| Piro and the Gulabdasis: Gender, Sect, and Society in Punjab UK Edition Contributor(s): Malhotra, Anshu (Author) |
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ISBN: 0199468184 ISBN-13: 9780199468188 Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA OUR PRICE: $47.45 Product Type: Hardcover Published: May 2017 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Religion | Sikhism - History | Women - Religion | Islam - History |
| Dewey: 294.685 |
| LCCN: 2016362482 |
| Physical Information: 1.4" H x 5.9" W x 8.8" (1.27 lbs) 408 pages |
| Themes: - Sex & Gender - Feminine - Religious Orientation - Islamic - Cultural Region - Asian |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The middle decades of the nineteenth century in Punjab were a time of the disintegrating Sikh empire and an emerging colonial one. Situating her study in this turbulent time, Anshu Malhotra delves into the tumultuous life of a hitherto unknown woman, Piro, and her little-known sect, the Gulabdasis. Piro's forceful autobiographical narrative knits a fanciful tale of abduction and redemption, while also claiming agency over her life. Piro's is the extraordinary voice of a low-caste Muslim and a former prostitute, who reinvents her life as an acolyte in a heterodox sect. Malhotra argues for the relevance of such a voice for our cultural anchoring and empowering politics. Piro's remarkable poetry deploys bhakti imaginary in exceptional ways, demonstrating how it enriched the lives of women and low castes. Malhotra's work is also a pioneering study of the afterlife of Piro and the Gulabdasis, highlighting the cultural scripts that inform the stories that we tell and the templates that renew the tales we fabricate. |