Critical Analysis of “Folk Practices in Punjab” - by Douglas Tennant

Douglas Tennant B.Sc., B.A., CMMIII

Professor Doris Jakobsh

RS 202 – Sikhism: Origin and Development                 

Friday March 16, 2012

Critical Analysis of “Folk Practices in Punjab”

A critical analysis of the article Folk Practices in Punjab is presented in this essay.

Given the assortment of folk practices which I have been exposed to and made aware of from my sleepy little northern Ontario village of 800 souls it is intriguing to read about the much more diverse folk practices elucidated by Bhatti and which are explained as “challeng[ing one’s] urbanized sense and confuses the ethnographic observer regardless of …[their]…nationality, ethnicity, or other acquired positionality” (2004, 139). At first read, the article could be misunderstood as a child like ‘bunnies & lights’ story book. However, after a couple of double takes and drilling down one can appreciate that it is an introduction to East Punjab folk religion practices. The article serves to whet one’s appetite for more of an understanding of this fascinating aspect of the Punjabi religious arena which, as Bhatti points out, they do “not fit neatly into [the] reified categories… of the major organized religions” (2004, 140). Indeed, one does not expect to find them listed in the Sikh Reht Maryada for example. It would be interesting to read what a “traditional Sikh historian”, as alluded to by McLeod, (1994, 135) would have to say about them, if anything at all.

How has it come to pass that despite the “prohibitions and antagonisms [by mainstream religions such as Sikhism, and Islam that] the tradition of …[ancestor/grave]…worship has persisted, even increased” (Bhatti, 2004, 142)? Moreover, as Bhatti points out, ancestor worship is not just performed haphazardly from time to time; these folk religion holy sites are advertised by roadside billboards (2004, 142). In keeping with the sentiments in Roy’s article (Roy 2011, 98) one would expect roving bands of mainstream Sikhs and Muslims to be hiding in the bushes beside the advertisements ready to ambush unsuspecting pir mazar worshippers.

How is it that Bhatti and Roy’s relatively recent articles, 2004 and 2011 respectively, can both review somewhat similar topics, including such key areas as Punjabi related religions, culture, music, and caste and yet leave one with such a disparate perspective on those same topics. Bhatti’s article concludes in an abrupt and relatively benign manner by simply affirming that “folk practice and belief transform according to the contingencies of time and space, but continue to persist”. Meanwhile Roy, in her extraordinarily diverse article on Sikh caste and identity, comments in a rather ethereal manner on the “eruption of dera sects …[that] reveals deep chasms in the unified narrative of Sikh identity and calls attention to the erasure of multiple competing Sikh identity spaces in the production of the Sikh master-narrative.” (Roy 100). Moreover, in stark and incongruous contrast to wise counsel for a traveler regarding in which direction you see/hear a bird caw, (Bhatti 147), Roy alludes to future wars “over identity and religion” (100).

Religious boundaries are discussed in Bhatti’s 2004 article and it is stated that “[w]orship of Jathera…and other folk deities intersect boundaries of organized religion. It is common to see people belonging to different religious traditions attending a devi shrine such as Naina, or making a brief stop on the way home to ask a favour from a pir’s mazar (2004, 143). Why is this inter-religious community or cross boundary harmony happening? And, once again, in contrast to Bhatti, Roy maintains through Oberoi’s (1994) work, that after the nineteenth century “the construction of formal religions closed these overlapping boundaries through the instrument of script and destroyed the undivided memory of Punjab” (2011, 91). Indeed, while it might appear that formalised religious boundaries were closed off, Bhatti outlines that the Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus are comfortable in their own unique religious identities and their “religious complexity [in the form of a mixing of formal and folk religion practices] is a hallmark of Punjabi cultural identity, marked by the diversity and multiplicity of various traditions” (2004, 143). It would be interesting to conduct a more direct and thorough analysis of Bhatti’s work to that of Oberoi’s from a Sikh identity and formalised/folk religious ‘boundaries’ perspective.

Sikh identity in all of its Punjabi and diasporic forms and groups (Jakobsh 2011, 105) is a curious enigma. Is it purely religious based or one with more of a cultural foundation? Or, is it a middle of the road blend of the two aforementioned aspects or somewhere else in between? (Jakobsh 2012, Lecture 10b). “New cultural, diasporic, anthropological, and religious studies are emerging based on renewed interest in Sikhism” (Jakobsh 2011, 112). Into this mix one can obviously add in the various Punjabi regional folk practices expressed for us by Bhatti and those unknown ones that must surely still be practiced by Sikhs throughout the diaspora (Jakobsh 2012, Lecture 10a). Not wanting to ‘stir the pot’ as an outsider in a negative fashion, but what if a scholar were to expand upon Bhatti’s work and analyse how/if Punjabi folk religion practices could contribute to enhancing and improving what appears to be the already harmonious inter-religious relationships between members of the formalised religions? For as Bhatti points out, Punjabis of Sikh, Muslim, Christian, Jain, and Hindu traditions remain confident in their respective dominant (so they have less dominant ones?) religious communities and “their identity is not threatened by recognizing a whole field of power centers that emerge in different forms” (2004, 143).

Of course to delve into this field that much deeper would probably mean that the mainstream religions would have to formally recognise/admit that the folk religion practices exist. In, dare I say, stereotypical Sikh business like fashion, what if the 3HO were to investigate how they could ‘package and market’ the apparently thriving and cordial Punjabi folk religion practices and/or even incorporate them into their own practices?

                  

References

Bhatti, H.S., Daniel M. Michon. 2004. Folk Practices in Punjab. Journal of Punjab Studies. 11:2, pp. 139-154.

Jakobsh, Doris R. 2011. Sikhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai’I Press.

Jakobsh, Doris R. 13March 2012. RS #202- Sikhism: Origin and Development. The University of Waterloo. Lecture 10a.

Jakobsh, Doris R. 15 March 2012. RS #202- Sikhism: Origin and Development. The University of Waterloo. Lecture 10b.

Oberoi, H. 1994. The construction of religious boundaries: culture, identity and diversity in the Sikh tradition. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

McLeod, W.H. Autumn 1994. Cries of Outrage. History Versus Tradition in the Study of the Sikh Community. South Asia Research Vol. 14, No. 2:121-135.

Roy, Anjali Gera. 2011, Celebrating ‘the sons of Jats’: the return of tribes in the global village, South Asian Diaspora. 3:1, pp. 89-102.