In present-day Pakistan, in the far corners of Lyari in Karachi, or

Hingol in Balochistan, or Thatta in Sindh, tightly knit groups of women

keep alive the folklore, songs and legends of Sati—their name for

Sita in the Ramayana. The way they sustain the attendant rituals

and practices in a nation state with a fixed idea of what constitutes

citizenship and who gets to be a primary citizen is at the heart of this

book.

In Sita under the Crescent Moon, author Annie Ali Khan travels

with women devotees—those without resources, subject to intense

violence—who, through the bravest and simplest act, that of a

pilgrimage, retrace what they remember of the goddess. Who are

these pilgrims? How did this relationship with Sati start, and why is

she so significant? How do their oral mytho-histories compare to

colonial narratives or mainstream definitions of Sati?

Even while retelling the stories of these pilgrims, Sita under the

Crescent Moon studies how worship has altered the mores of a

land—and how the sacral site, made up of clay and thread and tumble

weed, grants a woman power to fight against her circumstances.