This article explores local manifestations of ‘Islamism’ in the one-time princely kingdom of Chitral, in northern Pakistan. Chitral's former princely family continues to exert significant political influence in the region today, whilst court-derived forms of status distinction alongside newer expressions of class difference are of central importance to Chitrali social life. Many Chitrali ‘men of piety’ (dashmanan) are critical about the continued power of the princes and claim that only they can deliver ‘simple’ Chitralis from the unIslamic legacies of their feudal past. Yet Chitrali Muslims reflect upon and engage with the Islamising messages of the dashmanan in multidimensional ways that are not defined instrumentally by the region's shifting system of status hierarchy alone. In particular, the vocal styles of Chitral's politically active dashmanan are widely said by Chitrali Muslims to reflect their animalistic and unrefined emotional dispositions. By exploring the ways in which this dynamic and locally contested theory is deployed by Chitralis to evaluate the behaviour of the dashmanan, I seek to furnish new insights into the shaping of local expressions of ‘Islamism’ in Pakistan and elsewhere in South Asia today.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Aase, T.1999. The theological construction of conflict, Gilgit, northern Pakistan. In L. Manger , ed., Muslim diversity: Local Islam in global contexts, pp. 58–79. Richmond: Curzon .
2.
Abou Zahab, M.2004. The Sunni–Shia conflict in Jhang (Pakistan). In I. Ahmad and H. Reifeld , eds, Lived Islam in South Asia: Adaptation, accommodation and conflict, pp. 135–48. New Delhi: Social Science Press .
3.
Abou Zahab, M. and O. Roy . 2004. Islamist networks: The Afghan–Pakistan connection. London: Hurst and Co .
4.
Abu-Lughod, L. and C. Lutz . eds. 1990. Language and the politics of emotion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
5.
Adelkhah, F.1999. Being modern in Iran. London: Hurst and Co.
6.
Ahmad, I. , ed. 1978 [1973]. Caste and social stratification among Muslims in India. New Delhi: Manohar .
7.
Ahmad, I.2004. Introduction: Understanding Islam. In I. Ahmad and H. Reifeld , eds, Lived Islam in South Asia: Adaptation, accommodation and conflict, pp. xi–xxv. New Delhi: Social Science Press .
8.
Ahmed, Akbar . 1980. Pukhtun economy and society: Traditional structure and economic development in a tribal society. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul .
9.
Ahmed, Akbar . 1983. Religion and politics in Muslim society: Order and conflict in Pakistan. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul .
10.
Ahmed, Amineh . 2005. Death and celebration among Muslim women: A case study from Pakistan . Modern Asian studies39, 4: 929–80 .
11.
Alam, M.2004. The languages of political Islam: India 1200–1800. London: Hurst and Co.
12.
Alavi, H.2003. Social forces and ideology in the making of Pakistan. In A. Akbar Zaidi , ed., Continuity and change: Socio-political and institutional dynamics in Pakistan, pp. 11–40. Karachi: City Press .
13.
Antoun, R.1989. Muslim preacher in the modern world: A Jordanian case study in comparative perspective. Princeton: Princeton University Press .
14.
Anderson, J. and Eickelman D.1999. Redefining Muslim publics. In J. Anderson and D. Eickelman , eds, New Muslim media in the Muslim world: The emerging public sphere, pp. 1–18. Bloomington: Indiana University Press .
15.
Arkhunzada Mirza Fazil Wahid Baig Bin Hazrat Mawlana Mufti Mirza Abdul Hakim Baig . 1996. Tarikhi tarof aqwam Chitral (Urdu). Peshawar: Rajul Printers .
16.
Asad, T.2002. Formations of the secular: Christianity, Islam, modernity. Stanford: Stanford University Press .
17.
Baig, R.K.1994. Hindu Kush study series: Volume 1. Peshawar: Rehmat Printing Press .
18.
Baig, R.K.1997. Hindu Kush study series: Volume 2. Peshawar: Rehmat Printing Press .
19.
Banerjee, M.2000. The Pathan unarmed: Memory and opposition. Oxford: James Currey .
