NOW CONNECT THE DOTS BACKWARDS; Engaging Ismaili Teens in the understanding of Ginans

NOW CONNECT THE DOTS BACKWARDS; Engaging Ismaili Teens in the understanding of Ginans

by Arsheena Gowani

THESIS STATEMENT

Ginans are a sacred corpus and unique tradition of devotional and didactic poetry, serving as a guiding and inspiring light in the lives of Ismailis of South Asia. Understanding its meaning and reflecting it in our personal lives is becoming a lost learning as the forth coming generations part ways from the Indic languages of their native ethnicities. By bringing aesthetically appealing, conceptually composed, interesting and exciting, interactive and engaging pedagogies into service, the objective of this project would be to enhance and facilitate better understanding of ​Ginans in the young community children enrolled in Secondary RE (Religious Education) Centres.

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1.INTRODUCTION Ever since my early childhood, I recall hearing the sweet music of ​Ginans, watching people around me in ​Jamatkhana close their eyes, fold their hands in respect and sing the hymns full of love with devotion and humility in their voices.​ As a little girl, I heard my ​Amma(grandmother) sing them to me as lullaby. Her serene, melodious voice, calming me. The scent of that atmosphere still lingers in my mind. I did not understand, then, as to what they were all about. I loved my ​Amma as well as her enchanting voice. My initiation into the realms of poetry and music was through the ​Ginans.

The journey has continued since then. At the Religious Education Centre, I volunteer to teach the ragas of these wonderful ​Ginans to the kids. To serve my interest and curiosity in the subject matter, I have previously opted it as research topic for my own understanding within the study circle of my community​1​. All of it inspired from the times of sorrow and calamities, when I breathed in and seeked the light of hope and from the moments of pure joy and happiness when I failed at words to express my gratitude to ​Mawla for his priceless blessings. Out of nowhere, a verse or two of a ​Ginan came to my mind front and served as a niche to light my own candle of devotion, submission, ​zikr of the Almighty. It was in those moments that I was able to comprehend the essence of the humility, love, submission in my ​Amma’s voice.

2. CONTEXT OF GINANS Coursing through culture and time, tuneful verses have given immediate and moving expression to the human longing for the divine. Poetry string on sweet melodies, sacred hymns, and songs bear testimony to the religious life of the devout and to the sonorous inspiring vocal artistry of saints and minstrels. Such is the ​Ginanic tradition of ​Sathpanthi Khojas, Indian successors of the Fatimid and Nizari Ismailis of the Shia sect of Islam​2​.

The term ​Ginan itself has double significance, on one hand, it means religious knowledge or wisdom, analogous to the Sanskrit word ​jna’na ​3​, on the other hand it means song or recitation which suggests a link to the Arabic word ​ganna meaning to sing.

The ​Satpanth Ismailis regard the ​Ginans as a sacred corpus of devotional and didactic poetry composed by their ​dais or ​pirs4​ (teachers or guides) who came to the Indian subcontinent (Hind and Sindh) between the 11th ­ 20th centuries C.E. to preach Islam through Ismaili Da’wa (mission).

Ginans are thus extant in several Indian languages among which Gujrati, Hindi, Punjabi, Saraiki and Sindhi are prominent. ​Ginanic vocabulary is also peppered with loanwords from Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit. The songs are often labelled as ‘wonderful tradition’, rich in imagery and symbolism drawn from the spiritual and cultural milieu of the Indian subcontinent.

Ginans are primarily an Oral tradition. Their greatest Impact is through the ear. They are intended to be chanted and recited aloud according to the prescribed ​ragas (melodies)​5​. However one can not fully feel or experience the trance of the moment without understanding the meaning.1

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1. Named ​Masha’al Waaez class, Ismaili kids are given extra classes on relegious studies and are asked to persue a topic of interest and prepared a well

written and researched paper on it.

2. Azim Nanji, ​The Nizari Ismail Tradtion in the Indo Pakistan Subcontinent (Delmar, NY, 1978) 3. ​Jna’na, Word of Sanskrit meaning Contemplative Knowledge.

