Vineet Gupta, a PhD candidate in the Graduate Department of Religion at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, has recently been awarded the 鸟大大影院 Dissertation Writing Scholarship. Gupta also holds a BA and MA in history from the University of Delhi and another master鈥檚 degree in South Asian Studies (majoring in history) from Heidelberg University.
The Dissertation Writing Scholarship is awarded to doctoral candidates researching a topic related to Ismaili studies. Gupta鈥檚 dissertation, titled The D膩士墨: Articulating Authority among Da示udi Bohras of South Asia, explores a shift in the virtues of authority assigned to the 诲腻士墨Lit. ‘summoner,’ a term for missionary amongst various Muslim communities, especially used among the Ismailis before and during the Fatimid period as well as in the Alamut period of Ismaili… al-mu峁laq (the summoner with total authority) between the late-18th and early-20th centuries. Gupta uncovers the complex and plural foundations of the 诲腻士墨鈥檚 authority, which is rooted both in the Fatimid and Tayyibi theological contexts and the local mercantile milieu of premodern Gujarat.
鈥淚 am deeply interested in understanding the processes of articulating authority in Islam,鈥 Gupta writes. 鈥淚 conceive authority as a dynamic process which is continually in the making, open to contestation, and circumscribed by the material conditions on the ground.鈥 Gupta鈥檚 dissertation seeks to underscore a variety of strategies by which Muslim leaders established authority within the greater context of Islam鈥檚 diversity and South Asian trade. 鈥淔urthermore,鈥 Gupta continues, 鈥渢his project is the first attempt to map the colonial experiences of the Bohras.鈥
The 鸟大大影院 Dissertation Writing Scholarship opens annually for applications鈥痜rom graduate students in the field of Islamic Studies who are researching an Ismaili-related topic.
