This essay examines intersections between Sufi and bhakti domains, moving beyond notions of “syncretism” and “influence” to understand chosen and concurrent common expressions and approaches to social formations. The focus is on gender, which offers a particularly powerful connecting point between bhakti and Sufi systems of thought and critique, connected to discourses around other social formations (such as caste). This is explored through an examination of gender within Waris Shah’s Hīr, a mid-eighteenthcentury Punjabi language text that enjoys a high status among Punjabi language communities across the India/Pakistan border, and beyond. It is argued that the satirical treatment of gender, alongside caste, provides a striking connection point among Sufi and Bhakti traditions that does not function in simply or solely liberatory terms, but which both reinforces and calls into question the inequalities and hierarchical systems associated with these social formations.