In Amma's Healing Room: Gender and Vernacular Islam in South India

by Flueckiger, Joyce Burkhalter

• ISBN13: 9780253218377
• ISBN10: 0253218373
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-04-01
• Publisher: Ingram Publisher Services, Inc.

Summary

"[I]t is extremely salubrious to see the ways Islam works in the lives of ordinary people who are not politicized in their religious lives.... No other book on South Asia has material like this." -- Ann Grodzins GoldIn Amma's Healing Room is a compelling study of the life and thought of a female Muslim spiritual healer in Hyderabad, South India. Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger describes Amma's practice as a form of vernacular Islam arising in a particular locality, one in which the boundaries between Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity are fluid. In the "healing room," Amma meets a diverse clientele that includes men and women, Muslim, Hindu, and Christian, of varied social backgrounds, who bring a wide range of physical, social, and psychological afflictions. Flueckiger collaborated closely with Amma and relates to her at different moments as daughter, disciple, and researcher. The result is a work of insight and compassion that challenges widely held views of religion and gender in India and reveals the creativity of a tradition often portrayed by Muslims and non-Muslims alike as singular and monolithic.

Author Biography

Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger is Associate Professor of Religion at Emory University and author of Gender and Genre in the Folklore of Middle India.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Acknowledgments	xv
A Note on Transliteration	xix
Introduction: Called to Amma's Courtyard	1	(35)
Setting the Stage: The Healing Room, Its Actors, and Its Rhythms	36	(28)
The Healing System	64	(42)
Patient Narratives in the Healing Room	106	(30)
Negotiating Gender in the Healing Room	136	(32)
Religious Identities at the Crossroads	168	(33)
Immersed in Remembrance and Song: Religious Identities, Authority, and Gender at the Sama	201	(34)
Conclusion: Vernacular Islam Embedded in Relationships	235	(6)
Epilogue	241	(10)
Appendix: Death and Difference: A Conversation	251	(4)
Glossary	255	(4)
Notes	259	(16)
Select Bibliography	275	(10)
Index	285