[Reader-list] Update on Sarai fellowship: Religious pop art

[Yousuf]

Friends
I hope you remember my postings of last year under the
Sarai fellowship 2004, entitled “Syncretism in the
Popular Religious Art of Indian Muslims”, of which we
also set up a small exhibit of posters at Sarai/CSDS
in August 2004. Here are some interesting updates and
news on how my research has gone places since its
humble beginning at Sarai last year.

For those not familiar with my work on this subject, I
would recommend details on the website
www.alif-india.com/popart which I designed during the
fellowship.

(1) As you know the postings at Sarai are being read
by hundreds of people across the world. My postings,
in particular, were followed by a scholar at an
organization called ISIM (International Institute for
the Study of Islam in the Modern World) at Leiden, The
Netherlands. ISIM was planning an international
workshop on the themes of visual culture and the
politics of archaeology and heritage in context of
Islamic world, and contacted me to enquire if I would
like to present a paper on the theme of Muslim popular
devotional art in their workshop to be held this year
in Amsterdam. I of course agreed to it.

(2) As part of another international fellowship, I
have been spending some time (over 5 months so far) in
Pakistan this year. Although the current research does
not involve the visual arts (it’s about music in
Pakistan), I could not ignore the colourful variety of
religious posters available on the streets of Lahore
and Karachi. Hence I collected some to add to my
growing archive of religious calendar art, which I can
call South Asian now. You may find some examples on
the website. But the variety of religious images
available in Pakistan defies many stereotypes I had
about the orthodoxy and iconoclasm of this country.
Two excerpts from a forthcoming essay on this are
given at the bottom of this mail. 

(3) So finally, the ISIM workshop that I mentioned
above, took place in Amsterdam on 2-3 September 2005
and I visited The Netherlands to attend it. The
workshop was called “InVisible Histories: The Politics
of Placing the Past”, and was held in the premises of
the Amsterdam University, in the picturesque
canal-house downtown of this Dutch city. I read a
paper called “the Contemporary Challenges to Pluralism
in the Popular Devotional Art of South Asian Muslims”,
along with an extensive slide show of the posters.
Many other interesting papers (with illustrations)
were read out by scholars from a wide-range of places
including the US, UK, Egypt, and Beirut. More details
about the workshop are available at www.isim.nl (I am
writing an essay based on my research, to be published
in the next issue of the ISIM Review).

(4) In December this year, I hope to participate in a
“Conference on the Religions and Cultures in the Indic
Civilization”, organized by the Indic Studies Network,
CSDS, New Delhi, and read a paper about my subject.

(5) I also made a presentation about “the popular
religious art and syncretic culture of south Asia” to
the students of the Centre for Peace and Conflict
Resolution, Jamia Millia University, New Delhi, in
September 2004. 

Excerpts about Pakistani images:

“
the popular art of cut-and-paste collages in the
devotional prints seems to have acquired ultimate
heights in Pakistan’s poster industry. A large number
of new posters, collected mainly on the streets of
Lahore and some in Karachi, seem to differ from those
printed in India, in many ways, and deserve a special
mention. An artist’s quest for putting maximum
attributes about a saint and his shrine within a frame
using minimum effort, results in a collage where an
arch and a dome come from separate faded photos, the
saint’s person comes from an old painting, the trees
and hills are cut out from a Swiss landscape, the lion
from a wildlife magazine, and the diyas or lamps from
a Hindu poster. Further additions are the pictures of
Mecca and Medina, the Arabic inscriptions and a
crescent and star that may have been painted by the
artist to add some originality.”

“A surprising element in many posters printed in
Pakistan today, is the unhindered depiction of the
personages of saints, something the Indian artists
have been reluctant about. In many posters printed in
Lahore, one can prominently see what do saints like
Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer, Baba Farid of
Pakpattan, and many others look like according to the
artist. Since these portraits have not been seen in
India, I wonder if they have originated in Pakistan. A
large poster found very commonly in Pakistani towns is
a mega photo collage of almost all Muslim saints
revered in south Asia, from Gausul Azam of Baghdad to
some 20th century sajjade-nasheens (keepers of Sufi
shrines), represented by mug shots cut out from photos
and paintings, each with a number, relating to an
index of names given in the same frame.”

Meanwhile, my collection and the research on this
subject continues and its updates can be seen at the
site: http://www.alif-india.com/popart 

Yousuf Saeed


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