Part 8 - Data Collection Sources

There are many types of sources available for collecting evidence:

1) Gazetteers: These are Govt. documentations recording various facts and findings by the officers of the ruling Govt. (here the British officers during British rule over India). Gazetteers become concrete evidence about the belief in the existence of the deity. It also gives a detailed account regarding various celebrations in Sindh related to Lord Jhulelal.

2) Books related to History and academic publications: Many books are written by Indian and foreign scholars where the references and mention of Lord Jhulelal are found by names like Jhulelal, Uderolal, Lal Udero or some other names by which he is known like Khwaja Khizr. There are academic publications by scholars as well. There is a book by a Christian missionary wherein there is mention of Uderolal, a child saint revered by Hindus and Muslims.

3) Oral traditions: These are mainly religious types and are in poetic forms passed from generations to generations orally. These could be Bhajans, Saakhi, Dohas, Chopayees, Pallo (Pallav) etc. Oral tradition would also include folklore and folk tales about the deity and are carried to future generations. These are age-old traditions which would be in existence even when printing technology was not available. Subsequently, they were transferred into written form for the convenience of the people. Obviously, all the written sources are initially oral sources and later on they become literary sources.

4) Fiction: Stories and Novels are available in Gujarati, Hindi and English. Some literature is available in the form of fiction or stories for those readers who are interested in knowing about Lord Jhulelal in such a form. This form of literature consists of a mixture of the imagination of the writer and some events of past woven together making it interesting for the reader.

5) Encyclopedias: Encyclopedias such as ‘The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics’ and ‘The Encyclopedia of Religion’ provide valuable inputs and references for the research.

6) Films and DVDs: Film is a powerful medium to reach people. It is an audiovisual technology that is powerful and effective. When one talks about films in India, it is generally believed that these are Hindi, English or regional languages in which films are made for the entertainment of people. At the same time films of different types such as historical, religious and informative are also made in large numbers with a specific purpose in mind.

The films are powerful in captivating the attention of the human mind, the reason being their audiovisual sensory input. This has more impact on the minds of human beings.

Many films on Lord Jhulelal have been made and are available to the viewers. These are mostly made keeping in mind that religious people would be interested in watching the films on their favourite deity. Therefore, the purpose of these films is to reach out to people of the Sindhi community with the story and teachings of the deity. Nowadays films are available in DVD form and a wide choice of films is available to devotees.

A documentary film on Lord Jhulelal was made by Films Division of India (FDI) about three decades ago which was quite informative. Those days the documentaries were made by Government of India through FDI on important topics related to culture and history and were very much appreciated by the audience. The importance of the deity Lord Jhulelal is reflected by the fact that such a film was made on the subject by FDI.