Kashmir has travelled a long way to stick to its Sufi tradition, but now, quo vadis? asks Zubair A Dar
In Khanka-e-Moula, a shrine on the banks of the emerald-coloured
Jhelum, thousands of Kashmiri Pundits set to flame their sacred threads when Shah Hamadan’s ‘message of Islam’ reverberated across the Valley in 14th century. Islam did not come to Kashmir riding on a horseback with a sword. Here, it came by Word. Down the centuries, when Kashmir is torn by centuries of foreign rule, the fallouts of the 'two nation theory' and then two decades of a violent conflict, the basic fabric of Islam in Kashmir has remained unchanged; barring those acts that go against the basic fabric of Islam.
Before Islam arrived here, the cultural mosaic had been shaped over several centuries under the influence of Buddhism and Hinduism. Though Islam came to the Valley 700 years after arriving in mainland India, for the past two decades Kashmir stayed in news mostly on Islamist issues – a violent rebellion against the state wrapped in religious jargon and its transition to orthodox Islam.
Sufism – with love, tolerance and service of humanity at its core – had been perfected by poets and philosophers like Ghazali and Rumi and great saints like Abdul Qadir Jilani in Persia and central Asia. After reaching Kashmir, Sufism attained a unique form by blending into Kashmir’s cultural milieu.
However, since the eruption of violence in 1989, Kashmir has been viewed as an increasingly ‘intolerant’ society. Groups like Dukhtaran-e-Millat challenge westernised lifestyles and even encourage girls to carry daggers for self-defense. Is it a temporary aberration or a more permanent change in religious outlook? Answers remain embedded in socio-cultural as well as the politico-religious history of Kashmir.
Introduced in Kashmir in the early 14th century by Turkish Sufi saint Syed Bulbul Shah, Kashmiris welcomed Islam, as Mahayana Buddhism had already broken the rigidities of caste system. As more and more Muslim dervishes came to Kashmir, it became a centre of Sufism, like Delhi and Ajmer. Noor-ud-din was in fact the first Kashmiri-born Muslim saint to assume the title of a Rishi. The Hindus called him Sahaj Nand, his original name. The Muslims called him ‘Wali’. His shrine at the central Kashmir town of Chrar-e-Sharief, a reflection of the Buddhist architecture, is a place of pilgrimage for both religions. Though he died in 1440 AD, he is the most frequently quoted Sufi in every home.
‘’It was a great period. The famous Shaivite saint Lala was wandering across Kashmir with her wakhs (mystic poetry), a blend of Shaivism and Sufism. She was Laleshwari to Hindus and Lala Arifa to Muslims, and Kashmir was becoming a melting pot of the two great philosophies,’’ says renouned poet and scholar Ghulam Rasool Nazki, who has been living a solitary life since his two sons were killed in a grenade blast nineteen years ago. And Nazki is not the only father to loose sons in the violent conflict. Observers place the number of lives lost in Kashmir at 80,000 – among them many moderate voices of Kashmir politics like Moulvi Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone. It is the extremist voices that dominate the scene today.
But the violence in Kashmir did not erupt all of a sudden. By the turn of the 20th century, Kashmir had been under Dogra rule for more than five decades after British sold the Valley to them. It was only after a decade-long political struggle by Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah that land was handed over to the tillers, and thus alleviating the economic condition of a common Kashmiri.
If that came as a relief, the partition came as a gory reminder of the alienation Kashmir had been facing for centuries. While the political struggle again continued to be peaceful till 1989, a militant movement dressed as a holy war and backed by Pakistan started in Kashmir. The sound of gunfire silenced every other discourse. Kshmiri Pundits were forced out of the Valley after hundreds of them were killed.
“The call for Jihad attracted one and all. Youth would travel to towns near LoC and cross over for training,” says Javed Mir, one among the four militant commanders of Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front who started the violent movement. But it was Hizb-ul-Mujahideen that soon became the largest militant outfit by asking youth to take up guns and projecting the struggle as ‘a holy war that is rewarded with martyrdom’.
In Kashmir, Hizb came to be known as the militant wing of Jamat-e-Islami, an organisation founded in 1946 followers of Maulana Maududi of Pakistan. Jamat exploited the arterial base provided by the land to tiller reforms and started its own chain of schools.
