In this Book
- In Amma's Healing Room: Gender and Vernacular Islam in South India
- Book
- 2006
- Published by: Indiana University Press
"[I]t is extremely salubrious to see the ways Islam works in the lives of ordinary people who are not politicized in their religious lives. . . . No other book on South Asia has material like this." —Ann Grodzins Gold
In Amma's Healing Room is a compelling study of the life and thought of a female Muslim spiritual healer in Hyderabad, South India. Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger describes Amma's practice as a form of vernacular Islam arising in a particular locality, one in which the boundaries between Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity are fluid. In the "healing room," Amma meets a diverse clientele that includes men and women, Muslim, Hindu, and Christian, of varied social backgrounds, who bring a wide range of physical, social, and psychological afflictions. Flueckiger collaborated closely with Amma and relates to her at different moments as daughter, disciple, and researcher. The result is a work of insight and compassion that challenges widely held views of religion and gender in India and reveals the creativity of a tradition often portrayed by Muslims and non-Muslims alike as singular and monolithic.
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- pp. xv-xvii
- 2. The Healing System
- pp. 64-105
- 3. Patient Narratives in the Healing Room
- pp. 106-135
- 4. Negotiating Gender in the Healing Room
- pp. 136-167
- 5. Religious Identities at the Crossroads
- pp. 168-200
- Select Bibliography
- pp. 275-284