Degree

BS (Social Sciences & Liberal Arts)

Faculty / School

School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS)

Department

Department of Social Sciences & Liberal Arts

Date of Award

Summer 2024

Date of Submission

2024-07-05

Advisor

Aliya Iqbal Naqvi, Faculty Member, Department of Social Sciences

Project Type

SSLA Culminating Experience

Access Type

Restricted Access

Keywords

Sufi Poetry, Coke Studio, Popular Culture, Desire, Islam

Abstract

This research explores the re-presentation and impact of 13th-century poet Amir Khusrau's work within contemporary Pakistani popular culture, particularly in the context of the commodification of Sufi poetry. By examining Khusrau’s texts and their performances on platforms like Coke Studio, the study employs a dual methodology: literary analysis and in-depth expert interviews. It highlights the socio-political and religious contexts that have preserved and transformed Khusrau's poetry over time, analyzing how these historical texts reflect modern sensibilities.

Central to Khusrau's poetry, themes of desire and spiritual ecstasy, symbolize his pursuit for union with the divine, epitomized in his relationship with his pir, Nizamuddin Auliya. This paper analyzes these themes through a queer framework, feminist theory, phenomenology as well as a Marxist lens to situate and understand the complications between Sufi texts, popular culture and identity. I attempt to engage with the recurring themes in Khusrau’s poetry and how concepts like ‘engulfment’, ‘submission’ are embodied through the ‘eyes’, ‘bridal imagery’ and ‘desire’ itself, highlighting their presentation in popular culture today. I begin with historicizing the rich legacy of Sufism in Pakistan, strategically used by the State to offer an alternate sense of identity, belonging and nationalism. Now, an important emblem of nostalgia, authenticity for music platforms such as Coke Studio. This paper seeks to complicate this relationship of Khusrau’s perennial texts and their consumption in popular culture, identity, exploring the enduring legacy of Sufi texts, particularly Khusrau’s in shaping contemporary cultural narratives in Pakistan.

Pages

90

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