Nicholas H A Evans (LSE) goes on a journey through India’s past with Anand Vivek Taneja’s new book Jinnealogy: Time, Islam, and Ecological Thought in the Medieval Ruins of Dehli to find an analysis that complicates simple narratives about religion and offers anthropologists and ethnographers new reasons and methods to explore the definition of what Islam is in South Asia

Evans, Nicholas H. A.

English

LSE Research Online

Long	Read	Review:	Rethinking	and	Redefining	Islamin	South	AsiaNicholas	H	A	Evans	(LSE)	goes	on	a	journey	through	India’s	past	with	Anand	Vivek	Taneja’s	new	bookJinnealogy:	Time,	Islam,	and	Ecological	Thought	in	the	Medieval	Ruins	of	Dehli	to	find	an	analysis	thatcomplicates	simple	narratives	about	religion	and	offers	anthropologists	and	ethnographers	new	reasons	andmethods	to	explore	the	definition	of	what	Islam	is	in	South	Asia.Jinnealogy:	Time,	Islam,	and	Ecological	Thought	in	the	Medieval	Ruins	of	Dehli.	Anand	Vivek	Taneja.Stanford	University	Press.	2017.What	is	Islam,	and	who	is	a	Muslim?	These	are	questions	that	animate	discussions	in	much	of	the	world,	and	whichconsume	the	intellectual	endeavors	of	vibrant	and	inquiring	minds.	They	are	old	and	unresolved	questions	that	seemunlikely	to	yield	us	definitive	answers	any	time	soon.	They	are	also	questions	which	our	discipline	appears	to	havecollectively	decided	are	not	very	‘anthropological’,	in	spite	of	the	fact	that	we	are	now	producing	anthropologies	ofIslam	at	an	ever	increasing	rate.	Indeed,	although	attempts	to	define	Islam	enjoyed	something	of	an	anthropologicalmoment	from	the	1970s	through	to	the	80s,	we	now	mostly	seem	content	to	leave	these	debates	to	our	interlocutors.As	such,	we	all	seem	to	be	in	agreement	that	there	is	not	much	point	in	trying	to	define	an	object	as	nebulous	asIslam.	Moreover,	we	do	not	feel	the	need	to	do	so,	for	when	pushed	to	give	some	kind	of	account	of	Islam,	we	canalways	fall	back	upon	Talal	Asad’s	famous	idea	that	Islam	is	best	thought	of	as	a	discursive	tradition.	Islam,	we	cantell	ourselves,	is	best	defined	as	an	argument	over	how	to	define	Islam.There	are	some	fairly	solid	reasons	why	anthropologists	might	choose	toremain	silent	on	the	issue	of	whether	something	is	Islamic,	particularly	ina	place	such	as	India,	where	statements	about	what	is	and	what	is	notIslamic	are	rarely	neutral.	In	India	today,	to	say	that	something	is	Islamicis	to	attribute	to	it	an	excusive	identity,	to	state,	in	other	words,	that	it	isnot	Hindu.	In	practice,	this	means	that	no	matter	what	the	identity	of	thespeaker,	if	they	define	something	in	modern	India	as	‘Islamic’,	they	areparticipating	in	an	act	of	exclusion.	This	happens	in	a	very	obvious	andself-explanatory	way	when	members	of	the	present	Hindu-nationalistgovernment	of	India	describe	something	as	Islamic.	In	doing	so,	they	areevidently	highlighting	its	foreignness,	its	un-Indian-ness.	They	are,	inshort,	identifying	it	as	matter	out	of	place.	Reformist	Muslims,	however,are	just	as	likely	to	be	engaged	in	acts	of	exclusion	when	they	makeclaims	about	what	is	and	is	not	Islamic.	Fearful	of	their	position	in	societyand	lacking	the	resources	to	simply	be	Muslim	in	an	unselfconsciousmanner,	pious	revivalists	in	India	approach	the	issue	of	defining	Islam	asa	fraught	process	of	drawing	boundaries,	excluding	others,	and	purifyingthe	faith.	