Hemani Shumaila

Forgotten Ways of Thinking

Built on the idea of “sonic photographs,” Forgotten Ways of Thinking is a soundscape piece that communicates to the listener the sonic expressions of Islamic beliefs as the author experiences it.  I travelled to the town of Bhitshah, which is three hours drive from my hometown Karachi, in the province of Sind in Pakistan in 2009. After a year studying Ethnomusicology in the graduate program in Canada, I had come to Pakistan for fieldwork, and traveled to Bhitshah to initiate learning in the singing style of Shah-jo-Raag. Shah-jo-Raag is a three hundred year old Sufi tradition in Pakistan that is attributed to be an invention of the 18^th century Islamic mystical poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai.  This soundscape piece introduces the listener  to the sounds, singing and voices of spirit possession as the author recorded and experienced it at the shrine of Shah Latif.

I was raised in the 80s in the Islamic milieu of General Zia and the Shi’ite Ismaili world of singing hymns (ginans). My religious world was embedded in Islamic beliefs in farishte (angels) and jinns (spirits) and this was a world I shared with school friends.  Later, as a result of moving into the upper-middle class and elite education institutions through scholarships and financial assistance and my education abroad, I became more secularized and progressive and distant from this religious worldview.

Visiting Bhitshah and watching women perform the possession linked me to that religious world I grew up in, in a renewed sense, invoking curiosity and raising questions. This encounter established a personal link between my self and my story of growing up in Pakistan and the religious life-worlds of rural men and women of Pakistan.  Usually, women’s lens to view society in Pakistan is influenced by the males around them, be it fathers, brothers, uncles, and friends. However, this encounter helped me to develop a perspective that was independent of male influence and is reflective of my own interests and struggle to reach out to the people. 

 – Hemani Shumaila

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