4. Ali S. Asani, ​The Ismaili Ginans: Reflections on Authority and Authorship 5.​ G. Alidina, ​Standardized Ginans

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2.2 RELEVANCE Wladimir Ivanow, a Russian Orientalist, during his research​6​ in early part of 20th century on Ismailis of India noted: ‘The strange fascination, majestic pathos and beauty’ of the ​Ginans, as they were being recited, ‘ their mystical appeal equals, if not exceeds that exercised by the Koran on the Arabic­speaking people.’

The significance of ​Ginans7​ in the ​Satpanth Ismaili tradition derives from this nexus among devotional song, ritual worship and sacred community. The recitation of ​Ginans marks off sacred time and space. While it also gives expression to a sense of communal identity and fraternity. Binding its participants to an experience of listening, singing, and feeling this performative aspect of the ​Ginan tradition has played a crucial role in sustaining the spirit of the Satpanth tradition and its teachings. Its multifaceted role in the community as a form of devotional literature incorporates following aspects at communal and individual levels​8​:

Role In Worship: ● Singing ​Ginans, alongside the performance of ritual prayers, is one of the mainstays of the worship service in the mornings and evenings when the community congregates in the ​Jamatkhana9​ for prayers. ● Memorization of at least a few ​ginans and their tunes constitutes an essential part of RE (Religious Education) of Khoja Ismaili children. ● Certain ginans are intended for recitation with certain prayer and religious ceremonies. For instance, morning meditation is commenced after the recitation of verses of ​Ginans to envoke certain mystical mental and spiritual disposition within the mediators. ● Some ​Ginans are only on certain religious festivals and holidays: the ​ginan sat swargna kain khuliya che dwar (the doors of Seven Heavens have swung open) on the birthday of Prophet Muhammad; ​Navarozna din sohamana (On this Auspicious day of Navroz) at the beginning of Persian New Year.

Role In Communal Life: ● 2 The commencement of any function or meeting, be it religious or secular, is marked by the short Koranic verse recitation followed by one from ​Ginans. The intent of such being to bestow auspiciousness on the occasion. ● During sermons​10​, religious discussions and in religious education, ​Ginan verses are often cited as proof texts. To back certain arguments or teachings. ● Occasionally, a special concert called ​Ginan mehfil takes place, much like ​Qawwali and other Sufi devotional recitations.

Role In Family Life: ● Individual verses quoted as proverbs in life instances. ● Verses recited in homes to bring ​, spiritual and material blessing.

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6. Wladimir Ivanow, Ismaili Literature, Satpanth, p174.

7. A Scent of Sandalwood 8. Ecstasy and Enlightenment, The Ismaili Devotional Literature Of South Asia, Ali S. Asani 9. Jamatkhana, The place of worship and congregation for Khoja Ismailis.

10. Religious sermons, Waaez about guidance given by religious scholars named Alwaaez/ Alwaaeza

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Housewives take them forward as folk tradition within households and recite them while working or as lullabies.

Audio cassettes and now CDS, DVDS with ​Ginans sung by star singers or recordings of ​ginan mehfils can be found in many homes and even their cars! (Much like naats, hymns etc)

3.1 SITUATION ANALYSIS​: The aforementioned relevance was basically to articulate the importance and benefactorial content of Ginans, It was written as a source of remembrance, to be understood for being guided, pondered over, deriving the light of learning from it, to be followed sincerely. ​But the here is strange. I, along with my fellow RE teachers observed that my younger community members/pupils enrolled in Secondary Religious Education (aged 12­ 18), who can actually start their journey of understanding this literature do not even feel the necessity of reciting it with understanding. They are satisfied merely with believing in and reciting it in a melodious sounds. In consequence their relationship with Ginans has actually weakened. The central place of importance which should have been occupied by it, is absent. There was a need to analyze the cause and remove the mental blocks pertaining to this.

3.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS What are the reasons that have suddenly put this literature at the edge of disinterest? How can this situation be amended and results be achieved in terms of equipping students with adequate Ginanic knowledge?

3.3 ​IDENTIFYING THE CAUSES:

Primary Research 1.0: A survey was conducted within RE (Religious Education) centres all over Karachi inducting 7students from each locality REC, one per each level (class 6th ­ 12th) , 8 RECs all over the city. Students were asked to answer 3 simple open ended questions: Do you like reciting Ginans in Jamatkhana?

Do you understand the meaning of Ginans, you recite/sing?

Do you feel interested in learning the meanings? If no, then why?

A summary of which will be discussed in Analysis.

