In Amma's Healing Room

<p>[I]t is extremely salubrious to see the ways Islam works in the lives of ordinary people who are not politicized in their religious lives. . . . No other book on South Asia has material like this. --Ann Grodzins Gold<br /><br />In Amma's Healing Room is a compelling study of the life and thought of a female Muslim spiritual healer in Hyderabad South India. Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger describes Amma's practice as a form of vernacular Islam arising in a particular locality one in which the boundaries between Islam Hinduism and Christianity are fluid. In the healing room Amma meets a diverse clientele that includes men and women Muslim Hindu and Christian of varied social backgrounds who bring a wide range of physical social and psychological afflictions. Flueckiger collaborated closely with Amma and relates to her at different moments as daughter disciple and researcher. The result is a work of insight and compassion that challenges widely held views of religion and gender in India and reveals the creativity of a tradition often portrayed by Muslims and non-Muslims alike as singular and monolithic.</p>