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July 20, 2003
Review: Shared culture and its enemies
IN the Indian subcontinent the existence of a number of religions, sects, and sufi orders makes society multicultural and multi-religious. There was a time when all of these lived together peacefully, notwithstanding their differences and contradictions. This was the result of movements that emerged from time to time and challenged religious rigidity and extremism. They denounced the caste system and protested against the exploitation of the weakest and downtrodden people.
For example, in the 13th century, in north India the Bhakti movement challenged Brahmanism and its exclusion of the lower castes. The ulema’s version of Islam with no space for tolerance was also questioned. Rejecting this exclusionism, the leaders of the movement preached shared culture, love, harmony and equality.
The sufi saints of wahdat al wujud (God is in everything) made an attempt to eliminate the difference between the believers and the non-believers and eased the tension between Islam and other religions. Akbar was the first to initiate a dialogue between the faiths in India. He established the Ibadatkhana or house of worship at Fatehpursikri where he invited scholars of different religions to come and explain their teachings. The result of these discussions was the formation of his Sulh-i-kul or peace with all policy that treated all people equally irrespective of their religion.
Those individuals who played a significant and crucial role in maintaining harmony among the people of different faiths were the sufi saints and their shrines that became sacred places for their devotees who visited them regularly in quest of solace. In a society where there is no security, no cure for common ailments, no accessibility to centres of power for the solution of the problems of citizens while there is plenty of ambition for success in worldly life and an intense desire for male heirs to continue the name of family, the shrines of holy men became centres of pilgrimage.
The fame of their miraculous powers spread far and wide and desperate people of all faiths flocked to them seeking fulfilment of their wishes. As one of the devotees who was visiting the shrine of the lady of Vailankanni” in south India told Yoginder Sikand: “As long as I get my foot cured, what does it matter?...No reasonable person asks a doctor what is his caste or religion before deciding to go to him.” Therefore, it appears that the devotees’ main motive is to get their wishes fulfilled. They are not concerned whether a shrine is of a Muslim sufi or of a Christian saint.
Yoginder Sikand in this book studies those shrines that are scattered in South India, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Jammu and Kashmir. He travelled to all these places and observed minutely the relationship and devotion between the shrines and the people. The disturbing element that he notices is that slowly and gradually the character of these shrines is changing as a result of communalism and the spread of the Hindutva ideology.
The Muslim sufis who preached love and peace among the followers of different religions and whose shrines were visited by all irrespective of caste and creed are now being Hinduized. Under the influence of the BJP and Hindutva a new history is being constructed which has converted them into Hindu holy men. Hence the mosque like structure of their shrine is also being altered and reshaped on the pattern of Hindu temples.
On the grave of these sufis, idols have been placed for the devotees to worship. Joginder Sikand points out that such changes have been made in the shrines of Hunchi, Hadagil, Jiroli, and Halgi. The same has happened to a sufi known as Sai Baba whose shrine has become “samadhi mandir. An idol has been placed on his grave. In Madhya Pradesh, Imam Mahdi Budhan was also converted to Hinduism. In Rajasthan Goga Medhi who was till now known as Goga pir has become Goga vir.
These changes are taking place in small villages and towns, which are removed, from big cities and attempts are systematically being made to eliminate shared culture and convert these shrines exclusively for the Hindus.
What Sikand observes in Jammu and Kashmir in respect of the change in people’s attitude towards sufis and their shrines is depressing. The move for secession and the presence of the Indian army and its atrocities in the state have made the people indifferent to sufism and its teachings. How can they believe in love and brotherhood in an atmosphere of killing and terrorism? Their faith in shared culture has been lost. Instead there is hatred and prejudice. Moreover, the Wahabi or revivalist and puritan ideology opposes visits to the shrines and rejects their miraculous powers. There is skepticism and suspicion about the spiritual power of the sufis who have failed to maintain peace and harmony in the valley.
When I finished the book it made me sad and depressed. Here is a shared culture which for centuries kept people of different faith together and gave them hope to sustain hardships of daily life, slowly giving way to religious extremism and exclusion. Yoginder Sikand rightly says that “shared religious traditions seem to have little power to resist the growing might of organized religious fascism”.
However, in spite of this depressing scenario, Yoginder Sikand has some hope that inter-religious dialogues and social liberation would release people from religious extremism. “In this, I believe, the inspiration and insights of the men of God whom I have ‘met’ in the course of my journey have a crucial role to play,” he writes. Having no other option, I reluctantly share his optimism.
Sacred Spaces: Exploring Traditions of Shared Faith in India
By Yoginder Sikand
Penguin India. For more information log on to
www.penguinbooksindia.com
ISBN 0143029312
273pp. Indian Rs250
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