For nearly 300 years, Muslim conquerors from Baghdad and Turkey tried to overtake Kashmir, then a strong Hindu kingdom. Kashmir’s Hindu lords once defeated Caliph’s Sindh general and weather prevented Mehmud Gaznavi from entering Kashmir twice, writes Sara Wani

Ruins of Parihaspora in Srinagar outskirts: The governnace city that Laltadatiya built at the peak of his rule

The first mosque that came up for Muslim prayers in the Indian subcontinent was set up in 629 AD at Methala Kodungallur Taluk in Kerala. Sindh, the other port spot that Arabs frequented had its first mosque at Bhanbore in 727 AD. Though Kashmir historically remained intertwined with the rest of the subcontinent, the first mosque in J&K was set up by Rinchana, a Buddhist convert in Srinagar who eventually ruled Kashmir, somewhere around 1320.

The difference of nearly 700 years between the two mosques is a long story about how Islam reached Kashmir. Seemingly, the high mountains surrounding Kashmir were the main obstacle preventing the ‘soldiers of faith’ from taking over the seat of power in Srinagar. But the tortuous passes did not prevent individual Muslims from getting in or the influences they indelibly left in immediate surroundings.

Interestingly, the first Muslim whom history has recorded coming close to Kashmir is none other than Mohammad bin Qasim, the teenage warrior credited for firmly establishing Islam in the subcontinent. His advances into the region were in reaction.

It was during the reign of Caliph Walid (705-713 AD) that Muslim traders were looted and captured by pirates in Indian Ocean. Baghdad governor Hajjaj ibn Yusuf took up the issue with King of Sindh Raja Dahr. He failed to oblige them saying he lacked any authority over the pirates. It provoked Baghdad Governor who sent his nephew, Mohammad bin Qasim, then 17, with a huge army to subdue the king.

Mohammad bin Qasim led army took the land route through Baluchistan as its arsenal arrived by sea. He took-over Sindh in 712 and marched to the Indus, conquering all the territories up to Multan. Consolidating his control over Sindh, the young Muslim general wrote to kings of India asking them to surrender and accept Islam as their new faith. After dispatching a cavalry of 10,000 against Kanuaj, Mohammad bin Qasim personally led an army to the prevailing frontier of Kashmir called Punj Mahiyat, Persian word suggesting five waters and presumably indicates some spot where Jhelum meets other rivers in the plains, according to Chechnama, the Persian translation of an old Arabic history of the Arab conquest of Sindh. Written by an unknown Arab historian in seventh century, it was translated into Persian by Mohammad Ali bin Hamid Abu Bakr Kufi, later.

Eminent Arab historian Albalazari in his Futhul-i-Baldun, however, identifies the spot as Al Kiraj. It is considered to be somewhere around Kangra valley of Himachal Pradesh. He did not advance further. Instead, he demarcated the border of Kashmir afresh which was earlier delimited by Rai Chach Salayman, Raja Dahr’s father, by sowing saplings of Deodar and poplars on the bank of Panj Mahiyat.

In his magnum opus Kashmir under the Sultans, historian Muhibbul Hassan notes that the Arab General reached to the borders of Kashmir kingdom but avoided an invasion. But its visit to the border was a massive threat to the Hindu kingdom.

Then, Kashmir was ruled by Karkota king Candrapida who had ascended the throne in 713 AD. Kalhana in his Rajatarangni has recorded him as “noble” with a “high sense of justice”, even going against the clergy and his own administration in support of his subjects. But to neutralize the threat on his border, Candrapida sought Chinese help by sending an envoy to the ruling Thang dynasty. However, no help came forth.

By then, however, there was change of guard in Damascus that resulted in Qasim’s recall to Baghdad. He was imprisoned by the new governor, and tortured to death.

By the time Caliph Hisham (724-60) appointed Juniad as Sindh’s governor, Islam had made definite inroads in the region. Even Raja Dahr’s son Jai Siah had converted. Later, when he apostatized, he was killed by Juniad. Soon, Juniad headed an army threatening Kashmir.

A possible reason for the new threat could have been a letter. Chechnama has detailed Raja Dahr writing a threatening letter to Qasim from Nuran (Hyderabad, Sindh) after fleeing from Dubial (Karachi). Detailing his allies, Dahr had specially showered praises on the King of Kashmir. Terming him “great monarch” before whom the kings of India from Makran to Turan willingly bow, the letter said the “valiant solider” was the proud owner of 100 elephants and was riding a “white elephant”. “If the brave king initiates an attack (against you), my subjects would not suffer the difficulties inflicted by the Arab army,” Chechnama quotes the letter saying.

With Qasim not around, Junaid was Kashmir bound. Then, Kashmir was being ruled by another Karkota dynasty king, Lalitaditya Muktapida (724-60). Remembered as the Alexander of Kashmir, Kalhana calls him Digvijay, the universal monarch.

Ruling perhaps the greatest Kashmir ever, the boundaries of his kingdom extended to Bengal in east, to Indian Ocean in south, besides Delhi, and Kanauj, and Kashgar was his last central Asian outpost. He ruled for 36 years and, Kalhana says, most of his reign passed in expeditions abroad. Ruling from Parihaspora in city outskirts, and credited for setting up the famous Martand sun temple at Mattan – the oldest, strongest and the imposing structure that Kashmir still boats of, Laltadatiya had, by the end of his reign, evolved a peculiar statecraft that he had written. This treatise had cautioned his subjects against internal dissentions and against neglecting their forts in repair and provisions. His statecraft suggested the cultivators should have a lower life style than those living in the city.

Lalitaditya defeated Junaid and over run his kingdom. Following his predecessors, Lalitaditya as well sent an ‘embassy’ to Chinese emperor Hiuen-Taung (713-755) invoking his help, according to Rajtarangini. Again, no help came from Thangs. “The victory was, however, not decisive for the Arab aggression did not cease,” Muhibbul Hassan records. “That is why the Kashmir ruler, pressed by them from the south and by the Turkish tribes and the Tibetans from the north, had to invoke the help of the Chinese emperor and to place himself under his protection.”

In his battle against Tibetans, Laltadatiya had offered Chinese a base on the banks of Wullar Lake (then Mahapadma) for 200 thousand soldiers.

Kashmir’s Chinese connections did not cease Muslim attacks. In the era of Caliph Mansur (754-75), Sindh governor Hisham bin Amr at Taghlibi mounted another attack on Kashmir. His army reached the southern slopes of the Himalayas, which were subject to Kashmir but failed to enter Kashmir.

That was the last attempt by Arabs to take over Hindu Kashmir. For around 200 years, Kashmir kingdom did not face any threat from the Muslim world which had gradually expanded from one corner of the world to another.

Sun Temple of Martand: The oldest, strongest and the imposing structure that Kashmir still boats of was built by King Laltadatiya (KL Images: Bilal Bahadur)

Tensions later emerged from Turkish Sultan, the Mahmud Ghaznavi. In 1002 AD, Ghaznavi defeated king of Waihind, Jaipal in 1002 A D who committed suicide by burning himself alive. Post-defeat, his son in 1009 took refuge in Kashmir Mountains paving way for the succession of his son Trilocanpal. Eventually, they sought help from Kashmir durbar.

Then, Kashmir was ruled by Sangramaraja (1003-28), the nephew of great queen ruler Didda (950-1002) who “sacrificed” everything to keep the Kashmir state intact. Acceding to the request of a king in distress, Sangramaraja sent a large army under his Army Chief Tunga, the Poonch shepherd whom Didda made her Chief Minister and the army chief.

Tunga’s army joined Trilocanpal and the two attacked Gaznavi’s army in a valley which leads to Kashmir from the neighbouring Jehlum, apparently on west bank of river Jehlum (now in Pakistan), and inflicted a defeat on them. It was Mahmud’s reconnaissance mission. Thus, emboldened Tunga marched forward despite Trilocanpals advice, who was accustomed to Gaznavi’s military tactics. Mahmud advanced in person routing both in 1004 and took control of the area.

In his Zain-ul-Akhbar, thirteenth century Persian historian-geographer Abu Syed Gardezi states that Gaznavi ordered demolition of Kashmir’s all captured forts. His army, Gardezi records, recovered immense riches from them and proselytized all non-Muslims of the captured area. In the same year Sultan ordered building of mosques in all the areas evacuated by the non-Muslims. Besides, scholars and preachers were employed to teach non-Muslims the Islamic way of life.

Provoked by Sangramaraja’s conduct, Gaznavi ordered invasion on Kashmir. He marched to Jehlum and then tried to enter Kashmir by the Tossamaidan pass, Muhibbul Hassan records. The fort at Loharkot that guarded the track halted his advances. Loharkot, now called Lohrian, is a village almost 30 kms from Poonch and is usually termed as ‘gateway to Kashmir’. Ruins of the fort still exist in the village.

The siege that supposedly took place in the 1015 autumn continued for a month but the fort was impregnable. “Mahmud raised the siege as heavy snowfall had cut off his communication network compelling him to retreat,” records Abul Qasim Farishta in Tarikh-i-Farishta. “While leaving the Valley frontier Sultan lost his way, many of his soldiers perished while he himself escaped with difficulty.” Hassan terms it “his first serious reverse in India”. Interestingly, Arab chronicler al-Birouni was witness to the siege.

Gaznavi, according to Iranian chronicler Abbas Parvez in Tareekh-e-Diyal-mi-Gaznavian, had left a spy, Tilak, son of a barber in the Kashmir court to keep him informed. Nursing a grudge, he eventually set off with his army to conquer Kashmir in the autumn of 1021 AD. He traversed the earlier route in September and again Loharkot Fort came in his way. The Fort remained besieged without any success. With approaching winter and heavy snowfall Gaznavi left home.

That was the last bid by any Muslim to conquer Hindu Kashmir.

(This is first of the four part series on advent of Islam in Kashmir).

Abortive takeover bids did not prevent the Muslim influences from impacting the Kashmir society. Long before Kashmir’s transition to Islam, the new faith existed and thrived even during the Hindu rule, says Sara Wani

Manuscripts of the Holy Qur’an calligraphed in 1237 AD on a 25 feet long and 2.5 inch wide scroll paper. Belived to be gifted by Shiekh Hamza Makhdoom (RA) to Khawaja Miram Bazaz, great grand father of Majid and Ashraf Quazi, who displayed it in an exhibition in Srinagar.

Mohammed bin Qasim packed home never to return and Ghaznavids’ left, as if vowing never to set foot on mountains guarding Kashmir like a wall. Kashmir kingdom was apparently insulated against the changes that swept proper India. Delhi Muslim kings and Turkish Sultans remained too preoccupied with power consolidation to make any advance toward Kashmir.

But for the ideas and influences, high Himalayas were no impregnable. Then, political boundaries did not stop trade, refugees and even fortune hunters. Kashmir knew of Islam much earlier than the two failed conquests.

In his Shah Hamdan of Kashmir, Kashmir’s former Director of Archives, Archeology, Research and Museums, Prof Fida Mohammad Khan Husnain has referred to a legend that then Kashmir ruler Veenditya’s emissaries had trekked through Bahrain and met the prophet of Islam. “This information is further collaborated in a Persian manuscript entitled Anwar-i-Kashmir, where it is informed that the Holy Prophet did depute Abu Hazifa Yamani in about 8 AH (after Hijra) with letters to the Chinese emperor but the above emissary got held up in Kashmir due to a heavy snowfall,” Husnain wrote. “Veenditya, the Raja of Kashmir treated them well.”

While the author offers no detail about the veracity of the manuscript and its writer, he claims that Caliph Umar ibn Khitab had deputed a delegation of five persons to Kashmir in about 21 AH. He offers no reference to substantiate the claim. Extensive research failed to trace the king in Rajatarangini. At that point of time when Islam was getting established in the deserts of Arabia, Kashmir was witnessing transfer of power from Baladitya, the last Gonanda king, to Karkotas whoso rule begun with Durlabhavardhana (627-649). Even the Thang dynasty records in China suggest that the first Muslim delegation comprising 15 Arabs was led by Said Ibn Abi Waqqas. Thabit ibn Qays accompanied him. Dispatched by Caliph Usman, it met Chinese Emperor Yung-Wei in 651.

But the existence of Muslims in Kashmir is well documented after the fall of Sindh. Chachnama author Alafi bin Hamıd al-Kufı, states that Muhammad Alaf, an Arab mercenary who had served Sindh ruler Dahır (712 A D), sought refuge in Kashmir. The then Kashmir ruler Candrapıda, received him well and bestowed on him the territory of Shakalbar. G M Sufi, the author of Kashir: Being A History of Kashmir has quoted Sir Alexander Cunningham locating Shakalbar somewhere around the slat range saying the territory was then under the control of Kashmir king.

After Alafı’s death, his estate was inherited by one Jahm, who, according to al-Kufı, “built many mosques there”.

Writing in the UNESCO publication History of Civilizations of Central Asia (IV), N A Baloch has quoted al-Bırunı recording that Muhammad bin al-Qasim bin Munabbih who took Multan “belonged to the house of Jahm bin Sama al-Shami, who had allegedly settled in Kashmir as far back as 712–14 and whose descendants had reportedly continued to flourish there.”

Baloch says though Kashmir was ruled, from the eighth century onwards, by the local, independent, originally non-Muslim dynasties, the region had “increasing political contacts with the Muslim rulers of Sind and Khurasan.” Kashmir and Kashgar, then, would be the two main trading states through Gilgit.

Arabic and Sharda inscription on the grave of Seda Khan, next to Ziarat of Bahauddin Sahib, who died in a battle in the reign of Mummad Shah (1484-1537).

Gaznavids’ returned home from Rajouri as winters set in and failed to wrest Kashmir from Sangramaraja in 1021. “It is, however, possible that some of Mahmud’s soldiers, finding it difficult to cross the mountains towards the plains of India, stayed behind and settled in Kashmir,” historian Abdul Qayoom Rafiqui writes in the UNESCO publication. “It is after these Turkish invasions that Kalhana refers, for the first time, to the presence of Turuskas (Muslim) in Kashmir when describing the reign of Harsa (1089–1111).”

Venetian adventurer Marco Polo is still a widely reliable traveler of that era. He visited Kashmir in 1260. His description of an “idolatrous” Kashmir, then ruled by Laksmanadeva (1273-86) – an “incompetent” ruler “consistently harassed by the Turks and his turbulent nobles”, is brief but interesting.

“They have an astonishing acquaintance with the devilries of enchantment; insomuch that they make their idols to speak,” Polo records in his Travels of Marco Polo. “They can also by their sorceries bring on changes of weather and produce darkness, and do a number of things so extraordinary that no one without seeing them would believe them.”

While terming Kashmir as the “very original source from which Idolatry has spread abroad”, Polo has made the predominant faith clear. But he has made two other observations.

“There are in this country Eremites (after the fashion of those parts), who dwell in seclusion and practise great abstinence in eating and drinking. They observe strict chastity, and keep from all sins forbidden in their law, so that they are regarded by their own folk as very holy persons. They live to a very great age,” goes the first one.

“The people of the province do not kill animals nor spill blood; so if they want to eat meat they get the Saracens who dwell among them to play the butcher,” is the other observation. Saracen is a generic term for Muslims that Christian writers widely used in Europe.

Evidences suggesting Muslim presence in thirteenth century were further corroborated in August 2012 by Qazi brothers – Ashraf and Majid, originally from Khawaja Bazaar. At an exhibition, they displayed full text of the Qur’an calligraphed in 1237 AD on a 25 ft x 2.5 inch scroll paper. “It is part of our heirloom and we had forgotten it on our attic in our old house under the shingled rooftop and nobody touched the two boxes for nearly 150 years,” Ashraf said. “Once we discovered and opened the box, we discovered the treasure.” The rare manuscript, calligraphed by Fatahullah Kashmiri was gifted by Sheikh Hamzah Makhdoom to Khawaja Miram Bazaz, the great grandfather of the Qazis. It carries a certificate of authenticity and transfer with 35 Ulema as witness. Historians did not expect Muslims to be living in Kashmir, then.

Focusing on the ‘court’, Rajatarangini, Kashmir’s oldest historical chronicle skips mentioning social changes in detail. But the first major mention of a social change is during the reign of Lohara dynasty king Harsa (1089-1101). The king says Kalhana, “introduced into the country more elaborate fashions in dress and ornaments and made his courtiers imitate his own taste for extravagance in personal attire.” The ‘new dress code’, an apparent ‘Western Disturbance’ was explained by M A Stein as the “Mohammedan influence”.

This observation is indicative of a social impact though not a religious transformation. But the Kashmir court was never immune to foreign influence. Even Lalitaditya’s had a Turk minister Cankuna. Stein says he was from Badakhshan or its immediately adjoining tracts on the upper Oxus. Besides, Lalitaditya, “as overlord of India”, according to Maharajas’ of India, by Annmorrow Shrishti was “already recruiting regiments from Central Asia.”

Vajraditiya-Bappiyaka, Lalitaditya’s son who ruled Kashmir for seven years, says Kalhana “sold many men to and introduced in the country many Mleccha practice”.

Apparently, Mlecchs were to Hindu scholarship what Saracens were to European writers. A Sanskrit word, Mleccha means “alien in language and manners, uncouth, inferior”. Their presence was felt throughout the reign of Korkotas’, the dynasty that reigned Kashmir between 663 – 855 AD, coinciding with the period when Arab armies were being dispatched to the length and breadth of the world. Even the Bhavaishya Purana, one of the 18 Puranas of ancient Vedic literature dealing with the future, anticipates the rise of prophet of Islam as “the Acharay of Mlecchas”, a desert resident who would be the embodiment of divine qualities. Some Kashmir historians see Ali Kadal as the Mleccha Mar that Rajatarangini refers to.

Husnain is correct in saying that Islam was brought to Kashmir by non-Muslim Rajas. While Karkota king Vajraditya (761– 767) introduced Mleccha practices, Lohara dynasty king Harsa not only employed Turuska commanders but made temple spoliation a state policy. He confiscated idols possessing the valuable metals, they were made of.

 A Hindu iconoclast, Harsa was an interesting character. Initially prudent, courageous and lover of art and music, Sufi feels “his mind was rather demented”. Kalhana see him as “a jumble of contraries”, who was bankrupted by extravagances. To manage his kitty, Kalhana says he would loot the temple treasures, especially the metallic idols. An exploitative taxman, he would even levy night soil! Even though famines, bandits and plagues attacked Kashmir, Harsa never exempted his subjects from taxes. Eventually, his nephews led a rebellion, putting his palace afire, roasting his queens alive and slaying his successors. He was perhaps the only Kashmir king who head was sliced after being hunted down and left to be cremated by a wood-dealer “as a naked pauper”.

Stein has explained Harsa differently. “As Kalhana is particular to specify the new metal statues of gods throughout Kashmir which escaped Harsa’s clutches, we cannot doubt the extent and thoroughness of Harsa’s iconoclasm,” Stein writes. “Can the latter have been instigated or encouraged somehow by the steady advance of Mohammadanism in the territories? Kalhana when relating to these shameful confiscations, gives to Harsa the epithet Turuska  i.e; Mohammadan, and later makes reference to Turuska captains being employed in his army and enjoying his favor”.

Having little faith in his people and his soldiery, Harsa had raised a new model for his army. Comprising mostly Ekangas, the royal bodyguards and the Tantrins, the reformed trouble-makers, each group of  hundred soldiers was placed under a Muslim commander, thus making it impossible for soldiers to run away or hatch plots. This was the beginning of Muslim influence in Kashmiri politics. After Harsa, Bhiksacara (1120-21) is understood to have raised a Muslim cavalry for his personal guard, a task they eventually failed in.

Harsa, however, was one of the series of puppet kings who misruled Kashmir for nearly 500 years after Lalitaditya (724-60) when court rivalry would change kings in Kashmir like turbans. In between came Avantivarman (855-883) who tried to put the house in order. Putting foreign conquests at halt, he devoted his attention to his state focusing on development, welfare, and delivery of services. As his son succeeded him, things were back to square one with class-wars and internecine battles triggering the political instability and reducing the kingdom to its old territorial confines.

By the time Jayasimha (1128-1155) took over, Muslim mercenaries had gained so much popularity that the king and his army chief, according to Kalhana, would go “into the camp with Yavanas (Muslims).”

The gradual decay of the state and the society had led to such deterioration, according to Rajatarangini that when Sahadeva (1300-1 to 1319-20 AD) took over, Kashmir had reduced to a kingdom of “drunkards, gamblers and profligate women”. So when Mongol king Karmasena’s commander Dulcha (Zulchu) invaded Kashmir in 1320, the king fled to Kishtwar. Nobody resisted 70,000-strong invaders, who devastated Kashmir for eight months, selling men to Tartar traders, setting afire dwellings and standing crops. But the entire army perished over Devsar Mountains in south Kashmir while fleeing Kashmir winters with thousands of men and women slaves.

Dulcha destruction literally marked the end of a long chaotic Hindu rule. That changed Kashmir forever.

(This is the second in a four part series on advent of Islam in Kashmir. Read the first part Islam’s Kashmir Story.)

As the internecine fighting between feudal lords and kings triggered an unending appetite for Turkish mercenaries, Muslims from the neighbourhood trickled in as traders, fighters, refugees, and preachers. Once Mongols leveled Kashmir to a new low, some immigrants resurrected Kashmir under a new faith without locals, writes Sara Wani

The recently refurbished shrine of Bulbul Shah in Ali Kadal.

