The Sufi Shrines of Gwalior City: Communal Sensibilities and the Accessible Exotic under Hindu Rule

Abstract

O rashly, as if asserting its claims on the place, the unpretentious shrine to Mir Badshah abuts the side of an imposing bank building in the main bazaar of Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, a predominantly Hindu city of about nine hundred thousand?the former capital of an important princely state.1 Mir Badshah seems to have been a local Muslim saint of the nineteenth century, but he has left little historical record, either written or oral. Nevertheless, despite the historical ephemerality of the saint himself, his shrine is very active?visited by local merchants before they open their shops, crowded during weekly performances of the rhythmic Sufi devotional music called qawwali, and taking over much of the bazaar during a five-day annual festival with invited qawwals of national reputation. And crucially for the shrine's success?since only 6 or 7 percent of Gwalior's population is Muslim?the vast majority of its visitors are Hindu.