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Ajmer Sharif Shrine in Rajasthan, India

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

Ethnographic fieldwork in Ajmer, Rajasthan. February – March 2020 | Outcome: conference paper and peer-reviewed book chapter [forthcoming]

The Chishti Sufi Order has always been concerned with religious acculturation. Up until this day, Khwaja (‘Respected Master’) Muʿin al-Din Chishti's shrine (dargah) continues to be a place of pilgrimage (ziyarat) for members of different religious communities. In the northern Indian town of Ajmer in Rajasthan, over one million pilgrims of all faiths attend his ʿurs festival, celebrated annually on the anniversary of his death. Everyone is invited to eat at the dargah’s langar (community kitchen), which serves only vegan/vegetarian food so as not to exclude any religious group.

Associated with Ajmer Sharif Dargah are the interfaith projects of the Gudri Shah Chishti community. This is a subsidiary branch of the main Chishti order, overseen by pir-o-murshid Inam Hasan. One of his projects, the Sufi Saint School, is devoted to interfaith harmony and provides education to local children from all religious backgrounds.