Witnessing Mahmud Ghaznavi’s second attempt to conquer Kashmir fail outside the Loharkot fort in Poonch in 1021 AD, Arab historian Abu Al-Rahain Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Alberuni saw the Vale living beyond “impenetrable regions”. Apparently watching Kashmir from a peak, where “snow never melts”, he has recorded the state of security in which Kashmir lived: “The fortress Rajagirı lies south of it (the peak), and the fortress Lahur west of it, the two strongest places I have ever seen.”

Describing Kashmiris’ as “pedestrians” lacking riding animals and elephants and carrying their nobles in Katt’s on their shoulders, al-Beruni was, however, impressed by their sense of security. “Kashmiris are particularly anxious about the actual strength of their country, and therefore take always great care to keep a stronghold upon the entrances and the roads leading to it. In consequence, it is very difficult to have any commerce with them,” he recorded in Alberuni’s India, almost a decade later. “In former times they used to allow one or two foreigners to enter their country, particularly Jews, but at present they do not allow any Hindu whom they do not know personally to enter, much less other people.”

That Kashmir did not last long. As kings were challenged by Damara’s, Kashmir remained usually tense. In A History of Kashmir, historian P N K Bamzai records Damaras, the land holding barons,  emerged quasi-independent and would operating from Parvesanas’, the fortified residences, akin to castles of the medieval feudal lords, and would undermine the kings authority. “By the twelfth century, the Damaras had become very powerful,” records Bamzai. “Sussala and Jayasimha spent the major part of the reign in fighting them, but did not succeed in completely breaking their power.”

They grew powerful, defied royal authority and by their constant revolts plunged the country into confusion. “Life and property were not safe, agriculture declined, and there were periods when trade came to a standstill,” records Mohibbul Hassan in his Kashmir Under The Sultans.

This raging battle for authority kept the avenue open for Turkish mercenaries and warriors. Apart from foreign expeditions, the weak Hindu kings would utilize them in consolidating their power at home especially against Damaras.

That was precisely why the exploitative king Suhadeva (1300-1 to 1319-20 AD) failed to garner any support in defending his kingdom when Dulchu invaded Kashmir through Jhelum Valley Road (1320). “He fled to Kishtwar, leaving his people to the mercy of the invaders who perpetrated all kind of atrocities upon them,” records Mohibbul Hassan. “They set fire to the dwellings, massacred the men and made women and children slaves.”

After eight months, scarcity of rations led Dulchu to flee Kashmir with fortunes and tens of thousands of Kashmiri slaves and perished over the peaks. “When Dulchu had left the place, those people of Kashmir who had escaped capture issued out of their strongholds as mice do from their holes,” records Jonaraja. “When the violence caused by Rakhsha Dulchu ceased the son found not his father nor the father his son, nor did the brother meet his brother. Kashmir became region before creation, vast field with men without food and full of grass”.

A Ladakhi Muslim outside the Leh’s oldest mosque in Shay.

Power vacuum had engulfed the terrorized and grieving Vale. But four persons from diverse backgrounds who had immigrated during Suhadeva’s reign were destined to fill the vacuum: Lankar Chak, Shah Mir, Bulbul Shah and Rinchana. Their intervention in a devastated Kashmir changed it for ever.

Chak was a Dardistan resident whom his brother had defeated back home. Suhadeva rehabilitated the Chak family in Trehgam.

A Persianized Turk, Shah Mir was a job seeker from Swat who was bestowed a village in Jagir in Baramulla in 1313.

Sharief-ud-Din Abdul Rehman, Kashmir’s Bulbul Shah, who must have stayed in Alikadal, the Mleechmar of yore, and perhaps Islam’s first address in Kashmir.

Ladakh prince Lha-Chen-Rgyal-bu-rin-chen alias Rinchina had escaped from Baltis who had assassinated his father. With the permission by Suhadeva’s army chief Ramacandra, he settled in distant Gagangir near Sonamarg after descending from Zoji La at the peak of Dulchu’s devastation. He earned respect for protecting people from robbers.

“The only place that remained partially safe from the fury of the Mongols was the district of Lar, where Ramacandra shut himself up in the fort, and endeavoured to protect his family, his followers and the inhabitants of the town and the neighbourhood,” according to Mohbbul Hassan. Credited for maintaining “some semblance of authority”, Ramacandra, post-Dulchu retrieved Andarkot, the Kashmir capital located near Sumbal, from Kishtwari Gaddi’s, who had occupied it.

But Ramacandra’s bid to takeover a devastated Kashmir was short-lived. Rinchana assassinated him in Lar fort and seized power. He married his daughter Kota Devi and granted a high position to her brother Rawancandra. Shah Mir helped him achieve the target. That was the fall of 1320.

Rinchana was Buddhist, a faith Kashmir had given up much earlier. They were Hindus but caught in the exploits of clergy and the throne. Personally disillusioned with his faith, Kashmir’s first non-local king wanted a unifying factor for his newly acquired kingdom and subjects. By embracing Islam eventually he became the first high-profile convert. His conversion is accepted by all but reasons and means are contested.

In Rajataragini, Jonaraja says Rinchana wanted to become a Hindu and at the behest of Kotarani, the queen, Brahmins were approached. But the Shaiva guru Devaswami refused to admit him into the fold, he says. “Conversion from Buddhism to Hinduism or vice versa was not a new thing”, historian Prof A Q Rafiqi points out in the UNESCO study, insisting that Rinchana, being the king, could have approached any other Brahman to do the honours.

Mohibbul Hasan terms Rinchana a truth-seeking inquisitive whom neither a diluted Buddhism offered any solace nor the caste-ridden Hinduism and arrogant Brahmans appealed. “As a result he was troubled and restless, and passed sleepless nights, weeping and praying to God to guide him to the right path,” Hasan quoted Baharistan-e-Shahi saying.

Most probably Shah Mir’s companionship might have influenced him to Islam, an escape from the suffocating and prejudiced Brahmanical and Buddhist surroundings. In Kashmir’s Transition to Islam, Prof Isaq Khan disputed Rinchana’s conversion to Islam for his political ambition and association with Shah Mir. He converted at the hands of Bulbul Shah, his spiritual guru.

Then, Bulbul Shah was no stranger. A Sufi from Suhrawardiya order, he was a Turkistan national and had visited once before making Kashmir his home. Then, he accompanied traders and returned. Tibetan scholar and archaeologist of Moravian Mission A H Francke has traced two folk songs – Song of Bordo Masjid, in Ladakh – Chuchoot and Shay, indicating Bulbul Shah’s passage through the desert. On this basis, they believe, the mosque at Shay, in outskirts of Leh – considered the oldest in J&K, might have been set up by Bulbul Shah and not by Amir-e-Kabir Mir Syed Ali Hamadani. The latter only prayed in this mosque during one of his three travels to Kashmir, they believe.

His second visit was recorded in Suhdeva’s reign when, according to Muhibbul Hasan, he entered Kashmir “with one thousand fugitives from the Mongol invasion”.

After bringing in the first high-profile convert to Islam, the Turkish preacher named Rinchana, Sadruddin. Royal endorsement to the new faith led to many conversions in the court and to “ten thousand” commoners, according to some references quoted by G M D Sufi in Kashir: Being A History of  Kashmir. The king set up Bulbul Langhar (Lankar), a three-storied wooden hospice (Khanqah) for the gathering of new converts, and, according to Mohibbul Hasan “endowed it with a number of villages, whose income was to be spent for supporting its servants and supplying food to the travellers and the poor”.

Smallest and the oldest mosque in Srinagar’s Ali Kadal. Itis not open for prayers.

Quite adjacent to it came up Kashmir’s first mosque that went up in smoke many times and rebuilt. The small one-room mosque rebuilt with stones and concrete recently on the banks of Jhelum is closed for prayers. After establishing Islam firmly in Kashmir, Bulbul Shah died in 1327. Francke discovered his grave near his Ali Kadal mosque on the banks of Jhelum in 1909. It lacked an epitaph and devotes set up a mausoleum. In 2011, state government sanctioned nearly two crore rupees that led to the demolition of the old structure to create a concrete-brick-wood complex against the advice of the heritage experts.

Bulbul Shah outlived the convert king who died of a head injury in 1323 but failed to impress his queen Kotarani who remained a Hindu. Initially, supported by Lavanyas, the small rural landlords, Kotarani wanted to rule Kashmir as Reagent of her minor son Haider, then being raised by Shah Mir. But big landlords wanted Udhyanadeva to be summoned from Swat. Brother of Suhadeva, this coward had also fled Kashmir during the Dulchu invasion. He returned, was given power in 1323 and Kotarani married him. They had a son Bola Rattan, according to Jonaraja.

Udhyanadeva was a puppet. He wore the crown and the queen exercised the control over him and his state. Soon after assuming office, a Turkish incursion (led by Urdil as Persian records suggest or Achala if one goes by Jonaraja) took place near Hirapur, the king fled to Ladakh to save his skin. Kotarani united people against invaders with the help of Shah Mir and Bhatta Bhiksana, her foster brother, also her son Bola’s custodian. Turks were defeated.

When Udhyanadeva returned, Kotarani restored his status. Disgraced king preferred seclusion leaving Kotarani to run the state for 15 years as the last Hindu ruler of Kashmir. Shah Mir did not take this lightly. Though his sons Jamshed and Ali Sher were Udhyanadeva’s governor for Maraj (south Kashmir) and Kamraj (north Kashmir), he started planning her overthrow with the active support of the Kotarajas.

Udhyanadeva died in 1338 and Kotarani declared herself sovereign ignoring both her sons. She appointed Bhiksana as her minister. By then, Bamzai says, Shah Mir’s influence in Srinagar was growing “because of his abilities and the sympathies with and understanding of grievances of the people”. A threatened Kotarani fled Srinagar and shifted her seat of power to Anderkot spurning Shah Mir’s offer of power sharing through matrimonial alliance (some historians have called Shah Mir Kota’s paramour).

Aggrieved Shah Mir first treacherously murdered Bhiksha and then advanced to Anderkot with a renewed marriage proposal. She agreed and surrendered. The septuagenarian king arrested her after she entered her nuptial chamber with a dagger hidden in her dress to murder him. She was thrown into prison with both her sons. Romantic Kota, Kashmir’s last Kashmiri sovereign died in prison in 1339 without anything on record about her Muslim and the Hindu sons.

Ascending the throne as Sultan Shams-ud-Din in 1339, Shah Mir, the Swat job-seeker, founded the first Kashmiri sultanate that reigned for two centuries. He employed Lankar Chak as his army chief and accommodated Magres (Magray caste) from the host population in his power structure.

Crushing destabilizing Damaras and Lavenayas, Shah Mir restored order, paid attention to agriculture, the mainstay of economy, abolished some taxes and oppressive laws, according to various credible sources Hasan has quoted. Bamzai credits Shah Mir for conducting “the affairs of the state in a wise and statesmanlike manner” unlike Hindu “atrocious tyrant” kings whose “avowed policy had been to leave to their subjects nothing beyond a bare subsistence”.

Islam was court religion but not much changed on ground. The Hindu majority country had Sanskrit as official language as Brahmans, the traditional official class, ran the Sultanate that ruled from Sumbal. The retention of Hindu faith was neither a bane nor converting to new faith a boon in his court. He introduced Laukika calendar beginning with Rinchana’s ascension and conversion to Islam and Kashmir durbar abandoned it when Mughals took over. Leaving the young sultanate to his two of the four quarrelsome sons, Shah Mir died in 1342 and was buried near Anderkot.

Jamshed, his elder son ruled for almost a year till his brother Ali Sher alias Alauddin dethroned him in 1343 and ruled for 11 years. His social interventions included promulgating a law denying any inheritance to an issue-less widow from her husband if she is immoral, according to Jonaraja. He improved Anderkot and founded Alauddin Pora in Srinagar where he lays buried since 1354.

Statecraft and not faith was Sultanate’s priority. “The founders of the new ruling dynasty and his successors, Jamshed and Alaudin,” says Isaq Khan, “were more concerned with restoring law and order in Kashmir than devoting themselves to the religious affairs of a small number of their Muslim subjects living peacefully in Hindu-Buddhist surroundings.”

(This is the third part of the four  part series on advent of Islam in Kashmir. Second part of the series is Kashmir’s Mlecch Era)

Within decades of their rule when Muslims were still a minority, Shahmiri Sultans took the advice of their spiritual leaders seriously and implemented Shariah, writes Sara Wani

At the time Shahmirs’ were trying to revive Kashmir after a long chaotic Hindu rule, Central Asia, Kashmir key trading partner was changing. The last nomad conqueror Timur, referred as Timurlane (1330s-1405) by Western historians for his right-leg deformity, was a Samarkand sensation who had taken the region like a storm.

A Muslim considered to be an art lover, Timur was an opportunist who used Islam to legitimize his conquests. He had picked a battle with the clergy, which had triggered demographic upheavals in the region.

In those tumultuous years, Kashmir was ruled by Shirashamik, who had assumed the name of Shuhabuddin when he succeeded his father in 1354. Having an un-blemished character, Shuhabuddin initially engaged himself in restoring order for which he gave capital punishment to various rebelling chieftains. “It was after he had assured himself that there would be no trouble in the valley during his absence that he set out to conquer the neighbouring territories,” historian Mohibbul Hassan records in his Kashmir Under The Sultans. But his conquests were exaggerated and were limited to small states bordering Kashmir.

Although Kashmir was now under the Muslim rule for over 30 years, it appears that there was no religious in-tolerance on the part of the king. The court was adorned with Hindu commanders, ministers and high officials. Udyashri was his Chief and Finance Minister, according to Tarikh-e-Hassan. Kota Bhatta was his minister and Malik Candra, Sura Lolaka and Acal Raina were his three military commanders.

Lakshmi, a Hindu, was his favourite queen. In her memory, Shuhabuddin built a town on the Hari Parbat foothills.

In his Rajatarangini, Jonaraja says that Shuhabuddin was so tolerant that when Udyashri suggested the melting of a brass image of Buddha for coinage, Sultan replied: “Past generations have set up images to obtain fame and earn merit, and you propose to demolish them? How great is the enormity of the deed.”

“He is also said to have erected many mosques and monasteries,” Mohibbul Hassan says. Quoting Nawadirul Akhbar of Aba Rafiuddin Ahmad, Hassan has recorded: “He was, however, a patron of learned men and opened a number of schools where the Quran, Hadis and Fiqh were taught.”

M Ishaq Khan in Kashmir’s Transition to Islam maintains that Sultan built schools of Islamic learning “because of his association with two Sufis of the Kubrawi order”, Sayyid Tajjuddin and Sayyid Husain Simnani. The two were deputed by Amir-e-Kabir, Mir Syed Ali Hamadani.

“The first to enter Srinagar was Tajuddin who was given a warm welcome by Sultan,” writes Khan. “But Syed Hussain Simnani joined his brother in 775 AH after staying in India. The Sultan also received Simnani cordially and helped him through a state grant to maintain a kitchen at Kulgam.”

Unlike Khan, most other historians believe that the two brothers were sent on a fact finding mission by their cousin, the Amir-e-Kabir. G M D Sufi, in his Kashir: Being A History of Kashmir says the motive was to “survey the field for the propagation of Islam, and also to find means of escape from Timur, who was suspected of contemplating, from political motives, the massacre of this powerful Sayyid family.”

Simnani was the same Muslim preacher, according to Khan, who converted Noordudin Noornani’s father Salat Sanz to Islam.

Whether his two cousins reported back to Amir-e-Kabir or sent their two disciples Sayyid Masuad and Sayyid Yusuf back to Bukhara is unknown. What is know, according to Mohibul Hassan is that he came to Kashmir. “Sayyid Ali arrived for the first time in Kashmir in September 1372,” Mohibul Hassan says. “After a stay of four months, he proceeded to Mecca on a pilgrimage and thence returned to Hamadan.”

When Amir-e-Kabir arrived, Sultan was out and his brother and successor Qutubuddin received him. On his way to Haj, certain histories suggest Sayyid Ali brokered peace between the Sultans of Delhi and Kashmir who were fighting. But Mohibul Hassan rejects it and terms it a legend.

By the time, Amir-e-Kabir arrived on his second visit in 1379; Qutubbuddin (real name Hindal) had succeeded his brother. He was facing serious crisis from the officialdom that he inherited. Despite his queen Sura Rani mediating to settle Sultan’s issues with Udayasri, Qutubbuddin eventually executed him. He also killed Lolaka in a battle. Even he had to imprison his nephew Hasan.

After staying in Kashmir for two and a half years, he returned to Turkistan. His third and last visit was in 1383. “The third visit of Sayyid Ali was caused by the third invasion of Persia by Timur in 1383 when he conquered Iraq and decided to exterminate the Alavi Sayyids of Hamadan, who, until his time had played an important part in local affairs,” records Mohibul Hasan. “Sayyid Ali, therefore left Hamadan with 700 Sayyids, and set out towards Kashmir where he expected to be safe from the wrath of Timur.”

Qutubuddin received him and brought the caravan to city. Operating from Alauddinpora, there Sultan constructed a Suffa for them for prayers, where he would also join.

Muslims in Kashmir were still a minority. Sultan and his courtiers were still wearing traditional Hindu dresses and following Hindu traditions. This led Amir-e-Kabir’s intervention on whose suggestion Sultan changed his wardrobe. Sultan had two sisters in his herm and he divorced both and then remarried the younger of the two. He would visit a temple in Alauudinpora with Hindus and perform yagnas.

“Qutubuddin did not follow every advice of Sayyid, but he held him in great reverence, and visited him everyday,” Muhibul Hasan records the relationship between the Sultan and the Pir. “Sayyid Ali gave him a cap which, out of respect, the Sultan always wore under his crown.”

During his stays in Kashmir, Amir-e-Kabir has preached Islam and is credited for mass conversions. During his stay he is said to have converted 37000 Hindus to Islam. Fouq’s Tarikh-e-Kashmir and J L Kilam in his History of Kashmir Pandits insist that once three kharwars (six mounds) of scared Hindu thread (Janeu) were burnt after a mass conversion event. Even some miracles are attributed to him. While all historic records suggest his preaching of Islam within and outside the court, no credible history has recorded a miracle. New converts, however, converted the temples into mosques.

Almost all historians including Hassan ibn Ali, Malik Hyder Chadoora emphatically state that Mir Ali Hamadani was keen that Sultan should implement the Shariah.

“…if to be a Muslim is to have the righteousness of the prophet’s followers of the first age, then even a pagan and a fire-worshipper will feel ashamed of our sins,” Amir-e-Kabir wrote in a letter to Sultan. “Even the Jews will not consider the wavering and weak belief of the present day Muslims worth anything.” Amir tells the king the “surprising” thing that “Muslims are running away from the truth path…”

Amir concludes his letter with this paragraph: “Out of sheer love, I advise you that the worldly glamour is like a fast wind and the worldly favour is like an unfulfilled dream; he alone is wise who neither gets fascinated by dreams nor feels proud of any notion but learns a lesson from the experiences of bygone people, believing firmly in the axiom that: one who does not learn the examples of others, himself becomes an example of other.”

In the 1384 fall, Sayyid Ali left against the wishes of his host. He, however, left Maulana Mohammad Balkhi alias Mir Haji Mohammad to guide the Court. Near Kunar, he passed away on January 19, 1385. He lays buried in Khatlan.

In very old age, Qutubuddin fathered two sons Sikandar and Haibat. When they were orphaned in 1389, both were minors. Though Sikandar succeeded him but the state was controlled by the Queen Regent Sura (Haura Khatun). Somehow, securing throne, she had to execute her daughter and son-in-law for conspiracy. By the time Sikandar took over, his enemies had poisoned Haibat.

Things began changing rapidly later. After managing the disorder that erupted after his father’s death, he undertook military expedition to reclaim the areas that had claimed autonomy. He had two wives Mira and Sobha Devi.

In 1393, five years ahead of Timur’s Delhi takeover, Syed Mir Mohammad Hamadani, arrived in Kashmir with 300 Sayyids. Sikandar received them well. Together with Suhabhatta, Sikandar’s prime minister and army chief, Amir-e-Kabir’s son made the era interesting. Suhabhatta converted to Islam and became Malik Saifuddin. He gave his daughter Bibi Baria (buried in Kotar, Kralpora) in marriage to the preacher.

Mir Mohammad was young and impressive. Jonanaraja describes him as “the bright moon….among the stars” for his qualities of mind and heart.

Even the Sultan was different. “..he abstained from wine and other intoxicants, and that on religious grounds he did not listen to music,” Muhibul Hasan describes Sikanadar. “He appears to have been a man of puritan temperament, and banned all the gay celebrations which were so common a feature of the reign of Sultans.”

It was apparently the insistence of Mir and Suhabhatta that Sikandar implemented Sharia in Kashmir. He established the institution of Sheikh-ul-Islam to oversee the implementation of Sharia in his kingdom. He banned gambling, wine, playing of string music and dancing, besides, imposing Jaziya on non-Muslim which were forming still the majority of the subjects. He prohibited sati and application of tilak.

“The new converts came to be looked down upon by their old compatriots as the people with no decency or loyalty for the time bound values,” writes Kilam.

Throughout history, Sikandar has been projected as an iconoclast, the man who destroyed hundreds of temples, forcing exodus of Hindus and forcible conversions. But people defending him suggest that Sikandar ruled much lesser than 24 years because he was a minor when his father died. They attribute the entire baggage to Suhabhatta.

Suhabhatta had his own axe to grind. Once he had fallen ill and Hindu Ved’s failed to cure him. Then a Bukhara Sayyid prescribed him mutton and beef soup, which he took, after being permitted by the clergy. But this incident blocked his daughter’s marriage prospect as no Hindu accepted her for their household was presumed polluted. Enraged Suhabhatta converted and married his daughter to Mir.

