrality” still relevant?

Dans le cadre du séminaire  « Politique et autorité dans le soufisme contemporain (PASOC) », séminaire EHESS coordonné par Mariam Abou Zahab (INALCO), Michel Boivin (CNRS- CEIAS), Stéphane A. Dudoignon (CNRS-CETOBaC ), Alix Philippon (Sciences-Po Aix)

•  Mercredi 23 mai 2018, 10h-13h – EHESS / IISMM (Salle de réunion) – 96 boulevard Raspail 75006 Paris

Dargah Culture: The Necessity and Limits of an Idea

In my book The Powerful Ephemeral: Everyday Healing in an Ambiguously Islamic Place, I argued that because Muslim saint shrines in India – commonly known as dargahs – attract devotees from all religious backgrounds, their culture should be viewed as religious culture in its own right, and not as Hindu, Islamic, or a syncretic combination of the two. Taking a Hindu informant as a case study, this talk will draw upon fieldwork and my interviews with her from 2003 through 2018 to revisit my argument about “dargah culture” in the context of an interrelated set of questions: How do non-Muslim devotees of Sufi saint shrines resist obvious and ongoing pressure to identify as Hindu or Muslim?  Has the ubiquitous presence of mobile phones created an original way to preserve a devotee’s unaligned status? What effect has social media had on supporting what were previously liminal relationships?

Dans le cadre du séminaire « Culture matérielle et pratiques dévotionnelles dans les sociétés chiites », séminaire EHESS coordonné par Michel Boivin (CNRS-CEIAS), Annabelle Collinet (Musée du Louvre), Sepideh Parsapajouh (CNRS-Césor)

• Jeudi 24 mai 2018, 10h-13h – EHESS (Salle 123) – 54 boulevard Raspail 75006 Paris