Prelude: Rejinagar Shariyati
Violence
“Out beyond the ideas of wrong doing and right
doing, there is a field — I’ll meet you there.”
- Jalaluddin Rumi
One
of the most important trends in contemporary Bengal is to strategize for
converting a multicultural society to a monolithic pattern. The century
long tendency of attack on Bengalee folk singers, Baul-Fakirs on the name of
societal chastity now turns in to more perilous position. Political religion in
structured and localized form now targets parallel system of belief and
practice in own religion. And here Rejinagar incident provides us a chronicle
of torture in such a symmetrical pattern that we decide to publish it in
separate book head as the topic requires more concentration for its exclusivity
among other contemporary discourses. Giving voice to the shared perception of
all the tortured folks, we also target to publish separate report on attacks against
Baul-fakirs very shortly.
Orthodoxy
in both sides seeks to perpetuate on illusionary dichotomy they used, which
juxtapose a highly charged, religio-politicized Muslim identity. We know that
Salafism or Wahabism1 (referred as a cult of Ahl-e-Hadith) is
supposed to be directly opposed the Sufi tone of Islam. Here in India due to
democratic and secular polity conflict was not aggravated or took a violent
appearance. Apart from the stanch followers of Shariyati and Sufism (here
villagers called them as Pirponthi); it is totally confusing for the common
Muslims to identify their differences and why they condemn and criticize each
other.
Drawing
on inclusive narratives and interactions with the survivors of the Rejinagar
Shariyati violence, common people and activists who resisted; this report
anatomizes how Radical Islam hypothesizes to engulf Popular Islam or
Sufism. This meticulous field study makes a significant and timely
contribution to the discussions on radicalization of society, administrative
inaction and particularly peoples resistance. It is a little but in-depth
research we able to complete.
We
visited the villages, Teghori, Paschim Teghori and Nazirpur (under Rejinagar
Police Station, Murshidabad) three times; the second one was the time of Ursh,
the place where Shariyati mob ransacked a Darbar, a bamboo made local
construction. Despite the anti-Pirponthi stand of local Imams a sizeable
crowd participated there and also rituals were performed. While in our rudimentary visit, we were experienced
by the stricture of the female members of the family of the respondent Khadims, particularly in the area where Shariyati mob
ravaged Sufi Centers. The village, Paschim Teghori, where Pirponthis resisted
and abled to prevent destruction of their Darbar, was much more spontaneous. In the area of rest three Darbars, which were ransacked in
a same day (29.10.2016) people remain unspoken. We also visited an old Darbar,
Shariyati mob destroyed it 7 years back, and here victims shared that incident
with grief and grievance. We keep all interactions and anguishes verbatim.
We
are informed that Piponthis are threatened after our departure as they dare to
reveal the atrocities they got from Shariyatis. The Pirponthis of Paschim
Teghori, the resisting force here play the lead role to organize followers of different Sufi Tariqas2. Here two
major Tariqas of Indian sub-continent, Qadiriya3 and Chishtiya4
have their followers.
Their
mystical approach, religious performance in front of grave, use
of music, musical instrument and dance create irksome for Shariyati followers.
Shariyati followers believed that these cultural activities are against Islam.
They announced restriction or publicized Fatwa by banning Mazar, Dargah,
Nazargah, Darbar, Akhra and Ursh; if anybody (Muslim) goes there and takes part
in the religio-cultural activities will be boycotted and also terminated from
Islam. The said villages in Rejinagar witnessed the brutal materialization of
Fatwa.
Our
attempt to make contact with the Imams of local Mosques (including Jame Masjid)
failed initially. But by the condition to keep his identity secret, an Imam
emphasized their stand quoting Hadith and also denied his personal involvement
in 29th October incident. The practice of Different Sufi orders in
this village is Shirk, he said. In Islam the Shirk means the sin of practicing
idolatry or Polytheism. The Hadith he talked about were mentioned in this
report.
We
repeatedly make attempt to talk with the Rejinagar Police Station, but we
became unsuccessful. On 11 May, 2017 we emailed to the District Magistrate of
Murshidabad and the Block Development Officer of Beldanga-II Block urging
restoration of peace and normalcy and to book the perpetrators of Darbar
destruction under the relevant section of Indian Penal Code. But till date no
reply came in. No person was arrested.
