Spatiality, Memory and Street Shrines of Amritsar
This paper explores semiotics at street shrines that foreground “popular” everyday faith and commemorative practices, like urs at Amritsar. These shrines are a blend of pre-partition and contemporary shrine practices, and hybridize identities in contemporary Punjab, imagined and negotiated through a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud
2018-05-01
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| Series: | South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/4559 |
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| _version_ | 1850125368537645056 |
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| author | Yogesh Snehi |
| author_facet | Yogesh Snehi |
| author_sort | Yogesh Snehi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper explores semiotics at street shrines that foreground “popular” everyday faith and commemorative practices, like urs at Amritsar. These shrines are a blend of pre-partition and contemporary shrine practices, and hybridize identities in contemporary Punjab, imagined and negotiated through an ongoing process of visitation, veneration and memorialization. Street shrines are thus embedded in the “long history of space” of Amritsar which are neither subject nor object but rather a social reality. These shrines are, therefore, sites of living memory and rupture both communal and nationalist narratives of the city space. I argue that rather than following the “sedimentary” theories of religious change we need to consider “popular” religion as overlapping layers of religious practices that delineate the lived and the everyday and spatialize faith practices in modern South Asia. I explore the possibilities to go beyond the neat boundaries of identities that have become comfortable meta-frames of contemporary historiographies. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-985cfd3b6d2b44ac9f252fca7be8a2fc |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1960-6060 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2018-05-01 |
| publisher | Centre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud |
| record_format | Article |
| series | South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-985cfd3b6d2b44ac9f252fca7be8a2fc2025-08-20T02:34:07ZengCentre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du SudSouth Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal1960-60602018-05-011810.4000/samaj.4559Spatiality, Memory and Street Shrines of AmritsarYogesh SnehiThis paper explores semiotics at street shrines that foreground “popular” everyday faith and commemorative practices, like urs at Amritsar. These shrines are a blend of pre-partition and contemporary shrine practices, and hybridize identities in contemporary Punjab, imagined and negotiated through an ongoing process of visitation, veneration and memorialization. Street shrines are thus embedded in the “long history of space” of Amritsar which are neither subject nor object but rather a social reality. These shrines are, therefore, sites of living memory and rupture both communal and nationalist narratives of the city space. I argue that rather than following the “sedimentary” theories of religious change we need to consider “popular” religion as overlapping layers of religious practices that delineate the lived and the everyday and spatialize faith practices in modern South Asia. I explore the possibilities to go beyond the neat boundaries of identities that have become comfortable meta-frames of contemporary historiographies.https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/4559memoryAmritsarspatialitypopular shrinesregions |
| spellingShingle | Yogesh Snehi Spatiality, Memory and Street Shrines of Amritsar South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal memory Amritsar spatiality popular shrines regions |
| title | Spatiality, Memory and Street Shrines of Amritsar |
| title_full | Spatiality, Memory and Street Shrines of Amritsar |
| title_fullStr | Spatiality, Memory and Street Shrines of Amritsar |
| title_full_unstemmed | Spatiality, Memory and Street Shrines of Amritsar |
| title_short | Spatiality, Memory and Street Shrines of Amritsar |
| title_sort | spatiality memory and street shrines of amritsar |
| topic | memory Amritsar spatiality popular shrines regions |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/4559 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT yogeshsnehi spatialitymemoryandstreetshrinesofamritsar |