“The Chief person who prevailed upon Sikandar to adopt an intolerant attitude towards the non-Muslims was Saifuddin, who was in this respect his evil genius,” Muhibul Hasan writes. “The Sultan at first resisted him but in the end gave in and allowed himself to be used as an instrument of his minister’s religious fanaticism.”

The clergy was not supportive. “The saint Sayyid Mohammad, on being appraised, told the king that all that was done either at his bidding, or through his connivance, was not sanctioned by Islam,” G M D Sufi wrote. “These words so impressed the Sultan that he at once put an end to these activities.” Kashmir, however, remembered him – Suhyar Masjid, Suhyarbal and Suhyar Mohalla around Ali Kadal keep his memory green, writes G M D Sufi.

The “iconoclast” Sikandar, however, built Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta with the help of Sadruddin Khurasani, its architect. He built all the four Khanqah’s in Srinagar (1396-97), Tral, Sopore and Vachi.

Later Shahmirs’ did everything they could to undo what happened in Sikandar era. By the time Sikandar died in 1413, Kashmir was back to normal. Kashmir’s medieval era normality was briefly described by Amir-e-Kabir in his letter to Moulana Muhammad Khawarazim, who had accompanied him to Kashmir but had stayed put. “But it is really surprising that how can one ever live peacefully in the land of infidels or feel contended where the wicked flourish and are provided support?”

(This is the last of the four part series on advent of Islam in Kashmir. Read the third part of the series Hindu Subjects, Muslim Rulers here)

The morning police raid on Gujjar hutments in Samba is not an isolated incident. Syed Asma talks to the community living under the fear of extremism in a highly politicised belt

A woman standing near her destroyed hutment.
Pic: Omar Asif

On February 21, 2016, a small Gujjar populated hutment in Sarore near Bari Bramhana Bridge, were shaken by cries of wailing women, children, and smouldering roofs. It was the second raid of the day.

The first one happened in the wee hours of the morning when J&K police along with cops from Himachal raided the hutment, housing some 30 odd Gujjar families, to nab a wanted dacoit.  After searching for hours police failed to find the wanted man. During the search operation, some police men and youngsters from Gujjar community engaged in a tiff. The spat turned violent leaving a number of policemen and Gujjar’s injured. “We were expecting reaction from the police but not as violent,” says an elderly Gujjar who refused to give his name.

Disturbed by the news of police raid on Sarore, Mohammed Yaqoob, 25, set out on foot from nearby Vijaypur – another Gujjar hutment in Hindu majority Samba district – to check on his family. Yakoob’s wife and his two sons (10 and 8 years old) and daughter (3), were at their maternal home in Sarore.

Yakoob reached Sarore in the morning, just before the second raid. “Everything was normal. We were busy feeding our cattle,” says the elderly Gujjar.

All of a sudden, a large contingent of police, accompanied by a few civilians, raided the Sarore hutment. “The men in civvies with police were RSS men,” says Hamid, one of the survivors.

Without warning, both policemen and RSS goons started setting our hutments on fire and beating whosoever came into their way including women and children, says Hamid.

When youngsters from Gujjar community tried to stop them, police opened fire killing Yaqoob and injuring many others including a 15-year-old Farhan Ali. “Farhan is battling for his life right now,” informs Hamid.

There might be a few miscreants in the community, says Bashir, as is case with every other community, but does that give police right to bring RSS goons along and kill our men?

When the police and RSS men left, 20 out of 30 hutments were turned into ashes.

When contacted, DC Samba, Sheetal Nanda and Mubarak Singh, Vice Chairman, Jammu Development Authority (JDA), refused to share information regarding Sarore incident.

“Killing is an incident which happens. We have offered a compensation and an enquiry has been ordered with a deadline of 15 days. Let’s see what comes out,” says Nanda.

While JDA’s Singh termed the incident as, “simple law and order problem which has nothing to with JDA.”

The Gujjar community is living in the area since 1960s, says Nizamud-din Khatana, former PDP MLC. The hutment was spread over an area of 60 kanals till 1971. That year refugees from West Pakistan arrived and were settled in Sarore as well. “To avoid clashes between Gujjars and West Pakistani refugees, government divided the land equally in 1977,” says Khatana. “So it was government’s decision to settle Gujjars in Surore.”

Mian Altaf, former NC Minister and MLA, remembers no such controversy ever arising regarding Gujjar’s living in Surore. “There was no issue of eviction until recently,” says Altaf, “And even if they wanted to evict them from Surore, JDA should have shot them notices, and given them time as per law. But killing and setting their huts on fire is not justified.”

But the Sarore incident is not an isolated one, there were numerous incidents where minority Muslims from Jammu belt were harassed by RSS and BJP men, alleges Hamid.

“It is done under the patronage of former BJP MLA Chandra Prakash Ganga,” alleges Talib Hussain, a Gujjar and a rights activist of his community.

Before 2014 assembly elections, Hussain alleges that Ganga had warned Muslims of Sarore and Vijaypur of bitter consequences once he is elected.

“Once I am elected, I assure my men (RSS) that Muslims in Sarore and Vijapur will be evicted, come what may,” Hussain remembers Ganga saying before the elections.

Interestingly Sarore killing is the fifth such incident since PDP-BJP collation came to power in J&K. The first one was when RSS men beat Gujjar labourers in Manohar Gopala, and Paramandal while working at a stone crusher.

Recently RSS men forcefully tried to convert an ancient graveyard in Bassi into an Akhada.

In Raya Moud, RSS men created ruckus when a dead animal was found in the area. They alleged Gujjar’s of killing a cow. Local administration had to order an enquiry when RSS men started hunting Gujjar’s. The situation cooled only after it was proved that the animal was not a cow.

Interestingly, Ashiq Hussain Khan, a Gujjar leader representing PDP blames “provocative” statements of Kashmir Muslims for their plight. “We (Gujjar’s) have no representation in the state government, that is why we are facing the wrath of Hindu majority,” says Khan.

Khan feels there should be balance in administration to safeguard interests and assets of the minorities in Hindu dominated Jammu belt. “There should be one member from every community at least in such communally sensitive areas,” feels Khan.

Meanwhile Yaqoob’s orphans are struggling to survive without a roof over their heads.

Had Jama’at-e-Islami not offered its resource base and the vast organizational skeleton, MUF might not had been as important as it eventually proved, reveals Syed Asma

Jama’at-e-Islami J&K’s Muhammad Yusuf Shah leading an election rally in Maisuma in 1987.
Photo in Special Arrangement with: Merajuddin

Jama’at-e-Islami’s (JeI) entry into Muslim United Front (MUF) was dramatic. Persian professor Abdul Gani Bhat whom Jagomhan dismissed in February 1986 actually made the announcement of the party joining the alliance. Interestingly, it was even to Ameer-e-Jama’at, who also heard him making the announcement in Arin village where the party was holding in an Ijtema (meeting).

To have Jama’at-e-Islami in MUF, was an important strategic step, accepts Prof Bhat sitting in his Sardar House at Wazirbagh. It was the only experienced party that shared MUF’s ideology, had courage to support it and had experience in politics.

“Had Jama’at not agreed to be part of MUF, it would have failed much before its takeoff,” said Farooq (name changed), a Srinagar bases political analyst who has been active during 1987 elections. “Apart from pan-Kashmir cadre base, Jama’at was the most resourceful party that MUF could have banked on.”

Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai (JeI Kupwara candidate).

After it’s formal entry, Jama’at’s Batamaloo and Maisuma office became MUF’s new addresses. It was the only constituent in MUF which owned an official vehicle.

A day after Prof Bhat announced Jama’at’s entry in MUF, its Ameer was attending the alliance meeting on July 13. “G M Bhat and I reached together for Botengo meeting,” recalls Prof Bhat. To everybody’s surprise he was asked to preside over the meet. Maulana Abbas Ansari, recently appointed convenor, and Qazi Nisar, coordinator MUF, were also present in the meeting. Under G M Bhat’s leadership MUF’s constitution – already prepared by Prof Bhat and Dr Ghulam Qadir Wani – was discussed. “I remember heading all MUF meeting,” says G M Bhat, whom his party recalled from retirement to head it again.

“Bhat was deliberately made to feel special, and the leader of MUF, as only Jama’at had experience to fight elections,” feels Farooq.

Jama’at is a cadre based socio-religious-political party that exists in Kashmir since 1946. But its formal entry into politics came in 1969 with local bodies election.

Syed Ali Geelani (JeI Ex-MLA Sopore)

“In a way, Jama’at introduced democratic electoral process in Kashmir,” says Ali (name changed) a senior Jama’at member from south Kashmir.  “Otherwise Sheikh Abdullah used to sweep elections virtually unopposed. Jama’at’s entry into elections encouraged others to participate.”

However, after 1987 elections, Jama’at remained apolitical, citing loss of faith in democratic setup.

The first official meeting of MUF took place in Botengo, Sopore. It acquired its name there.

The first discussion that took place, remembers Prof Bhat, was about the nomenclature. Will MUF’s constitution mention state of J&K or simply J&K, was point of discussion. “State of J&K introduced it as one of the states of India while as J&K portrayed it as an independent entity,” explains G M Bhat.

All but Dr Ghulam Qadir Wani agreed to use J&K. “Later Dr Wani too got convinced,” recalls G M Bhat. “We did not want to alienate ourselves, so State of Jammu and Kashmir was chosen.”

Four hours later MUF was formally born. It had a constitution, structure, and support of all the parties including Jama’at.

The Jama’at J&K 2016 front line leadership. (KL Image: Bilal Bahadur)

Exactly 29 years later, G M Bhat, sitting in Jama’at’s Batmaloo office, terms the decision to join MUF as “difficult one”.  Known for his high political ambitions, Bhat says he wanted to keep Jama’at-e-Islami aloof from MUF. Courtesy – ambiguous political nature of MUF.

Some MUF constituents wanted to remain apolitical, something opposed by G M Bhat. “To steer clear of any confusion, I proposed to support MUF from outside, without making Jama’at one of its constituent members,” says G M Bhat.

This was opposed by other constituents who wanted Jama’at to lead from the front. “They offered to help Jama’at during elections. But it would have created confusion only,” says G M Bhat.

But G M Bhat had a point, what if you fail to support Jama’at for any reason; it will only create bitterness among MUF members. Finally, all MUF constituents agreed to participate in elections.

“I believe MUF had already made up its mind to fight elections,” says Farooq. “Or it was done to rope in Jama’at’s into MUF.”

Many believe, MUF’s creators Prof Bhat and Dr Wani, had already made up their mind to fight elections along with Jama’at. “They (Prof Bhat and Dr Wani) knew what they were doing. It was perhaps pre-decided to launch Kashmir’s first political forum, but not everything was shared with everybody by the duo,” feels Farooq.

Except Qazi Nisar’s Umaat-e-Islami, everybody agreed to fight 1987 elections. Qazi Nisar was in jail that time, so MUF had to wait for his consent. A few days later when Qazi Nisar was released, MUF sent two men to get his consent, but they came back disappointed saying, ‘Qazi Sahab is a changed man. He ignored us’.

Gh Mohammad Mir (JeI Beerwah candidate)

Disappointed, G M Bhat (Ameer-e-Jama’at), Prof Ghulam Rasool Bacha and Prof Ashraf Saraf decided to visit Qazi personally. “Qazi Sahab was addressing a huge gathering at Islamabad when we reached there,” recalls G M Bhat.

When Qazi Nisar saw G M Bhat and others approaching the stage, he cut short his speech. “I too could sense change in Qazi’s behaviour,” recalls G M Bhat.

Without losing heart, G M Bhat got hold of microphone and welcomed Qazi on his release from jail. “I then invited him along with his followers to Srinagar’s Iqbal Park for a big rally MUF had planned,” recalls G M Bhat.

At Iqbal Park, Qazi Nisar sat comfortably on stage while MUF announced its 40 candidates (32 from Jama’at), who made their first public appearance wearing Kafans (funeral shrouds).

To introduce candidates wearing shrouds was Prof Bhat’s idea. “We wanted to convey that MUF men are ready to sacrifice their lives for the change,” says Prof Bhat. “But I had to explain it to Bhat Sahab because he had to foot the bill.”

Abdul Razak Mir alias Bachru (JeI Ex-MLA Kulgam)

For a while everything was going smooth for MUF, huge public support, big rallies across Kashmir, and outpour of public sentiments on the streets, raised hopes of a comfortable victory. But it proved short-lived.

In the meantime, G M Bhat left for Saudi Arabia for Umrah, and the reins of Jama’at in his absence were handed over to Syed Ali Geelani, MUF’s Sopore candidate. “In my absence MUF decided to include Abdul Gani Lone (People’s Conference) in the party, which was wrong,” says G M Bhat. “He was a communist, how could Jama’at have let him in!”

The front line Jama’at-e-Islami leaders in 1987 state assembly elections.

Interestingly, Lone’s inclusion in the party was decided on the day MUF convenor Maulana Abbas Ansari’s mother passed away. “Instead of attending her Nimaz-e-Jinaza (Funeral prayers) MUF members met and included Lone in the party,” says G M Bhat.

Advocate Zahid Ali (JeI Pampore candidate)

Once back, G M Bhat cancelled all decisions taken in that meeting, including Lone’s entry into MUF. “This was unacceptable to me,” says G M Bhat.

When results came, Lone’s exclusion from MUF proved costly, as his People’s Conference, bagged almost 1 lakh votes. “Had Lone been part of MUF, they would have won entire north Kashmir,” believes Farooq.

However, days before elections, G M Bhat, on MUF constituent’s insistence, tried to negotiate a seat sharing deal with Lone. “He asked for important seats like Sopore and Kupwara that MUF was not ready to leave,” recalls G M Bhat.

Finally, MUF was routed in the elections, as it managed to win just four seats: three in south and one in north. Two were bagged by Jama’at men.

“Jama’at’s morally upright approach never allowed them to win popular vote,” feels Farooq.

The elections result, and the alleged rigging, disappointed MUF’s rank and file, but Prof Bhat. “Dr Wani and I were never concerned about winning or losing. Our motive was to educate and engage youth. That I guess we did,” says Prof Bhat. “We never wanted to form a government!”

After remaining shrouded for centuries, an old city family stumbled upon the Prophet’s relics and rare manuscripts fundamental to Kashmir’s transition to Islam. Establishing the twin lineages in their family, the discovery details Kashmir’s connection with Turkistan, reports Bilal Handoo

Snapshots of Holy Relics in possession of the Quazi Brothers.

For nearly 200 years, their attic was a no-go area. Their fore-fathers would advise every family member not to get even closer to the wooden box lying abandoned inside their old city’s rundown residence. In one aberration to the unwritten rule, a family member had died as well, which reinforced the belief forcing successive generations resist attic advances to avoid bad omen.

But by 2012, the crumbling house unearthed the boxed mystery. That summer, the family stumbled upon the relics, proving that Islam came to Kashmir much before what historians say. The biggest of all discoveries was the recovery of Prophet Muhammad’s (SAW) relics inside that box, they feared for centuries!

Out of that dusty box laying shut in the attic of Quazi family’s Daribal house, nine relics were retrieved. But before one could research on the relics, the question was: who was this family that had suddenly become the privileged lot near Naqeshband Sahab shrine?

Fast fact-finding revealed that it was the same family that used to receive personal mails from His Highness, Maharaja Pratap Singh. Little more inquiry revealed they were frequented by Ms Fitze Mallinson, the English lady who founded Srinagar’s Mallinson Girls School in 1912 at Fateh Kadal (later shifted to Lal Chowk). And further probing made it absolutely clear that it was family that was rooted in Turkistan.

Quazi Brothers displaying the relics at their residence. (Photo: Bilal Bahadur/KL)

When a young Turkistan trader-poet began yearning for his spiritual master, the well-known Kashmiri saint Sheikh Hamza Makhdoomi (RA) (1494 – 1576 AD) was already drawing droves of devotees to his hillock abode. The rare manuscript identifies the Turkic trader as Miram Bazaz. “That young man was a different tribe,” reveals the moth-eaten text. “He was a pious man, known for his charitable works. His good works were known to everyone in Turkistan’s Iskandarpur.”

To address his longing, he undertook Mecca pilgrimage. While crying his heart out there, he is believed to have a vision of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), who “instructed” him to visit Kashmir to meet “His beloved Hazrat Sheikh Hamza Makhdoomi(RA)”.

With that, reveals the rare personal diary of Bazaz, began his treacherous journey to Kashmir. The trader finally reached Koh-i-Maraan, the saint’s dwelling.

“From the first meeting itself,” says the manuscript, “the Turkistan trader became the beloved disciple of the saint.”

Miram Bazaz shortly acquired Malkha graveyard in old city and dedicated it to the native Muslims “in accordance with his murshid’s (his spiritual master’s) wishes”. Later, he authored two treatises: Tazkiratul Murshidin and Se Gazal. The twin compilations describe the bond between the saint and the disciple.

Later Bazaz gave up poetry after having a ‘vision’. But passing away of his saint made him to wander into woods and wilderness. After leading a hard and struggling life, the trader from Turkistan was laid to rest in Malkhah.

The period that ensued pushed the Bazaz family into a different form of wilderness before time apparently stopped ticking for them on June 13, 2012.

Scroll Quran.

That day Bazaz’s grandchildren living overseas had decided to desert their crumbling ancestral house.  Quazi Mohammad Ashraf, the senior most among surviving Quazis at 81, who had retired as high-ranking official, was hesitant to touch the box. The moment ‘shaky hands’ opened the lid, they were stunned to see the relics inside.

With sighting came suggestions. They were advised to construct shrine for housing the relics. Even one key clergyman suggested them to throw the relics in fire to test their authenticity. Others, “the opportunist lot”, frequented their home for securing the permanent custody of the relics. But Quazis stood unfazed, hushed.

The deadlock finally broke over the waazwan. While taking part in the feast, Quazis happened to share the relic discovery with the prominent Kashmiri medico, Dr Allaqaband. The doctor contacted the experts to carry out the fast fact-finding exercise. State’s archives and antiquities department investigated the amazing find for two months before pronouncing it authentic. Kashmir University did further investigations to prove its authenticity. Months later, the department of Archives Srinagar registered the relics in terms of the provisions of the Antiquities and Art Treasure Act 1972.

Prophet’s Blanket.

In the nine retrieved relics were the camel wool mat of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and a robe of Hazrat Ali Murtaza (KTW). “These relics dating back to Prophet’s era are second in Kashmir after the holy relics of Hazratbal,” the fact-finding asserted.

Among the relics was the 25-feet scroll Quran with 99 names of Allah. Calligraphed with a rare technique, it is hardly readable with naked eye and can be read with the help of a magnifying lens. “It must be, most probably, the only one of its kind available anywhere in the world,” the research concluded.

The holy Quran was written on parchment made in China. Sheikh Hamza Makhdoom (RA) through the written document in Persian had given its authority to Miram Bazaz. He also received the cap, the comb and the one of the two belts of the saint. The other belt is said to be in possession of the Mirwaiz family.

What further authenticated the relics were two sanads (letters of authentication) accompanying the relics. They are duly attested by the renowned Ulemas of the period. The scrolling Quran carries 40 stamps of authentication. The sanad while proclaiming Bazaz to the highest order of sainthood counsels the descendents to preserve and protect the relics as a source of piety and elation. It bears the year 1121 Hijree, corresponding to 1700 AD.

Holy relics.

It was the current Quazi clan’s grandfather, Aziz ud Din Quazi who actually formed an inherited link between two lineages in the Quazi family. He was adopted by one Quazi family from Khanyar. As the only son in Ghulam Nabi Quazi’s home, he ended up receiving the relics—the Prophet’s mat and His son-in-law’s robe—as the ‘sacred inheritance’. Based on the Sharje Nasb (lineage), the possession of the relics pointed presumably to the ancestors culminating with Hazrat Abdullah bin Masood (RA), the prophet’s companion.

While it is not known how the Khanyar family acquired the relics, Aziz later returned to his real parent’s home with them. The relics added to the already relic kitty. He went on to adopt Quazi as surname instead of Bazaz. And to prevent their desecration, the family boxed them in an attic and spread a word that it carries something that cannot be touched.

But years before the Quazis could stumble upon the relics, the old city family was living an eventful life. They were known men of letters in the area, busy handling and solving the local judicial issues. Their education also helped them to get closer to power personalities of the times.

When a postcard was delivered to their old city address on February 8, 1927, it only revealed their close relation with Dogra rulers. The postcard had come from Maharaja Pratab Singh to Aziz’s wife—who was the first female teacher at famous Mission School of Fateh Kadal. The Maharaja had sent postcard to inquire about her ailing health.

“Even Ms Mallinson would frequently visit our home to discuss the educational matters,” says Quazi Ashraf. Later, the family went on to acquire Prem Nath Bazaz’s famed newspaper, Hamdard. They are still running it, though its vintage prominence is nowhere visible despite emergence of many scribes in Quazi family, like Ghulam Rasool Arif, Mohammad Afzal Makhdoomi and others.

These days the elder Quazis put up at 90-Ft in city outskirts, while most of their progeny live abroad.

Interestingly, days after the relics were retrieved, it was revealed that the scroll Quran was existing 400 years before the lifetime of Sheikh Hamza Makhdoomi (1494-1576 AD). Its early existence indicated that Islam had come to Kashmir much before than what the recorded history suggests.