Primary Research 2.0: Four different people involved in the dissemination of the knowledge of ginan in four different spheres of responsibilities (A reciter in ​jamat, an RE teacher and educator, an incharge of one of the RE’s secondary wing, A ginan study circle educator and module facilitator) were interviewed about their opinion based on my Situation Analysis and their responses were recorded and presented in the following analysis.

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4. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION:

I. The Language Barrier: The script of Khojki​11​, fig 1 (in which ​Ginans were originally written in subcontinent) and the languages of ​Ginans fig 2 are illustrated below. The problem noticed within the kids of ages 12­18 in the year 2016, the generation Z​12​, is simple. With the rapid & dynamic shifts in the conception and blurring importance of one’s own ethnic language, this generation has English and Urdu as the prior languages. And little or no knowledge of languages like Gujrati, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Punjabi, the ones whose vocabulary is frequent in ​Ginans, has reduced the ​Ginanic text to pure gibberish to them. 3

FIGURE 1: A language breakdown chart about khojki script, Ismaili hymns from South Asia

By Christopher Shackle and Jawahir Moir.

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11. Ali S. Asani, ​The Khojki Script: A legacy of Ismaili Islam in Subcontinent.

12. The generation from late 1990s , in her teens at the moment.

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Figure 2: A 19th century manuscript bound in blind tooled leather contains ​Ginans in Khojki script.

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FIGURE 3: A page from a Latin scripted ​Ginan Book, So Kirya (Hundred Good deeds) and its translation.

II. Recitation over Contemplation: Ginan is still a part of RE as subject of study. 4­5 ​Ginans per year are a part of the annual syllabi. But the main focus during those classes of study is on the ​ragas and melodies and feel rather than the meaning understanding and reflective practices.

III. Books Only: A thorough study of literature available within the community reveals that the only mode and method to get familiar with the meaning is through big, heavy books that simply state the translation (refer to Fig 3). These books lack appeal, no imagery on any institutionally endorsed book has ever been published. Given that they are meant for young students, this factor leads to dust­gathering, worn out status of the books. No one bothers to read translation unless they’re asked to do it hardly once twice or thrice in a year a day before evaluations of RE (sometimes not even that).

IV. Lack of Innovative Pedagogies: Upon further research and interviews, it was revealed that the above mentioned 3 factors are gaining prominence with passing time. But the main root cause or ill practice that shapes the general disinterest is the following fact. The basic encounter kids have in RE with ​Ginans is dull, lacks imagination and innovation, and interactive approaches to indulge them in the process of understanding. Year after year, this situation leads to ultimate non seriousness towards the subject.

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By this research, it was revealed that the issue that leads to further disinterest is mainly the lack of interestingly designed pedagogies to explain ginans.

5. PROPOSED SOLUTION: My graphic design thesis is to define intersection between my personal voice, contextual understanding, and the research conducted by creating an aesthetically appealing, conceptually composed, interesting and exciting, visually charged, interactive and engaging project into service.

The ultimate objective of this project would be to enhance and facilitate better understanding of Ginans in the young community children enrolled in Secondary RECs. I propose that a refreshing, spatial take at ​Ginanic literature can appeal more kids of this age bracket to attempt to understand ​Ginans. Which would then in term serve to be a guiding, inspiring, trance giving experience for these community members in the longer run, rather than being a dead corpus to them, sung in gibberish day after day after day.

5.2 VALUE ADDITION IN TERMS OF GRAPHIC DESIGN: The applications and prospects of communication design and design thinking are way too many. It can influence minds and lend a voice to social issues to create massive impact in our society. My thesis would yet another time prove that the graphic design is a solution based approach, a progressive tie, not just for advancing the future developments. Sometimes, it helps in breathing fresh air of new modes into our heritage preservation. It propels it forward within next generation in a longer sustainable manner.

6. PROBABLE EXECUTION PLAN: My design thesis would be built around the selected Ginans taught as a part of Secondary RE (class 6­12).

Breaking the concept of understanding ​Ginans: The long term goal is to make these kids take interest in ​Ginanic understanding and ritualistic practice. In order to achieve that, following levels of understandings can be worked on: Level 1: Understanding of the meaning Level 2: Understanding of Storyline or plot Level 3: Extracting key messages Level 4: Reflecting and implementing the teaching into daily life practices

Potential Design Based Implications: I. These kids are born and wired​ ​for a more pragmatic, hands on, experiential learning strategies. So rather than just simple commentaries, simulations, games and challenges to indulge them in the process of learning would be my approach.

