Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Bioengineering, Beauty and Racial Sensibility
- 3 Contesting Violence, Constructing Power
- 4 Festival, Spectacle, Eroticism
- 5 Biopolitics and Biosocial Citizenship
- 6 Performative Participation, Sexual Health and Community Development
- 7 Cosmopolitanism: Rights, Citizenry and the Culture of Representation
- 8 Postscript
- Glossary
- Index
4 - Festival, Spectacle, Eroticism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 October 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Bioengineering, Beauty and Racial Sensibility
- 3 Contesting Violence, Constructing Power
- 4 Festival, Spectacle, Eroticism
- 5 Biopolitics and Biosocial Citizenship
- 6 Performative Participation, Sexual Health and Community Development
- 7 Cosmopolitanism: Rights, Citizenry and the Culture of Representation
- 8 Postscript
- Glossary
- Index
Summary
The hijras in Bombay are quite particular about attending some religious festivals of Sufi saints at dargahs (shrines or tombs at which people worship). These annual festivals are popularly called Urs, indicating mass gatherings of people at the shrine to celebrate. The festival continues for some days. It is often believed within the hijra community that Islam is more welcoming and respectful of them, and during these festivals they are given greater importance. Hijras from Bombay and other parts of the state of Maharashtra visit Haji Malang, a Sufi shrine located at the urban fringes of the city, in a place called Kalyan, to attend the Urs every year. The shrine is located at the top of a hill, and pilgrims must come by train, car or bus to the base, and thereafter proceed on foot, a nearly two-hour climb. During the Urs, many Muslim families, and especially men in groups, visit the shrine to offer worship. There are small and medium-sized rest houses with shared toilets and bathrooms for visitors to stay; both hijras and other visitors use such facilities. During the four or five days that the Urs is held, the dargah and its entire surroundings are decorated with multiple coloured lights; there are funfairs, music and worship. Remarkably, hijras are not discriminated against at the dargah. Rather, they are given special respect and greeted enthusiastically by the Sufi sheikhs, visitors to the dargah and the local population.
In a similar fashion, but on a much larger scale, hijras from Bombay also attend the Urs every year without fail. Popularly known as Ajmer Sharif, the dargah is the mausoleum of Hazrat Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti, who was a Sufi saint. Moinuddin Chishti, also called Khwaja Sahib or Khwaja Garib Nawaz, was a scholar of great repute and is believed to have been a direct descendant of Prophet Muhammad. According to his believers, he advocated universal love and peace for all mankind and preached the Quranic philosophy of the unity of religions. He is popularly called Garib Nawaz (garib: poor; nawaz: person who soothes) as he strictly followed a mission of kindness to the poor and destitute all his life.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Cosmopolitan SexualityGender, Embodiments, Biopolitics in India, pp. 104 - 127Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023