With relic resurgence, Islam’s Kashmir origin debate got renewed. Some swiftly joined the dots back to the times of the last king of the Lohara dynasty, Suhadeva. The monarch had fled Kashmir after a Turkic–Mongol chief, Zulju, led a savage raid on Kashmir. After him, Rinchana (a Tibetan Buddhist refugee) took over Kashmir around 1320. His conversion to Islam is a subject of Kashmiri folklore. Later as Shah Mir’s coup on Rinchana’s successor secured Muslim rule in Kashmir, relics started coming home.

Most of the Prophet’s relics, the history notes, had come to sub-continent during 1300-1707 AD. Muslim rulers like Mughals had brought Tabarruk of the Prophet’s beard hair. The most famous of these relics is the one at Srinagar’s Hazratbal Shrine.

Mulla Omar wearing Prophet’s cloak.

Years later, as Taliban leader Mullah Omar, appeared on a rooftop in Afghanistan wearing the prophet’s cloak, the present day Quazi’s began tracing their roots in Turkistan. They curtly learned that their ancestral hometown, Iskandarpur, now stands rechristened and redefined. But the revamp hardly derails their desire to revisit their roots, someday.

Masood Hussain

Army officers “offering Nimaz” at a function in Srinagar.

After formally throwing open a bookstore in Dal lake in May, Chief Minister Ms Mehbooba Mufti made an apparently innocuous comment. “It is a matter of concern,” Ms Mufti said, “the beard of youth is getting longer as their trousers are shortening.”

Significance of these comments was felt by some of the TV reporters who requested her to repeat the same in any non-Kashmiri language. This, they said, was vital to communicate her concern to the larger audience. She cleverly heard them, smiled but did not oblige.

I have no problems in the veracity of her statement even though I see it befitting the young women dress more than males. My issue is different: why should J&K’s any Chief Executive get involved with the length of beards when there are much bigger issues to tackle first? As head of a secular state, Ms Mufti is ruling India’s most sensitive state with rightwing BJP as an ally and still thinks she must feel “concerned” in matters of faith!

Her statement, however, conveyed the “crisis” that various government’s across the world, the most recent being India and Pakistan, are confronted with: increased Saudi influence in the region. Routinely being dubbed as Wahabism, lot many strategic affairs experts believe that so called Wahabization of Islam has increased Islam’s ‘violent outlook’.

I am not a Wahabi but I do not believe even in a shred of this argument. The movement led by Mohammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab is mostly about reducing gate-keeping between the Creator and the mankind. It is more about invoking text and delinking culture from pure faith. This fierce de-linkage between the faith and the cultural history continues to be at display in the ongoing process of creating ‘Modern Mecca’. It has hurt millions of Muslims like me but it still is far away from the silver lining where one could pass a judgment against Kabba custodians.

Wahabism may have some relevance to the happenings in Syria or other burning spots on the globe but Kashmir is completely a different space. Wahabis in Kashmir are more peaceful than any other sub-school of thought. Any change in Kashmir’s religious character, however, must be seen more in its historic context rather than picking up contemporary cosmopolitan trends to explain it.

Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah leading Eid-ul-Azha prayers in 1981.

Islam in Kashmir has existed, for a very long period, in the classist bourgeoisie greenhouses with no direct access to commoners – the typical mal-nourished, ignorant proletariat. After getting de-controlled from the clergy, mostly in the last fifty years, Islam in Kashmir is shedding the cultural superimpositions to get closer to the text. This is the larger reality. It has nothing much to do with the Saudi influence overtaking the Persian past with Peashan and Khuftan prayers becoming Asar and Isha prayers.

This ongoing process might undo many small occupations, demolish many “green-houses” and “windows” of opportunity and may even upset the social stratification in coming years. But there is nobody in a position to undo it or even change its course. Not even the secular government or the filthy rich clergy.

I see these happenings beyond the investments that Tehran and Riyadh might be making in rest of the Muslim world to fight their wars of supremacy and one-upmanship, offshore. This is part of their foreign policy. Though Kashmir is far away from those battlegrounds, I admit, the tensions exist.

My argumentation has nothing to do with the scores of mosques cropping up in Kashmir, every season, indicating rising Saudi influence in the traditional Pir Vaer. I see lengths in beards and trousers indicators of self discovery rather than a diversion from basics.

But State has never forgotten the faith. For a very long time, state systems have tried jumping directly into the pulpit or encouraged “supportive” clergy. Even the worst rulers in Sikh and Dogra era would fund the kitchens, Hamams and Harems’ of the clergy to keep subjects ‘disciplined’. Now only the processes have changed and not the systems.

One instance I am personally aware of is that army and other security agencies organize Iftaar parties and apparently to convey “respect” for Islam, they offer Nimaaz in full media glare. The last time when I saw it happening was in SKICC where the then corps commander Lt Gen V G Patankar had invited media for the Iftaar Milan. I was done with my abulations and was waiting for the prayers to begin that I saw Patankar in snow white Khan Dress wearing a Karakul cap with the drops of water dripping down his face. I was surprised.

When my colleague told me that he was going to offer Nimaaz with us, I was shocked. I came out of the line, sat in the lawns, lit a cigarette and watched the tamasha of multi-faith Nimaaz. It might have been one rare Iftar in my lifetime that used gas and not liquid or solid. Muslim prayers are commanded for the faithful and any neutralization of that makes it a theatre.

I have rarely joined such Milans later. But I was told that this is a regular practice for top Generals to join the symbolic Nimaaz. Even former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was part of one such fully televised Nimaaz. For all these years, nobody from the government or the clergy is suggesting soldiers to avoid this aberration as the respect lies in not having it.

Post 1953 Shiekh Muhammad Abdullah.

Soldiers have evolved their own style of “respect”. On April 5, 2005, two days ahead of the historic reopening of the Jhelum Valley Road, army drove the Srinagar media corps to Aman Setu, to showcase how 6-Engineers created a wonderful 220-ft bridge that connected the two slices of Kashmir. The entire highway was decorated by the billboards as army and Srinagar government joined hands to get the best slogans inscribed around.

The first signboard Kashmir wanted the PaK visitors to see was a reminder of what Sheikh Mohammed Iqbal, the Kashmiri origin, national poet of Pakistan, sung for pre-partition India: “Mazhab Nahi Sikhata Aapas Mein Bair Rakhna” (Religion does not teach hatred).

As visitors would march a few feet ahead into J&K, they would feel blessed by a ‘shrine’ just on the elevation facing the Kaman Post’s Kashmir gate. This Greenfield shrine surprised me. It was a concrete-epitaphed grave draped in green with flower petals showered over it. I went to Col G S Rawat of the Dogra Regiment who was overseeing things: “Who lays buried in this grave?”

“Nobody, it is empty,” colonel said in a terse, curt tone. “It is empty but it shows our respect to the great saint Rangi Baba who lies buried in Qazinag.” I laughed at the “outpost of respect”.

Kashmir is not unaware that managing different facets of its faith are a state project. Within and outside the clergy, there are lot many people keen to go an extra-mile in helping the system “contain” the external influences on “local” Islam. This is more of a scandal and the only outcome of all this is some rehabilitation to some people for some time. Let me be very honest in saying this that these series of projects run by local officials turned god-men and those handling it from UP and North Block have not changed even an iota on ground. They have only added to the costs of the system they work for as stakeholders have multiplied.

For me, faith should not be the subject of the secular state. Elected directly by the people, governments are purely instruments of governance. They should restrict themselves to that only and avoid becoming Kashmir’s new “faith-healers”.

A Chief Minister cannot be the Chief Muslim Priest at the same time. Sheikh Abdullah tried and failed. This was despite the fact that he created a parallel religious platform to push his political agenda forward. But if the government genuinely wishes to contribute adequately in matters of faith, it has a huge potential without compromising its secular basics.

One way of pre-empting the offshore influence on the “local” Islam is to undo the aberrations that have been encouraged by the systems over the years. For a start, why the government cannot stop investing in the mosques on the simple plea that no government fund is halal for a mosque? State kitty has contributions from diverse resources including pure interest and levy of a series of taxes on liquor. Lot of mosques were constructed, repaired and renovated by the government under various tourism and heritage schemes in last many decades. If the faithful lack the capacity to contribute for creating a better prayer space, it should not be a state government headache. There has been a lot of criticism to such flawed public spending process in past but no government gave it a serious thought.

By the way why should not government act and prevent setting up of mosques on state land. A prayer in any mosque that is constructed on encroached space including government land (which is not paid for), usually termed as Maqbooza Ahli Islam, is not allowed in Islam.

Why cannot government encourage the professionals – as in case of non-Muslim Trusts and NGOs, to takeover and manage the Muslim properties in Kashmir and Jammu? Why shouldn’t the government manage the Muslim Wakf’s as it does with the Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee by holding an election for its office bearers for a definite time frame? Muslim Trusts in J&K are the worst victims of mis-governance and mis-management.

The second way-out for government is to invoke culture and history to manage areas where faith comes in between. Most of the load that Kashmir has added to the puritanical Islam is its cultural continuity with its distant Hindu past – people started worshipping graves once the new faith stopped them from idol-worship.

If the government has to take its Project Faith seriously, then it will have to review the strategy. Most of the shrines, for instance, have more cultural or historical significance than that of faith. The government can invest massively and make a grand contribution if it takes that route.

The society has resisted a white-paint of a shrine by 15-corps under its open ended Operation Sadhabavana. But if the government reconstructs shrines, as it has done at many places, and take the historic and cultural route, nobody will have any objection, even a millennium later.

Kashmir is a tricky, unpredictable place that has exhibited massive outpour of emotion and sentiment every time, a sensitive situation emerges. While systems and process have changed across Kashmir in last one century, a commoner has sustained his faith undiluted. He reacted to a situation almost in the same fashion in 1931 as he did to Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses in 1989. So the systems should respect a commoner’s self-discovery and retrospection of his religious processes and practices. This could help Kashmir’s political masters immensely in encouraging logic and science, a tool that might come handy for them to manage bigger issues later.

Most of the politicians have their Pirs and Gurus. I am aware of some Muslim politicians having Tantriks as Gurus. I know Pirs living literally in cowsheds but retaining their right as spiritual leaders of various political beings. These characters might be great in their own right but Islam being the way of life with emphasis on purity and cleanliness may never accommodate them. These are superstitious traditions rooted in cultural past and may not necessarily be thrust upon faith.

Kindly understand these basics before creating new ‘faith accompli’.

In a dusky Pulwama hamlet residents invited a faith-healer, rehabilitated him and created a huge asset base for a spiritual centre by contributing land. After Pir’s demise, when the property passed to his progeny, donors are fighting over the loss of inheritance, reports Muhammad Tahir

Mosque and tomb of Syed Gayas ud din Bukhari.

In 1992 three Pulwama villages invoked draw-of-lots to decide where their faith-healer Syed Gayas-ud-din Bukhari should stay. Babhaar, a dusky Pulwama hamlet won. Quickly, the god-man migrated out of his native Rupwen village in Budgam.

Bukhari’s murid (follower), sheep-herder Dost Muhammad Wagay gave-up sheep-husbandry and followed his Pir to Babhar. As a watchman of Pir’s new home, Dost stayed put there, ever since.

The new Babhar residence of the Pir remained crowded with his followers, who visited him regularly. For establishing a spiritual centre by Pir, Babhar’s four zamindars (landowners) — Syeda Begum (Mrs Abdul Ahad Malik), Ghulam Mohammad Mir, Farooq Ahmad Sheikh, and Ali Mohammad Sheikh — gifted land. Pir’s popularity had surged donations and offerings. Within a decade, Pir’s new residence flourished into a vibrant spiritual centre, attracting people from all social and economic classes.

“Even the rich and influential would pay a visit here,” says Dost Muhammad, now a frail elderly in his 60’s.

The seminary known as Darul Aloom Rohani Markaz, tucked inside dense apple orchards, is spread over 6.6 kanals. Inside the walled seminary, air of tranquility and silence pervades. Shrubs and evergreens encircle its manicured garden.

Amidst this serene quietude stand a couple of structures. Right at the entry, a two-level concrete and glass structure, painted in white and green, greets a visitor. It is the Rohani Markaz (spiritual centre).

“This is the place where Pir Sahib used to sit with his followers,” explains Dost Muhammad. “It is now locked, but if you peep through the glass windows you can see his framed pictures inside.”

On the right side is a well furnished white varnished mosque, decked with traditional pagoda-style tin roof. Abutting the mosque on the far side rests Bukhari in his tomb.

The place where Pir used to sit.

Pir’s loyal followers still visit his white-washed brick and mortar tomb — burning incense sticks around it, hanging garlands, tying votive threads on the window handle bars. They donate money in the brown steel safe that sits comfortably at the tomb’s entrance.

“His murids regularly visit the shrine and organize niyaz (a feast in somebody’s memory),” Dost Muhammad informed while advising to remove shoes before stepping on the tomb steps.

There are other structures around also. A two storey building used as a dormitory for the students of the Darul Aloom, a concrete one storey building where the Pir used to sit after migration, a big store house, and a stone plinth of an abandoned construction — now converted into a kitchen garden.

“Previously this place thrived on the footfalls,” says Dost, “politicians, police officers would come here. It was always a lively place.” But not anymore.

Currently, all is not well with this serene habitat. After Pir’s death in March 2009, the 6.6 kanal property has turned into a site of dispute, dividing relatives and the villagers. The centre for community’s spiritual growth has now become a devise issue.

The division is unique. On one side stands Pir’s 58-year-old son Syed Mukhtar Ahmad Bukhari, and Majeed, one of the land donors. Opposing them are Syed Bashir Ahmad Andrabi (Pir’s son-in-law) and the three remaining land donors. The dispute is already seven year old. They lodged FIRs and petitioned courts, and on one occasion, entered into physical brawl also.

Grave of Pir’s mother

Pir’s son Mukhtar and his supporters hold that since the seminary’s property belonged to the Pir, his children are its natural and legal inheritors.

Opponents, however, contend that the land was gifted for building a religious institution — a Takeer (Trust) — and not as a personal property.

“When my illiterate father and aunt [Syeda Begum] donated their ancestral land they did it for the sole purpose of establishment of a Trust,” says Abdul Qayoom, son of a land-donor Ghulam Muhammad Mir. “After Pir’s death, his son, who had rarely visited the seminary, claimed ownership.”

Qayoom alleges that Mukhtar even sold seminary’s land at Sombur, in Pampore outskirts, which Pir had purchased from the donations raised at Babhar centre.

But Mukhtar refutes the allegation. “We (one son and four daughters of Bukhari) are the rightful owners of everything that our father owned, and only an owner can sell the property,” he explained.

What makes the case a curious family dispute over property is the presence of Syed Bashir Ahmad, Pir’s son-in-law, in the opposition camp. Working in Handicrafts department, he lives in Srinagar. Presently, the seminary is in occupation of the group that Bashir supports.

Qayoom says more than 100 students are currently enrolled in the seminary, functioning under the guidance of Maulana Shakeel ul Rehman. “It was the wasiyat (will)” says Qayoom, “of the Pir Sahib that Syed Bashir Ahmad should become his spiritual janasheen (successor)”.

Mukhtar neither accepts his brother-in-law as Bukhari’s ‘spiritual’ successor nor does he accept that the land, including the seminary, belongs to any institution.

“My brother-in-law in cahoots with the other party started this dispute,” Mukhtar said. “He claimed he is entitled to care-taking of the property. However, we filed a case in the civil court against him and the Pulwama court has issued a stay order, barring his entry into the premises.”

Qayoom argues that seminary cannot become a personal property because different government departments have also donated to it: toilets by Block Development Office, funds donated by MLAs and Deputy Commissioner, and RDA.

“Actually it is our land donated for a purpose,” explains Qayoom. “If they try to make it a personal property we will take it back.”

When the property transfer was under process in 2010, the opposing group had submitted their objections to the Additional DC Pulwama before 90 days. But, they alleged, a revenue officer was influenced to ensure the land ownership to Pir’s son.

Three years ahead of his death, Qayoom claims, Pir had written a wasiyat stating the property belongs to the Trust and there are witnesses to vouch for that. These documents, however, were kept by a judge.

Mukhtar alleged that his opponents joined by Maulvi Shakeel ur Rehman started Darul Aloom after evicting his family forcefully from the property in June 2010.

Ruhani Markaz

“We had to leave as we feared for our lives,” says Mukhtar. “We had no other option. The case is now pending with DC Pulwama.”

On June 26, 2010 at 5 pm, according to Mukhtar, some 5 to 7 people barged into the seminary premises wielding sticks. They attacked his family and few other people. Mukhtar was with a neighbour at the time, but his son was at the seminary. In the melee one Mohammad Abbas Sheikh was critically injured and hospitalised.

But the opposing group has a different narration about the June 26 incident. They allege that men supporting Mukhtar attacked their women Syeda Begum and Saja Begum, then in their 60’s.

Both the groups registered cases against each other with police. “We lodged an FIR against physical assault. They lodged a counter FIR alleging molestation of old women,” says Abdul Majeed, another resident whose family had also donated 2 kanals of land to the Pir in 1998. But unlike other three families he supports Mukhtar’s right to inheritance, insisting the land transfer to the Pir was through a gift deed.

“The Quran and Sharia makes the inheritance clear,” says Majeed, “Property transfers to legal heirs. The land was given to Pir in 1992 and till 2009 there was no Darul Aloom around. He died in 2009 and after three months the property was transferred to his children.”

Majeed alleges that opponents have “forcefully” brought poor kids from remote corners of Kashmir to the seminary to keep it running. “At the moment, i guess, there must be barely 15 students enrolled. They just want to make money through it. They want the donated land back and talk of Trust is just a smokescreen,” he says.

But why didn’t police help them if the court, as he claimed, had ruled in their favour?

“I approached the police several times. Even I visited the then SSP. But they are dragging the case. Police informed the court that they failed to locate the disputed land site!”

Police, this writer talked to, said they are not authorised to talk. Off the record, however, they said the jurisdiction of the case lies with the revenue authorities. “Legally speaking, we can just provide protection but cannot evict any party,” says a police man at Police Station Pulwama.

Qayoom alleges that Majeed is siding with Mukhtar because one of his relatives, the erstwhile general secretary of the Trust, has misappropriated cash and gold that came as donation.

“He was the bank account holder on behalf of the Trust and I have evidences against him,” alleges Qayoom. “He used Rs 75 lakh of seminary money for the construction of his own house.’’

Majeed refutes these allegations.

Mukhtar, a deputy secretary in Legislative Assembly, says the land donators lack even a shred of evidence to prove that they gave land for the Trust.

“It is a 20 years old thing,” says Mukhtar, “why was the Trust not legally registered in these years? When he (Pir) was alive why didn’t they ask him to register the Trust? If the lands transfer documents were executed in 1995 why didn’t they follow it up till 2009?”

Dost Muhammad

Admitting to the existence of a “religious centre” on the site, Mukhtar said: “it is our pesha [profession] and our livelihood depends on it. Our forefathers too were part of it. We are in this business for the last 100 years or so.”

Hinting at the traditional association of certain castes with the pesha, Mukhtar says his brother-in-law is no Andrabi, but a Shah. “His claims on enrolment make no sense as the property ultimately belongs to me. They are just illegal trespassers occupying the premises against court orders,” asserts Mukhtar.

Talking strictly within the legal framework of inheritance, Mukhtar admitted selling a land plot at Druss. “Suppose I have intention to build a mosque but I die suddenly and I have legal heirs, isn’t it their choice whether they build it or not?” he asked. “His (Pir’s) intentions were indeed noble, but he couldn’t complete it, so what can one do! It is now the discretion of his legal heirs whether they want to continue their father’s mission or use it for their own purpose. Others have no business meddling in this.” He said same argument holds true for another land sale at Sombur.

Asked about his father’s intention in purchasing the Sombur land, Mukhtar explained thus: “If Mirwaiz Kashmir purchases a land that does not mean that he will necessarily build a mosque everywhere.”

“One has his family to look after also. Rohaniyat (spirituality) is fine but one has to live also.”

At ground zero, the new generation is cracking jokes. “The Pir duped the naïve peasants,” one young man, claiming to be equidistant from the warring factions, said. He, however, believed the seminary, if permitted to grow, would contribute positively to the community.

“If the Pir has transferred the seminary property to his heirs, it is a clear case of fraud,” said Tariq Ahmad, a PhD scholar and a Babhar native. “Such cases have made people increasingly wary about pir-muridi system.”

Seminary hostel.

Interestingly, the faith in Pir was unquestioned among warring factions. Village majority believes that Wasiyat must prevail.

Interestingly, the watchman Dost Muhammad’s existence is lost to the parties. He has diligently taken care of the seminary for the last 20 years, at times even sleeping empty stomach. He does not get any salary, but his solemn faith in his Pir keeps him going. Elderly Dost somehow managing a meagre sustenance, tending the kitchen garden and doing the domestic chores.

“Pir Sahib told me,” Dost said with a clear conviction in his soft voice, “If I work here, I will get great rewards in the life hereafter.”

For almost half a decade, hundreds of Rohingya Muslims are living in Jammu almost in pathetic state. Aakash Hassan visits the Narwal ghetto to understand the situation in which Burma stripped them of the nationality and started their ethnic cleansing

A Rohingya boy at Narwal, Jammu camp.

Saleem is only seven year old. He spent most of his life in congested Narwal, Jammu. But he introduces himself to be a Burmese, a tiny Buddhist dominated nation that coerced him to flee. Being Musalman is our only fault, he says in broken Urdu.

It was 2011, when Saleem, then two and his family of five siblings and parents came to Jammu and began living here.

