Religious Pluralism and Shared Sacred Sites in the Indian Subcontinent and the Balkans

Normally rigid identities of religion, class, nationality, and gender have the potential to become more fluid at some sites associated with a saintly figure. Some of these sites have functioned, for many centuries, as open, shared spaces that transcend communal barriers, leading to concurrent intercommunal interaction. This is possible because members of different religious communities believe in the efficacious power associated with a site, such as healing and therapeutic power. The examples of shared sacred sites presented on this page ‘belong’ to one religious community but allow others to participate in worship. Common interests can thus give rise to shared practices or a plurality of practices.

Some Sufi shrines (dargahs) in the Indian Subcontinent like Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan or Bayazid Bistami in Chittagong, and Khan Jahan Ali in Bagerhat, Khulna district, both in Bangladesh, represent such sacred spaces. Common shared practices include, for instance, the lighting of candles and offering of incense as well as the tying of strings of red thread (lal nara) to sacred trees next to a saint’s grave in connection with requests made to the saint and as signs of affection and loyalty for the saint – physically bonding devotees of different religious backgrounds to the saint. In formerly Hindu-majority districts in Bangladesh, such as Khulna, Hindu and Muslim ritual practices sometimes continue to be carried out side by side. To this must be added the Jinn Dargah at Firoz Shah Kotla in Delhi, which attracts Muslims, Hindus, and Christian devotees, all of whom engage in similar rituals at this shared sacred site. Although these spaces are increasingly targeted by ‘orthodox’ elements of society, they continue to persist, perhaps in part because of their openness and accessibility.

Further examples are the Eastern Orthodox saints Naum and Spyridon, both of whom are identified in the Balkans (and beyond) with the Muslim Sari Saltuk. Muslim pilgrimages to Sari Saltuk alias Saint Naum alias Saint Spyridon seem to have continued unabated from the second half of the 18th century until today. However, in contrast to the above-mentioned examples from the Indian Subcontinent, where the efficacious power of a particular saint is recognized by two or more religious communities, the identity of this saint differs according to the religious context. Hence, the forms of saint veneration and pilgrimage that take place at these sacred sites are parallel rather than ‘syncretistic’. Since their inception, these sites have been administered by the Eastern Orthodox Church. Muslims have only been visiting the sites for about 250 years to venerate ‘their’ saint and have only been able to do so with the toleration of the Orthodox who control the sacred site.