Indian Dargah in Dynamics

The article describes the current state of rituals taking place at the revered tomb (dargah) of Sheikh Bakhtiyar Kaki in Delhi, and also outlines the prospects for studying the social processes taking place in the burial site and reflecting the current state of the Muslim community of the city. Observations on dargah reveal the heterogeneity of the rites, their social significance and the dynamics of their development. The complex of the holy grave is described here as a special space where different parts of the complex carry a different semantic and, as a result, a different set of restrictions. The grave complex combines power relations of a different nature (the basic rules of Sharia, the holiness of the Sufi sheikh and Muslim ascetics, secular relations, etc.), what is expressed in physical space by the clear time cycles of the day and year. So, the main shrine of dargah is certainly closed during the five-time prayer, and this custom articulates the border between sources of holiness – that is, the baraqa of the holy sheikh and the installations of regular Islam. A few examples show how the rituals associated with visiting a holy place develop or die during lifetime of the dargah. Also the article draws attention to the current situation of the struggle for resources of the holy shrine, which is fueled by the difference between the ideologies of “popular” and modernist Islam. That example figures out, how a system of opposing sacred statuses and economic powers is being built. The materials were collected as a result of field work in March–April 2019

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