“I just have faint memories of that time,” Saleem says, “wasn’t I younger that time?”

Though he has lived his maximum of life in the Jammu Juggis, he is aware that it is not his home. “We live here, and my actual home is there in the Bengal side,” he stresses.

But, children like Saleem belong to nowhere. As they are born as Rohingyas’, they neither belong to Jammu not to Myanmar.

Rohingyas’ are now described as “amongst the world’s least wanted” and “one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.” Though the Burmese dictators stripped them of their nationality in 1982, the government and the ultra-right forces of the tiny nation started persecuting them only in last eight years. The ‘ethnic cleansing’ continued even though the woman who rules it was awarded Nobel Prize for peace for her protracted battle for democracy.

Thousands of Rohingya have fled from Myanmar and are living in neighboring countries of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan after facing ethnic cleansing back home.

Rohingyas receiving support from NGO’s at Narwal, Jammu camp.

The atrocities are uncountable, Mohammad Johar, 34, recalls the days he fled with his family. Father of two, Johar had no option but to leave, for the sake of survival.

“It was summer day in 2012,” he recalls, “when military came and set our village on fire,” Johar remembers. “I left with my wife and two kids, one-year-old son, seven-year-old daughter, spending night in the dense woods.”

He had nothing in his possession except some jewelry of his wife.

“Next night, we started moving towards the border, with few other families, on foot through the jungle and met an agent who would cross us through,” Johar says.

He says that there are hundreds of agents who accompany and crossing borders without them is invitation to death. The border crossing in that part of the world is a surging business, the volume of which is linked directly with the quantum of repression that Myanmar military resorts to.

Johar had to give away golden ring of his wife, as the costs for the crossing.

“It was another night walk, crossing through the forest area and in morning we reached the sea,” he says.

Crossing through the sea route illegally, Johar and his family like many others reached West Bengal.

“We were made to cross the Indian border very cautiously by the agent and on next day we were in Kolkata,” he recalls.

From there Johar had to talk to another agent who would make arrangements for their further move.

Selling the rest of jewelry for Rs 15000, he had to pay Rs 7000 for his trip to Jammu. “Our agent managed train tickets for us and accompanied us to Jammu,” says Johar.

Rohingya kids sitting outside a makeshift camp in Narwal, Jammu.

But despite being homeless that night at Kolkata railway station was exciting. “It was first time that we had slept under power light,” he recalls the night spend on the railway platform. “This time I realized how big and diverse the world is.”

Back home, they lacked access to basic facilities, like electricity supply, better roads and fast transportation. They have remained traditional farming families insulated by their geography from the modern world.

“We had not seen anything like what we witnessed in Kolkata,” Johar says in surprise, “But we were content and happy with our farming and our lives.”

After all it was their home.

“They would not listen to anyone but would set on fire entire village,” says Mahfooza, who fled from her Myanmar village unlike her husband who couldn’t make it.

“When the mob attacked the village, I was seven months pregnant, but there was no option left,” Mahfooza said, in the melancholic tone, kissing her daughter, Jabeena, who was born in Jammu and is now three years old. “I had to save my life and the baby that I was carrying in my womb,” she says.

With family like Johar, Mahfooza crossed the borders selling their belongings and managed to reach to Jammu in next six days.

Mahfooza, is now living with his brother in Narwal juggies.

“We arrived to Jammu and started living here in the juggies,” says Johar, who is now working in a private guest house.

There are many juggies in Jammu where the displaced Rohingya live.

“It is not good here to live in these juggies,” Johar says, “but can we have any other option.

Mohammad Johar showing his displaced ID card.

But even the juggy is not for free. For each Juggy of 11 ft breadth and 12 feet length we have to pay Rs 1000 to the owner of the land every month, says Mohammad Aslam.

But he finds it is still good.

“We have got work here and manage our living,” says Aslam, “more than that, we came to know a world that we never thought exists outside.”

They find people here helpful and supportive.

When a conflagration recently vanished at least 30 juggies, Aslam says, they were surprised to see people helping them.

“Number of NGO’s came here and started taking care of us,” he says.

New juggies were setup for them and were provided ration and blankets. However, Johar is not aware of their future and longs for the day they will return home. “We had no facilities available back at home,” he says, “but it is still our home.”

Most of these refugees lack any document except an ID card from United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

But most of them have got mobile SIM cards, some from their workplace and some from other means.

Mohammad Sadiq, 30, teaches in a ramshackle madrassa set in between the juggies. This facility was created by the refugees as their children are not accepted by the schools.

“We contribute and pay Rs 11000 rent for this land where we teach our children, Quran, Urdu, Burmese and other basics,” says Sadiq.

He himself has studied in a Jammu Madrassa and argues that world hardly cares for them.

“We were born in Burma, our grandparents were born there, there is our farming land, but because we are in minority we are being killed on the pretext that we don’t belong to Burma,” he articulates in firm voice. “So world should tell us where from we are. Have we been dropped directly from the sky?”

With the changing world, the new generation is using smart phones and accessing internet and connecting with other Rohingyas, displaced.

Showing the brute pictures on his phone that he has received from whatsapp group All Rohingya people, his eyes turn moist.

“I am surprised how no one cares for us, whether, we are roasted alive, slaughtered, our female folk raped, it hardly matters for world,” he says while breaking down.

He is not aware that how long they will sustain living like this as refugee.

“Today we are here and if tomorrow we are told to leave where would we go and till when we will keep moving from one place to another,” Sadiq says.

Perhaps the questions of Sadiq have no answers here and children like Saleem will still be called Burmese, the land that didn’t accept them.

A Rohingya Muslim overwhelmed by emotion near Kolkata, India.

Off late, there has been massive outpouring in their favour both amongst the Muslims and non-Muslims of J&K. In a select few cases, scores of Kashmiri Muslims have started marrying them as well. Officials are aware of 14 such marriages. A few religious groups have also tried to minimize their suffering by sometimes contributing to their basic well being.

But the major issue that could impact their prospects in J&K is the raging debate over demography. While some right wing groups have already stated publicly that the presence of Rohingyas in Jammu can impact the demographic profile of the temple city, various Muslim groups, despite being generous towards them and sympathetic of their crisis, see a lot of politics in their diversion from West Bengal to Jammu. They are literally the third lot of refugees. The first was hundreds of Hindu families who migrated from Sialkot and other neighbouring belts in 1947 and settled in Jammu. Known as West Pakistan Refugees, they are at the centre of the raging demography debate in J&K.

A few years later, when China invaded Tibet, hundreds of families from Lhasa reportedly having some Kashmiri origin were encouraged by then Prime Minister Pandit Nehru to settle in Srinagar. With them moved hundreds of Buddhist families from Tibet who first reached Dharmshala and later shifted and almost settled in Ladakh.

That could be one of the reasons why the 1200 plus families living in Jammu are under strict watch of the security set-up. Right now almost 10 of them are in jails for various offences and not all the refugees carry the UNHCR cards.

The post Ravaged Rohingyas appeared first on Kashmir Life.

As the ruling bipolar grouping gets into second year of its version 2.0, tensions are increasing within the small Muslim minorities scattered across Dogra heartland in Jammu plains. With NC, and now Congress being seen Kashmir-centric, the Parivaar seemingly has pushed its partner aside to experiment with the turf it represents. But the simmering discontent has the potential for a spillover to Kashmir if left unaddressed, reports  Masood Hussain

“Nazar Kahien, Dil Kahien, Souch Kahien

Eak Shakhs Kis Kadr Taqseem Kargaya”

This unknown poet’s couplet, in a close-door unionist gathering in a remote Reasi village, was termed to be the apt two-liner on the minorities “surviving” in plains of Jammu, the epicenter of BJP mandate. They see their body-parts divided so haphazardly, as the couplet suggest, that they look at something different from what is in their heart and contrary to what their minds think.

For decades, the Muslim minorities in Dogra heartland claim they lived with not-so-equal status in the wider sphere of life and felt ignored. For the first time, now, they feel concerned. Part of the story, they attribute to their historic “loss” in the “&” of J&K. The new power structure in which BJP holds a major say has only induced this feeling. They say there is lack of concern and even empathy.

“For half of the year, Friday was important for us because the leaders (read chief minister and his Muslim cabinet colleagues) would come to Jamia Masjid and offer prayers with us,” one businessman and a senior PDP functionary in Jammu said, insisting it was a CBM too. “We did not see any of them offering prayers with us, this season. I do not know if they offer at all (prayers), now.”

Engineer Rashid, Langate’s noisy and newsy lawmaker attempted filling this gulf in January when he made a fiery speech in the backdrop of clashes in Kathua, after Friday prayers. But this voice lacks any authority to undo, what “power structure is doing”.

Unlike homogeneity and numbers in Chenab (Ramban, Kishtwar, Doda, Reasi) and Pir Panchal (Rajouri, Poonch) Valley’s, Muslim population in the rest of Jammu is scattered, small and exhibits its own ethnic and occupational diversity. Though Jammu region has 33.45 percent of its population as Muslim – 17,99,232 in the total population of 53,78,538, most of it is concentrated in Chenab and Pir Panchal Valley’s. The fact is that only 2,54,384 Muslims live in the Dogra heartland that is the political Jammu (not Jammu province) comprising Udhampur, Samba, Kathua and the Jammu city. Though it makes slightly more than eight percent, the fact is that almost half of them live in Jammu city alone.

Most of them, interestingly, belong to Scheduled Tribes: of 2,54,384 Muslims in these districts, Census 2011 suggests, 1,96,344 are STs, living in the periphery of towns. Since slightly more than two percent of the STs have access to government jobs, this population survives on raising herds, selling milk, various other diary product and bovines.

It is this very population that is normally in news, albeit for all the wrong reasons. The last they were in news was when assembly was in session. The location was Haria Chak, a dusky village, on the banks of strategic Chapp Nulla in Hiranagar (Kathua), not far away from the International Border (IB). The discovery of a severed cow head in the premises of a Gujjar family led to resentment among Hindus of the belt. They protested and led a procession to the village where they attacked some of the Gujjar houses. Police used tear smoke and opened fire as well that left many people injured.

(Clash between two communities in Jammu’s Vijaypur. Images: Junaid Hashimi))

Officials said it was basically the dispute between two Gujjar families and one of them used the cow-head to provoke Hindus to attack his ‘enemy’. They have arrested a couple of Gujjars, of whom, one is being formally arrested under Public Safety Act.

“We do not deny that the dispute is a fact and police acted accordingly,” Talib, a Gujjar leader said. “We want the police to take cognizance of the rest of the story that is being conveniently side-stepped like who involved the boy in using the cow-head, who among RSS guys opened fire and how police was in cohorts with the RSS.”

Quite a few Gujjars, may not be more than 50 families, inhibiting the belt. They allege that every time there is some tension in Srinagar, Gujjars become the target for no reason. “There is a person very close to cabinet minister Choudhary Lal Singh who is running this show since Bam Bam Bole agitation (2008) days,” another Gujjar, offering only his second name, Din, said. “With some of the Sarpanches around, he is involved in a series of attacks and crimes but is being protected by the police.”

“Gujjars are worst affected because they live in isolated areas far away from the roads and they are being evicted from everywhere,” Sajad Shaheen, Congressman who joined NC in 2014 and contested unsuccessfully from Banihal said. “This is happening for the first time in last more than 60 years that Gujjars are being pushed away from their ancestral habitats.”

There were a series of incidents in which the “encroachers” were evicted by the government since the North Pole – South Pole coalition took over. But the worst one was that of Sarore, that took place on

February 21, 2016. It was the time when the coalition was in hibernation after Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s demise. Located in Samba, not far away from Bari Brahmana, the incident was interestingly different and tragic too.

Cops from Himachal Pardesh raided the hamlet for they were looking for a dacoit. During searches, there were allegations of misbehaviour. Next day, cops came again, this time accompanied by members of saffron brigade. There was an altercation in follow up of which they set afire the entire hamlet. One of the young Gujjars Mohammad Yaqub, who had come from Vijaypur to see his wife and kids, was shot dead leaving behind a wailing widow and three orphans.

Locals allege that the action involving destroying 20 of the 30 Gujjar hutments was part of the poll promise that Chander Prakash Ganga had made during campaigning. Elders insist that the habitation was there since 1960s spread over 60 kanals of land. After Indo-Pak war in 1971, some refugees encroached part of it and eventually in 1977 the government divided the land between Gujjars and refugees equally. In 2016, a serious attempt was made to erase it.

Interesting is that wherever crowds fail, the development takes over. Expecting an attempt at their displacement, almost 204 Gujjar families living in Abdullah Basti (Rakh Brotian, Vijaypur) are tense these days. The government (read BJP) is keen to set up AIIMS on this land. This is despite sections within the Delhi bureaucracy are not so keen because of certain problems in the land mass.

The Gujjars living here have a painful historic baggage. They used to graze their herds in the vast and open pastures of Rangoor and Camoor belts. After twin Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971 when the government started settling the refuges, they were asked to settle on the banks of Ramgarh’s Devak river, village elders said.  Eventually in 1979-80, this belt housed them permanently as a result of which Ballad, Chajwal, Chak Pandthayal, and Kadyal Khurd hamlets emerged on the map.

Though the belt is almost 20 kms away from the IB, the army in 1999 evicted them. Elders vividly remember how their kullahs (hutments) were set afire. They did not get any compensation for their eviction from Ramgarh, despite the fact that every household owned average 32 kanals of land. But they moved to this Rakh and were trying to settle that now they are facing the prospects of a new eviction.

(The household items of muslims lying under the open sky. )

The government earlier planned the AIIMS at a different place but then, one day, local elders say they were summoned by the local Deputy Commissioner suggesting them that they will be rehabilitated somewhere else as the “big hospital” is being set up here.

Residents say they put themselves at huge risk by staying put at the peak of 2008 agitation. Why we should move away now, they ask, insisting a top BJP minister is behind the move. The tensions are mounting. Among the worried is Rahim Ali, whose son Abdullah, was mowed down by cops in Saroore last winter. “No one is paying heed to our pleas and nobody is supporting us,” Ali said. “We are living on the mercy of Allah.”

Naeem Akhter, Education Minister, has given them a primary school recently. They have met the Chief Minster Mehbooba Mufti on eviction issue as well and are keeping the fingers crossed.

Undoing “encroachments” in Jammu has remained a key talking point of the right-wingers for many years now. Well before the Bam Bam Bole agitation on February 11, 2008, Prof Bhim Singh challenged a government order of June 10, 1998 ordering delineating 623 kanals and 10 marlas of forest land for setting up, what was called, Kashmiri Muslim Migrant Colony. The land had already been transferred to Jammu Development Authority (JDA) on May 23, 2002.

Singh took the ecology route to make his point. “Gandhinagar forests were destroyed,” Singh’s petition read. “The same happened at Trikutanagar and Bagh-e-Bahu. The area called Bithandi also met the same fate.” He alleged that former Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah misused his official position and transferred forest land to benami persons and later got the same land transferred in his name and that of his Ministers, party workers are rehabilitated.

But the ‘debate’ has not gone beyond “retrieving” patches from the periphery of the temple city, often ending up in stone-pelting, and loud-thinking for political reasons. Market forces, however, played a much bigger role in countering it entirely. Primarily, a huge Kashmir population spending part of the year in Jammu, wanted winter shelters before moving back home. So demand managed supply and the Jammu expanded. Secondly, most of this population is somehow linked to politics, power and decision-making. Thirdly, this floating population is a major contributor to the growth of real estate and trade.

“It is official that Jammu city has nearly 2,50,000 kanals of land under encroachers,” Shaheen said. “But whenever there is talk of encroachment, the usual reference is to nearly 20,000 kanals of land on which Majalta, Sidhra, Raieka, Sujwan, and Bathindi lives.” It is this area that is normally feeding the rightwing “demography debate” because this is mostly Muslim.

Kashmir turmoil has remained the key factor for well-to-do families to invest in alternative winter homes in Jammu. Unlike Jammu, thousands of Kashmiri families own two residences, in two capital cities. Harsha winters, the recurrent summer unrests, the last of three in 2016 summer, have accelerated the trend of owning an alternative shelter in Jammu or in Delhi, both for business and education of children. In last three years, there have been around 70,000 constructions in the “ring” on Jammu periphery. Rajouri will witness the same growth once Mughal Road gets a tunnel.

While there has been loud-think in the Parivaar, but not any untoward incident – not even at the peak of 2008. But even thought process has costs. The “scare” has nose-dived the real estate prices and not many new constructions were seen this fall.

“I survived miraculously that 1947 massacre and then fought against my memory to contribute in making of J&K,” said Mohammad Aslam, a retired officer living in the outer ring. “After investing whatever I had, I built a house and now I am face to face with a situation in which I see insecurity again.”

Not spoken loudly, however, there is a process of ghettoisation in place. The messy situation reflects itself in the traffic chaos in Bathindi and selective power outages in the areas offering heterogeneity to the winter capital. “It is a fact that Muslims have started living in ghettos,” admitted Waheed Para, a youth leader of ruling PDP. “There are nearly 700 Kashmiri families living in abysmal hygienic conditions in Bali Charan belt.”

“Tensions may or may not be there but atmospherics plays a role,” admitted a scribe, who wishes not be identified. “Farooq Khan, the founder of Task Force might be a towering BJP leader but it was unsaid insecurity after 2008 agitation that he sold his house in Greater Kailash  locality and acquired a new one in Chowadi that has sizable Muslim presence including his relatives.” Khan was appointed Lieutenant Governor of the UT of Goa, last year.

While “demography debate” is alive and the accommodation of non state subjects (Sajjad Shaheen says 12000 non state subjects were rehabilitated by Raman Balla alone in his constituency and they all are voters) is uninterrupted; the government has not discouraged the process of affecting homogeneity in administration by doing away the diversity part. Now most of the patwaris, the basic land record keepers, in Jammu, are not Urdu knowing. In a cabinet meeting, a BJP minister stunned his colleagues by insisting that he can not have a “Muslim SP” in his district.

The minorities across Jammu region have mounting concern over the numbers of arms that under the garb of counter-insurgency have gone into the private hands. There are more than 27000 VDCs across the region, with every one having from five to eight members. In otherwise Muslim majority Ramban district, there are only 76 Muslims among 1395 VDC members. “Recently, a group of well-meaning professionals met me,” a young ruling party member said. “They had only one plea – if you can neither get us into VDC nor disarm them, why can not you give us gun licences?”

In such a situation the rise of cow needs no discussion. A sacred animal to Hindus and just a commodity for the rest of people, it triggered a serious crisis last Eid-ul-Azha, when Muslims offer animal sacrifices. There was scare around especially because the beef debate had become part of the judicial process.

“There was tension in Kashmir and scare here in Jammu over the animal sacrifices,” a senior businessman, who is also a political worker, said. “I found no option but to fly to Srinagar and manage meeting Syed Ali Geelani. I gave him details of the consequences if there were bovine sacrifices, especially cows. He understood the gravity of the issue and obliged us by issuing a statement and that saved the situation.”

“I appeal to the pro-freedom people that they should sacrifice animal according to the religious laws and the religious mood,” Geelani said in a statement on September 24. “However, there should be no attempt to use this sacred work for provocation or to hurt the sentiments of others.”

Crisis is felt at all levels. The stated aim of the incumbent government was to get Kashmir closer to Jammu, get Hindus closer to Muslims. But Omar Abdullah sees “the gap widened”. The reason: BJP being divisive sees polarization as the response to every challenge they face in governance! “Initially in 2014 assembly elections, they wanted to unite people under Mr Modi (but) that did not happen,” Omar said. “So the only places they benefited from where were they polarized the voter.” That is why division emerged as the policy.

Asrar Khan has served various Jammu districts in different capacities before joining politics post-retirement. “General perception here is that PDP is Kashmir centric party that lacks stakes in Jammu,” Khan said. “Seemingly, they have conceded the ground to BJP and are unwilling to intrude into BJP vote bank, even though all voters do not belong to BJP here.” Ultimately, Khan says, “Somebody will have to own the Gujjars and the Jammu Muslims which is “not impossible”. By Jammu, he means, political Jammu that skips Pir Panchal and Chenab Valley’s.

Political parties in Jammu have fallen victim to the perception that both NC and PDP are Kashmir-centric. The escape route to Congress could have had an appeal had there been some credible faces and a grand mix representing the socio-cultural diversity of the state. Of 12 Congress lawmakers in J&K assembly two are Buddhists from Ladakh and 10 are Muslims, all Kashmiri speaking!

In such a situation in which PDPs power sharing with BJP is creating a “compelling situation at ground zero”, Communist lawmaker Mohammad Yousuf Tarigmai says, “BJP must take care of Jammu Muslims”. Instead of banishing Gujjars from forests, Tarigami says that J&K must implement the law that gives them rights in the overall eco-system in which they have survived for decades.

Even the governance system feels the simmering discontent. “Gujjars have a perception that they are harassed and I see there are two clear issues they talk about,” a top cop mandate to understand the complexities on ground said. “One is bovine trade that is completely with the Gujjars and second is the undoing of temporary hutments they build for herds and themselves.”

The official said that the cow vigilantes have gone to a new high in enforcing the “smuggling” and their actions normally are quick and violent. Besides, he said, the “encroachments” are being “tackled” in belts in godforsaken areas where the Gujjars do not have significant presence or voice. “This is creating a psychological crisis for microscopic minorities and the news travels,” admitted the officer. “Government must not permit it to drift away the people.”

