Nizamuddin shrine and popular visual culture

We seek to explore the role the producers of literature, images and other devotional ephemera play in the lives of the pilgrims and devotees to this area – how do they decide what to produce and sell to augment the pilgrim’s experience, how has the production of such literature and images over the years been transformed due to changing needs of the pilgrims (if any), and how has the print culture itself transformed the religious experience of the pilgrims. How do other kinds of religious literature and images (other than the Sufi-oriented ones) available in the vicinity contest or compete with the Sufi print culture. Can one see a deliberate attempt in such literature to denounce or condemn the Sufi cultural practices such as bowing before a grave, offering it chadurs, listening to Qawwali and so on?

The above questions may expand or evolve according to the research being carried out. But one of the thrusts would be to collect and collate literature and images from other shrines (on the pilgrimage routes or even wayside) and evaluate their role. In some places such as local Sufi shrines in and around Lucknow (a town in north India), one find images and hagiographical literature about a local saint (such as Haji Waris Ali of Dewah Sharif in Barabanki). But due to the movement of pilgrims between various shrines, such images and literature also finds space in the market at Nizamuddin shrine in Delhi. While the centre of this project is Delhi (for various logistic reasons), it would also utilize the experience and presence of many other informants and scholars in South Asian regions such as Pakistan and Bangladesh to not only collect and collate printed material and devotional ephemera, but also bring in their unique regional experiences of how print and manufacturing industry exploits the devotional needs of the pilgrims. Already existing research of a large number of scholars based in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as those from Europe and America who have worked in South Asian Sufi shrines, could be involved in this project, especially on aspects that have already been explored in detail in the past.

Surveying what visual materials are available in the market
Buying some samples for our archive/record
Feeding into the HRA database and contextualize
Surveying the pilgrims arriving in the dargah during an Urs
Interviewing some devotees/pilgrims about what they buy, how have these ephemera changed over the years, does this media affect their faith or rituals in any way; are there some forms of literature which they will not buy due to ideological difference, and so on.
How has new technology affected the visual material being produced and sold here (This basically means for example how the medium of printed posters and audio cassettes is slowly being replaced by video CDs which involve popular aesthetics and discourses in audio and visual forms. Who produces these VCDs and in what environment they are watched. How does the ritual of their community watching equate with more traditional forms of staged religious discourses).

Next >>