Voices of English: language and the construction of religious identity amongst Ismaili Muslims in Pakistan and Tajikistan

This paper brings together notions of heteroglossia and religious identity to explore how English becomes indexical of Ismaili distinction in local communities in Pakistan and Tajikistan. Adopting a heteroglossic approach to language provides a perspective which is epistemologically compatible with notions of religion as social, human and interactional, as intricately connected to power, and as both reflecting and being shaped by perspective and positioning. In the paper, I use a “discourse analysis beyond the speech event” approach to engage with data collected during ethnographic fieldwork (qualitative interviews, focus group discussions, fieldnotes) amongst Ismailis in Hunza, northern Pakistan and Khorog, eastern Tajikistan. In analyzing these examples, I attempt to illustrate how ideologies of English become sites for the negotiation of religious distinction.

The Operation of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) in Central Asia.

The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) was founded in 1967 by Aga Khan 4, the spiritual leader of the Shi’i Imami Nizari Ismaili Muslims. Guided by the Islamic ethics of helping the needy, the AKDN seeks to improve the quality of life of the poor in 30 countries. While inspired by faith, the organizations of the AKDN are secular in nature and reject any kind of proselytization. The AKDN has been present in Central Asia since early 1990’s where it manages concerted and integrated developmental programs to attain economic, social and cultural development. Operating in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, the AKDN has been striving to create projects that will enable the local population to attain self-reliance and develop their conditions of living. The work of the AKDN in Central Asia ranges from finance, tourism, agriculture, infrastructure, education, healthcare and habitat, to music initiatives and renovation of historical sites. The AKDN stresses the importance of multidimensional approach to development with the goal of making the local population masters of their own destiny. It embodies hope and support for the poor in the region which is known for entrenched poverty and lack of stability in some specific cases.

A Semiotics of Infinite Translucence: The Exoteric and Esoteric in Ismaili Muslim Hermeneutics

The complex juxtaposition of private practice and public visibility/invisibility of contemporary Ismaili Muslims has certain parallels with other religious communities, but it exhibits unique features. This community adheres to an esotericism that has shaped its hermeneutic and communication practices. In a seeming paradox, the group is also extensively engaged in the public sphere. However, its communal institutions are limiting the dissemination of texts pertaining to the religious addresses and biography of the group’s leader, Aga Khan IV. He is instead increasingly turning to architecture to communicate the community’s worldview by using design in a symbolic manner.La juxtaposition complexe entre les pratiques privées et la visibilité/invisibilité propres aux musulmans ismaéliens contemporains a certains parallèles avec d’autres communautés religieuses, mais elle comporte aussi des caractéristiques uniques. En effet, cette communauté privilégie un ésotérisme qui a formé ses pratiques herméneutiques et communicationnelles. D’autre part, dans un paradoxe apparent, ce groupe s’engage dans la sphère publique. Cependant, ses institutions communales sont en train de limiter la dissémination de textes relatifs aux discours religieux du chef du groupe, Aga Khan IV, ainsi qu’à sa biographie. De plus en plus, celui-ci se tourne plutôt vers l’architecture pour communiquer le point de vue de la communauté en utilisant le design de manière symbolique.