This	is	a	world	that	I	know	all	too	well,	for	my	own	fieldwork	hasbeen	conducted	with	Ahmadiyya	Muslims,	the	quintessential	heretics	ofmodern	South	Asian	Islam,	who	are	both	the	objects	of	such	acts	ofexclusion,	and	in	their	own	way	perpetrators	of	this	desire	to	purify	thefaith.	In	sum,	it	is	hard	to	define	Islam	in	India	today	in	a	way	thatembraces	hospitality	and	openness	to	the	other.	Definitions	of	Islamalways	seem	to	exclude,	to	hark	towards	violence,	and	to	inviteseparation.	Given	this	state	of	affairs,	we	might	argue	that	anthropologists	are	right	to	refrain	from	joining	the	chorusof	voices	clamoring	to	say	what	is	and	is	not	Islamic.	After	all,	why	get	caught	up	in	such	exclusionary	practices	whenwe	can	instead	sit	back	and	analyze	them?South Asia @ LSE: Long Read Review: Rethinking and Redefining Islam in South Asia Page 1 of 5		Date originally posted: 2018-11-30Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2018/11/30/long-read-review-rethinking-and-redefining-islam-in-south-asia/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/For	all	the	passion	that	debates	about	the	boundaries	of	Islam	can	inspire,	one	remarkable	feature	of	life	incontemporary	India	is	nonetheless	just	how	taken-for-granted	the	distinction	between	the	Islamic	and	the	Hindu	is	ata	quotidian	level.	The	long	term	nature	of	the	processes	by	which	these	categories	have	become	mutually	exclusivemeans	that	knowing	the	distinction	between	the	Islamic	and	the	non-Islamic	appears	to	be	as	easy	as	identifying	aperson’s	communal	identity	by	their	name.	Except,	of	course,	when	it	is	not.	Names	can	be	deceptive,	they	can	beshared	between	traditions,	claimed	by	one,	known	within	another.	In	Vikram	Seth’s	sprawling	epic	of	post-partitionIndia,	A	Suitable	Boy,	the	protagonist	Lata	asks	the	man	with	whom	she	has	just	fallen	passionately	in	love,	‘Kabir,why	didn’t	you	tell	me	your	last	name?’[1]	She	had	been	unaware,	and	had	naïvely	assumed	him	to	be	Hindu.	Kabir,of	course,	is	a	name	that	defies	exclusivity	and	that	belongs	to	no	one	tradition.	It	is	instead	Kabir’s	last	name,Durrani,	which	carries	the	evidence	of	his	unsuitability.***Anand	Vivek	Taneja’s	Jinnealogy	is	about	a	corner	of	Delhi	–	a	tiny	space	of	ruination	amidst	the	sprawling	moderndevelopment	of	Delhi	–	in	which	names	are	consciously	avoided	and	an	intimacy	sought	with	strangers	that	wouldnot	be	possible	if	obvious	markers	of	communal	identity	were	known.	In	Taneja’s	ethnography,	anonymity	is	a	firststep	toward	a	form	of	hospitality	and	an	openness	to	the	other	that	is	so	often	avoided	in	other	less	liminal	parts	ofthe	megacity.	The	space	of	which	he	writes	is	the	crumbling	medieval	fort	of	Firoz	Shah	Kotla.	This	is	a	ruin	that	isoften	overshadowed	by	the	many	other	vestiges	of	Muslim	rule	that	dot	the	landscape	of	contemporary	Delhi.	FirozShah	Kotla’s	edifice	lacks	the	spectacular	impact	of	other	heritage	sites	in	Delhi,	and	its	Ashokan	pillar	is	frequentlyovershadowed	by	the	mysteriously	rust-proof	iron	pillar	of	Delhi	that	sits	in	the	city’s	southern	Qutb	complex.	In	otherwords,	Firoz	Shah	Kotla	is	easy	to	miss.	