South Asia Archives - Ajam Media Collective

Long Form

Remembering to Forget: the Myth of the “Indian Style” of Persian Poetry

Every student of Persian literature learns a myth where Sabk-e Hendi, or the Indian Style, is characterized by a period of literary decline. In recent years, many scholars have begun to not only challenge this notion, but also the idea of literary style as a historiographical marker and a category of analysis.

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Blog

A Home for South Asian Art and Beyond in Philadelphia

Teena Purohit on Inclusion and Exclusion in Islamic Modernist Thought

Podcast

Julie Stephens on Religious Sentiment and Political Liberties in Colonial South Asia

Posted on September 7, 2016February 21, 2017
byAjam Media Collective
3 minute read

Long Form

‘Where There is No Architect’: Histories from the Native Town of Bombay

Bombay’s history is woven around tales of cosmopolitanism. But while the grandiose architecture of the colonial city gets all the attention, the vernacular architecture built by the cosmopolitanism from below in the so-called “Native Town” nearby is too often overlooked.

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Syriac Churches and Sephardic Synagogues: The Urban Legacy of Indian Ocean Cosmopolitanism in Kerala

In the southern Indian port city of Kochi, millennia of merchant cosmopolitanism have contributed to the growth of a diverse and syncretic culture that combines faiths, practices, and forms from across the Indian Ocean rim. The history of Syriac Christianity and Sephardic Judaism in the region offer a unique perspective on Kerala’s historic relationship with the Middle East.

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Long Form

Exhausted Geographies: Mapping the Dream of Pakistan in the Streets of Karachi

Posted on November 12, 2015November 25, 2017
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byAlex Shams

Ajam co-editor-in-chief Alex Shams interviews Shahana Rajani and Zahra Malkani about their new edited volume “Exhausted Geographies,” which explores representations of the urban space of Karachi, Pakistan through mapping.

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Ajam Archive

Ajam Digital Archive: Recentering Personal and Communal Histories

Posted on August 4, 2015January 16, 2017
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byAjam Media Collective

The items collected for the Ajam Digital Archive will allow us to document and record history from below—how it was actually lived, experienced, and understood. It is precisely these histories that were ignored in favor of tales that focused exclusively on wars and revolutions, rarely giving us a sense of how life was lived amidst it all.

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Parsi Mumbai: The Legacy of Zoroastrianism in India’s Urban Fabric

Posted on April 14, 2015January 20, 2017
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byAlex Shams

Despite the Zoroastrian community’s waning numbers, the urban fabric of Mumbai’s older neighborhoods remain dominated by symbols and reminders of the Parsi and Irani communities’ success in the Subcontinent.

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Long Form

Reppin Your Hood: Zabān, Pehchān and Pakistani Rap

Shahzad’s rap attempts a resurrection not only of a distinct Sindhi language, but also a Sindhi culture. His songs aren’t just in Sindhi, he also sees them as a continuation of the long Sindhi tradition of Sufi poems. While other Pakistani rappers, prominently BillyX, rap about topics deeply taboo in Pakistani society – sex and intoxicants – Shahzad seeks to reinvigorate a more traditional subject matter. But why through rap? Why resuscitate a tradition through a medium that is foreign to it? He likens it to wearing western dress when going to school; the medium does not compromise the message.

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