But ruling coalition is either escaping admission of reality or simply taking the appeasement route to strengthen the status quo. Jammu, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti told the assembly, has inherited the ideas and ideals that Kashmir was all about. “Be it Kashmiri Pandit, Sikh, Gujjar or a Muslim, Jammu accommodates and embraces them all,” Mufti said. “In Kashmir, people carry faces devoid of emotion and when they come to Jammu, they smile, they feel at ease, they feel breathing.”

“The real soul of Article 370 has gone missing from Kashmir and that spirit I see flowing on the Jammu streets,” she insisted. “A Pandit has a home, so has a Muslim. There is call for prayers from the mosque, and Bhajan from a temple as scriptures are being read from the Gurdwara. This is Article 370…. This was what was once happening in Mukhdoom Sahab but Kashmir has forgotten all this. Kashmir has grown intolerant.”

The undercurrents emanating from this situation are high-intensity tensions. BSF opened guns in Gool, killing four civilians in July 2013, and Kashmir was under curfew. A month later Kishtwar burnt on Eid in August, Kashmir remained under curfew for a week, again. In both instances, the political Jammu remained tension free.

This time when Delhi is also concerned that Kashmir should not rise up again this summer and has categorically stated that Pandit and Sainik colonies are not planned, should PDP stop its estrangement with the microscopic minorities in Jammu. “Mountain between Srinagar and Jammu block physical access and not emotional access,” Omar believes. “So where there is an emotional connection, there will be spillover.” Banihal, many people do not know, remained completely closed for 49 days in 2016.

The post Faithfully Disowned appeared first on Kashmir Life.

After police was forced to act against right wing cow vigilantes, a situation was created in Muslim majority Reasi’s main town that they were bailed out instantly. At the same time, they also arrested the Gujjar family that was attacked, then bailed them out and finally escorted them out of the town, reports Syed Junaid Hashmi

Before setting up his twelve-wheel truck for ‘Bombaashmir. The days Bhat spent driving on the highway from Srinagar to a Maharashtra town.

Gujjar-Bakkarwals, the nomadic tribe that often finds mention in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speeches, are a worried lot, these days. As they were preparing for seasonal migration from plains to mountains, they are caught between the devil and deep blue sea.

While gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes) want them to abandon cows, BJP’s forest minister Choudhary Lal Singh sees them as a threat to the environment and ecology of Jammu region.  It was in this backdrop that a Bakkarwal family was attacked brutally by a group of Rakhshaks in Reasi on April 20, 2017. Cops led by their SHO witnessed the attack. Interestingly, the entire attack was recorded on cell phone and it exhibits horror.

Nine-year-old orphan Saima Bibi, 22-year-old Abida, and a mother of two children Naseem Bibi, her husband Nazakat Ali and father Shoaib Choudhary along with another old man Sabir Ali are nursing their wounds. But the police felt “forced” to set free 11 accused who were earlier arrested for the brutal attack.

It was not the law but the video that forced police to act. After the video went viral on April 21, police lodged an FIR under sections 323, 341, 325, 147 and 148. It rounded-up 11 persons on the evening of April 23, for instigations and the attack. Such was the pressure from the right-wing on police that not only a counter FIR under section 188 was lodged against them but the family members were arrested and lodged in Police Station Reasi, till they were bailed out by the court.

The arrest of Rakhshaks triggered a storm in Reasi town. They paralysed Reasi by sponsoring a strike. On April 24, a mob comprising activists of ABVP, Bajrang Dal and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) surrounded police station Reasi and threatened to resort to violence if the 11 arrested are not set free. Fearing that the situation may go out of control, police advised them to get bail, a judicial intervention in which, police kept the word of not opposing the bail.

The 11 accused, according to the police sources were part of the mob but were not seen in the video. “Those who are in the video are yet to be arrested,” said an official pleading anonymity. “They are identified but are not being arrested deliberately since police fears violence.”

After the looted livestock was restored to Shoaib Choudhary’s family on Monday, they were set free and advised to move towards their destination in Kashmir. A scared family pleaded, sought security and they were obliged with two trucks. Interestingly, another batch of Rakhshaks intercepted even the police truck near Salal Morh in Reasi!

They not only demanded papers from police officials who were escorting the truck but abused and kicked them, calling them Pakistani agents and anti-nationals. A huge crowd gathered within minutes, sending alarm bells around. Situation was defused only after SSP Reasi Tahir Bhat and DIG Udhampur-Reasi Range Varinder Sharma reached the spot. The Police dropped the family along with the livestock near Kanthan Bridge in Reasi district.

While Reasi incident dominated world headlines, residents say it is just a routine in Kathua, Samba, Jammu and Udhampur. In  September 2016, a mob set ablaze a truck carrying cattle towards Kashmir from Rajouri. In December 2015, two vehicles were also set on fire at Kalakote after being intercepted by a mob as they spotted that the vehicles are transporting cattle. In October 2015, three persons, including a policeman, received burn injuries after a Kashmir bound truck carrying the cattle was attacked with a petrol bomb at Udhampur. In November 2015, a truck carrying the cattle was torched near Nagrota on the Jammu-Srinagar highway.

While Gau-Rakhshaks are on the alert to prevent “smuggling” by this nomadic tribe, the forest department wants Gujjars and Bakerwals out of the forest enclosures where they live under temporary sheds in Jammu region.

Gujjars and Bakkarwal believe this is being done by design. If they do not vacate, the forest department uses force to throw them out. Forests officials believe Gujjars first live under temporary sheds, and then construct mosques followed-up by houses and other concrete structures. But Gujjars insist they have historically remained in peace with forests. They want the law that gives them rights over the forests be implemented.

The post Cow Concerns appeared first on Kashmir Life.

Behind the visible economic slowdown, many things happen during the yearly month of fasting. Saima Bhat offers an idea about how people try to spend their hot, long month of fasting in Srinagar

On May 21, when Kashmir was observing the anniversaries of Mirwaiz Mohammad Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone, Ghulam Muhammad Mir, 65, was having his hectic Sunday. President of local masjid in Natipora Srinagar, he was supervising cleaning of roof, floor, bathrooms, of his masjid and dusting out carpets and curtains. It was a dawn to dusk work.

This is not new to the man who had retired from government services and is managing the affairs of masjid. Mir undertakes massive cleaning of the praying space prior to the Ramazan, the Muslim month of fasting.

“In Ramazan we have all the people coming to masjid and both the storeys are usually occupied, so we are gearing up for the holy month,” he said while testing the loud speakers of the first floor. The month witnesses huge rush to masjids as the devotees seemingly rediscover themselves. All of a sudden, mosques lack space, massive money goes to charities as every Muslim exhibits a change.

“While fasting, nobody wants to miss his prayer,” says Abdul Hamid, a resident of Ram Bagh. An engineer, Hamid prefers to stay on leave during the month and attend to the affairs of his local masjid.

The scene outside various central masjids in Ramazan turns to busy affair. The vendors lay their stalls full of specific items; the dates, caps, perfumes, miswaks, books, scarfs, kurta pyjama.

The local masjids apart, the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar presents festive look. People from adjoining areas come to grand mosque, sit in the lawns to spend the intervening time between Zhar and Asar prayers. Full of activity, the children accompanying their parents are seen playing and enjoying their time.

“From last over 10 years, I visit Jamia Masjid to offer day time prayers,” Asmat Bhat, a resident of Baba Dem told Kashmir Life. Accompanied by her mother-in-law, Asmat frequently goes to Jamia  for last many years. “I have habit of going to Jamia Masjid since the days of late Mirwaiz Molvi Farooq. But for some time we couldn’t go as the situation was not conducive. For last over 10 years I have resumed the practice,” says Asmat’s mother-in-law, Hanifa Banoo.

Another old masjid of Srinagar, Aali Masjid presents similar festive look. Under the shade of dense mighty chinars, some of them almost half of the age of Islam in Kashmir, the people sit and chat for hours together. The only break is the prayer timing. The little girls wearing hijab and having Quran in their hands pass through to offer prayers. The oldies lay on the grass and are busy in discussing religion, politics and days of yesteryears.

On both sides of the path leading to main area of masjid, vendors sell a variety of things. The hanging kurta pyjama and perfumes are the most sought after. The entire left side of road is instant car parking. This mosque has been celebrated in the folklore for having been the abode of Djins. It was almost abandoned till recently when the state government invested in its repairs that led to its revival. Now it has become a major space for interactions.

As charity soars, the beggars have their pie. Their number surges and most of them are found around Masjids – men, women, handicaps and children. In certain cases the preachers announce from pulpits to help a few.

“At times we are compelled to keep someone on the door to regulate the number of beggars coming inside the masjid because they create disturbances,” Mushtaq Ahmad, a resident of Karan Nagar said.

Not in vogue till recent past, now Masjids in Kashmir have elaborate arrangements for Iftar- breaking of fast. Depending upon the locality and the resources, the delicacies may vary, but arrangements are in place. “It is a great feeling to serve people,” says Mohammad Altaf, a resident of Barzulla.

The basic minimum starts from water and dates. The affluent ones have kept the cool water dispensers to provide the cold water in scorching weather.

In most of the Masjids, the arrangements are done by individuals who get different items on different days; like fruits, dates, juice, milk shake, biryani, Tehri (yellow rice), sweet dishes (Halwa, Firini). By and large, most of these dishes are funded by affluent individuals as no mosque can afford raising funds for this or diverting part of collections to it.

In old city, the evenings are special. After the Magrib prayers are over, people emerging from Masjids enjoy the roadside delicacies and the smokers take few quick puffs before reaching home for having the proper meals. The streets are lined up with vendors selling mouthwatering food items. Most of the shops near the Jamia are open till the Taraaweh prayers are over.

With changing trend in valley from past few years, now people prefer extended late night prayer, Taraaweh and intend to complete 30 chapters of Quran before Shab-i-Qadr, the night when Muslims do not sleep, that falls on one of the even nights in the last 10 days of Ramzan.

The services of scholars and students (hifz) of various Darul-Ul-Alooms (seminaries) are availed for this purpose. Every Masjid has at least two Imams (one who leads prayer).

The past practices suggest that most of the people raise donations for the renovation work for Masjids in Ramazan.

“People donate generously during this month as it is believed that this is month of spending,” said a teacher Ghulam Qadir Wani. “Allah has promised to give 70 times virtue of every single deed. So people prefer to pay their Zakat and Sadqa in this month only.”

Off late, now mosques have started having Air Conditioners (AC). As part of heritage, Hamam is part of every masjid to fight the winter chill, so has now become the AC to combat the hot summers. Mosque managers say Hamams have become a costly affair as AC’s are economic.

“People prefer comfort in worship as well. Masjids having AC facility are being preferred because burning of wood in winters has become hectic. First wood has become costlier and then getting a person to set it afire has become difficult,” said Ajaz Ahmad, a resident of Bemina.

In various Masjids where AC’s are installed, people prefer to stay from Zuhr to Asar and even extend their stay up to Magrib.

Every Ramazan, Mohammad Sultan, an octogenarian, leaves from his home in Baghat at 12 noon. He prefers to stay in Masjid till Magrib. “I offer prayers and then rest of the time I spent in reciting Quran Sharief. We have six AC’s in this masjid so in this hot summer it brings relief to me.”

In last six years, the demand of AC’s for has soared, with a part of the demand going to Masjids. The trend, as per dealers, started with posh areas in Hyderpora, Baghat and Rajbagh.

“The trend has been adopted by smaller Masjids as well,” retailer, Aarif Bashir, owner Green corp at Hazuri Bagh, says. “The change has happened same way it happens in marriages from elites to middle class.”

Earlier the AC’s from LG, Lloyd and Voltas were preferred but now people prefer to get higher brands of inverter series of Daikin, IFB, Panasonic and Bluestar. “AC’s from Daikin and Panasonic brand work well in minus temperatures. Now Bluestar is also doing good but it is preferred by less number as it costs more.”

Dealers say they have a demand for hot and cold AC’s more as winter season last for at least seven months.

Out of his experience, Aarif says out of every three masjid in Srinagar district, two have AC’s. Major chunk of Masjid’s have been covered and the change is witnessed in towns of rural areas as well.

“Every Masjid has a minimum two to 10 AC’s. Buying an AC depend on affordability and electricity supply. Rural areas usually don’t prefer it because they don’t have adequate electricity supply in winters.”

Before a small misunderstanding over praying space between two communities could have escalated into a major crisis, someone came with a novel solution. Four decades later both Shias and Sunnis use the mosque for prayers in tandem, reports Aabid Hussain

In 1974, a small misunderstand over a piece of land in Magam village of Budgam resulted in first major confrontations between Shias and Sunnis.

“It soon turned into a full-fledged war like situation,” remembers Ali Mohammad Mir, the caretaker of the Jamia Masjid in Magam.

The misunderstanding started when Sunnis planned to construct a mosque on a piece of land near Hussain Park in Magam. This led to verbal dual between people from both the communities. “During the heated argument someone used abusive language and it changed everything,” recalls Mir, who was 26 then.

Soon neighbouring villages too became part of the crisis and what started from Magam was now a pan Kashmir problem.

It was only after Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and Ayatullah Aga Syed Yousuf, then head Anjuman-e-Sharie Shian, visited both the communities, the tempers cooled.

Then with the consensus of both the community members a big Jamia Masjid was constructed by Shias at the spot. It was named Khomeni mosque.

“During those days, even a normal fight over some petty issue would turn communal,” recalls Mir. “Even simple land disputes would take ugly turn and become communal in nature.”

Haji Gulam Hassaan Sofi, a shopkeeper outside the Jamia Masjid who is in his early seventies, recalls there was a small mosque near the disputed spot in 70s.

“Around six hundred men from both the communities were jailed during the crisis,” recalls Sofi. “I couldn’t visit my house for three months because of the tensions in Budgam.”

Sofi recalls how a large number of men would spend nights in paddy fields fearing raids by the police.

Despite Sheikh Abdullah and Aga Syed Yousuf’s visit a large number of grievances still remained unresolved between the two communities. “Every day Shais and Sunnis would fight each other on one pretext or another,” said Sofi.

Then in 1982, a Jamia Masjid was constructed by Shias on the spot where a small mosque stood. This Jamia became epicenter of communal harmony as both the communities started praying in the mosque. Also a few shops were constructed by Idara Jamia Masjid management. This became Jamai’s major source of income.  “After Ayatullah Khomeni sent a team to Jamia in Budgam Shias started offering congregational prayers,” recalls Mir.

Soon the Jamia at Magam became a meeting point for both Shias and Sunnis. “The prayers are offered first by Shias and then Sunnis,” said Mir.  “If someone misses a prayer he joins the next one. There is no animosity between the two communities now as used to be once,” claims Mir.

The Jamia is abuzz with activity especially during Ramdhan when members from both the communities visit it for prayers.

“This mosque is a symbol of Shia-Sunni unity,” said Mir.

Mohammad Yousuf, who lives in Kongadara in Pattan, who sells bedding items outside the mosque said he could feel change in attitude since people started to pray together. “Now we have less fights amongst Shias and Sunnis,” said Yousuf. “Since we follow one Quran and one Prophet, why is there so much of tension.”

Like most people who visit Jamai for prayers on regular basis, Yousuf too was skeptic at first about sharing space with the other community. “I thought Shias do not follow sunna like us, but I was wrong,” said Yousuf. “This mosque has given me opportunity to interact with them on a regular basis. It helps us to understand each other.”

The same was the case with Shias when it comes to Sunnis, said Mir.

In 1987, a small mosque named Khomaini Masjid was built some distance away from the Jamai. This space too was used by both the communities for prayers. “During Ramadan people from both communities recite Quran and rest in the mosque,” said Mir.

Abdul Rashid, a resident of Goam-Ahmadpora, who leads prayers for Sunnis since last three years, says praying together has helped him clear a number of myths about Shias. “I was always confused about why Shias use Sajdigah,” said Rashid. “However, once we started meeting regularly things became clear.”

Rashid feels such multi-community mosques should be everywhere as it helps people to come closer. “We can now resolve our grievances while sitting inside the mosque,” said Rashid.

Once the idea of Jamai Masjid Magam proved to be successful, the management constructed another such mosque in the main market area.

The Jamia, which is located on the Gulmarg-Magam road, is the result of efforts from both community members. “Once the mosque was built people started visiting each other’s families,” said Mir. “We now socialize more often. We visit each other both in pain and happiness.”

This is the only mosque in Kashmir where women take part in the prayers. “There is a partition made of cloth that separates men and women prayer area,” said Junaid Karaar, a local who is studying at Kashmir University.

Because of this inter-faith Jamia the residents of Magam are respected throughout, said Junaid. “When people come to know that I am from Magam, they treat me differently,” said Junaid.

According to Mir, since the construction of Jamia, both the communities have come closer. “We both are dependent of each other, we cannot remain isolated from each other,” feels Mir.

The famous Imam Bargah of Budgam is blend of traditional Iranian and modern architecture. Aabid Hussain reports how the space is serving people since 1857

The story of Imam Bargah, a beautiful edifice that adores centre of Budgam, has a rich history dating back to 1857.

A blend of 19th century Indo-Iranian architecture, the Imam Bargah is also known as Hussainiyah – it is used to remember the martyrdom of Imam Hussain (a.s), the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (s.a.w). Build under the supervision of Aga Syed Mohammad, the Imam Bargah was small to accommodate all.

Then in 1955, under the supervision of Aga Syed Yousuf Al Musvi Al Safvi, then head of Anjuman-e-Sharie Shian, the building was extended to accommodate more people. The current structure is octagonal in shape with five entrances, each gate 12 feet in height. One of the five entrances is reserved for women worshipers. Each gate has different name: Bab-us-Salam, Bab-ur-Rizvan, Bab-ur-Rahman, Bab-ul-Amaan and women special Bab-un-Nisa.

There was less space for people who would visit the place from within 6 miles radius for Friday congregational prayers.

The new Imam Bargah is 90×90 feet in dimensions. Inside there are two octagonal bases, the first one measuring 80×80 feet, the second one, which also acts as the drainage is 12 feet wide. The third portion, which is like a verandah is 13 feet in width.

There are twenty large deodar pillars (6 feet in breadth) in the middle portion, which serves as the prayer hall during rush hours. Another 62 pillars of stone, 2.5 feet of breadth adore the verandah. Interestingly, only eight pillars have joints, rest all are carved out of single stone. The third portion, which is 12 feet wide, also serves as a prayer hall during rains and snow.

The present structure was constructed after razing the older edifice, but the difference is this one has no glass windows.

The Imam Bargah has two stories one for men and one for women. The two parts are divided by lattice windows or Panjra work. Interestingly, women can see towards men portion but not the other way round.

This Hussainiyah has big “Qub” in the middle which has beautiful papier mâché work, adorned with poetry in Persian.

“The people from all over Kashmir contributed for it,” said Aga Syed Hassan, who currently heads Anjuman-e-Sharie Shian.

In 1955, Mohammad Jaffer Najar, now in his 90s, a former carpenter of Budgam was among the team of carpenters who were constructing the building. “I worked there for almost ten years. Our head carpenter was from Srinagar,” said Najar.

Najar recalls how they would struggle to interact with engineers who supervised the work. “He (engineer) would draw designs on sand. Then our head carpenter would translate it to us in simplified language,” said Jaffer. “It was entirely different experience to use 30 feet tall deodar trees as pillars and fix them into stone bases.”

Jaffer recalls how they used ropes to balance deodar pillars. However, the main test for engineer was when Aga Syed Yousuf told him that pillars should be arranged in a way that Imam can see every worshipper inside the prayer hall.

There new building has different style of stone minarets; two each on top of every gate. “I remember Aga Yousuf telling workers to construct gates in such a way that minarets can be adjusted,” recalls Jaffer. “The inner space of the Imam Bargah is made on Khane-Kabah’s pattern.”

Mohammad Asgar Bhat, 77, a resident of Khanpora, has also worked as labourer, remembers who everyone contributed for its construction.

Bhat recalls how locals would promise to donate a particular amount to Imam Bargah against fulfillment of a wish. “Most of the people would donate eggs, rice, and other items to Imam Bargah,” recalls Bhat. “Women would donate ear rings and other gold items for its construction.”

When the old structure was dismantled to make way for a new building, people would go to nearby stream for ablution. “Such was enthusiasm among people that people would get stones from the stream to help in the construction,” recalls Bhat.

The material extracted from the old structure was mostly used by local Auqaf to construct shops near bus stand. “Near the bus stand there was a park where carpenters would work to make doors and window,” said Bhat. “We used to carry new one to Imam Bargah and bring back old material to the bus yard.”

The sand used in the construction of the Imam Bargah came from a nearby stream. “Two bags of sand was carried on horses for fifty paisa,” recalls Bhat.

The current Imam Bargah’s top floor has papier mâché which was originally part of the old structure. “I remember how people took care of the papier mâché work while dismantling the old structure,” said Bhat. “They wanted it to be part of the new building as well.”

The imam Bargah Budgam is not meant only for AZADARI which most people think, but it can be used in functions, classes and more over there is a difference between mosque and Imam Bargah, as in Mosque any non-Muslim is not allowed but in Imam Bargah everyone can come, Said Syed Hassan the current Anjumanie Sharie shian and also a senior Hurriyat leader.

“In Ramadhan every year we offer Quran during the whole month where people recite Quran Sharief in a group, during the month of Ramadhan we complete once reciting Quran,” says Syed Hassan.

Outside the Imam Bargah there is a big park where people sit and rest, and backside to Imam Bargah there are Chinar trees. In the front of the Imam Bargah there is the jamia Masjid Attached to it.