20.
Barnett, S ., L. Fruzzetti and Á. Östör.1976. Hierarchy purified: Notes on Dumont and his critics . Journal of Asian studies35, 4: 627–46 .
21.
Barth, F.1956. Indus and Swat Kohistan: An ethnographic survey. Oslo: Forenede Trykkerier .
22.
Barth, F.1960. The system of social stratification in Swat, north Pakistan. In E. Leach , ed., Aspects of caste in India, Ceylon and north-west Pakistan, pp. 292–300. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
23.
Barth, F.1965. Political leadership among the Swat Pathans. London: Athlone Press .
24.
Bashir, E.1996. The areal position of Khowar: South Asian and other affinities . In E. Bashir and Israruddin , eds, Proceedings of the second international Hindu Kush cultural conference. Karachi: Oxford University Press.
25.
Bayly, C.1998. Origins of nationality in South Asia: Patriotism and ethical government in the making of modern India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press .
26.
Biddulph . 1972 [1880]. Tribes of the Hindu Kush. Lahore: Ali Kamran .
27.
Brenner, S.1996. Reconstructing self and society: Javanese Muslim women and ‘the veil’ .American ethnologist23, 4: 673–97 .
28.
Bryant, R .2005. The soul danced into the body: Nation and improvisation in Istanbul . American ethnologist32, 2: 222–38 .
29.
Cohn, B.1987. An anthropologist among the historians. New Delhi: Oxford University Press .
30.
Cook, Michael . 2001. Commanding right and forbidding wrong in Islam. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
31.
Daftary, F.1990. The Ismailis: Their history and doctrines. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
32.
Devji, F.2005. Landscapes of the jihad: Militancy, morality, modernity. London: Hurst and Co .
33.
Dumont, L.1980 [1966]. Homo hierarchicus: The caste system and its implications. Chicago: University of Chicago Press .
34.
Eggert, P.1990. Die Fruhere socialordnung Moolkhos und Turkhos (Chitral). Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GMBH .
35.
Eickelman, D. and J. Piscatori . 1996. Muslim politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press .
36.
Gaffney, P.1994. The Prophet's pulpit: Islamic preaching in contemporary Egypt. Berkeley and Los Angeles: California University Press .
37.
Gilsenan, M.1983. Recognizing Islam. London: Croom and Helm .
38.
Grima, B.1992. The performance of emotion among Paxtun women. Austin: University of Texas Press .
39.
Hansen, T.1999. The saffron wave: Democracy and Hindu nationalism in modern India. Princeton: Princeton University Press .
40.
Hansen, T.2001. Wages of violence: Naming and identity in postcolonial Bombay. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press .
41.
Henkel, H.2005. Between belief and unbelief in the performance of salāt’: Meaning and efficacy of a Muslim ritual . Journal of the Royal anthropological institute (n.s.) 11, 3: 487–507 .
42.
Hirschkind, C.1997. What is political Islam?Middle East report27, 4: 12–14 .
43.
Hirschkind, C.2001. The ethics of listening: Cassette sermon audition in contemporary Cairo . American ethnologist28, 3: 623–49 .
44.
Howe, L.2001. Hinduism and hierarchy in Bali. Oxford: James Currey .
45.
Jaffrelot, C. , ed. 2002. Pakistan: Nationalism without a nation. London: Zed Books .
46.
Jaffrelot, C.2003. India's silent revolution: The rise of the lower castes in north India. London: Hurst and Co.
47.
Jalal, A.1989. The state of martial rule: The origins of Pakistan's political economy of defence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
48.
Jalal, A .1995. Democracy and authoritarianism in South Asia: A comparative and historical perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
49.
Kepel, G.2002. Jihad: The trail of political Islam. London and New York: I.B. Tauris .
50.
Kurin, R.1984. Morality, personhood and exemplary life: Popular conceptions of Muslims in paradise. In B. Metcalf , ed., Moral conduct and authority: The place of Adab in South Asian Islam, pp. 196–220. Berkeley: University of California Press .
51.
