Personalizing Traditions

Abstract

R. D. Gurnani, a retired engineer who was a member of the executive committee of the Hari Om Mandir in Lucknow, illustrates some of the variety of practices among individual Sindhis. As the children’s competition that was a part of the Hari Om Mandir’s celebration of Nanak Jayanti took place in the next room, he explained to me that he fulfilled any duties assigned to him at the Hari Om Mandir, but, because of the distance of the institution from his home, he visited other non-Sindhi sites more frequently. In addition to his presence at the Hari Om Mandir for at least one Sunday morning satsang each month, which was followed by a meeting of the executive committee, on most Tuesdays he visited a Hanuman temple near his home in the Trans-Gomti suburbs of Lucknow, and sometimes on Mondays he visited a Shiva temple. He justified these practices, saying, “We go often because of being near.”