“Book Descriptions: In the ruins of a medieval palace in Delhi a unique phenomenon occurs: Indians of all castes and creeds meet to socialize and ask the spirits for help. But the spirits they're entreating are Islamic jinns, and they write out their requests as if petitioning the state. At a time when a Hindu right wing government in India is committed to normalizing a view of the past that paints Muslims as oppressors, Anand Taneja's Jinneaology provides a fresh vision of religion, identity, and sacrality that runs counter to state-sanctioned history. The ruin, called Firoz Shah Kotla, is an unusually democratic religious space, characterized by freewheeling theological conversations, DIY rituals, and the sanctification of animals. Taneja befriends and observes the visitors, coming mainly from the Muslim and Dalit neighborhoods of Delhi, and uses their conversations and letters to the jinn as an archive of voices so often silenced. He finds that their veneration of the jinn recalls pre-modern religious traditions in which spiritual experience was inextricably tied to the ecological surroundings. In this enchanted space, Taneja encounters a form of popular Islam that he argues is not a relic of bygone days, but a vibrant form of resistance to state repression and post-colonial visions of India.” DRIVE
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