II. They are the natives of technology. My approach would include graphic aid in terms of interactive and electronic learning like animations, claymations, ebooks etc that could contribute in a meaningful way to their learning.

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Design That Stimulates their Senses: Exciting, beautiful, vivid, colorful, stimulating, captivating, memorable design, not over flooded with too much text saturation.

A content design that does not categorize them as Barney loving, Barbie loving kids since they are surrounded by and heavily use image centered apps. I would experiment with several stylized illustration other than purely basic and then choose from that.

Following are the few styles that can fit to general storytelling theme of ​Ginans.

A. Illustration based:

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I. These styles can work for Ginans on the themes of self discovery, confronting inner evils, waking up for ​Zikr, running away from social evils etc.

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B. PhotoManipulation based visuals:

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7.​ ​PRECEDENCES:

No institutionally endorse project based on relationship of ginanic tradition and visual content has ever been published. In this regards, it is a highly new area for me to create my own niche.

Also, the general pedagogies for explanation of ginans haven’t been an explored domain.

For this reason the visuals of loosely related, to promote religious text based understanding projects are mentioned below: NOTE: NONE OF THESE SUGGEST THE ILLUSTRATION STYLE, DESIGN SENSIBILITY AND VISUAL MOODS FOR MY TARGET AUDIENCE, HOWEVER IN TERMS OF IDEAS, THESE ARE QUITE RELEVANT.

I. ​The Cover Page of Sultan Somjee`s `Bead Bai“ – a sojourn into Khoja life in early Nairobi, Kenya. The Gujarati writing at the foot of the book cover (transliteration “Khota moti na sacha wepari”) appeared on bead shops in East Africa meaning “Of imitation pearls we are genuine merchants.”

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II. ​The interpretative image of one of the ginans ‘hu re piyasi’ to define the true nature of ishq­e­haqiqi, drawn by a contestant in GOLDEN JUBILEE love of Imam arts competition within community, USA.

III. ​An artist named Jalal Gillani, draws and sells artworks interpretive based on his understanding of Ginans.

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IV. ​BIBLE GAMES; Have fun while you learn with Adventure Bible games for kids! You’ll find games to help you learn about people, places and events in the Bible, memorize books of the Bible and test Scripture knowledge. Move up the levels in each game and see how many points you can earn!

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V. ​5 Pillars Fun Box ­ The Islamic Activity Game (Boxed Set) Ages 8 to Adult Increase your knowledge of the pillars of Islam while having loads of fun with your family and friends. This fun family game was made just for you! With 500 cards full of Islamic Trivia and Challenge activities you can expect to engage in plenty of teamwork that will have you rolling in laughs.

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VI. ​My illustrated Quran Storybook by Saniyasnain Khan Time will fly by with this amazing story cum activity book. My Illustrated Quran Storybook is an exciting new way to learn about the Quran. Along with stories, Quranic prayers and teachings, this book is also packed with crosswords, jigsaw puzzles, mazes, colouring activities, spot the differences and much more.

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8. BIBLOGRAPHY

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An Intellectual Study of Islam in India, 1969 Allana, GA, Ginans of the Ismaili Pirs, Khi, 1984 Asani, Ali, The Ismaili Ginan Literature. 1977 ­ The Khojki Script, A legacy of Ismaili Islam in Indo Pakistan ­ Ecstacy and Enlightenment Aziz, Esmail, Sathpanth Ismailism Generation Z and new Principles of Interactive Design Hiroshe­Tanabi Illustrations Jory Dayne Graphic Illustrations Kassam, Tazim: Songs of Wisdom and Circle of dance: Hymns of Satpanth Ismaili Muslim Saints Krystina Myrvold, The Death of Sacred texts Make boring books better | Scholastic.com Michella Pichi works Nanji Azim, The Nizari Ismailism In Indopak Subcontinent Sultan Soonjee, Bedi bai Ten Things to know about Z designs

http://www.islamicbookstore.com/a6086.html http://www.alhudaonlinebooks.com/my­illustrated­quran­storybook/

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http://www.islamicbookstore.com/a4667.html

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http://www.adventurebible.com/games/home

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