Lalsalu (1948), a Bengali novella by Bangladeshi author Syed Waliullah (1922-1971), is a captivating work of fiction that won global acclaim in the 1960s. The plot involves Majid, a young and mediocre cleric, who comes to Mohabbatnagar, a village populated by uneducated Muslims, hitherto leading an easygoing life. He stumbles upon an anonymous and ruined grave and declares it to be that of a pious Muslim saint viz. Pir Mudassar. Therein, he builds his fake dargah, which becomes the centre of his religious power and charisma. His newfound status as custodian of the dargah helps him climb the socio-economic ladder. His writ runs over the entire village. However, his life is unsettled, after he marries a second time. His young and bubbly second wife Jameela, with little interest in religion, starts defying his authority. The novella ends in an uncertain manner with crops ruined by the advent of a hailstorm. Majid battles people’s waning faith in his spiritual authority.
The secret of the fake dargah is never revealed to the villagers. Readers, however, enjoy Waliullah’s artistry of words, as much as his progressive outlook. It appears astounding that somebody from the newly created Islamic dominion of Pakistan wrote such a book. Even a Westernised Mohammed Ali Jinnah had adopted Sherwani-Pyjama as his attire, argued in elegant English the case of Urdu as Pakistan’s official language, and spiked his speeches with a few mispronounced verses of the Quran.
Syed Waliullah, who passed away in Paris in 1971, sounds not merely progressive but suddenly very relevant in India. Governments in several states of India have been battling the menace of encroachment on public land by means of fake mazars/dargahs. These are claimed to be burial spots of Sufi saints, real or fictitious. However, no document or land record could be adduced to substantiate these claims. Illustrious Bengali author Syed Mujtaba Ali (1904-1974), once wrote that Pirs do not fly, but their disciples make it so (i.e. concoct stories). A mazar that materialised atop the Azadpur flyover in North Delhi a couple of years ago is a case in point. Nothing could be more bizarre than somebody being buried on the flyover (even if he had perished in a road accident), or in thin air if he died prior to its very construction.
Chandrashekhar Azad Park (formerly Alfred Park) in Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad), which hosts a statue of the famous martyr, has been subject to all kinds of encroachments including graves, mazars and mosques. The Allahabad High Court in October 2021 passed an order to remove them within three days. Subsequently, Uttar Pradesh Waqf Board laid claim to the entire park. However, the last one heard about the case was in January 2023, when the Uttar Pradesh government informed the Allahabad High Court that many encroachments have already been removed, while notices have been issued on others.
It is a matter of opinion whether worshipping at mazars/dargahs runs contrary to the tenets of monotheistic Islam. Islam does not recogniSe the role of any intercessor between Allah and man. There is no Arabic word for it, which calls a grave simply a qabr, whether it belongs to a saint or a criminal. Darul Uloom, Deoband, for instance, does not differentiate an ordinary grave i.e. qabr from a mazar/dargah, and discourages its followers from visiting such shrines, however exalted. Yet, such shrines have been part of the Islamic landscape in Central, South and Southeast Asia. They are visited by pilgrims throughout the year, to seek blessings (Barkat), from the saint buried therein. Often, one or two “deputies” or close followers of the saint are also buried in the same complex. The anniversary of the saint’s demise (as per the Islamic lunar calendar) called Urs (literally wedding), is a celebratory occasion for the pilgrims, marked by songs, dances, and ritual orations.
What makes mazars/dargahs popular in India amongst Muslims and non-Muslims alike? Dr J. Raja Mohamad in Maritime History of the Coromandel Muslims: A Socio-Economic Study of Tamil Muslims 1750-1900 (2004) provides a credulous answer. Dr Mohamad argues that dargah worship is common for a Muslim woman since her religion does not offer any separate place for women to worship and plead for the welfare of their families. It is needless to remind that Muslim women are not allowed to pray in mosques. They thus need a soothing place, where they can vent their emotions.
Most of the dargahs in Tamil Nadu, affirms Dr Mohamad, are of recent origin. But the pirzadas (trustees) of the shrine claim a long antiquity, on the basis of created data, to link these shrines to one of the founder figures of Sufism such as Jalaluddin Rumi or Ibn Al Arabi (P.304). Several dargahs in places like Ervadi, Kayalpattanam, Nagore and Papavoor etc have a reputation for curing psychiatric patients (P.311).
On August 6, 2001, a fire broke out in Erwadi dargah, in Ramnathapuram district of Tamil Nadu. The hutments sheltering 43 people, labelled as mentally ill, and kept chained to beds, caught fire leading to a number of casualties. The Tamil Nadu government, instead of applying penalties under the Mental Health Act, 1987, decided to monetarily compensate the families who had dumped their members at the dargah in the hope of a miracle cure. The Supreme Court initiated suo motu action instructing all state governments in India to implement the Mental Health Act, 1987 and close all shelters not being run under the provision of this statute.
