Lines in Water: Religious Boundaries in South Asia

5. The Living Tradition of Ismaili Ginans: Negotiating Cultures in Poetry and Performance

≈ 125 5 The Living Tradition of Ismaili Ginans Negotiating Cultures in Poetry and Performance Tazim R. Kassam In 1908, His Highness Sultan Muhammad Shah, Aga Khan III, the fortyeighth Imam of Ismaili Muslims, won a famous lawsuit that has come to be called the “Haji Bibi case.” The case had to do with property that he claimed belonged to him and his community. It hinged on the interpretation of a lengthy ginan (“a song full of religious knowledge or wisdom”) known as the Das Avatar, one of the major granths or compilations of ginans sung by the Satpanth Khojas, as the Ismaili Muslims were known at that time. The lawsuit ruled that his Khoja followers were not Hindus or Sunni Muslims or Twelver Shi‘a Muslims, but Ismaili Shi‘a Muslims who believed their living Imam to be His Highness Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, Aga Khan III, the direct descendent of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, the cousin and son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad.1 I owe my deepest gratitude to my father, whose unique recitation and knowledge of ginans are a constant source of inspiration. I thank Zayn Kassam and Corinne Dempsey for their generous and insightful comments. Eliza Kent’s compassion, persistence, clarity, careful reading, and suggestions made writing this chapter possible. All errors and defects are mine. My translations of ginans are reprinted with permission of State University of New York Press. 1. The Khoja Case, 1866, a paraphrase, typescript, Ismailia Association, Quebec. 126 | Porous Boundaries In 1957, almost a century and a half later, Aga Khan III’s great-grandson , His Highness Prince Karim al-Husayni, Aga Khan IV, acceded to the throne of Imamat as the forty-ninth Imam. Soon after he assumed office, the recitation of the Das Avatar was censored and taken out of circulation because, as Dominique-Sila Khan points out, it “was a formula which seems to imply the identification of the Imam with the Supreme God” (2003, 145; see also Khan 1997). At the same time, however, in a farman (guidance or decree) given to his followers in Dacca in 1960, Aga Khan IV, recognizing the significance of ginans in the religious life of his Satpanth Ismaili followers, described them as a “wonderful tradition” that must be continued or else an important part of the community’s past would be lost (Ginan-e-Sharif n.d., iii–v). This chapter explores the complex nature of these devotional and didactic hymns that, although still a living tradition, acquired an ambiguous and ambivalent status in the decades after that 1960 farman and whose recitation is now strictly regulated if not proscribed in the daily ritual prayers of the Ismaili Muslims. It also looks at the descriptive uses of the term syncretism as applied to “mixtures” or “mixed traditions” of religious ideas, specifically the ginans.2 Finally, to appreciate the polyvalent richness of the ginans, it illustrates how my father, who is widely known and admired for his passionate recitation of ginans has negotiated these changes by way of the ginan tradition itself. His life has spanned the authority of both Imams—Sultan Muhammad Shah, Aga Khan III, and Shah Karim al-Husayni, Aga Khan IV.3 2. In addition to the discussion of the diverse and often divergent usage of this term in this essay, see Kassam 1994; Pye 1972; Roy 1983; Shaw and Charles 1994; and Kent’s chapter in this volume. 3. It is important to note that in addition to being a scholar of ginans, as a member of the Ismaili community, I also have direct personal knowledge of the ginan tradition, its performance in daily rituals, and the changes to its status this past century. Given the very limited access given to this literature, few non-Ismaili scholars have written on ginans (for exceptions, see Daftary 1990 and Ivanow 1948). All the major studies have been authored or coauthored by Ismailis: see Asani 2002; Esmail 2002; Kassam 1995; Kassam and Mallison 2008; Moir and Shackle 1992; Nanji 1978. Living Tradition of Ismaili Ginans | 127 I The British court’s ruling in the Haji Bibi case in 1908 was a pivotal moment in the premodern history of the Satpanth Khojas on the Indian subcontinent . Not only did it establish the third Aga Khan’s right to the properties in question, but it effectively defined the boundaries of the religious identity of the Satpanth Khojas and validated the...