COEXISTENCE AND COMMUNALISM THE SHRINE OF PIRANA lN GUJARAT

FOOTNOTES

1.Our thanks are due to our respective husbands, A. S. Khan and Martin Moir, who accompanied us on our various trips to Gujarat and ful1y and fruitful1y participated in our research work.

2. Daftary, The lsma.ilis, Their History and Doctrines (Cambridge. CUP, Delhi, Munshiram Manohar1al, 1990), p. 22.

3 The authors are currently preparing a comprehensive study of the lmamshahi sect.

4. It wou Id be interesting to note that at the shrine of the goddess Ai Mata at Bilara. in Rajasthan, the case is exactly the reverse. A Hindu devotee visiting the temple would be surprised to read the following words engraved on a marble slab: dargā h of Ai Mata. For more details see D. S. Khan, Conversions and Shifting Identities (Delhi, Manohar, CSH, 1997). pp. 175-86

5.See for example “Distoning a Tradition” Rashtriya Sahara, (May 1998), pp. 24-5 and “The Pirana Shrine becomes a Bone of Contention”, Indian Express, Ahmedabad, 19 Apr. 1998.

6. In “Distoning a Tradition”, p. 24, article mentioned in note 5 above.

7 . S. Nanjiani. Khoja Vrttant (Ahmedabad, Samasher Bahadur Press, 1892, repr. 1918); J. M. Campbell (ed.), Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Gujarat Population: Musulmans and Parsis, Vol. IX, pt II (Ouragon, Vintage Books, 1988, cepr. 1990), pp. 66-7; W. Ivanow, “The Sect of Imamshah in Oujarat”, JBBRS, Vol. 12 (1936), pp. 19-70; F. Daftary, op cit.; J. N. Hollister, The Shi “a of lndia (Delhi, Oriental Book Reprint Corporation, 1953, cepr. 1979); A. Nanji. The Nizari Ismaili Tradition in the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent (Delmar-New York,Caravan Books. 1978); C. Shackle and Z. Moir, Ismaili Hymns of South Asia: An Introduction to the Ginans, (London, SOAS, 1992).

8 . Unfortunately, this is not the case for other probable offshoots of Nizari Ismailism, such as the Nizar Panth, the Bishnoi Panth etc. See D. S. Khan, Conversions.

9. B. Lewis, The Assassins. a Radical Sect in Islam (London, AI-Saqi Books, 1967, repr. 1985).

10. Daftary, op. cit., p. 5

11. D. N. Maclean Religion and Society in Arab Sind (Leiden, E J. Brill, 1989), pp. 22-36.

12. Nanji, op.cit. p.68

13. A. Nanji, “Ritual and Symbolic Aspects of Islam in African Context”, in R. C. Martin (ed.) Islam in Local Contexts (Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1982).

14. Shackle and Moir, op. ciro

15. For the concept of meta-history in Shia and Ismaili philosophies, see H. Cochin, Histoire de la philosophie islamique, (Paris, Gallimard, 1986), pp. 98-107.

16. Cochin, op. cit.. pp. 78-85

17 .F. Daftary, A Short History of the Ismailis (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1992), pp. 139-140,394.

18 . Shackle and Moir, op. cit.,pp. 157-9.

23 J. C. Masselos, “The Khojas of Bombay: The Defining of Formal Membership Criteria During the Nineteenth Century”, in Imtiaz Ahmad (ed.), Caste and Social Stratification Among Muslims in lndia (Delhi, Manohar, 1978).

24. Masselos, op. cit., and H. A. Rose, A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West FrontierProvince. 3 vols. (Delhi, Asian Educational Services, 1919, repr. 1990), p.403.

25. S. Mayaram, Resisting Regimes: My th, Memory and the shaping of a Muslim Identity (Delhi, OUP, 1997), pp. 36-52

26 On this fascinating issue sec M. Boivin, “The Reform of Islam in Ismaili Shi” ism from 1885 .to 1957” in Delvoye F. Nalini (ed.), Confluences of Culture (Delhi-Manohar, 1994) and Moir, forthcoming.

27. There are the odd references in vaious publications, but the only study devoted entirely to this subject is Ivanow 1936.

28. Ivanow, op cit.

29. Shackle and Moir, op cit., pp. 7-8.

30 Ibid.

31 Ibid.

32. Ivanow, op cit., p. 48.

33. The mosque which is located within the dargah complex was probably built during Aurangzeb”s rule. The issue connected with the Islamisation of the Nizari Khojas during the medieval muslim rule bas not been studied till now.

39. Campbell. op cit, pp. 66-7, and R. E. Enthoven, The Tribes and Castes of Bombay (Delhi, Asian Publication Services, 1920, repr. 1990), pp. 150-5.

