Piro and the Gulabdasis Gender, Sect, and Society in Punjab

by Malhotra, Anshu

• ISBN13: 9780199468188
• ISBN10: 0199468184
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2017-05-30
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Author Biography

Anshu Malhotra teaches at the Department of History, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Delhi, India. She has written extensively on gender issues over the past two decades. She is also the author of Gender, Caste, and Religious Identities: Restructuring Class in Colonial Punjab (2002). Her other previous publications include the edited volumes Speaking of the Self: Gender, Performance, and Autobiography in South Asia (2015) with Siobhan Lambert-Hurley and Punjab Reconsidered: History, Culture, and Practice (2012) with Farina Mir.

Table of Contents

List of Figures vii
List of Abbreviations ix
Note on Transliteration and Diacritical Marks xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Self, Sect, and Society: An Introduction xvii
Part I
1. Guru Gulabdas: A Savant Monist or a Deviant Maverick? 3
Part II
2. A 'Life-Story' in an Autobiographical Fragment 55
3. Agonistic Religiosity, Gendered Self, and a Conversion Narrative 92
4. A Low-Caste Muslim Prostitute and Bhakti Religiosity: Cultural Imaginary and the Ability to Imagine Otherwise 123
5. Miracles and Women Bhaktas: Understanding Piro's Agency 172
Part III
6. Caste in the Colonial Public Sphere: The Conundrum of Sant Ditta Ram/Giani Ditt Singh 201
7. Theatre of the Past: Re-presenting the Past in Different Genres 237
8. Fantasticating Fables, Sacralizing Spaces, and Remaking Rituals: The Gulabdasis at a Contemporary Moment 279
Conclusion 324
Bibliography 330
Index 349
About the author 358