Critical Analysis of Essentialism in Haroon Khalid’s In Search of Shiva: A Study of Folk Religious Practices in Pakistan

Author: Hina Ali Khan. 

Travel writings or travelogues are ‘records of author’s travel journey’ (Mishra 45). A good travelogue according to Smrutisikta Mishra, serves as a “diary of accurate records of particular peoples, places, customs, and ceremonies” (Mishra 45). Haroon Khalid, a journalist, and writer from Pakistan, travels the shrine culture prevalent in rural areas of Central Punjab and the urban city of Lahore. Khalid writes his travel experiences of shrine culture in his book In Search of Shiva: A Study of Folk Religious Practices in Pakistan.  He discusses that religious practices at rural shrines are open to “borrowing between different religious traditions” (Khalid 08) and are more receptive towards diverse religious traditions. Khalid also visits shrines in urban areas and discusses how they strictly follow guidelines taken from Quran and Hadith and unlike rural shrines are not receptive to different religious traditions. This essay through the critical analysis of Khalid’s In Search of Shiva: A Study of Folk Religious Practices in Pakistan, discusses how text reinforces the binary of rural Islam versus urban Islam. Drawing upon Talal Asad and Mohammed Sulaiman I discuss how Khalid re-enforces essentialism and creates a static division of rural and tolerant Islam versus urban and rigid Islam.

In his travel writing, Khalid highlights how shrine culture in rural areas provide solace to everyone regardless of their moral values. For example, while visiting a shrine in a rural area near Kallar Kahar, Khalid mentions “here females and males can intermingle freely. Social outcastes consume bhang and hashish, looking for immediate solace bow in front of the grave” (Khalid 85). In the next paragraph, Khalid compares the rural shrine with Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s shrine in Karachi where the couple has been caught “secretly consuming Hashish” (Khalid 85). Khalid shows his disappointment over how the caretaker of Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s shrine gives “apologetic response” to secure himself from the negative consequences of that incident. Furthermore, Khalid discusses how Shrines unlike mosques, are expected to provide “acceptability to people of all hues” (Khalid 85). Khalid further explains how CDs and books being sold outside the shrines in Urban areas “give birth to uniform religion obliterating all differences” which promotes “religious fundamentalism” (Khalid 86). Above mentioned examples show how text reinforces the binary of rural Islam which is open to everyone versus urban Islam which demands certain moral codes. I quote Talal Asad who critiques anthropologists Ernest Gellner and Clifford Geertz in their methods of appreciating diversity in Islam. According to Asad “anthropologists have attempted to resolve the problem of diversity of Islam by creating the categories of puritanical faith of the towns and the saint-worshiping, ritualistic religion of the countryside” (Asad 3). Asad discusses how these methods of representation of “tribal and the urban” Islam do not consider the “dynamic diversity of Islam” and are, therefore “incompatible constructions” (Asad 18).

Moreover, Khalid during his visits to rural areas of central Punjab visits shrines that have been named after certain birds and animals. For example, “ Kawan Wali Sarkar” (master of crows) and “Morran Wali Sarkar” (master of Peacocks). Khalid appreciates how local people treat these birds with care and consider them sacred. He mentions that Crows are given holy status in the Hindu religion while Peacocks are considered sacred in Hinduism and Buddhism. For example, “it is believed that in his previous life Buddha was a golden peacock” (Khalid 85). However, upon his visit to a shrine named “master of cats” (Billiyon wali Sarkar) in the urban city of Lahore, Khalid finds the opposite situation. He finds that shrine has merged into a mosque and authorities have discouraged the shelter for cats. For example, according to authorities of that shrine “kittens spoil the holy space” (Khalid 101). As a result cats “venture out on the road and become victims of road accidents and gradually have disappeared from the shrine… this is brutal” (Khalid 101). This implies that shrines in rural areas are tolerant places that welcome traditions from ancient religions while shrines in urban areas are rigid and are not tolerant of diverse traditions. According to Asad while “working on the anthropology of Islam one must be aware that there is considerable diversity in the beliefs and practices of Muslims” (Asad 15). Asad explains how some narrators present Muslims with a “fixed cast of Islamic personae as normal tribal religion centered on saints and shrines, and the dominant urban religion based on the "Holy Book” (Asad 16). Critical analysis of the text shows how Khalid re-enforces essentialist views about Islam by showing a rigid binary of urban Islam versus rural Islam. Essentialism as defined by George Lakoff is an “idea that categorizes people by assigning them some unchanging characteristics” (Lakoff). Asad quoted by Sulaiman, explains that a “multiplicity of Islamic interpretations and experience must be considered to move beyond the limitations of both essentialist approaches” (Sulaiman 92).  

In conclusion, Khalid in his book In Search of Shiva: A Study of Folk Religious Practices in Pakistan records his journey to various shrines located in central Punjab. He views diverse religious practices and traditions being done at those shrines and attempts to highlight the diversities. Khalid represents rural Islam as tolerant and welcoming while urban Islam is shown as intolerant and with strict standards of morality. This essay with the help of Asad and Sulaiman’s studies, discusses how Khalid represents diversity as a rigid binary of rural Islam versus urban Islam and tends to enforce essentialism. According to Asad and Sulaiman “diversities in Islam must be considered dynamic and transformative” (Sulaiman 92) and essentialist approach should be avoided.    

Works Cited:

Asad, Talal. "The idea of an anthropology of Islam." Qui parle 17.2 (2009): 1-30.

Khalid, Haroon. In search of Shiva: A study of folk religious practices in Pakistan. Rupa, 2016.

Mishra, Smrutisikta. "Travelogues: an innovative and creative genre of literature." International Journal of English and Literature. 4.4 (2014): 45-50.

Sulaiman, Mohammed. "Orientalism and anti-orientalism: Epistemological approaches to Islam and violence." Contesting the Theological Foundations of Islamism and Violent Extremism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019. 75-95.

Yzerbyt, Vincent, Charles M. Judd, and Carey S. Ryan. "The psychology of group perception: Contributions to the study of homogeneity, entitativity, and essentialism." (2003).