Hinglaj Devi

Identity, Change, and Solidification at a Hindu Temple in Pakistan

Jürgen Schaflechner

The first monograph to address the beliefs and practices of Hindus in today's Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Combines a wide-ranging literary study based in historical sources in their original languages with extensive ethnographic research
Engages with and builds upon recent theories on identity and group formation

Hinglaj Devi

Identity, Change, and Solidification at a Hindu Temple in Pakistan

Jürgen Schaflechner

Description

About two hundred kilometers west of the city of Karachi, in the desert of Baluchistan, Pakistan, sits the shrine of the Hindu Goddess Hinglaj. Despite the temple's ancient Hindu and Muslim history, an annual festival at Hinglaj has only been established within the last three decades, in part because of the construction of the Makran Coastal Highway, which connects the distant rural shrine with urban Pakistan. Now, an increasingly confident minority Hindu community has claimed Hinglaj as their main religious center, a site for undisturbed religious performance and expression.

In Hinglaj Devi, Jürgen Schaflechner studies literary sources in Hindi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, and Urdu alongside extensive ethnographical research at the shrine, examining the political and cultural influences at work at the temple and tracking the remote desert shrine's rapid ascent to its current status as the most influential Hindu pilgrimage site in Pakistan. Schaflechner introduces the unique character of this place of pilgrimage and shows its modern importance not only for Hindus, but also for Muslims and Sindhi nationalists. Ultimately, this is an investigation of the Pakistani Hindu community's beliefs and practices at their largest place of worship in the Islamic Republic today—a topic of increasing importance to Pakistan's contemporary society.

Hinglaj Devi

Identity, Change, and Solidification at a Hindu Temple in Pakistan

Jürgen Schaflechner

Acknowledgments
Conventions for transliteration, transcription and sources
Introduction
The struggle over truth
Hinglaj in perspective
Historical Representations and recent changes
(Un)necessary hardships in "getting there"
Change and perseverance
Solidifying Hinglaj: Striving for a uniform tradition
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Hinglaj Devi

Identity, Change, and Solidification at a Hindu Temple in Pakistan

Jürgen Schaflechner

Author Information

Jürgen Schaflechner, Assistant Professor in the Department of Modern South Asian Languages and Literature, South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg

Jürgen Schaflechner is Assistant Professor in the Department of Modern South Asian Languages and Literatures, South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg.

Hinglaj Devi

Identity, Change, and Solidification at a Hindu Temple in Pakistan

Jürgen Schaflechner

Reviews and Awards

"Hinglaj Devi: Identity, Change and Solidification at a Hindu Temple in Pakistan is a valuable scholarly monograph...The book analyzes communities that claim Hi?glai as their ritual space, and shows how the Lohana community and their organization Hinglaj Sheva Mandal have succeeded in the homogenization of the traditions of the shrine. The book is a detailed textual, historical, and ethnographic study of this homogenization process, and is very valuable as a documentation of contemporary developments." - Knut A. Jacobsen, University of Bergen, Reading Religion

"Because of its great many strengths, this book is essential reading for those interested in Hinduism in parts of South Asia now officially separated from India - namely Pakistan and Bangladesh - and for those interested in sacred sites more broadly. Schaflechner ends his book with the hope that his work will generate interest in, and further research on, Hinduism in Pakistan, and aspects of that nation-state that go beyond well-worn narratives of a failed state. I have no doubt both hopes will be fulfilled." - Deonnie Moodie, Religion