Editing Khojki script (section)

== Script and identity ==
As is explained by Michel Boivin, for the contemporary Khoja community, because the ''gināns'' are at the core of the Khoja religious heritage, "they quickly became a crucial stake in the process of identity construction."<ref>Boivin, Michel, “Gināns and the Management of the Religious Heritage of the Ismaili Khojas in Sindh,” In ''Gināns: Texts and Contexts'' (Delhi: Primus Books, 2010), 47.</ref> Asani argues that "in the Ismaili case the adoption of the Khojkī script, a ‘local’ script, was probably part of the attempt to make religious literature more accessible by recording it in a script with which the local population had the greatest familiarity."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Asani |first=Ali |title=Ecstasy and Enlightenment: The Ismaili Devotional Literature of South Asia |publisher=I.B. Tauris |year=2002 |pages=105}}</ref> In reflecting upon the larger history of the script and the literary tradition Asani also posits several other reasons as to why Khojkī was adopted and continuously refined by the local Ismaili community:<blockquote>…by providing an exclusive means of written expression commonly shared by Ismailis living in the three regions (Sind, Punjab and Gujrat), was influential in the development of the cohesion and self-identity within a widely scattered and linguistically diverse religious community. No doubt the script facilitated the flow and the transmission of religious literature from one area to another. Use of the script may have also served to confine religious literature within the community—this precaution being necessary to avoid persecution from outsiders not in agreement with the community’s doctrines and practices. In this respect, Khojkī may have served the same purpose as the secret languages, such as the so-called ''Balabailān'' language, used by Muslim mystics to hide their more esoteric thoughts from the common people.<ref name="Asani 2002 106"/></blockquote>