Perhaps,	if	you	have	been	to	watch	a	test	match	in	Delhi,	you	mightrecognize	the	fort’s	name	from	the	more	famous	cricket	ground	to	the	north:	perhaps	you	even	walked	past	the	ruinson	your	way	to	a	match.	But	if	you	did,	the	chances	are	you	failed	to	wander	inside.Originally	built	in	the	14th	century	during	the	Tughlaq	dynasty,	the	fortress	is	now	under	the	control	of	theArchaeological	Survey	of	India	(ASI).	As	with	so	many	of	Delhi’s	monuments,	the	ASI	maintains	the	fort	as	a	place	ofleisure	for	Delhi’s	inhabitants,	and	it	is	surrounded	by	carefully	kept	gardens.	As	far	as	the	ASI	is	concerned,	FirozShah	Kotla	is	thus	preserved	as	a	scenic	piece	of	parkland	amidst	the	modern	city	that	surrounds	it	on	all	sides:	it	istreated	as	a	picturesque	background	the	city	proper.	And	yet	this	notion	of	scenic	backdrop	elides	the	multiple	claimsthat	are	made	upon	this	space	and	the	political	will	needed	to	produce	Firoz	Shah	Kotla	as	yet	another	dead	ruin	inDelhi.	In	fact,	contemporary	Firoz	Shah	Kotla	is	both	home	to	a	fully	functioning	mosque	(colonized,	it	turns	out,	byreformist	Islam)	as	well	as	a	more	elusive	group	of	inhabitants,	the	jinn,	who	are	the	object	of	popular	worship	bypeople	from	a	wide	variety	of	religious	and	social	backgrounds.South Asia @ LSE: Long Read Review: Rethinking and Redefining Islam in South Asia Page 2 of 5		Date originally posted: 2018-11-30Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2018/11/30/long-read-review-rethinking-and-redefining-islam-in-south-asia/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/Person	kneeling	reading	book	|	Credit:	Pexils	rawpixel.comIt	is	in	the	alcoves,	the	recesses	and	the	subterranean	spaces	of	Firoz	Shah	Kotla	that	Taneja	encountered	thesejinn	and	the	people	who	come	to	petition	them.	Most	of	these	individuals	are	poor	and	marginalized.	They	know	whatit	means	to	be	seen	as	disposable,	moveable	and	transient	in	a	city	that	is	developing	as	fast	as	Delhi.	Indeed,	itappears	that	these	people	only	began	to	come	to	Firoz	Shah	Kotla	after	the	forced	displacements	and	slumclearances	of	the	Indian	Emergency,	1975-77.	Indeed,	the	relatively	recent	blossoming	of	this	parallel	religious	lifehighlights	Firoz	Shah	Kotla’s	unusual	nature	as	a	site	of	religious	experience,	for	while	its	patrons	see	it	as	asacred	dargah	(shrine),	it	is	unlike	other	North	Indian	dargahs	in	that	it	does	not	contain	the	grave	of	a	saint.	Instead,people	come	to	be	effected	by	the	jinn,	long-lived	and	ethereal	spirits	who	are	mentioned	in	the	Qur’an	and	who	areoften	thought	to	be	extremely	powerful,	but	whose	exact	nature	frequently	becomes	a	great	source	of	concern	forreformist	Muslims	who	are	forever	on	the	look	out	for	signs	of	innovation	and	intercession.South Asia @ LSE: Long Read Review: Rethinking and Redefining Islam in South Asia Page 3 of 5		Date originally posted: 2018-11-30Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2018/11/30/long-read-review-rethinking-and-redefining-islam-in-south-asia/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/For	the	Hindus	and	Muslims	who	visit	the	jinn	at	Firoz	Shah	Kotla,	however,	such	doctrinal	anxieties	are	not	present.Rather,	they	come	to	Firoz	Shah	Kotla	as	a	place	in	which	they	might	express	desires	that	go	against	the	(typicallypatriarchal)	norms	of	communal	life.	