[Reader-list] Muslim Popular Devotional Art [posting #2]

[Yousuf Saeed]

Sarai Fellowship 2004, posting No.2: Syncretism in the
Popular Art of Muslim Religious Posters in North
India: Iconic Devotion in an Iconoclastic Religion

For those who missed the first posting: this project
seeks to collect the contemporary religious posters
and calendar art, depicting Muslim themes, mostly in
north India, and analyze their content, focusing on
the symbols of multi-faith or composite culture,
besides studying briefly the industry and the artists
who manufacture and sell them, the devotees who buy
them, the milieu where they are adorned, and the
reverence they evoke.

This posting is simply one section of the research and
may not represent the holistic picture or the
chronological sequence of the findings. More details,
updates and a colourful poster gallery of this project
can be seen at the website: 
http://www.alif-india.com/popart


Sacred Art as Commodity:
Many buyers of the Muslim posters seem to be the
devout pilgrims visiting large shrines from small
towns and villages. They embark on these lesser
pilgrimages, covering in one trip many tombs of saints
such as Nizamuddin Aulia at Delhi or Khwaja Moinuddin
Chishti at Ajmer, especially during the Urs (death
anniversary) celebrations, and need to take home some
souvenirs from these places. What better gift than a
religious poster that is bright and colourful, has
religious as well as decorative value, and helps them
(and other local devotees) relate to the big shrine
and its fervour while being at home. Some people buy
the posters at the time of major festivals such as Eid
or Ramazan, to decorate a newly painted house or a
shop (in the same way as many Hindus do around
Diwali). 

Interestingly, the artists, the manufacturers, and the
sellers of these images are not all necessarily
Muslims. The publishers are often those
business-owners who deal with posters/calendars of
almost all religions irrespective of their own faith.
One can easily spot the byline of the printing
press/manufacturer in one corner of a poster. A
‘Brijbasi’ or a ‘Khanna’, for instance, print many of
the Muslim posters available in north India. Many
paintings have been signed by artists such as a
‘Balkrishna’, a ‘Raja’ or a ‘Swarup’. But the pathos
and the devotion portrayed in some of them could not
have been drawn by someone other than a true devotee.
What needs to be explored is the role of the
commissioning person, the artist, the conceptualizer,
the approver, the printer, and finally the
distributor/wholesaler in the entire process of the
image manufacture. It seems that most of these
publishers do not really care which religion they
cater to, as long as their product augments their
client’s devotion, and the spending power. 

So far, one has never heard of any complaint or a
blasphemous charge from the orthodox Muslim clergy
about these graphic depictions, some of which, in
reality can look rather provocative to the purists. Is
it because these images circulate only amongst a
certain lower middle class or rural Muslims, whose
faith may be more ‘pantheistic’ and icon-dependent,
compared to their elite/urban brethren who believe in
a purely monotheistic and iconoclastic faith? It is
surprising that such evocative images have so far
escaped the attention of the Muslim theologians who
are known otherwise to spend long time and effort in
debating and vetting the minutest details of religious
practice. Do they overlook these posters simply as
being part of the larger ‘biddati’ culture – to be
shunned as unIslamic? Or, are the market forces too
powerful to be affected the purists?

Besides posters and calendars, there are countless
other examples of sacred visual depiction with Muslim
themes, in forms such as wall paintings, architectural
motifs, ritual objects, icons and symbols, some of
which may be shunned by the orthodox as idolatry. In
the market, the religious posters and calendars share
space with many industry-produced devotional items,
such as shiny stickers, 3D images, framed and
gold-plated pictures, revolving lampshades, key
chains, clocks and electronic gizmos, all with
religious icons. Then there are certain items of
religious utility such as prayer mats, rosaries,
talismans, prayer timetables, and many others, which
are not devoid of the religious iconography or local
aesthetics. Some of these items may even be imports
from the Arab countries or their cheap local replicas.

As an integral part of this burgeoning mass culture,
one cannot ignore the popular music cassettes and the
entire religious music industry of south Asia.
Traditionally, India’s Muslim devotional music has
meant Qawwalis, naats (Prophet’s praise), religious
folklore, and moral narratives in popular music
format. Today’s Qawwalis and other devotional songs
are inspired by western tunes, synthesizers, Bollywood
music and a general urban kitsch, and evolve out of
the same collective creative process that produces the
devotional posters. In fact, some of the stories and
legends of the local saints depicted in the posters
are also narrated in the cassettes in a similar
spirit. This pop-devotional music is consumed by the
same devotees who buy/use the posters and calendars.
Therefore the two are inseparable while making a study
of one of them.

Focus of this Study:
Although the abovementioned commodities form a part of
the complex Muslim popular culture in India and need
to be studied together, one also needs to narrow down
the focus of this study. Hence we hope to concentrate
largely on the printed posters meant to adorn the
walls, bearing themes that are purely Islamic or
multi-faith with some elements of Muslim folklore. The
original images should have been hand-painted by
traditional or semi-traditional artists/industry from
India/south Asia, in a folk or popular art style. It
can be a new image as long as it carries the
traditional composite fervour. 

What is being avoided are full photographs and new
images or image parts designed on a computer, or
images exhibiting an influence of Arab’s sanitized
Islam, devoid of any indigenous veneration. Though
these are being surveyed briefly, to see if they
reflect the trend of sanitization of faith amongst the
faithful, and what space they share with the
indigenous posters on a wall. 

Amongst the posters/calendars/images collected so far
by me, around 60 of them are unique with Muslim or
multi-faith themes. In the city of Delhi, the
religious posters maybe available at hundreds of
places, but the ones with the focus of our study were
picked up mostly from the following locations (most of
the vendors being Muslim!):

- Nizamuddin area (main Mathura Road as well as inside
the dargah complex)
- Darya Ganj (main Subhash Marg)
- Meena Bazar (near Jama Masjid)
- Chandni Chowk bazar
- Connaught Circus (near Madras Hotel)
- Sadar Bazar (wholesale shops of the posters)

This is just an indicative list – I am still on the
lookout for newer places in Delhi. Of course, as part
of this project, I am supposed to visit a couple of
other towns such as Ajmer, Lucknow and smaller places
nearby them, which would commence in a few weeks. I
also remember seeing many interesting images in Mumbai
(around Haji Ali) and in Hyderabad – but I have to
figure out how to put these faraway places within my
itinerary. I would request the members of this list
and other Sarai fellows to keep a look out for such
images and inform me – better still buy them for me if
you can (I will pay – they cost between Rs.5 and
Rs.30). Duplication is no problem since I would in any
case need a couple of copies of the same image for
archival purposes.

Thank you.

Yousuf Saeed
ysaeed7 at yahoo.com

My first posting of this project can be seen at:
http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2004-January/003368.html




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