Faithful Stories: Exploring Shrine Veneration in Bangladesh in A New Light An Anthropological Study

Abstract

This research study looks into shrines and shrine veneration in Bangladesh in its current context. Shrine veneration as a social practice within South Asia and elsewhere has been controversial within the religious revivalist discourse for quite some time. The rising religious reforms under revivalism and the impacts of globalization have had lasting effects on the perception and rituals of shrine veneration in Bangladesh today. Moving beyond the political and religious framework and focusing on the ordinary individuals, especially women, who continue to venerate shrines, I study the intimate relationship between women and their piety, belief in Sufi saints, and the act of making sacred vows within shrine Sufi shrines' spaces from a post-piety-turn and everyday Islam framework in the Anthropology of Islam. I show that shrine spaces are not only places to practice spiritual attainment but also places of strength that foster resistance against the inherent patriarchal and structural inequality, offer refuge and healing, allow community engagements, and acquire religious knowledge that does not lead them astray from their religion but strengthens it. Shrine veneration plays a crucial role in upholding a dying practice and giving space where women continue to overcome their struggles in an agentive way, contributing to the uniform community morale in a rapidly reforming context. Women portrayed here bring forth contested piety. They focus on the self and self-transformation to which shrine veneration significantly contributes. Some participants doubt their continuation of shrine veneration. In contrast, some participants transform or change their way of veneration due to evolving social discourse and the rising social stigma surrounding it. Therefore, moments of contestation within their pious selves come and go. Though a community-heavy ritual, shrine veneration has become a private and individual journey of piety and self-discipline.