When Amarnath pilgrims from different cultures, economic backgrounds and languages ride a horse in Chandanwari or hire a Palki to the cave, they stay with Kashmiris for three days at least. They do not stay silent as they trek up hill, reports Umar Khurshid

Yatris about to begin their journey from Chandanwari.
KL Images: Umar Khurshid

Every morning when Bilal Ahmed 23, wakes up early morning, the only thing that is top on his mind is how to manage his customers. A resident of Naghbal in Islamabad, he owns two ponies, one managed by him and another by his brother Firdous.

For most of the Amarnath yatra, the two brothers put up in a tent at Chandanwari. This is a yearly routine for all the service providers to pitch a tent and make it second home. Bilal shares his modest tent with his brother. It is small tent that has provisions for the mules on one side and the rest is kitchen and bed room for the two brothers. In this small colony of tents on the slopes of Chandanwari, these service providers can not afford keeping their tents unguarded. If there are two people living in a tent, one has to stay back and in certain cases they give it in custody of somebody who wants a bit of rest for a day or two.

But the mornings are almost the same for everybody. After a hurried breakfast, Bilal spends almost an hour in early hour with yatris. Negotiations are usually about the rate and the service he will offer. The moot point in his negotiations is to explain how arduous and the difficult the track is. And what it means to manage a no-frills travel in a steep climb.

Bilal gives his clients some time to get ready and then they leave uphill on a long climb. Pissu Top is the next first destination on the route to the cave.

This point is very crucial for both the sides. Hindu pilgrims drive to this place with friends, relatives and colleagues, usually in secured convoys from Jammu. Though they are in J&K for many days but it is here they are literally with Kashmir, its environment, its people. This point is their first formal introduction to Kashmir. Literally, the conversation starts here.

These are two different people, separated by faith, culture, language and a huge decadal suspicion created by conflict and politics, media and the politician. But talking is human, so they talk.

Normally, the conversation starts with the introduction, then it moves to family, goes around education and ultimately ends with Kashmir’s current situation.

“When I had my first trip of the this season with two pilgrims from Gujarat, the first stop was Pishu Top, three kilometers of uphill’s trek after Chandanwari. Nothing much happened on this track. Then they stopped for some cold drinks, for which they went to a lunghar, the community kitchen.

Since lunghars are exclusively for pilgrims, Bilal used this break to serve his pony with hay and corn, which every pony walla carries with himself.

 By then, a comfort level had reached between the horseman and the pilgrim. As they resumed the travel, pilgrim asked: why are you running a pony instead of studying?

”My father is aged and remains unwell so as the next elder, it’s my responsibility to earn for my family,” Bilal remembers his reply.

Zoji Bal is yet another station. Bilal remembers, one of his clients, in her fifties asked him: “Baiya Yeha Ke Halaat Kaise Hain?” (How is the situation here?)

Bilal first giggled after being called a Baiyah by the granny-looking pilgrim, over 55 year old. Then he had a long pause. “Theek Hi Toh Hai,” he responded. “But why are you asking this?” It was this conversation that continued till they reached Sangam, the last stop on the track.

Almost educated on what is happening in Kashmir and why, when Bilal got them back, they discussed many things: politics, leadership in Kashmir, business and lot many things. Some of them end up making friends and in certain cases they do not look at each other’s face when they depart. But it all depends how the two talk and accommodate each other in the conversation.

Bashir Ahmed 45, is from Aishmuqam. He is a pony walla for around 20 years. He owns three ponies and has employed two boys to manage his two animals. He usually keeps his boys with him and manages the clients personally by fixing rates and other things.

“I always had blended experiences with yatries every year, and one needs an art to build up a rapport with his customers,” Bashir said.

Almost three years back, Bashir remembers, his customers were from Karnataka. The conservation started, as usual, with the introduction. Then, Bashir asked them  about their work, their families and offered them a detailed narrative of what he does when the yatra is over in anticipation of it.

“How many children do you have?” a female pilgrim asked her, adding quickly, “don’t let them work like you.”

Those words, Bashir says, still reverberate in his mind. “I felt at least they respect our hard work know,” he insisted.

Yatris while climbing down from Pissu Top

Last year, Bashir had a young pilgrim from Delhi who during the travel discussed the current situation and youth of the valley. He said he talks very cautiously because there is no conversation, if you hurt the other. “As everyone knows the cause of the Kashmir conflict, customers may feel bad if you discuss something which may malign their nation or their people,” Bashir said, insisting every single word.

A pithuwala (one carrying luggage, usually on his back) in his forties from Kulgam said he had an interesting experience. Managing his work in the yatra stations, once, he met a pilgrim at Sheshnag.

“They asked certain direct questions: Why most of the youth are unemployed here? Why don’t most of the people support India?” he said. “It creates strange situations sometimes. We do not want to talk on conflict and they do not want to hear the reality. Ultimately, we ended up with something which both sides do not want to listen. But we still talk.”

Given the fact that the communication with people is an art that people learn gradually, some of the ponywallas face interesting situations. Bilal’s younger brother is an interesting instance. He minces no words and tries to be honest with in conversations regardless of whether it suits the audience or not.

“I try to keep him (Firdous) away but he always somehow gets into the conversation,” Bilal said. Once when a pilgrim asked Firdous why Kashmir avoids getting people here, Bilal remembers Firdous saying bluntly: “Who stopped pilgrims to come to Kashmir? They themselves are scared, and credit goes to Indian media which portrays Kashmir as a dangerous place.”

“I sometimes feel scared when my brother Firdous talks like this, but I can not stop him to say this, because he is so truthful and honest.”

Pilgrims always had a good rapport with the host population, regardless of the service providers. “This is our first trip and we enjoyed it a lot,” two pilgrims from Maharashtra, both sisters, said. “They (ponywallas) are much sympathetic as was expected.”

Abdul Hameed Wani, is a Ponywalla from Salia Brade area, for the last 16 years. He has an impression that the people running community kitchens and the soldiers deployed on the security interrupt and sometimes add to their problems. Various others said that even the Shrine Board contributes negatively. While the labour permit is supposed to be issued to a labourer on the trek for Rs 50, as fixed by the Shrine Board, it is available for Rs 150. For the animals employed on the job, the medicines at the veterinary points are supposed to be available at half the costs, but it never happens, they alleged.

Amarnath Yatris on way back from pilgrimage

“I once fixed a deal with a pilgrim and then they went to have a breakfast at the lunghar,” Hameed said. “I was waiting for them outside and when they came out, they backed out and then I understood how the costs of back-biting.”

Over the years, these service providers say the rates have gone down. “Once I used to earn Rs 8000 for three days between Chandanwari to the cave and return, now I hardly make even half of it,” Bashir Ahmad said. “As earnings have gone down, the expenditures have increased.” Shrine Board has fixed a rate of Rs 5,500 per head for ponywalla between Chandanwari and the cave, but it is quite rare that people make half if it per turn.

But the tradition survives strong with every passing year.

After a formal Board took over the management of the yearly Amarnath yatra, stakeholding of Purohits, Mahant’s and the Maliks’ of Batakote was over. But Aakash Hassan met a Malik who does not feel dissociated from the yatra. Earlier he used to accompany the pilgrims to the cave and talk about the discovery. Now he visits their home and talks about the legend

“He was deep into the Pahalgam mountains” Mohammad Afzal Malik, would say, in a mood as if he was watching his ancestor Buta Malik.  “There he found Shiva telling Parvati, his wife and Ganesh Amar Katha (the secret of his immortality).”

Image of Amarnath Yatries moving towards the base camp (KL Image: Bilal Bahadur)

“Then, he met a saint who gave him sack of coal,” narrates Malik, the seventh generation of Buta Malik, now in mid forties. “When he reached home he saw the coal had turned into gold. As excited Buta rushed back to the hill to thank the

Sadhu, he found a pair of pigeons instead. They were near the big icicle.” These icicles were the personification of the Hindu deities, which are being worshipped since then, every summer.

Shepherd Buta’s cave discovery around 1850, according to the family legend at Batakote, pleased Gulab Singh, the ruthless Dogra warrior who had purchased Kashmir in 1846. The despot ruled

that a representative of the Malik’s clan would always be present at the shrine, along with the Mahant and Parohit’s during the pilgrimage.

Since then, the legend suggests the Maliks’ have been part of the perennial Hindu pilgrimage. Having one-third stake holding, Maliks’ would stay at the cave with the Mahant and Parohits during the pilgrimage.

After Buta’s death, his children replaced him. They would organise fortnight long yatra every year and later take their share of the income. It was the summer of 1984, when Afzal Malik, then a class ninth student, accompanied his father to the cave for the first time. Since then, he has never missed a yatra. He says the pilgrimage has given his clan an identity and an income. “Our forefathers would go there and pay the respect at the shrine,” he said.

“Our family would go there like the members from Purohit Sabha and Charri Mubarak would be brought every year from Amritsar,” says Afzal. “Later, the Charri Mubarak begun to come from Srinagar.” As generations passed, the Malik clan at Batakote, village around five kilometres ahead of Pahalgam, comprised 11 extended families. Then something new happened.

Abdul Aziz Mallik

In 2000 things started changing after J&K legislature passed a law guiding setting up of a caretaking board. This was part of the recommendations that Dr Nitesh K Sengupta, who headed a committee that probed the death of more than 243 pilgrims during the midsummer snowfall over the tracks in 1996. After Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) was set up on February 12, 2001, it did away with all the hereditary rights that various families possessed. They all were offered one time settlement. As the main custodian of holy mace, Mahant Deependra Giri took a hefty bank cheque and left. Purohits of Mattan and Ganeshpora were reluctant and converted it into a dispute but finally settled. Descendents of Malik were the last. They  were 150 members in the clan and were offered slightly more than a million rupees.

“We were one-third shareholders but were reduced to one lack rupees,” Malik said. “Looking at out large family, each person would have received few bucks only.” Board took the decision in Jammu without consulting us.

“In all this the discoverers were left, high and dry and we refused to take any money.”

While officially the Buta Malik was out of business. The reality is that Afzal Malik, father of three children is employee of state’s Roads and Buildings department has not dissociated himself from the Amarnath. He has changed the style of business. Earlier he would go up to the cave. Now he moves out into the plains.

“We are associated with it for more than a century now and I have grown up with this,” Malik says. “We know injustice was done with us but I don’t need any compensation. Holy places can’t be sold.”

This year also, Malik visited the cave. “Till I can walk, I will not skip the yatra, I will continue to visit,” says Malik.

Clean shaved with thin moustaches, Malik is average heighted man with slightly curly hair who is known in the area and for being closely attached to the yatra. His entire identity revolves round the cave shrine.

“There must be a reason why our ancestor discovered the holy cave,” says Malik. “I have the caretaking responsibility and I will not stop even though the government is taking care of it now.”

While sitting in his room of single story house, he turns nostalgic flipping through the photographs of previous yatras.

“This one is in the year 90. Ohh! Those years were so beautiful,” he says as he goes on filliping trough the album.

As he goes on through the photographs, he shows how he would set a free medical camp for pilgrims even after Yatra management was taken over by SASB.

File image of camps of Amarnath Yatries (KL Image: Bilal Bahadur)

Malik is not doing this all at individual level. He has a huge fan following.

“Every year I go on leave for two months and visit my friends in different parts of India. They respect me and share their problems with me,” he says. “I take Prashad every year to them.”

As Malik was speaking he gets a call from Delhi. “See here is example,” he tells before answering the call.

After talking extensively he assures the person that he will tell someone to tie a shred at the cave.

“This is not only about religion but about tradition and our faith in that,” he affirms. He says that some yatris still stop near their Batakote residence and exchange greetings.

“We have great relations with the pilgrims. Even Pandith Jawahar Lal Nehru would not visit the cave without company of my grandfather, Ahmad Malik,” he says trying to portray the association of Malik family.

Afzal’s parents are ailing. His father Ghulam Rasool Malik and mother Zaiba are sitting alone in a room watching television. Zaiba is diabetic and is confined to bed, says Gulam Rasool, while I don’t go beyond our lawn now.

Their wrinkled face is lit with a smile as they recall their days when they would accompany yatra.

“The pilgrims would pass through villages and amid welcome with traditional folk songs they would reach Batakote,” recalls Rasool. “We would serve them Kehwa,” says Zaiba.

Zaiba was from Malik clan and was married in same family with Rasool who was only son of his father.

“I still recall how I along with my cousins would go to yatra every year. It was part of our life,” he says and gives a grim smile. “But later everything changed.”

“But my son is still associated with it despite that state doesn’t want us,” he says.

Afzal has met top politicians and business men across mainland India. He counts on his fingertips the known personalities he has met.

Yatries moving towards the cave (KL Image: Bilal Bahadur)

“They take my advice whenever they have any problem,” he says. “When a member parliament last year slapped a Sadhu I immediately called him and rebuked him and he apologized.”

Malik wants the traditional practice to be revived. He says he will feel honoured to serve the yatris again. At the same time, however, Malik is concerned over the prolonging of pilgrimage from 15 to 45 days, saying it is becoming “great threat to the environment” and the helicopter service has added to it.

“There was great hue and cry when SASB brought artificial Lingam,” he says.

Maliks’ are a well established clan. Afzal says, there are more then eight medical doctors and more than dozen of engineers within the clan.

“We are all very well educated and mostly serving the government,” he says “But that does not mean I will forget my ancestors and traditions.”

In a situation dominated by a historic dip in tourist footfalls in Kashmir and Gau Rakhshaks managing mixed population areas in mainland India, when a Hindu pilgrim bus came under militant attack, people foresaw a grim follow up. But the government’s in state and the centre avoided playing villains, at least this time, reports Masood Hussain

CM Mehbooba Mufti with the families of Amarnath victims at Islamabad hospital.

The man who made the fundamental difference in the entire crisis starting with the attack on the Gujarat bus was not an ordinary man. Salim Mirza Gafoor Shaikh, a driver, who drove somebody’s bus to Kashmir, for the fourth pilgrim season to Baltal.

Carrying almost sixty pilgrims, Sheikh’s bus had a tyre puncture, in city outskirts that delayed their travel to the Vaishno Devi by three hours. Incidentally, the bus followed a police bunker, with 200 meter gap, and when they reached Botnegoo, not far away from Khanbal garrison, there were instant cracker sounds.

“Bullets started raining and the right side of the glasses cracked one after another, the man sitting on my left was hit by three bullets” Salim, now a prime time celebrity, told reporters. “There were shouts and cries as passengers wanted me to stop. But God gave me strength to keep moving, and I just did not stop.” The bus (GJ09Z 9976) was chased, some pilgrims said but it sped away.

Salim did not stop, he accelerated the speed instead. “After some distance, I felt a few soldiers on road but I knew they have no match with the militants, who might have been three to four,” Sheikh said. “I have been coming to Kashmir for four seasons and I knew there is an army camp very close-by, everywhere, so I stopped outside the camp.” Had the assailants succeeded in getting into the bus, it would have resulted in a much larger crisis.

July 10, 2017 was not the first serious crisis that hit the Hindu pilgrims to Amarnath, the cave shrine which is India’s most politicised faith centre in India. Key to survival for many people, off late, it built various political careers, too. It had remained a smooth, no-frills trek of faith, till the right-wingers started campaigning for it. Then the script was lost by all sides.

The worst, albeit for climatic reason, was between August 21 and 26, 1996 when around 70,000 pilgrims were grounded on a slippery 32-Kms trek by mid summer snowfall. It killed 230 people including 205 pilgrims and 25 porters and a few security men.

Driver Salim interacts with Governor NN Vohra.

Then there were many militant attacks. On August 1, 2000, militants attacked CRPF guarding the Pahalgam base camp. A panicky paramilitary over-reacted and firing continued for a shocking 40 minutes. It led to a massacre. Of the 36 people killed, 23 were pilgrims; nine were locals, two each of cops and militants. Almost 50 survived with splinter injuries, 71 were sent to hospital by the CRPF bamboos.

Munir Khan, the current Kashmir police chief, was then heading the Islamabad police district. His damning report led to the setting up of a one-member Commission of Inquiry that then Corps Commander in Srinagar, Lt Gen J R Mukherjee, led. Its report came in December but nobody is sure if its recommendations were implemented.

The snow blizzards of 1996 and the CRPF over-reaction were crucial to the creation of Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) in February 2001. SASB making did not insulate the pilgrimage from the security situation in Kashmir, however.

On July 21, 2001, a fierce encounter was reported from Sheshnag during dead of the night. It killed 12 persons including a suspected militant, five pilgrims and two police officers – DSP Praveen Kumar, ASI Saqi Mohammed Akbar. More than 15 persons were injured in the 30-minute long encounter. The encounter took place within 12 days after a police officer prevented a CRPF man from stealing away the donations from the cave.

On August 6, 2002, according to police, two suspected militants in Gujjar attire came close to the outer fencing of the Chandanwari camp and lobbed grenades towards the latrine complex. They followed it by firing. Nine pilgrims were killed and 29 others, including two locals, were wounded. CRPF killed one of the two militants. The attack came within a week after an IED explosion at Lazbal, two kms short of Pahalgam, led to killing of two pilgrims.

On June 21, 2006, when a yatra bus slowed down near Ganderbal, almost 20 kms from Srinagar, somebody tossed a grenade inside. Within minutes, the bus was in the SKIMS – five pilgrims from Rajasthan were injured.

But Salim’s contribution in reducing the impact of 2017 crisis was recognised by all. State government gave him an award of Rs 3 lakh and SASB Rs 2 lakh. In Gujarat, where the right-wingers would have dominated the reactionary prime time debate, it was Salim, a marginalised Muslim who became a hero!

Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti laying flower wreaths on the bodies of victims of Amarnath attack.

But those few incidents did not change the larger society. At the peak of unrest in 2008, 2010 and in certain cases in 2016 as well, the civilians set up community kitchens to feed the pilgrims. A section of the pilgrims have routinely been spending many days in and around Srinagar, before and after the pilgrimage.

But almost everybody was tense in Srinagar and Delhi over the attack. Part of the crisis was a possible backlash that could target tens of thousands of Kashmiri students and traders who are present across mainland India at any given point of time.

“When the news broke, in my office everybody looked at me as if I had done it,” one professional serving in Delhi said. “I was so scared that I asked my kids not to go to school on July 11. Later, I came to know that no Muslim from our colony had sent their kids to school.”

But somehow, nothing happened. Barring a few small assaults on a few Kashmiris in Jammu, nothing adverse was reported. Should the ruling polar alliance stake credit for this?

State government’s initial reaction was denial. The first report was two pilgrims were caught in crossfire between rebels and cops. Though everybody knew the happening, for lack of official confirmation, everybody delay, that added to the tensions in the plains.

Then Omar Abdullah, broke part of the story, on twitter. By then, TV screens were on fire. As the count was finally public, mainland India started getting charged. Newsrooms started fearing “that Godhra moment” as Srinagar was exhibiting that “sinking feeling”. The government did, what it is used to, in managing crisis, blocking internet, avoiding media, adding restrictions around and “managing situation” regardless of what was happening around.

“Request @rajnathsingh ji to instruct all state Govt & other authorities to be extra vigilant in colleges/Universities where Kashmiris study.” Omar wrote on twitter, in an apparent request to Home Minister. “Also where people from Kashmir are residing for reasons of trade/livelihood in other states. Possibility of backlash can’t be ignored.”

Within minutes later, the political government was out. Though Kashmir Police Chief Munir Khan was already in District Police Lines (DPL) in Islamabad, the injured were moved to the hospital; the real problems were that media lacked access, images and information. Army had stopped media from getting even closer to Botengoo.

Gurjarat chief minister recieves driver of the bus that came under attack.

“Withholding information means you are deliberately permitting media to run whatever it has,” one official, who was key to the crisis management, said. “We shot a video in DPL and sent to all the newsrooms in Delhi and suddenly it reclaimed the airtime for us.”

As the Chief Minister Ms Mehbooba Mufti drove to Islamabad , against the advice of her security, all the restrictions were undone. First media was permitted, and then internet ban was lifted. “There were thousands of pilgrims in Kashmir from all the states of India so tension was in all states,” the official said. “The only way to reduce tension was to identify the slain and injured. When we disclosed officially that the dead were from Gujarat and Maharashtra, all other states having their members in Srinagar, went to sleep.”

TV shots of Chief Minister begging for an apology from survivors of the attack were flashed on all TV screens. She cried and hugged them, reviving the signature actions that were key to the making of PDP in Kashmir. “Hum Kya Boulega Ghar Mein, Woh Kahan Gaya,” as one of the survivors told the Chief Minister, was telecast to the bedrooms and was sort of a live mourning with state’s chief executive being part of it. “Yes, initially, there was a sort of quietness on our side and then we took over the newsrooms with whatever we had, what was the wisdom in hiding things?” the official said. “Then, we reached a stage, when even the families requested Chief Minister not to cry.”

Chief Minister stayed back for most of the night and next morning she accompanied governor to the technical airport and laid floral wreaths on the coffins, which were flown to Surat in an IAF aircraft. By afternoon, state had announced compensation and identified a hero from Gujarat, Salim. By then, police had announced details of its preliminary investigations holding Lashkar-e-Toiba responsible for the attack, a charge the outfit denied. As IAF touched down, cameras wanted the hero to retell the story.

But Delhi was more tense. They had flown two ministers to Srinagar to do some talking but most of talk was over, by then. On July 11, morning, Rajnath rang up various Kashmir hands and invited them to his office. “It is so tense in all states, I have my fingers crossed,” he confided in them. “Why does not civil society in Kashmir react to it? Hurriyat has done it already, good of them.”