The cult of mazars/dargahs has grown in India since the 13th century. It counterpoised the iconoclastic and austere image of Islamic rule in India. It solaced a wounded civilisation with a softened approach towards conquered people. The Sufis, however, never confronted the religious and political authority of Islam. They never questioned the wanton destruction of Hindu and Jain temples, imposition of Jiziya, wholesale massacre of the population, and enslavement of Hindu women perpetrated by the Islamic invaders/rulers. The Sufis actually aided the extension of Islamic rule, and its penetration into the collective psyche of Indians. Even when the Islamic rulers disappeared from India, the legacy of Sufi saints embodied in the forms of mazars/dargahs continued to influence the Indians.
There are innumerable minor mazars/dargahs that dot the landscape of India. Their legends are often little known beyond the township or district where they are located. Their collective presence has been taken for granted by the people of India. This allows unscrupulous elements to ‘invent’ new Pirs and Fakirs, who never lived but are still believed to be buried at that spot. Ostensibly, the purpose is to create a new religious power centre, like the one in Mohabbatnagar by Majid in Lalsalu. The ulterior motive could actually be more devious in India. It is to grab more land to create more signposts of Islam in a friendly manner.
The existence of a number of such fake ‘mazars’ came to light in Bet Dwarka, an inhabited island at the mouth of the Gulf of Kutch, in Gujarat. The island, believed to be the residence of Lord Krishna, had been crowded with large-scale encroachment on government land. Waqf Board, in an application to Gujarat High Court, claimed ownership of two isles in Bet Dwarka. The situation assumed serious proportions from a security angle. In October 2022, the Gujarat government, in tandem with the local municipality, launched a massive anti-encroachment drive. A number of such fake ‘mazars’ were also uprooted in the drive, as informed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah during an election rally in Gujarat.
The anti-encroachment drive was completely successful. It was a far cry from the May Day riots in 2006 at Champaner gate in Vadodara, centred on the removal of a mazar. In 2006, Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) launched a drive to clear public roads of all unauthorised civil and religious encroachments. While 42 small temples and six graves were removed as part of the drive, trouble erupted during the removal of the dargah at Champaner gate. There was heavy stone pelting, provoking the police to fire upon the rioters, leading to four fatalities.
The issue resonated in Lok Sabha on May 18, 2006, while the House discussed the issue of communal violence in different parts of the country. Though Communists are believed to be atheists, Basu Deb Acharia, CPI (M), shed copious tears about the dargah riots. He tried to link it with the “genocide” in Gujarat in 2002. He even claimed the dargah was 385 years old. Harin Pathak, BJP MP, took winds out of Acharia’s sail. He challenged anyone claiming it to be an old dargah, to place any document on the Table of House showing its registration. Pathak claimed that neither the Charity Commissioner of Baroda, the Archaeological Survey of India, nor the Gujarat Wakf Board had any registration of the said grave being claimed as a historic dargah. Pathak contented that the said grave was not a place of worship as per the definition contained in Section 4 (3) (a) of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991.
The Etah Dargah Scandal (2022) in Uttar Pradesh revealed how the Bade Miyan Dargah Committee encroached upon the government lands, and later sold them to private parties to rake in the moolah. A case of fraud and forgery worth Rs 99 crore came to light during the investigation of the UP Crime Branch.
Lately, the Uttarakhand government launched a drive against such illegal mazars/dargahs that were being used to grab forest land in Devbhoomi. According to one, the government has identified around 1400 illegally built religious structures. Reportedly, 26 mazars were demolished. It then came to light that several of those mazars contained no human remains.
On March 23, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) demolished a fake dargah in Mahim in Mumbai after MNS leader Raj Thackeray shared a video of the dargah on his Twitter handle. “Whose dargah is it? Is it of a fish?” asked Thackeray, “it was not there a couple of years ago”. He claimed that a “new Haji Ali” is being established in the middle of the sea in broad daylight, while the police and municipality were unaware.
While the Kartarpur corridor was being built in 2019, a dargah was discovered near Dera Baba Nanak town, obstructing the right of way (RoW). A perusal of land records revealed the dargah was fake. It was thus removed after work was held up for a couple of days.
Authorities, it is often suggested, should deal with illegal encroachments in a religion-neutral manner. There are indeed temples also, which were built upon encroached lands. However, there is a significant difference that should not be overlooked. Several illegal/unauthorised temples come into existence in India due to local needs. Often, legally sanctioned temples are not near the colonies where people live. A small local temple serves their spiritual needs. No claim is attached to them as pilgrimages or sanctified spots. The case of mazars/dargahs is patently different as their establishment is not linked to any religious needs. They are portrayed as spots where some Sufi saint is buried. In recent times, many such claims have got exposed. This raises doubt on the whole scheme of mazars/dargahs. Julius Caesar dead, in Shakespeare’s play, was more powerful than Julius Caesar alive. The same is apparently true about Sufi saints, including those who never lived.
The writer is an author and independent researcher based in New Delhi. The views expressed herein are his personal.
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