We
think the incident of Rejinagar Shariyati violence is a continued and
well-planned strategy of Political Islam to destroy and occupy Sufi centers.
The philosophy of single brand always attacks multiculturalism in different
religiosity. The rise of Hindutva forces doing the same in different parts of
India by imposing single brand of faith. In West Bengal, the hobnobbing between
ruling party and Imams, Clerics gave a clear message to the mass that who are
the authority of Muslim community. The unconstitutional powers they possess are
largely hypothecated by the ruling party and these gave the massage to the
administration to remain dysfunctional.
The Rejinagar-pattern atrocities
were already in motion in various parts of West Bengal; it is our inability
that we are unable to make documentation for every incident. We know about the
brutal attack on Lal Shahbaz Qalandar Sufi Shrine at Sindh, Pakistan on
February, this year. The blast took place during a Sufi ritual, Dhamal, when
thousands of devotees were present. 85 persons were killed. People reacted
largely, protested by performing Dhamal. Disgracefully here the day is nearer.
Subha Protim Roy Chowdhury
For
AAMRA (An
Assemblage of Movement Research and Appraisal) Kolkata.
Notes-
1.
Wahabism or Wahhabiya-
An ultra-conservative, puritanical Muslim movement adhering to the Hanabaite
law, although it regards itself as ghair
muqallidin, non-adherent to parties, but defending truth. It arose in Najd
in the Arabian Peninsula during the 18th century. Its founder,
Muhammad Ibn Abd Al-Wahhib (1703-87) found a champion in the tribal leader
Muhammad Ibn Saud of the Dariya region, and from then on the Soudis became the
main supporters of that movement. They believe that the Muslims have abandoned
their faith in one God (tawhid) and
have distorted Islam through innovations (bida) which run counter to pure
Islam: ‘All objects of worship other than Allah are false, and all who worship
such are deserving of death’ (Abd Al-Wahhib). The Wahhabis accept only the
Quran and the authentic Hadith and reject 1400 years of development and
interpretation in Islamic theology and mysticism. They oppose any veneration of
saints and tombs, prohibit the decoration of Mosques, ban luxury and forbid any
importation of kafir culture in their
society. Furthermore, all Muslims who do not accept their creed are regarded as
heretics, particularly the Shias, who
are considered as archenemies of Islam.
During the 19th
century, the Wahhabis in alliance with the Saud family began to expand
territorially, and to threaten the interest of the Ottoman Empire. In 1802 they
captured Karbala, and in 1803 Mecca. Thrown back by a long campaign, they were
not politically strong until Abd Al-Aziz Al Saud captured Riyadh and
established a new kingdom. The Hejaz was taken, but attempts to expand
northward were blocked. Within the new kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Wahhabis
became dominant in conservative control, introducing mutawwiun, ‘enforce of obedience’, a kind of
private religious police, monitoring not only public but also private
conformity to Islam
2.
Tariqa- Originally a way of classifying the rules and methods by which
a mystical approach to God might be sustained; it became a term for the
different Sufi systems themselves, along with their rules and rituals.
3.
Qadiriya- A Sufi order (tariqa) founded in the 12th century
by Abdal al-Qadir al-Jili, who was revered as a teacher and also a worker of
miracles. Given the Sufi tendency to see the manifestation of being in the
particulars of creation, but especially in Sufi adepts, it is not surprising
that al-Jili was regarded as Lord of creation after and under God, and
reverenced as ch. His tomb in Bagdad is a place of Pilgrimage. The order makes
use of music and dance, particularly to encourage trance states. It is
widespread from Morocco to India.
4.
Chishtiya- Min al Din Muhammad Chisti (AH 537-633) was an Indian, who
mediated an important order (tariqa), Chistiya into India. He was
much influenced by Abd al-Qadir-who, as a traditionalist, once said, ‘my foot
is on the head of every holy man.’ Chisti emphasized fear of hell-fire as an
important constraint in religious life, but he also encouraged music and chant
since ‘song is the support and the sustenance of the soul’. The Chistiya,
the sufi movement derived from him continues to make music central. It
developed the qawwali (singers) whose songs of love and
devotion to Allah are a feature of holidays and festivals. He died at Ajmer,
and his tomb is celebrated place of pilgrimage. The heads of the Indian
Sub-continent used to make trip to Ajmer Sharif as it gathers one of the
highest numbers of pilgrims in India from different faith.