Kurin, R.1986. Islamization: A view from the countryside. In A. Weiss , ed., Islamic reassertion in Pakistan: The application of Islamic laws in a modern state, pp. 115–28. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press .
52.
Lambek, M.1990. Certain knowledge, contestable authority: Power and practice on the Islamic periphery . American ethnologist17, 1: 23–40 .
53.
Lapidus, I.1984. Knowledge, virtue and action: The classical Muslim conception of adab and the nature of religious fulfilment in Islam. In B. Metcalf , ed., Moral conduct and authority: The place of Adab in South Asian Islam, pp. 38–61. Berkeley: University of California Press.
54.
Lerche, J.1995. Is bonded labour a bounded category? Reconceptualising agrarian conflict in India . Journal of peasant studies22, 2: 484–515 .
55.
Lindholm, C.1982. Generosity and jealousy: The Swat Pukhtun of northern Pakistan. Columbia: Columbia University Press .
56.
Lindholm, C.1996. Frontier perspectives: Essays in comparative anthropology. Oxford and Karachi: Oxford University Press .
57.
Mahmood, S.2005. Politics of piety: The Islamic revival and the feminist subject. Princeton: Princeton University Press .
58.
Marsden, M.2005. Living Islam: Muslim religious experience in Pakistan's North-West Frontier. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
59.
Marsden, M. Forthcoming. Love and elopement in northern Pakistan . Journal of the royal anthropological institute.
60.
Marsden, M. Unpublished manuscript. Islam's contractors: Women, politics and Islam-ism in northern Pakistan.
61.
Mckenna, T.1998. Muslim rulers and rebels: Everyday politics and armed separatism in the southern Philippines. Berkeley: University of California Press .
62.
Meeker, M.2002. A nation of empire: The Ottoman legacy of Turkish empire. Berkeley: University of California Press .
63.
Mendelsohn, O.1993. The transformation of authority in rural India . Modern Asian studies27, 4: 805–42 .
64.
Metcalf, B.1982. Islamic revival in British India: Deoband, 1860–1900. Berkeley: University of California Press .
65.
Metcalf, B . ed. 1984. Moral conduct and authority: The place of Adab in South Asian Islam. Berkeley: University of California Press .
66.
Metcalf, B.2004. Islamic contestations: Essays on Muslims in India and Pakistan. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
67.
Michelutti, L.2004. ‘We (Yadavs) are a caste of politicians’: Caste and modern politics in a North Indian town . Contributions to Indian sociology (n.s.) 38, 3: 43–72 .
68.
Milton, K. and M. Svašek , eds. 2005. Mixed emotions: Anthropological studies of feeling. Oxford: Berg .
69.
Mines, M.1975. Islamisation and Muslim ethnicity in south India . Man10, 3: 404–19 .
70.
Nasr, S.V.R.1994. The vanguard of the Islamic revolution: The Jama'at-i-Islami of Pakistan. Berkeley: California University Press .
71.
Nasr, S.V.R.2000. The rise of Sunni militancy in Pakistan: The changing role of Islamism and the ulama in society and politics . Modern Asian studies34, 1: 139–80 .
72.
Nasr, S.V.R.2002a. Islamic leviathan: Islam and the making of state power. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
73.
Nasr, S.V.R.2002b. The Iranian revolution and changes in Islamism in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. In N. Keddie , R. Matthee and R.P. Matthee , eds, Iran and the surrounding world: Interactions in culture and cultural politics. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press .
74.
Nasr, S.V.R.2005. National identities and the India–Pakistan conflict. In T. Paul , ed., The India-Pakistan conflict: An enduring rivalry, pp. 178–201. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
75.
Nugent, S. and C. Shore , eds. 2002. Elite cultures: Anthropological perspectives. Routledge: London and New York .
76.
O'Brien, D.J.T.1895. Grammar and vocabulary of the Khowar dialect (Chitrali) with introductory sketch of the country and people. Lahore: Civil and Military Gazette Press .
77.
Parkes, P.1996. Indigenous polo and the politics of regional identity. In J. MacClancy , ed., Sport, identity and ethnicity, pp. 43–67. Oxford: Berg .
