Deen and Duniya, and the Indian Partition: perspectives from oral history

This article explores how religious concepts like deen and duniya in North India became entwined in the everyday life worlds of Ashraf refugee women who migrated to Pakistan in 1947. Deen, signified by pious humility historically imbibed as part of Ashraf heritage in pre-Partition North India, underwent transformation as post-Partition Pakistan produced a new materiality and new duniya for Ashraf migrants. The formation of a new duniya led to the partial reinvention of a pragmatic deen based on pre-Partition memories simultaneously suited and fitted to the exigencies of the new duniya of Pakistan. This article is based on two Partition oral narratives that explore the entrenchment of deen and duniya as lived but changing cultural and historical concepts, where a new pragmatic deen allowed Ashraf women to narratively emerge as nation, family, and community-makers in Pakistan, while simultaneously retaining their Ashraf status.