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A comment on Threat from Climate Change to Some of India’s Sacred Sites Is Reshaping Beliefs. Parent comment

Re:Threat from Climate Change to Some of India’s Sacred Site... by alephnerd on Saturday September 16, 2023 @12:35PM (#37536302)
Most people never had a deep theological understanding of religion.

Mass Literacy only became a thing in the 20th century.

There's a reason why folk religions and customs exist (eg. Folk saints in Mexico and Southern Europe, the entire Chinese Folk Religion, Pir Darghas and Dervishes in Islam, etc)

Also "Hinduism" is a broad term for general folk religious practices in the South Asian subcontinent. For example, in the Himalayan region I am from you will see people revere an Iranian origin Muslim preacher who came to the area in the 13th century (Lakhdatta) despite also being "Hindu" or "Sikh"

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Re:Threat from Climate Change to Some of India’s Sacred Site... by OfSanguineFire on Saturday September 16, 2023 @12:46PM (#37536391)
The Wikipedia article for Lakhdatta is at “Syed Ahmad Sultan”.[0] Thanks for reminding me of him, I definitely saw his image hung in businesses in India whose proprietors otherwise seemed very Hindu or Sikh.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syed_Ahmad_Sultan

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Re:Threat from Climate Change to Some of India’s Sacred Site... by alephnerd on Saturday September 16, 2023 @01:00PM (#37536521)
Yep. He's commonly revered in the Pir Panjal range. For some reason, Hazarajat, Derajat, Jammu, Half of Himachal, Gurdaspur District, and Sialkot area all revere him. Heck, even the traditional language in Swat (Torwali) before it became Pakhto speaking in the 19th century is intelligible for anyone who can speak a Western Pahari language (eg. Dogra, Hindko, "Pahari") after seeing my dad surprisingly understand a BBC documentary about the Swat insurgency back in the 2010s. I wanted to dig into the cultural connection a bit deeper in college, but the RoI on graduate education on Sociology or Anthropology ain't there
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Re:Threat from Climate Change to Some of India’s Sacred Site... by selimthegrim on Saturday September 16, 2023 @02:16PM (#37537195)
My (Ahmedi) family is originally from Gurdaspur district, and while we had a picture of Nanak around, I don’t remember hearing about Syed Ahmad Sultan (although I have heard of him by the name of Sakhi Sarwar) but rzther Data Ganj Bakhsh, Hz. Khizr (especially), Bulleh Shah and the “Char Yaar”
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Re:Threat from Climate Change to Some of India’s Sacred Site... by alephnerd on Saturday September 16, 2023 @02:27PM (#37537286)
Make sense!

Khwaja Khizr and Ganj Baksh are also venerated in my area - often at the same time with Sakai Sarwar (eg. This random whatsapp forward - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XFZuubbGNXQ?feature=share)

By Gurdaspur, I meant the undivided Gurdaspur division, which included the hill regions of what's now Pathankot District in East Punjab and I think some of northern regions in West Punjab

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Re:Threat from Climate Change to Some of India’s Sacred Site... by selimthegrim on Saturday September 16, 2023 @06:11PM (#37539274)
You are thinking of Shakargarh tehsil which was detached from Gurdaspur and given to Pak (Narowal)

NB: casteist but still funny - https://www.facebook.com/RaahEHayatOfficial/videos/457120242...

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Re:Threat from Climate Change to Some of India’s Sacred Site... by alephnerd on Saturday September 16, 2023 @10:21PM (#37540854)
> thinking of Shakargarh tehsil

Yep! Exactly this! A lot of Paharis immigrated down the hills to that area in the 19th century with the canal colonies. Similar thing in Jhelum as well!

> NB: casteist but still funny

Lol. Gotta love Desi social media. Our clickbait is what unites us

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