Abstract
Social historians widely acknowledge Sufis’ influence on
social life in pre-1947 subcontinent. However, they have produced a
limited literature on Sufis’ relationship with professional and
marginalized communities (such as traders, artisans and unskilled
labour). Part of the problem is the lack of primary source-material
available on professional and marginalized communities and
methodological tools for constructing such a social history. Currently,
social history is facing challenges from other borderline disciplines and
social historians are turning their attention towards other types of
history. It is now even more important to devise a methodological
approach to explore Sufis’ social history which is already being
overlooked by social historians. This methodological essay proposes an
approach for studying the Sufi-artisan relationship in per-partition
Punjab by engaging Peter Berger’s concept of nomos and Robert
Darnton’s idea of “opacities” in folktales. Both these concepts intend
to grasp an insider’s views and can help the social and cultural
historians in making sense of a world which is separated by us because
of its pre-modern life and mentalité.
Hussain Ahmad Khan. (2015) Nomos and Opacities: an Approach for Studying the Sufi-Artisan Relationship in pre-partition Punjab, Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, Volume 52, Issue 1.
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