Barelvi organizations primarily derive their inspiration from the saint and shrine culture. Now TLP’s problem is that it is being led by a ‘maulavi’, a scholar – not the saint from a shrine. It is a modern organization, with influences from Deobandi and Ahle Hadith schools of thought. So they organize in a modernist style and are more inclined towards ritual and agitation. Political Islam is demonstrated by ritual and agitation.
Third thing is sermonization, which Khadim Rizvi has mastered. So they’re actually quite removed from their foundations, which were rooted in tradition of saint and shrine culture. This is why I found TLP a cosmetic organization which was orchestrated by someone else and its real foundations seem undermined in its rhetoric because their politics is similar to Majlis-e-Ahrar’s.
They hold sit-ins, do agitations, organize processions. One of major features of Barelvi or saint and shrine culture was its inclusivity, but they are extremely exclusivist. Their entire narrative is based on exclusion as they talk a lot about blasphemy etc. So I believe that an organization with such weak basis cannot survive for long and therefore cutting it down to its size is not a very daunting task.