But though Kashmiri youth took to arms, the society had resisted whenever a group tried to enforce its views of Islam on them. The people did not blindly follow the dictates of Dukhtaran-e-Millat, a women’s group lead by Syada Aasiya Andrabi. Their activists smeared the faces of women who did not observe Hijab. But the force did not work in the 1990s. Internal persuasion did. “More women put on the veil now as compared to early nineties," says Rifat, a university student. Meanwhile one major reformist group that is emerging is Jamiyat-e-Ahl Hadith. The group concentrates on building personal character of a Muslim and now controls around a thousand mosques in Kashmir. Though the Hadith people disapprove of ritualism that had been emphasised by the religious elite till the early parts of 20th century, the organisation does not discard the teachings of Rishis like Noor-u-Din or Lal Ded. “They are our guiding lights. Their teachings will never become irrelevant,” says Jamiyat-e-Ahl Hadith President, Maulana Showkat Ahmad Shah
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
In Khanka-e-Moula, a shrine on the banks of the emerald-coloured
Jhelum, thousands of Kashmiri Pundits set to flame their sacred threads when Shah Hamadan’s ‘message of Islam’ reverberated across the Valley in 14th century. Islam did not come to Kashmir riding on a horseback with a sword. Here, it came by Word. Down the centuries, when Kashmir is torn by centuries of foreign rule, the fallouts of the 'two nation theory' and then two decades of a violent conflict, the basic fabric of Islam in Kashmir has remained unchanged; barring those acts that go against the basic fabric of Islam.Before Islam arrived here, the cultural mosaic had been shaped over several centuries under the influence of Buddhism and Hinduism. Though Islam came to the Valley 700 years after arriving in mainland India, for the past two decades Kashmir stayed in news mostly on Islamist issues – a violent rebellion against the state wrapped in religious jargon and its transition to orthodox Islam.
Sufism – with love, tolerance and service of humanity at its core – had been perfected by poets and philosophers like Ghazali and Rumi and great saints like Abdul Qadir Jilani in Persia and central Asia. After reaching Kashmir, Sufism attained a unique form by blending into Kashmir’s cultural milieu.
However, since the eruption of violence in 1989, Kashmir has been viewed as an increasingly ‘intolerant’ society. Groups like Dukhtaran-e-Millat challenge westernised lifestyles and even encourage girls to carry daggers for self-defense. Is it a temporary aberration or a more permanent change in religious outlook? Answers remain embedded in socio-cultural as well as the politico-religious history of Kashmir.
Introduced in Kashmir in the early 14th century by Turkish Sufi saint Syed Bulbul Shah, Kashmiris welcomed Islam, as Mahayana Buddhism had already broken the rigidities of caste system. As more and more Muslim dervishes came to Kashmir, it became a centre of Sufism, like Delhi and Ajmer. Noor-ud-din was in fact the first Kashmiri-born Muslim saint to assume the title of a Rishi. The Hindus called him Sahaj Nand, his original name. The Muslims called him ‘Wali’. His shrine at the central Kashmir town of Chrar-e-Sharief, a reflection of the Buddhist architecture, is a place of pilgrimage for both religions. Though he died in 1440 AD, he is the most frequently quoted Sufi in every home.
‘’It was a great period. The famous Shaivite saint Lala was wandering across Kashmir with her wakhs (mystic poetry), a blend of Shaivism and Sufism. She was Laleshwari to Hindus and Lala Arifa to Muslims, and Kashmir was becoming a melting pot of the two great philosophies,’’ says renouned poet and scholar Ghulam Rasool Nazki, who has been living a solitary life since his two sons were killed in a grenade blast nineteen years ago. And Nazki is not the only father to loose sons in the violent conflict. Observers place the number of lives lost in Kashmir at 80,000 – among them many moderate voices of Kashmir politics like Moulvi Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone. It is the extremist voices that dominate the scene today.
But the violence in Kashmir did not erupt all of a sudden. By the turn of the 20th century, Kashmir had been under Dogra rule for more than five decades after British sold the Valley to them. It was only after a decade-long political struggle by Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah that land was handed over to the tillers, and thus alleviating the economic condition of a common Kashmiri.
If that came as a relief, the partition came as a gory reminder of the alienation Kashmir had been facing for centuries. While the political struggle again continued to be peaceful till 1989, a militant movement dressed as a holy war and backed by Pakistan started in Kashmir. The sound of gunfire silenced every other discourse. Kshmiri Pundits were forced out of the Valley after hundreds of them were killed.
“The call for Jihad attracted one and all. Youth would travel to towns near LoC and cross over for training,” says Javed Mir, one among the four militant commanders of Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front who started the violent movement. But it was Hizb-ul-Mujahideen that soon became the largest militant outfit by asking youth to take up guns and projecting the struggle as ‘a holy war that is rewarded with martyrdom’.
In Kashmir, Hizb came to be known as the militant wing of Jamat-e-Islami, an organisation founded in 1946 followers of Maulana Maududi of Pakistan. Jamat exploited the arterial base provided by the land to tiller reforms and started its own chain of schools.
But though Kashmiri youth took to arms, the society had resisted whenever a group tried to enforce its views of Islam on them. The people did not blindly follow the dictates of Dukhtaran-e-Millat, a women’s group lead by Syada Aasiya Andrabi. Their activists smeared the faces of women who did not observe Hijab. But the force did not work in the 1990s. Internal persuasion did. “More women put on the veil now as compared to early nineties," says Rifat, a university student. Meanwhile one major reformist group that is emerging is Jamiyat-e-Ahl Hadith. The group concentrates on building personal character of a Muslim and now controls around a thousand mosques in Kashmir. Though the Hadith people disapprove of ritualism that had been emphasised by the religious elite till the early parts of 20th century, the organisation does not discard the teachings of Rishis like Noor-u-Din or Lal Ded. “They are our guiding lights. Their teachings will never become irrelevant,” says Jamiyat-e-Ahl Hadith President, Maulana Showkat Ahmad Shah
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
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