Thinking Beyond Egalitarianism: Ascriptive Hierarchies amongst Khwaja Sirah Faqeers in Karachi

This research examines the role of hierarchy in shaping social organization amongst subaltern communities in Karachi, with a focus on Fakirs (Sufi ascetics) and Khwaja Siras (gender-variant individuals). It aims to challenge the presumed value of egalitarianism, arguing instead that hierarchical social structures can be central to identity, belonging, and social life. By exploring alternative governance models rooted in Sufi traditions, particularly the master-disciple relationship, this study looks at how subaltern communities actively construct their own power dynamics rather than simply opposing the hegemonic mainstream. These hierarchies function as mechanisms of social cohesion, offering members stability, identity, and economic agency within a broader landscape of systemic exclusion and marginalization.
The research is ethnographic in nature, relying chiefly on participant observation in addition to interviews, textual analysis, and social network analysis, to investigate the formation, maintenance, and transformation of hierarchical relationships. By situating itself within broader anthropological debates on power, subjectivity, and resistance, this study moves beyond binary frameworks of domination and opposition. Instead, it foregrounds the agency of Fakirs and Khwaja Siras in crafting parallel structures of authority that mediate access to resources, spiritual legitimacy, and social mobility. Through empirical analysis of the lived experience of subaltern communities, the research looks to add a nuanced understanding of how marginalized communities reconfigure hierarchical relations to assert influence and negotiate their position within society, contributing to the scholarship on alternative governance, social organization, and power relations in South Asia.