Cover; The Powerful Ephemeral; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Note on Orthography; Prologue; Introduction. Ambiguity: Husain Tekri and Indian Dargah Culture; 1. Place: The Making of a Pilgrimage and a Pilgrimage Center; 2. People: The Tale of the Four Virtuous Women; 3. Absence: Loban, Volunteerism, and Abundance; 4. Presence: The Work and Workings of Haziri; 5. Personae: Transgression, Otherness, Cosmopolitanism, and Kinship; Conclusion. The Powerful Ephemeral: Dargah Culture in Contemporary India; Appendix A. Tarikhe Yusufi.

Appendix B. Husain Tekri Kya Hai?Notes; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.

The violent partitioning of British India along religious lines and ongoing communalist aggression have compelled Indian citizens to contend with the notion that an exclusive, fixed religious identity is fundamental to selfhood. Even so, Muslim saint shrines known as dargahs attract a religiously diverse range of pilgrims. In this accessible and groundbreaking ethnography, Carla Bellamy traces the long-term healing processes of Muslim and Hindu devotees of a complex of dargahs in northwestern India. Drawing on pilgrims' narratives, ritual and everyday practices, archival documents, and popular.

Description based on print version record.