78.
Parkes, P.2001. Alternative social structures and foster relations in the Hindu Kush: Milk kinship and tributary alliance in former mountain kingdoms of northern Pakistan . Comparative studies in society and history43, 1: 4–36 .
79.
Peletz, Michael . 2002. Islamic modern: Religious courts and cultural politics in Malaysia. Princeton: Princeton University Press .
80.
Pirzada, S.A.S.2000. The politics of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam in Pakistan, 1971–1977. Karachi: Oxford University Press .
81.
Rashid, A.2000. Taliban: Islam, oil and the new great game in central Asia. London and New York: I.B. Tauris .
82.
Rashid, A.2002. Jihad: The rise of militant Islam in central Asia. New Haven and London: Yale University Press .
83.
Reddy, W.R.2001. The navigation of feeling: A framework for the study of emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
84.
Robertson, G.S.1899. Chitral: The story of a minor siege. London: Methuen .
85.
Robinson, F.2001. The ‘Ulama of Firangi Mahall and Islamic culture in South Asia. London: Hurst and Co .
86.
Roy, O.1994. The failure of political Islam. London: I.B. Tauris .
87.
Roy, O.2004. Globalized Islam. London: Hurst and Co.
88.
Ruud, A.E.2001. Talking dirty about politics: A view from a Bengal village. In C. Fuller and V. Benei , eds, The everyday state and society in modern India, pp. 115–36. London: Hurst and Co.
89.
Samad, Y.1995. A nation in turmoil: Nationalism and ethnicity in Pakistan, 1937–1948. Karachi: Oxford University Press .
90.
Sanyal, U.1996. Devotional Islam and politics in British India: Ahmed Riza Khan Barelwi and his movement, 1870–1920. New Delhi: Oxford University Press .
91.
Schomberg, R.C.F.1935. Between the Oxus and the Indus. London: Hopkinson .
92.
Schomberg, R.C.F.1938. Kafirs and glaciers: Travels in Chitral. London: Hopkinson .
93.
Soares, B.2005. Islam and the prayer economy: History and authority in a Malian town. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press .
94.
Sökefeld, M.1999. Debating self, identity, and culture in anthropology . Current anthropology40, 4: 417–47 .
95.
Sökefeld, M.2003. Selves and others: Representing multiplicities of difference in Gilgit and northern areas of Pakistan. In P. Dollfus and M. Lecomte-Tilouine , eds, Ethnic revival and religious turmoil: Identities and representations in the Himalayas, pp. 207–338. New Delhi: Oxford University Press .
96.
Sökefeld, M.2006. From colonialism to postcolonial colonialism: Changing modes of domination in the northern areas of Pakistan . Journal of Asian studies64, 4: 939–74 .
97.
Srivastava, S.1998. Constructing post-colonial India: National identity and the Doon school. London and New York: Routledge .
98.
Staley, J.1982. Words for my brother: Travels between the Hindu-Kush and the Himalayas. Karachi: Oxford University Press .
99.
Starrett, Gregory . 1998. Putting Islam to work: Education, politics, and religious transformation in Egypt. Berkeley: University of California Press .
100.
Svašek , M.2002. The politics of emotion: Emotional discourses and displays in post cold-war context . Focaal: The European journal of anthropology39: 9–27 .
101.
Tayob, A. 2006 Liberal Islam: Between texts and its modern condition . International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World Review18: 18–19 .
102.
Verkaaik, O.2004. Migrants and militants: Fun and urban violence in Pakistan. Princeton: Princeton University Press .
103.
Werbner, P.2003. Pilgrims of love: The anthropology of a global Sufi cult. London: Hurst and Co.
104.
White, J.2002. Islamist mobilisation in Turkey: A study in vernacular politics. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press .
105.
Zaidi, A.2003. Continuity rather than change: Elections in 2002. In A. Zaidi , ed., Continuity and change: Socio-political and institutional dynamics in Pakistan, pp. 175–80. Karachi: City Press .
106.
Zaman, Q.2002. The ulama in contemporary Islam: Custodians of change. Princeton: Princeton University Press .
