Rising Islamophobia in Himachal Pradesh worrisome
As Islamophobic activities rage across Himachal Pradesh, every iota of pretense about the state’s ‘intrinsic’, ‘inclusive’ character is being shredded into smithereens. With their epicentre at Shimla just a couple of weeks ago, where right-wing outfits protested against an illegal mosque, the matter has far surpassed its original purpose. Similar demands have been voiced at Mandi and Kullu, and Muslim-owned shops have been marked in red and vandalised in Solan and Palampur. With over 25,000 illegal buildings strewn across Himachal, 15,000 of which can be found in Shimla itself, the mass mobilisation against a few minority structures, howsoever ‘illegal’, is nothing but a political exercise.
While many people have been quick to point out how such a sentiment has “never” been witnessed before in the state, in reality, there have been precedents. In June this year, a Muslim shop owner in Nahan was violently attacked by a Hindutva mob for purportedly sharing a photograph of an animal sacrifice during Eid-al-Adha. During the pandemic, many people belonging to the majority held Muslims responsible for “introducing” the virus to the state. That the minority constitutes barely two per cent of the population hardly deterred such opinions.
In the ongoing crisis, the most striking claim has been that Himachal’s demography is in “acute danger,” since the state never had a Muslim population history, let alone cultural contributions, to speak of. In the same vein, the repeatedly invoked “growing number” of Muslims is unambiguously posited as a “threat” to the overall character, despite little evidence to back the claim. Such assertions are not only ignorant of the past but also dangerously deceptive. Because from architecture and painting to music, religion and everyday activities, the role of Muslims has been crucial to the hill state’s flourishing for centuries.
The state capital’s predominant architectural style of dhajji, widely used across heritage buildings, was introduced by Muslim workers. As Simla, the summer capital of the Raj, was reaching its heyday in the middle of the nineteenth century, Muslim labourers and coolies were brought in from Kashmir and Ladakh to carry out the construction work. Dhajji’s timber-framed model with infills of stones, bricks, pine needles and mud was not only earthquake resistant but also pleasing to the eye.
As conservation architect Saumya Sharma observes, “It was not difficult to reproduce a European aesthetic inspired by the Tudor style in Simla because of the presence of craftsmen from Kashmir and Ladakh.”
Going back even further, the beginnings of Pahari art, unarguably Himachal’s greatest cultural gift to the world, are inextricably linked to the social context and styles of Mughal paintings. Nearly three decades ago, the famed Indian novelist and art critic Mulk Raj Anand had remarked that “the dispersal of Mughal-trained artists had started in the late Akbar period in the regions of Nurpur, Chamba and Mandi”, where numerous paintings were done by those “working in the popular Mughal style.” He said that the treatment of architectural elements such as “turrets, panelled doors, latticed windows, trellis work and wooden pillars, and the intricate design, were not a characteristic of the folk paintings of the hill areas, but were adapted from the Mughal paintings brought home from Delhi by the Rajas.”
Interfaith expressions can also be gleaned from diverse zones. At the outskirts of Shimla lies the dargah of Hazrat Baba Strotri (also spelled Salautri) at Ghora Chowki, visited by all communities in the hope of curing skin diseases. In different parts of Sirmour district, Goga Maharaj is worshipped as a pir by the Muslims and as a deity by the Hindus. Chamba’s famous Sui Mata Temple is located on Shah Madar Hill, the latter named after a Syrian Sufi saint who migrated to India more than six centuries ago. In the same region, the international Minjar Mela commences with the offering of the holy minjar (silk tassels resembling maize blossoms) by a Muslim family at the Laxmi Narayan Temple.
Kullu’s Jamlu devta belonging to Malana village is annually worshipped via its affinity to the emperor Akbar. In Kangra’s Khaniyara village, at the Indru Nag Dev temple, Hindu chants accompany drumbeats and shehnais, traditionally played by Muslim musicians. In the same district, frescoes inside the two-century-old temple of Dada Siba transpose Krishna, Ram and Dwarpalas to the Arabic tale of Laila Majnu.
Numerous well-known names have also been attached to the capital’s Muslim heritage. Many old timers remember affluent businessmen like Mir Nadir Hoosain, who owned major properties like Elysium Hotel and Belvedere. Hamid Karzai, the former president of Afghanistan, remembers his time spent in Shimla while pursuing higher studies from Himachal Pradesh University in the 70s and 80s. Sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan also made Shimla his home in the early decades of Independence. Professor Abdul Majid Khan, an academic, foreign ambassador and the town’s most “visible” Gandhian, had left his family in Pakistan to settle in the capital. Residents still recall Professor’s habitual “pause” before the Ridge-based statue of Mahatma Gandhi daily, when he bowed to pay his respects, replete in a Gandhi cap and achkan.
But it is the common labourers and migrants, whether Gujjar tribesmen or the coolies and porters, that remain the most abiding symbol of the state’s Muslims. The latter’s association with Himachal goes back to the times of the Central Asian trade, when many Muslims travelled far and wide exchanging goods and ideas. Today, of course, from Shimla to Chamba, there exist several mohallas named after Kashmiris and Ladakhis, attesting to their assimilation within the social fabric.
As these workers continue carrying backbreaking loads every day to keep the local economies alive, it must be introspected in times such as these, if we, as a majority, are only content to see the “other” in “subservient” roles. And as chants from Hanuman Chalisa and of “Jai Shri Ram” get vindictively appropriated for ousting every imprint of the minority community, we also have to ask ourselves if this is what the devtas of Dev Bhoomi actually stand for.
