Dreaming Baba, resituating memory

Popular Sufi shrines and the historiography of contemporary East Punjab

  • Yogesh Snehi
Keywords: memory, dreams, shrines, Punjab, India, Pakistan, historiography, orality, communalism, Islamization, Sufism, Sikhism, Nath Panth, bhaktās, rituals, Haider Sheikh, Baba Lakhdata, Gorakhnath, monotheism, khanqah, pīrkhānā, saint veneration, Chishti Sabri, mysticism

Abstract

Why and how does popular memory reconfigure itself in the form of dreams? Taking a clue from the veneration of saints at popular Sufi shrines, this article underlines the role played by memory and dreams in the restitution of the practice of saint veneration in contemporary (East) Punjab. It further probes the grand theories of post-colonial nation-states ideologies and problematizes the
accepted processes of Islamization. Through an analysis of dream experiences and social memory, the intention is to chart a social history of Islamic acculturation in South Asia.

Published
2018-10-06