40. However it is necessary to add that these Muslim followers were also originally Hindus who had embraced the Imamshahi faith before adopting the Sunni or Twelver Shia identity, probably in the seventeenth century and later on building the mosque. (Ivanow, op. cit., passim).

41. Ram Narayan Contractor, the author of a book heavily criticizing the Imamshahi sect, was himself a Satpanthi who became a member of the Arya Samaj, underwent suddhļ and later on came close to the Swami Narayan religious reformist movement.

42. As suggested by the history of the Imamshahi sect, land disputes have always been crucial in this respect. Besides, one should not forget the role played by a British officer, Alexander Forbes who, as Tod had done for Rajasthan, sought to reconstruct the glorious past of Gujarat in order to give a distinct identity to this region. Forbes worked with the Gujarati poet Dalpatram Daya who edited an important journal called Buddhi Prakash in which an article on the Imamshais was published in 1871

43. It seems that in the past communal” conflicts occurred between Sunnis and Shias

44 The term kiikii which means .servant” in Persian is used to refer to the Hindu leader of the sect. It is interesting to note that in the case of the recent conflict which we will examine further, most Sayyids are opposing the kaka.

45 Category A applies to Hindu, Jain and Sikh institutions. B to Muslim alles etc,

46 According to one of our infonnants, the registration under this category is being questioned as a result of a recent civil suit in which it bas been proposed to register the shrine of Pirana under the waqfboard which takes care of all Islamic places of worship,

47 Khan (1996) and ( 1997), op. ciro

48 With the exception maybe of the be-sharļa Qalandars, wandering dervishes who do Dot follow the Islarnic lawor sharia. The Sufis generally belong to a particular order of tariqat, whether Sunni or Shia. For Indian Sufism see for example S. A. A. Rizvi, A History of Sufis; in India. 2 vols. (Dellii, Munshirarn Manoharlal, 1978, repr. 1986).

49 It will be interesting to compare these facts with those found in the Rajasthani traditions of dle Bisnoi and the Rarndev sects : the mausoleum of the saint Jarnbha, originally referred to only as Mukiim (a word which usually refers to a Muslim graveyard) has been DOW re-Hinduised into “Mutkidharn Mukarn” (from mukti, liberation, salvation and dham, sacred pilgrimage center). Similarly, Baba Rarndev is traditionally called “Hindu Pir”.

50 T. Kassam. “Syncretism on the mode1 of the figure-ground: A Study of Pif Shams” Brahma Prakasa”. in K. K. Young (ed.), Hermeneutical Paths to the Sacred Worlds of lndia -Essays in Honour of Robert W. Stevenson (Atlanta, ScholarsPress, 1994), pp. 231-41.

51 J. Tod, Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan (Delhi, M. N. Publishers, 1829-32, repr. 1983), pp.253-64.

52 In the Indian devotional tradition (bhakti) the Nirgun or non-qualified God is opposed to the Saguln (qualified) Deity Who can incarnate himself and be represented in the form of a sacred image.

53 Although, as we learned recently, before the re-Hinduisation of the tradition, Karsan Das had been given the title of “Pic Karim Kaka”.

54 Nanji, The Nizari Ismaili Tradition, p. 68 and D. S. Khan, Conversions, p. 34.

55 K. W. Jones, The New Cambridge History of lndia, Vol. III, pt. 1 (Cambridge, CUP, 1989), pp. 100-3.

56 We are paraphrasing here the Aryasamajists who, on the contrary, once accused the Satpanth of being “a factory fort converting the Hindus to Islam”.

57 We thank Christophe Jaffrelot for helping us to identify these characters and for bis precious information on the Lakshrninarayan temples.

58 The case of the Ramdev sect is strikingly similar.

59 This Vaishnava sect, to which many Gujarati Hindus are affiliated, was founded by Swarni Narayan in 1875. Curiously enough, according to an Imamshahi oral tradition, the founder had become a Satpanthi whose cole was to collect the dasondh (obllgatory bthe) from the members of the community. One day he is said to have run away with the money .an~ eventually created his own religious movement. See A. Khaki, Satpanth Yagya viddi (Pirana Pirzada Shamsuddin, 2nd ed.), p. 57. Be it as it may, many Patels who were prevlously affiltated to the Satpanth became followers of Swami Narayan.

60 After the non-sectarian movements founded by Kabir and Dadu (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries) became full-fledged Hindu Panths, a Hindu Brahmin origin was attributed to bath saints.

61 Khan, Conversions, p.69.

62 The members of the Nurshahi Momin Jamat seem to have been only recently converted to Twelver Shia Islam (Ithna Aharis), whereas the Sayyidkhanis represent the main and “original” Ithna Ashari stream within the Imamshahi tradition: while the former are “faithful to the main shrine of Imamshah” but have given up ail Satpanthi rituals, the latter are connected witt the Athia branch and have their own sajjada-nishļn..