A devadasi who initially resisted sex work, later comes to regard it as sacred, and pushes daughters to it. A jute factory employee who leaves to live in a cremation ground as a tantric. A nun who plucks her hair herself and feels even watching her unwell friend die is too more attachment than her religion permits. Hitherto chroniclers to the mighty Mughals, William Dalrymple delves into esoteric religious practices from the fringes of India in Nine Lives. Though he plans a return to the Mughals with abook on the last of the great Mughals,Aurangzeb. These tales from his travels across the subcontinent yield oft-overlooked traditions and tales of India?s pluralism, finds Suman Tarafdar.
Why did you choose to do a book on Indian religions? Any reason you took nine people?
Well, this book is my slimmest to date, not necessarily a bad thing in the view of many readers. I did a series on Indian religions for the BBC in 1997, and got commissioned to write a book on it. For 15 years I have been trying to find a way to deal with the subject, which does not fall into the usual pitfalls of being Orientalist or uncritically adoring or Allen Ginzberg-ish. It contains all sorts of stuff, which is very close to my heart. I realised these essays would be stronger if focused on a single individual, rather than focus on an institution or a group of people. You could tell the whole story of devadasis through one person?s story. The nine people each represent a different religious traditions.
What did the research for this book involve?
For this book, I revisited all the people I went back to the Bauls, the Sufis. Though I have try to exclude myself as much as possible from the narrative. There is such a terrible record of westerners misinterpreting eastern religions by imposing their prejudices in the case of missionaries or their aspirations and hopes and their disgruntlement with Western religions, with Christianity, as in the case of Madame Blavatsky. What was lovely was traveling after ten years in the archives! I had such a nice time going to the biggest gathering of Tantric madmen in the world etc. Writing about these people opened up a while variety of different Indias. I discovered the humanity of these people, who were regarded as a bit of a freak show. Naga sadhus are not seen as human beings ? instead with the massive dreadlocks representing an ancient tradition. I spent time with these people, discovering the way they were drawn to these traditions. While some stories here are unquestionably exotic and fringe, I tried to give them humanity, a context. This is not a book about a Westerner seeking a guru. This is a book trying to understand the more extreme forms of religion. And they are randomly chosen. I love Baul music. I was amazed by Theyyam make up. What I hope I have done is I have taken the exotic and made it human, central, living. This is an India that is there, that is often written off in the cities. One is familiar with the idea of many of the cults the protagonists , but these books provides a human context.
How do people from a middle class background end up like this? Did you find differences in their backgrounds ?
A surprising number came from middle class backgrounds. And things have gone wrong ? tragedies have intervened? Tapan and Manisha, who are some of the wildest characters, are from the middle class. The skull feeder?s kid is an ophthalmologist in New Jersey. There is no one pattern in this book.
How do you view the diversity in Indian religious practices?
It is impossible to answer that at one go. I would have to say it is pluralism. Currently, there is a homegenising spirit in both Hindusim and Islam. There is a ramification of Hinduism ? a centralised homogenised cult, which is imposing itself on the village India. Local village goddesses, Tantric devis ? those are dying out. Sacrifices have been dying out even in the time I have been in India. The Sanskritisation of India is going on at a pace as is the desyncretisation of Hinduism.
Where earlier a Sufi shrine would attract followers from both sides, today one finds a devi cult has become Hindu, maybe converted to a mainstream goddess like Kali. In Islam, the local saints are being steamrolled by Wahabi textual Islam based on a narrow interpretation of Islam. This is not new, has been going on at pace for a 100 years, with the rise of the Western education.
That said, an amazing amount of local religion survive. Strange transformations have taken place. Now at Theyyam shrines, there are videos and DVDs of popular versions, even soap operas on television. Successful shrine develop a video iconography.
Do you see a future for the people you have described and their ways of life?
Some of these are flourishing, others are dying out. In the bhopa story, I have worked with Mohan Bhopa, and we had a double act. We were at Jaipur last year, and then he died soon after. With him went his version of the epic. It?s a terrible loss. Others face an uncertain future. Who knows what awaits the Sufis in Pakistan. Theyyam is interesting, as in the father?s time, it looked like it was dying out, but now both the CPM and the RSS have appropriated Theyyam. For different reasons, both are supporting this, and belatedly, Theyyam is having a revival. At the shrine of Shah Abdul Latif, there is a similar stall selling DVDs. Exceptional cults become co-opted in the modern.
Is the audience for this book international? Also can this connect to the young Indian?
When I write this book, I vaguely have in mind an Indophile, Western audience. But few Indians too know about a lot of these people. Few know the Theyyam. Bengalis may know about bauls, but Punjabis do not. This is the space that allows me to exist. As for The Last Mughal, I thought a lot of Delhi people would know about Ghalib, but they didn?t. I do not have a reader in mind and I do not have to explain everything. The educated outsider that I seem to write works well for the desis as well. I have never been accused of explaining too much to desis. Modern India is in the book too. The idol maker?s son wants to go to a computer college. The reception to the book has good so far in India. There?s only one story which is extreme, which is the Tarapith (tantric) story.