Here,	beneath	the	ruins,	they	place	petitions	into	the	crumbling	alcoves	of	FirozShah	Kotla	in	order	to	call	for	justice	from	the	jinn,	for	the	jinn	are	thought	to	have	their	own	parallel	system	ofgovernment	and	bureaucracy	through	which	these	petitioners	hope	to	achieve	a	more	direct	and	intimate	relationshipto	sovereignty	than	is	possible	in	their	dealings	with	the	indifferent	(and	sometimes	violent)	postcolonial	state.	Thejinn	thus	offer	these	people	another	way	of	being	and	another	potential	form	of	existence.	Moreover,	these	jinn	seemto	promise	another	kind	of	justice,	one	that	is	anti-patriarchal,	that	is	attentive	to	small	voices,	and	that	disregards	thebarriers	and	boundaries	of	communal	existence.	In	Firoz	Shah	Kotla,	people	seek	an	ethical	relation	to	the	world	thatcontradicts	the	normative	morality	of	their	everyday	lives.Herein	lies	one	of	the	central	(if	implicit)	themes	of	Taneja’s	book:	a	close	association	of	the	ethical	with	the	idea	ofpotentials	and	possibilities.	The	relations	that	people	craft	to	the	jinn	are	ethical	because	they	open	up	newpossibilities	of	relating	to	the	world.	Through	their	long	memories	and	their	persistence	within	the	urban	landscape	–notwithstanding	the	‘amnesia’	of	the	postcolonial	state	–	the	jinn	offer	up	an	alternative	genealogy	of	the	present.This	is	the	Jinnealogy	of	the	title.	This	other-temporality,	which	Taneja	also	describes	as	an	‘elsewhen’,	contains	thepotential	to	remake	the	present,	to	provide	an	alternative	vision	of	what	the	individual	and	his	or	her	community	mightlook	like.	It	is	the	radical	potential	of	the	jinn	as	enabling	us	to	imagine	the	world	‘as	if’	that	defines	the	boundaries	ofthe	ethical	within	Taneja’s	text.	For	many	of	the	people	who	visit	Firoz	Shah	Kotla	on	a	weekly	basis,	social	normsand	communal	morality	are	crushing	weights	within	their	lives.	Although	Taneja	does	not	explore	it	in	detail,	there	is	astrong	implication	in	his	text	that	the	ethical	is	necessarily	tied	to	a	promise	of	(or	at	least	a	potential	for)	liberation.Due	to	its	atypical	history	as	a	shrine	without	a	grave,	Firoz	Shah	Kotla	is	an	unusual	place;	but	as	Tanejademonstrates,	other	aspects	of	what	occurs	there	are	very	typical	for	a	North	Indian	dargah.	Within	the	academicliterature,	dargahs	have	often	been	celebrated	as	places	that	defy	the	simplistic	idea	that	‘Muslim’	and	‘Hindu’	mustnecessarily	be	essential	and	exclusive	identities.	They	are,	in	other	words,	potent	sites	of	analysis	for	they	allow	usscholars	to	critique	the	rigid	worldviews	of	both	reformist	fanatics	and	populist	politicians.	For	example,	Carla	Bellamy–	a	scholar	who	Taneja	engages	with	at	length	–	has	written	of	dargah	culture	as	a	distinct	religious	culture	thatcannot	be	collapsed	back	into	Hinduism,	Islam	or	syncretism,	a	position	that	leads	her	to	describe	the	shrine	in	whichshe	conducted	ethnography	as	ambiguously	Islamic.[2]Taneja,	however,	does	not	use	his	ethnography	only	as	a	means	to	deconstruct	religious	essentialisms.	Instead,	hedoes	something	unexpected	and	invigorating:	he	uses	the	ambiguous	religiosity	of	Firoz	Shah	Kotla	as	a	meansthrough	which	to	articulate	a	very	particular	answer	to	the	question	of	‘what	is	Islam?’	