Michel Boivin

Michel Boivin is a French historian and anthropologist who specializes in the Muslim world. Trained in contemporary history, Islamic studies and ethnology, he is currently Senior Research Fellow at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS: French National Center for Scientific Research) and a member of the CEIAS (Center for South Asian Studies) at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS). He teaches at the EHESS, where he supervises Masters and Ph.D. students. He also gives courses on contemporary constructions of secularism in Europe and in the Muslim world at the Université de Savoie Mont Blanc, and on the historical anthropology of South Asia at Sciences Po Lyon. In 2011, he created the Centre for Social Sciences in Karachi (CSSK), which is hosted by the Alliance Française in Karachi, as well as a collection published by Oxford University Press in Pakistan, the "CSSK Series." Since 2013, he has been co-directing two seminars at the EHESS: “History and Anthropology of the Muslim Societies of South Asia” and “Authority and Politics in the Sufism of South and Central Asia.” In addition, he contributes to the organization of two CEIAS research groups: “Vernacular Cultures and New Muslim Elites,” with Julien Levesque, and “Gujarati and Sindhi Studies: Societies, Languages and Cultures,” with Pierre Lachaier.

Biography

After studying at Chambéry high school with an emphasis in the humanities, Michel Boivin became an expert on the Modern history of the Muslim world. He holds a DEA in Arabic and Islamic studies from the Université Lyon 2, and obtained a doctorat in Oriental Languages, Civilizations and Societies from the Université Paris 3-Sorbonne Nouvelle on Isma’ilian Shi’ism and Modernity in Sultân Muhammad Shâh Aghâ Khân (1877-1957), and then an habilitation thesis in ethnology from the Université Paris Ouest-Nanterre, on the topic of Shi’ism, Sufism and Social dynamics in Contemporary Sindh (19th century-20th century). Michel Boivin is specialized in the study of the contemporary history and historical anthropology of Muslim communities in India and Pakistan during the colonial period, and since independence was obtained. After having devoted several years to the study of the Isma’ilians of these regions, he shifted his focus to Sufi groups. He directs a research team on “History and Sufism in the Indus Valley” at the CEIAS (EHESS-CNRS). From 2008 to 2011, this team has worked on an interdisciplinary and international project centered on the Sufi site of Sehwan Sharif. This mid-size city located in the southern Province of Pakistan called Sindh is where the tomb of the Sufi saint Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (d. 1274) is located. This sanctuary has become a site of pilgrimage where ecstatic dance practices take place. In addition, it is also an ecumenical center, as Hindus still play an important part in the rituals. Finally, Sehwan Sharif is a gathering place for gyrovague renouncers, used to be called “qalandars” and are now most often referred to as “malangs.”

One of his most recent research interests is in “Hindu Sufism” in Pakistan and India. To start out, Michel Boivin retraced the migratory paths of Sindhi Hindus, then researched their Sufi rituals in order to evaluate the extent to which they had to change to adapt to their new environment. In parallel, he has begun work on collecting the publications and manuscripts on Sufism in the Sindhi language. Despite his emphasis on historical anthropology, Michel Boivin continues to work on the appearance of new forms of knowledge in the 19th century. He is particularly interested in the production of a new culture in the Sindh province as a result of interaction between British colonial rule, the emergence of new elites and the objectification of Sufism. His work is therefore to be understood as a continuation of postcolonial studies, as he is engaged in reconstructing the evolution of the “Sufi culture of Sindh” based on archival work carried out in the Indian sub-continent and in Europe.

Works

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Chapters and papers

Sources

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