Sufism and Liberation across the Indo-Afghan Border: 1880-1928

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Main author: Caron, James
Format: Journal Article           
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id eprints-21861
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
description How do we understand links between sufism and pro-egalitarian revolutionary activism in the early twentieth century; and how did upland compositions of self and community help constitute revolutionary activism in South Asia more broadly? Using Pashto poetry as my archive I integrate a history of radical egalitarian thought and political practice to a holistic study of self-making; of imperial spatiality; and of shifting gradients of power in the regions between Kabul and Punjab. Amid a chaotic rise of new practices of imperial and monarchic hegemony around the turn of the twentieth century, I argue, older sedimentations of ‘devotee selfhood’ in the high valleys of eastern Afghanistan gave rise, in social spaces preserved by self-reflexive poetic practice and circulation, to conscious desires for avoidance of all forms of hierarchy or sovereignty, in favour of a horizontal politics of reciprocity. Such inchoate drives for freedom later played a role in constituting anti-statist revolutionary subjectivities across great geographical and social distance. From upland sufi roots they rippled outward to intersect with the work of transnational socialist and anti-imperialist militants in Indian nationalist circles too; and even influenced scholars at the heart of the nascent Afghan nation-state.
format Journal Article
author Caron, James
author_facet Caron, James
authorStr Caron, James
author_letter Caron, James
title Sufism and Liberation across the Indo-Afghan Border: 1880-1928
publisher Taylor and Francis
publishDate 2016
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/21861/

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