Taneja,	it	would	appear,	isunwilling	to	cede	the	right	to	answer	that	question	to	his	informants	alone,	be	they	communally-minded	Muslims	(whomight	paradoxically	agree	with	the	Hindu	right	in	asserting	that	Islam	is	fundamentally	separate	from	Indian	culture)or	elite	residents	of	Delhi,	whose	well-intentioned	desires	to	preserve	Firoz	Shah	Kotla	mean	retaining	the	idea	ofIslam	as	‘heritage’.	In	many	respects,	Taneja’s	book	can	therefore	be	read	as	a	rejoinder	to	anthropology’s	long-heldrefusal	to	define	Islam,	and	as	an	attempt	to	do	so	in	a	way	that	does	not	lead	to	that	definition	being	an	act	ofexclusion.	This	book	is	a	creative	attempt	to	rethink	and	redefine	Islam	in	South	Asia,	and	it	does	so	for	explicitlyethical	reasons,	in	so	far	as	it	aims	to	open	up	new	possibilities	by	which	we	all	might	live	with	and	relate	to	oneanother.	It	is	an	exercise	in	asking,	‘what	if?’‘Islam’,	Taneja	tells	us,	‘spreads	far	beyond	the	limitations	imposed	by	our	modern	conceptions	of	religion	ascoterminous	with	identity.’[3]	Instead,	we	have	to	start	thinking	of	Islam	as	an	ethical	potential	that	lies	beneath	thesurface	of	North	Indian	social	life.	In	Firoz	Shah	Kotla,	Taneja	finds	in	Islam	another	way	of	relating	to	the	past;another	way	of	calling	for	justice;	another	possibility	of	being.	In	this	sense,	the	argument	of	the	book	is	radical,	forTaneja	is	insisting	that	there	is	such	a	thing	that	we	analysts	should	be	identifying	as	Islam,	and	that	this	is	notnecessarily	a	definition	that	our	interlocutors	would	be	comfortable	with.	At	times,	he	even	seems	to	play	with	theidea	that	the	normative	and	communitarian	Islam	practiced	just	yards	from	the	jinn	in	the	mosque	of	Firoz	Shah	Kotlashould	not	really	be	considered	Islamic	at	all,	although	he	never	quite	takes	his	argument	that	far.	Instead,	Tanejainsists	that	Islam	should	be	read	as	an	inheritance	behind	everyday	life	in	India,	one	that	is	able	to	open	up	ethicalpossibilities	in	the	contemporary	lives	of	those	from	other	traditions.	As	such,	his	act	of	defining	Islam	ceases	to	bean	exclusionary	undertaking,	and	becomes	a	process	of	recognizing	the	ways	in	which	Islam	is	fundamental	tocontemporary	ethical	life	in	India.	This	is	a	recognition	that	Islam	has	bequeathed	ethical	possibilities	to	all	Indians	asthey	go	about	the	enormous	task	of	relating	ethically	to	others.South Asia @ LSE: Long Read Review: Rethinking and Redefining Islam in South Asia Page 4 of 5		Date originally posted: 2018-11-30Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2018/11/30/long-read-review-rethinking-and-redefining-islam-in-south-asia/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/Much	of	what	Taneja	writes	comes	from	a	place	of	sadness,	a	yearning	for	a	city	in	which	the	sacred	is	not	alienatedfrom	the	natural,	and	in	which	the	state’s	power	to	forget	does	not	trample	over	the	possibilities	of	ethical	life.	Centralto	this	is	a	deep	engagement	with	the	idea	of	ruination,	and	a	keen	attentiveness	to	the	way	in	which	it	canpotentially	function	both	to	empty	the	urban	landscape	of	enchantment	and	to	enable	new	ways	of	imagining	the	linksbetween	past	and	present.	