“You need not to worry for Kashmir’s civil society, they know their responsibility well,” one of the Kashmiris told him. “They have done it always, they know what life is all about.”

In the next 10 minutes, he was busy writing his tweet: “The people of Kashmir have strongly condemned the terror attack on Amarnath yatris. It shows the spirit of Kashmiriyat is very much alive.” The next moment, Rajnath was on phone line with I&B Minister Venkiah Naidu: “Yeh Hurriyat Ka Statement, Media Kyoun under-play Kar Rahi Hai, Yeh Deakhien Na.”

Pandits left and kept their keys with Muslims. Pandits who stayed back died and were cremated by Muslims. This all is reported already. But Saqib Mir tells the amazing story of Nissar, a man who took care of a family comprising an old mother and her son. He mourned their death and inherited their small assets, years after they had adopted him as their only heir

Arzan Nath’s only major asset, his home, was inherited by a Muslim boy who was his only heir. KL Image: Saqib Mir

On way to Pahalgam, the picnic spot, there is Seer, 12 kilometres from Islamabad. In its Kralpur mohalla is situated a two storied old desolate house surrounded by a newly constructed concrete wall on its two sides. Behind a few trees, there is vegetation in its back yard. A newly constructed single-storied house is visible. The courtyard has a wooden, old fashioned grain house and a cowshed, located side by side. The gate, now rusted, is shared by both the houses. A silent stream flows calmly along the walled portion of this courtyard.

The rundown house was home to Arzan Nath Raina and his mother Prabavati Devi. He was an employee in J&K Fire and Emergency department and his mother was a home-maker. Raina was her only child. Raina was deeply religious and did not marry.

Just at a stone’s throw lives Abdul Rehman Wagay who has two sons. Nissar, his elder son, married and constructed his own house. Rehman lives with his younger son Hameed and his family.

Rainas’ and Wagays’ were neighbours and friends, a relation that spanned decades. Their faiths hardly mattered in their routines. They were part of happy and sad moments of each other, shared food and trusted each other.

But Arzan Nath was popular and respected. Not only Rehman’s family but the entire village would call Raina: Arzan Touth (Arzan the dear) or  Arzan Kakh (usually a reference to an elder uncle).

“As I started staying even during nights with Rainas’, Devi told her son to purchase a copy of the Koran and a praying mat for me and Raina did the same” Nissar said. “When the Muezzin would call for Fajr, the dawn prayers, Devi would knock the door of my room and wake me up for prayers.”

Before 1990, Kashmiri Pandits lived happily with Muslim. Conflict changed everything. Most of the Pandits migrated.  Seer was also impacted. Residents said their Hindu neighbours left their ancestral village during nights without informing them. Quite a few families stayed back. One of them was Rainas’.

“Every morning, we visited Rainas’ and were not only surprised but happy to see them present in their home,” Nissar Wagay said. “When all others left, we had the apprehension that they too would leave someday.” Even Raina was shocked over the mass migration of his community from the village.

As guns continued roaring and newspaper front pages were literally drenched in blood on daily basis, Raina’s aged mother had only one thing on her mind: safety of her son. Devi always used to put on Hijab and would hardly venture out of her home. Her only concern was: After her death how will Arzan Nath manage the household chores?

Residents said the mass migration added to their insecurity. Soon, they started feeling lonely and insecure. One day, Devi approached Wagays’. She asked them to permit Nissar live with them. They permitted.

“As I started staying even during nights with Rainas’, Devi told her son to purchase a copy of the Koran and a praying mat for me and Raina did the same” Nissar said. “When the Muezzin would call for Fajr, the dawn prayers, Devi would knock the door of my room and wake me up for prayers.”

Already frail and weak, with the passage of time Devi grew older and became bed ridden. “One day, she called my father to her house. She asked him to give his hand into Raina’s hand and promise that he, his family and particularly me would continue to visit their home and take care of Raina after her death” Nissar remembers, every single word, even today.

In 1993, Devi breathed her last leaving behind Arzan Nath. After her death Nissar continued to visit Raina’s home as usual. In 1996, Raina retired from his service.

Nissar Ahmad

By then, Nissar got a job in the forest department as a casual labourer and was posted in a nearby forest in his own village. Nissar’s day began with preparing tea for Raina and himself. After breakfast, Nissar would cook food for lunch. Then he would leave for attending his duty. After returning from his duty he would straight way go to Raina’s house and would prepare afternoon tea for Arzan Kakh.

“Besides cooking food and making tea I would help Raina in doing house hold chores,” Nissar said. “I would even help make his bedding.”

Nissar was grown-up and still bachelor. As the hunt for his bride started, it was not his father but Arzan Nath succeeded in getting a suitable match for Nissar. “Raina bore almost all the expenses of Nissar’s marriage,” Hameed, Nissar’s brother, said. “He even bought golden jewellery for his bride.”

“The death of Arzan Touth came as a blow to our family particularly to Nissar. We, abandoned cooking food in our house and our neighbours fed us for three days of mourning,” Hameed said. Muslims are ordained to mourn a death for three days.

Time elapsed and Raina felt weak and old. One day, he summoned Nissar and his family, especially for something very important: He announced his decision of transferring his property to Nissar because he had no heirs. His assets included 32 marlas (20 marlas make a kanal) of land, two storied old house, walnut trees and a paddy store.

“Transfer of property to Nissar was really a right decision taken by Raina because Nissar had taken every care of him throughout,” Kashmiri Pandit Soamnath, 80, one of the few other Pandits, who stayed put in the village, said. He is himself very respected in the village and is perhaps the only practising Hakeem in the belt, who still treats people.

By the year 2010, Raina had grown older and become physically weak. His eye sight was so weak that he was unable to move around without help. As Wagays’ felt Raina needed more care and attention, they shifted him to their home.

“He lived with us for about a year and we nursed him,” Hameed said. “For his failed eyesight, we insisted him that we will take him to some hospital in Chandigarh for the treatment but he refuses and preferred a treatment in Kashmir.” He died in the home of Wagays’ on March 10, 2011. He was around 75.

“It was a death in the family and we mourned that like that” Hameed said.  Arzan Kakh’s death spread like wild fire in the area and within no time the entire village, mostly Muslims and those Pandit families, who had stayed back, assembled. There were school children as well.

“When Raina was carried in the coffin towards cremation ground, Muslims jostled so that they can give it a shoulder” Hameed remembers the scene vividly. Muslims carried firewood to the cremation ground. “He had willed that his ashes should be immersed in Lidder that flows nearby and we fulfilled his will.”

Wagays received the condolences and the mourning was for a few days. People from all walks of life visited Rehman’s house to express their sympathies. “The death of Arzan Touth came as a blow to our family particularly to Nissar. We, abandoned cooking food in our house and our neighbours fed us for three days of mourning,” Hameed said. Muslims are ordained to mourn a death for three days.

A few years back Nissar constructed a single story house in the backyard of Raina’s old house and is living there with his wife. “I do not want to dismantle this old house which belonged to Arzan Touth because a lot of my sweet memories are connected to this humble house” Nissar said while looking at the old house.

Part of the faith heritage, shrines help decipher Kashmir’s historic and socio-economic narrative. In twenty-first century, a shrine is lost to a fire every five years. Though different  government agencies have taken various initiatives to prevent the recurrence of fires, there is a serious lack of clear and comprehensive policy about how to assess the hazards and how to manage them, reports Masood Hussain

Kashmir went into instant mourning when the spire of Khanqah-e-Moula caught fire and was destroyed. The early morning fire also damaged part of the roof as well but the main edifice survived the instant conflagration.

Kashmir has a chain of Khanqah’s, one each in Tral, Sopore, Vachi and Pampore. But the Srinagar Khanqah is more important because of it the oldest of them all. Situated on the right bank of the Jhelum River, between Fateh Kadal and Zaina Kadal, it is not the first mosque of Srinagar but it undoubtedly is the first Khanqah in Kashmir. Khanqah’s are praying spaces attributed to saints which are mosques, meditation centres and even schools of Islam. Khanqahi set up is at the soul of certain Sufi orders.

A mosque already existed by the time Mir Syed Ali Hamadani came to Kashmir in 1372. He came again in 1379 and finally in 1383 before he passed away in 1385, almost a year after bidding adieu to Kashmir. In 1393, his son Syed Mir Mohammad came to Sultan’s rousing reception in Kashmir. The king, two years later, gave him the responsibility of supervising the construction of Khanqah in memory of his father, the Amir-e-Kabir. In fact, Sultan Sikander (1389-1413 AD) funded the construction of all the Khanqah’s in Kashmir. There are, however, historical references to the existence of a Khanqah in Srinagar prior to Amir-e-Kabir’s arrival.

The shrine might have changed a bit of form but by and large, it has remained unchanged in its broad structural details. Once surrounded by various Chinar’s, the shrine is one of the distinct structures that offers an impressive fusion of Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim architecture. The two-storied, two-tiered Cedarwood shrine sits on a square plan, erected on irregular walled base. It has sloping pyramidal roofs demarcating each tier as the roofs are accentuated by woodwork adorning the cornices under the eaves. Its “beautifully carved eaves and hanging bells” have historically been considered as its aesthetic feature.

Dastageer sahib shrine on fire in 2012.

Mohammad Salim Beigh of INTACH said while constructing the building, the builders have exhibited technologies endemic to Kashmir. “It is a wooden structure that has brick fill-in,” Beigh said. “This has been done to prevent any damage from earthquakes which were more frequent in various eras of the medieval history.”

But the fires could not be controlled for most of the history. Though this shrine is believed to have survived with some damages many times, two incidents are mentioned by almost all the historians. It was gutted in the fires in 1480 and was reconstructed by Sultan Hassan Shah in 1493. It caught fire again in 1731, at the peak of exploitative Afghan rule and was reconstructed by the then governor Abul Barkat Khan, a year later.

Afghans did a Himalayan intervention by sending the families living around it to some other place. This was done to create a safe zone and de-link the shrine from the habitations in order to prevent fires. They also added a number of small Hujras, chamber rooms, to the shrine so that more people could have isolated spaces for mediation. Originally, it had only one.

The shrine, however, faced an existential crisis at the peak of the ruthless Sikh rule. They were told that the shrine has actually been built on the ruins of a temple. In order to restore the property to Hindus, Beigh said, the Sikhs actually installed heavy guns around it in order to destroy it. “There was an influential Pandit Birbal Dhar Kak who was approached by Muslims with the revenue papers showing the land had actually been purchased by the Muslims when it was constructed. His intervention prevented an action.”

Beigh said the fact is that there was a Kali Mandir, very close to it. The temple was active and open for prayers till Pandits migrated, he said.

Barring creation of a gate, there have not been many interventions in the shrine for last more than a century. Officials’ privy to the developments said that the last intervention – apart from paints, electrification and other basic things, was to block the first story open space by raising windows. This was done to prevent pigeons from getting into the shrine. This, experts said, could have been managed without adding windows into the shrine. It has intricate and characteristic woodwork and carvings, besides, massive papier machie work on walls and ceilings.

Dr Farooq Abdullah also visited Khanqah

Some historians’ like the famous Parsi intellectual J J Modi have recorded its significance for the inscriptions that exists within and outside the mosque.

Even for the recent political history, Khanqah holds a major landmark status. It was there when Qadeer Khan spoke, triggering events which eventually led to the happening on July 13, 1931, Kashmir’s Martyrs Day. In fact, the seven delegates who were elected for raising the issues of the people and talk to Maharaja were also elected in the same premises.

As the spire caught fire, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti cancelled all her engagements and flew to Srinagar with Altaf Bukhari in tow. So did Omar and his father Dr Farooq. Mirwaiz and Malik were also there to mourn the loss. Locals said that the respect to the shrine, cutting across political and ideological lines, would have meant a lot had there been a consistency in concern, even when there were no fires.

Khanqah losing its spire in lightning, as is widely believed, is perhaps the first instance of its kind in recent history. Incidentally, people surrounding the shrine, especially the 52 Anwar’s families, having stakes in its economy, say that the shrine took the hit that was basically aimed at the locality. Bt this is not the first instance in which a shrine was hit by a fire. The last instance is that of Dastgeer Sahab shrine in Khanyar that went up in flames within minutes on June 25, 2012.

A number of shrines, mosques and structures of historical importance were destroyed by fires in last many decades. After the Khanyar shrine, a mysterious fire destroyed the all-wooden shrine of Lalbab Sahab Ziyarat and the adjoining mosque in Sopore on October 19, 2012. Prior to that on July 16, Baba Haneefuddin’s shrine in Ratsun village of Budgam was completely destroyed.

Khanqah’s, the Jamia Masjid and other shrines within and outside Srinagar, the Shehr-e-Kashmir, are key spaces fundamental to Kashmir’s historic, cultural and, to an extent, the spiritual narrative. Governing structures have been using pro and anti-shrine debate for many decades to divide the people on basis of traditional and puritanical strands of the faith. It has remained a key factor in politics of the place. But now there is an increasing realization that while shrines lack an importance in comparison to a mosque, they still are vital as socio-cultural relics to history, architecture, and archaeology and required to be preserved and protected. Their significance as part of Muslim heritage is unparalleled.

Near Khanqah-e-Moala: British colourist William Carpenter has drawn this picture during one of his three visits to Kashmir.

But the tragedy is that while Kashmir has a huge mass of such structures, it lacks a clear policy on their protection. “These issues crop up in media when there is a crisis but then it fades away from the public debate,” Rafi Ahmad, the top officers managing Kashmir’s Wakf Board said. “It has to have a consistent attention from the society which is more important.”

Neither of the shrines in their present form is less than 200 years old. If every harm, natural or man-made, skips, there is decay which is natural. A recent media report said that a SKUAST expert team has found 36 eastern side Deodar pillars in Kashmir’s Sultanate era Jamia Masjid having pinhole infestation.

The mosque has more than 3000 60-ft tall pillars and most of them are as old as 600 years. This is natural that the wood will have this issue. They have identified the source of the crisis as well. The damage is caused by “dust like powder frass”, a mixture of faecal matter and food fragments, which is fallout from exit holes into small piles on the surface of wooden logs”. All these pillars are located very close to a drain running parallel to all the pillars. Moisture content at the pillar bases was seen high so the decay will appreciate. Left untreated, this crisis will hollow the pillars.

Experts, according to reports, have suggested plastering of pillars, better ventilation and injecting certain things in the pillars.

Salim Beigh of INTACH said it is treatable. “We had a similar crisis in Aali Masjid,” Beigh said. “The pillars stand but are yet to be treated.”

“Chief Minister took an urgent meeting in which audit and assessment were ordered for all the shrines and most importantly Deputy Commissioner Srinagar was asked to preside over the entire monitoring set up,” Rafi Ahmad said. “What makes it different than earlier similar decisions were taken but the follow up lacked for want of ownership of the protection mechanism. This time, DC Srinagar has been given the entire authority and the resources would also flow through his office.”

But the heritage does not face smaller issues. “While hazard assessment will start, there are countless hazards,” Beigh said. “Not a single shrine or historic building has any protection against the lightning, for instance.”

Beigh said that while certain hazards may not be practically controlled the society and the managers must follow common sense in reducing the threat to this heritage. “Why combustible paints and varnishes should be used in these precious structures?” he asked. “Use of electric gadgetry also needs a massive caution. If we need to amplify voice (for Azaan and Daroud-u-Azkaar), why should huge network of the speaker be installed that requires a lot of wiring and once it is wiring, it is electricity.”

“Is not it common sense that when we need to have lamps, which kid of lamps should get into a historic structure?” Beigh said. “And is it not possible that rather than creating a mesh of electric wires from all ends, can not we take one side and be very conservative in managing it? Why can not we have fires resistant wires?”

Khanqah’s spire fire had no electrical issues. But the fact is that it had various halogen lamps installed in and around it. Halogen lamps emit ninety percent heat to offer ten percent light, Beigh says.

Beigh said in a meeting when he asked the Director of Fire Services if he had any idea of the existing fire hydrants in the city, he responded that he has 110. “Then I asked him if there were fire hydrants in the Dastgeer Sahab, why he used the dirtiest waters from Baba Demb, he shouted saying, ‘why should I be part of a meeting that humiliates a Director General rank officer’.”

Mohammad Saleem Beg

The fire hydrants have been a Maharaja era facility. Till 1990, officials from the Fire and Emergency Services would regularly visit and check the functioning of these hydrants on weekly basis. The practice was later abandoned. While some hydrants were covered by the black-topping of the city roads, there are various existing ones which are seriously compromised. The one located near the Khanqah mal-functioned last week.

Rafi Ahmad said that all the shrines have captive firefighting stations and they respond quickly to the mishaps. “But I agree, the entire protection system should be given to one competent agency because it does not work that I give firefighting to one and electricity to another,” Ahmad said.

“These challenges cannot be taken in compartments,” Beigh said. “This needs a comprehensive re-look and creation of a formal policy that is implemented as quickly as possible.”

In wake of Dastgeer Sahab conflagration, Beigh was part of a series of meetings aimed at reconstructing the shrine and preventing such disasters in future. He even made a prolonged presentation before the cabinet in July 2012, then presided over by Omar Abdullah, in which he listed 130 possible threats to the majestic Khanqah. His insistence that Dastgeer Sahab shrine has to be replicated in the form it existed earlier – and not in concrete as a minister and a member of the Wakf Board strongly recommended (to prevent recurrence of fires), led to the Wakf members’ resignation. “My whole point was that devotees need to have the shrine in the form and with the material it earlier existed. Converting a replica in concrete will complete falsehood,” Beigh said. The project, mostly complete, is still with the state-run Project Construction Corporation (JKPCC).

Off late, there has been an emphasis on recreating the shrines using a lot of concrete. Earlier it was done in Naqshband Sahab. After the shrine was recreated and extended, the government planned creating a minaret in memory of the martyrs of 1931 which would have dwarfed the status of the shrine itself. That was stopped at the last moment.

Most of the oldest shrines which were reconstructed in last three decades have lost part of the features that the original structures had. Chrar-e-Sharief shrine, for instance, was warm in winters and cool in summers. The new architecture had done away with the thick walls and included bay windows of glass that changed it completely. It has many other variations. The shrine was reconstructed after it was destroyed in a devastating fire in 1995, after a protracted stand-off between militants led by Pakistani fighter Mast Gul Khan and the army. Most of the town was also reduced to ashes.

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti flew from Jammu within hours after the Khanqah was damaged in the fire.

That is why the digitization of the shrines becomes all the more important. Dastgeer Sahab shrine like Khanqah was micro-digitized. It was easily recreated. The only change in Dastgeer Sahab shrine was that the new structure did not shift its underground base, the main plinth. JKPCC wanted to uproot it but the architects refused saying it has a traditional style of putting half brunt logs in its base that protects it from the earthquake. It was left as it was and recreated even though the tensions between the two sides led to a month-long delay.

“I traditionally go to Dastgeer Sahab as my ancestors have been going for prayers,” Ikhlaq, a resident of Lal Bazaar, said. “Though the shrine is a replica of what it earlier was, somehow, I am still not finding the same solace that I would get before it was destroyed by the fire.” He feels that when lot many people pray and meditate at a specific spot for centuries together, it adds some spiritual value to space which can be felt, not seen.

With the demographic shift, the challenges are changing. Right now, for instance, the major challenge at important shrines like Jamia Masjid, Mukhdoom Sahab, Naqshband Sahab, Hazrtabal and Dastgeer Sahab is about parking. In Dargah, for instance, Government of India agreed to fund a multi-layer parking on a four Kanal land at Hazratbal and released the money but the Wakf Board is unwilling to permit it. The reason: they want to set up a shopping complex on the same land! Even Dubar Sahib Amritsar acquired two surrounding localities to pave way for parking in recent years.

The revenue is important to Wakf because they are increasingly being compared to the Hindu shrine boards in the state which are million times billion strong. Its mandate is primarily to protect the shrines and ensure better and hassle-free access to the devotees. But the emphasis on revenue has started creating unprecedented situations.

In 2012, Beigh said he was shocked to know that the Wakf Board had given the shrine of Simnani Sahab in Kulgam, the saint very close to Amir-e-Kabeer, to a contractor against Rs 52 lakh a year. “Once he paid this sum, the contractor has the right to create and evolve his own systems to get most of it,” Beigh said. “When I visited the shrine, I saw the entire belt enlightened by light-works and decorations, mostly plastic. Even a spark would have reduced the shrine to dust in a moment. I went to Chief Minister and it was investigated and it was proved that the shrine is being given to a contractor for the last three years.”

Beigh said that people in Kashmir were using paper decorations (waw-maal) on the auspicious occasions at home and in the localities. “Now plastic is dominating the scene because it is dirt cheap,” he said. “It is deadlier than paper.”

Mirwaiz Umer Farooq with his supporters at Khanqah e Moula after the pire fires

It is not government agencies including the Wakf Board that has to get sanitized on the issues of protection of the heritage related to faith and history. Even people need to be aware of it. There are scores of shrines, some of them very old, which people are managing locally.

“Earlier, people had modest earnings and now mostly they are prosperous and they invest in new structures,” Beigh said. “In Pampore, a few years back, the government had to intervene to stop the demolition of Kashmir’s oldest mosque, outside Srinagar, as people wanted to construct a new spacious one. It barely survived and still lives, albeit in a choking situation.”

Earlier, a similar situation erupted in Qaimoh, Kulgam. The locality decided to rebuild the shrine where a mother of Sheikh Noordddin Noorani (RA) is resting. “It has been the original Sultanate era structure,” Beigh said. “But we were too late and they had destroyed the oldest structure when we tried an intervention.”