Sounding the Indian Ocean

Sounding the Indian Ocean

Author: Prof. Jim Sykes

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2023-08-22

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 0520393198

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A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Sounding the Indian Ocean is the first volume to integrate the fields of ethnomusicology and Indian Ocean studies. Drawing on historical and ethnographic approaches, the book explores what music reveals about mobility, diaspora, colonialism, religious networks, media, and performance. Collectively, the chapters examine different ways the Indian Ocean might be “heard” outside of a reliance on colonial archives and elite textual traditions, integrating methods from music and sound studies into the history and anthropology of the region. Challenging the area studies paradigm—which has long cast Africa, the Middle East, and Asia as separate musical cultures—the book shows how music both forms and crosses boundaries in the Indian Ocean world.


Islamic Sermons and Public Piety in Bangladesh

Islamic Sermons and Public Piety in Bangladesh

Author: Max Stille

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-05-14

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 1838606017

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Islamic sermon gatherings are a central form of public piety and public expression in contemporary Bangladesh. Held since the 19th century, waz mahfils became so popular that it is today possible to participate in them on a daily basis in many regions of the country. Despite their significance in the rise of popular politics, the sermons are often disregarded as Islamist propaganda and very little research is dedicated to them. This book provides unprecedented access into these sermon gatherings. Based on fieldwork and interviews, Max Stille analyses an archive of several dozens of sermons. He shows how popular preaching shapes roles and rules of what can be said, imagined, and felt. Waz mahfils are a participatory practice of the labouring classes in which religious, political and poetic consensus overlap. In them, Islamic tenets and morals are part of dramatic narrations, vocal art and affective communication, ranging from immersion and upheaval to laughter about political jokes and parody. Suggesting new ways to interpret musical and performative poetics of Islamic speech, this book calls for expanding conceptions of civic participation and public discourse, and rethinking the role of the senses and religious aesthetics in Islam.


The Poet’s Song

The Poet’s Song

Author: Priyanka Basu

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-08-27

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1000960889

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This book explores the ‘folk’ performance genre of Kobigaan, a dialogic song-theatre form in which performers verse-duel, in contemporary West Bengal in India and Bangladesh. Thought to be a nearly extinct form, the book shows how the genre is still prevalent in the region. The author shows how like many other ‘folk’ practices in South and South-East Asia, the content and format of this genre has undergone vital changes thus raising questions of authenticity, patronage and cultural politics. She captures live performances of Kobigaan through ethnographies spread across borders — from village rituals to urban festivals, and from Bengali cinema to television and new media. While understanding Kobigaan from the practitioners’ points-of-view, this book also explores the crucial issues of gender, marginalization and representation that is true of any performance genre. Drawing on case studies, it underlines the issues of artistic agency, empowerment, cultural labour and heritage, ritual, authenticity, creative industries, media, gender, and identity politics. Part of the ‘South Asian History and Culture’ series, this book is a major intervention in South Asian folklore and performance studies. It also expands into the larger disciplines of literature, social and cultural movements in South Asia, ethnomusicology and the politics of performance.


Islam, Sufism and Everyday Politics of Belonging in South Asia

Islam, Sufism and Everyday Politics of Belonging in South Asia

Author: Deepra Dandekar

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-09-13

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 1317435966

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This book looks at the study of ideas, practices and institutions in South Asian Islam, commonly identified as ‘Sufism’, and how they relate to politics in South Asia. While the importance of Sufism for the lives of South Asian Muslims has been repeatedly asserted, the specific role played by Sufism in contestations over social and political belonging in South Asia has not yet been fully analysed. Looking at examples from five countries in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan), the book begins with a detailed introduction to political concerns over ‘belonging’ in relation to questions concerning Sufism and Islam in South Asia. This is followed with sections on Producing and Identifying Sufism; Everyday and Public Forms of Belonging; Sufi Belonging, Local and National; and Intellectual History and Narratives of Belonging. Bringing together scholars from diverse disciplines, the book explores the connection of Islam, Sufism and the Politics of Belonging in South Asia. It is an important contribution to South Asian Studies, Islamic Studies and South Asian Religion.


PUTHI-PORA

PUTHI-PORA

Author: David M. Kane

Publisher: Sylheti Translation and Research

Published: 2017-03-19

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 9780955279188

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This book is a reproduction of David Kane's 2008 doctoral thesis on puthi-poṛa, a Bengali tradition of book and manuscript reading. Kane's thesis pursues two central aims. The first is ethnographic: to provide a documentation and description of puthi-poṛa as it was performed in Sylhet, Bangladesh, in 2005. The second is historical: to shed light on a historical mystery-how Islam spread so rapidly and pervasively in Bengal from the sixteenth century. Kane's hypothesis is that puthi-poṛa was used in this process.


Jarigan

Jarigan

Author: Mary Frances Dunham

Publisher: University Press Limited

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13:

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Includes examples of Jarigan and related songs in original Bengali, with transliterations, English translations, and musical notations.