The	strengths	of	this	book	lie	in	Taneja’s	ability	to	connect	the	lives	of	his	contemporaryinformants	to	longer	histories	of	the	Islamic	in	Delhi,	and	thus	to	uncover	the	minor	histories	that	have	bequeathedIslam	its	potential	to	disrupt	contemporary	norms.	Very	occasionally,	Taneja’s	argument	becomes	a	little	over-stretched	in	this	regard.	In	a	remarkable	chapter	on	the	sexual	politics	of	Firoz	Shah	Kotla,	he	describes	how	formsof	equality	are	achieved	through	free	and	frank	interactions	between	men	and	women.	Responding	to	the	question	ofhow	such	interactions	might	occur	within	an	‘Islamic’	space,	he	delves	into	history	to	uncover	a	deep	ambiguity	withinIslam,	identified	as	an	antipatriarchal	element	embedded	within	the	religion.	This	‘anti-structure’	goes	back	toMuhammad’s	relations	with	women,	and	manifests	today	in	the	reverence	that	people	have	for	Firoz	Shah	Kotla’sjinn	as	loving	fathers	of	daughters,	not	sons.	But,	we	might	ask,	is	it	really	right	to	think	of	a	space	to	which	manymen	go	solely	in	order	to	leer	at	women	as	straightforwardly	anti-patriarchal?	This	is,	however,	only	a	minor	quibble,and	in	no	way	detracts	from	the	broader	and	very	radical	ethical	goals	of	this	book.	Jinnealogy	is	a	superbly	detailedaccount	of	a	form	of	religious	life	that	many	groups	in	India	would	rather	silence	or	forget,	for	it	complicates	simplisticnarratives	of	identity	and	belonging.	Moreover,	this	book	will	no	doubt	open	up	a	new	chapter	in	anthropology	inwhich	ethnographers	becomes	less	afraid	of	unashamedly	entering	into	critical	debates	about	what	Islam	is.	AsTaneja	so	eloquently	shows,	these	are	debates	which	we	can	perhaps	no	longer	afford	to	leave	to	those	whoseanswers	will	always	imply	exclusion.REFERENCESBellamy,	Carla.	The	Powerful	Ephemeral:	Everyday	Healing	in	an	Ambiguously	Islamic	Place.	Berkeley:	University	ofCalifornia	Press,	2011.Seth,	Vikram.	A	Suitable	Boy.	Penguin	Books	India,	1994.Taneja,	Anand	Vivek.	Jinnealogy:	Time,	Islam,	and	Ecological	Thought	in	the	Medieval	Ruins	of	Delhi.	South	Asia	inMotion.	Stanford,	California:	Stanford	University	Press,	2017.This	article	gives	the	views	of	the	author,	and	not	the	position	of	the	South	Asia	@	LSE	blog,	nor	of	the	LondonSchool	of	Economics.	Please	read	our	comments	policy	before	posting.This	article	was	originally	published	by	Anthropology	ofthis	Century	(ATOC)	in	October	2018.Nicholas	H	A	Evans	is	a	fellow	in	the	Department	of	Anthropology	at	LSE.	Trained	in	anthropology	atCambridge,	he	is	a	specialist	in	the	anthropology	of	India,	with	interests	in	the	anthropology	of	religion,the	anthropology	of	visual	media,	and	the	historically	embedded	ways	that	people	experience	doubtand	uncertainty.South Asia @ LSE: Long Read Review: Rethinking and Redefining Islam in South Asia Page 5 of 5		Date originally posted: 2018-11-30Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2018/11/30/long-read-review-rethinking-and-redefining-islam-in-south-asia/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/

Long read review: rethinking and redefining Islam in South Asia

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Long read review: rethinking and redefining Islam in South Asia

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