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| Religious identities and cultural inheritance of Kashmir | | | Dr. Rajkumar Singh
The ideas of Islam were troubling people's minds all over India. As of old India was trying to absorb the foreign element and herself changing somewhat in the process. A new type of reformer who deliberately preached this synthesis arose. In the fifteenth century there were a number of Hindu reformers, like Ramanand in the South, Kabir, his more famous disciple, Guru Nanak in the north. The influence of these reformers went far beyond the limits of the particular sect that grew up after them. Hinduism as a whole felt the impact of the new ideas, and Islam in India also became somewhat different from what it was elsewhere. The fierce monotheism of Islam influenced Hinduism and the vague Pantheistic attitude of the Hindu had its effects on the Indian Muslim.
The current position
However, the synthesis of the above two cultures continued to remain a distant dream even today. The fact that political authority lay with Islamic groups made it impossible for Brahminical society to ignore it entirely, the insidious aggrandisement of Hindu religious practice did not succeed against the Islamic culture. Gradually, indigeneous society allowed the two types of Islamic groups-the military entrants and the large masses of indigeneous converts-to settle down into existence groups or circles of their own obeying in an indirect sense the exclusivistic logic of the Hindu social order. Muslim ruling dynasties came to control the upper layers of political authority while Hindu groups controlled commercial, craft and other productive practices and an effective protocol emerged for the prosecution of everyday business. But it would be a misjudgement to believe that such transactions in mundane matters would form the base of a culture which became wholly mixed in every respect. Because the mundane is less important than the sacred for pre-modern mentalities, the significance of such transactions was comparatively meagre. The sacred, for both communities, remained largely exclusive and unmerged, and intolerant of excessive contact, despite the efforts of Bhakti saints and Sufi mystics to produce syncretic forms. The Muslims were profoundly influenced by the environment, by Hinduism, its social organisation and culture as a result of which, Hindu-Muslim masses became least indistinguishable. Many converted Hindus were not Muslimised. Instead of materially changing their outlook, they continues to breathe in their traditional environment, retain their old world socio-religious ideas and even sought to import these into their fold.
The new direction and their activities, which was confined to a few, failed to resolve the doubt and confusion of their minds. Hindus had looked back and sought consolidation in ancient times. Old philosophy and literature, art and history, had brought some relief. Ram Mohan Roy Dayananda, Vivekananda, and others had started new movements of thought. They kept the rich streams of English literature in their minds and were also full of ancient sages and heroes of India. The proselytising zeal of Islam strengthened conservatism in the orthodox circles of the Hindus. Just as the Protestant Reformation in Europe was followed by the Counter-Reformation and efforts of the Roman Catholic Church to set its own house in order, so to protect their position against spread of Islam, the Hindus wanted to make themselves as orthodox as possible and increased the stringency of caste rules and formulated rules of conduct in Smriti works with a rigidity unknown before.
Status of Islam in today's context
For the Muslim masses this idea was not new and they were acquainted with these tradition. But the Muslim upper classes, despite the Indianisation of conquerors and immigrants-Arab and Afghan, Turk and Turkoman, Mongol Mongoloid in several respects, began to realise that it was not proper for them to associate themselves with these semi-religious traditions, and any encouragement to them would be contrary to the spirit of Islam. They searched for their national roots elsewhere. They concentrated on Islamic history and to the periods when Islam was a conquering and creative force in Baghdad, Spain, Constantinople Central Asia. But these all were limited and did not really affect the general outlook of Indian Muslims. At best, the Indian Muslims derived some psychological satisfaction from a contemplation of Islam's past greatness.
The case of Islam in the present state of Jammu and Kashmir is an exception. The history of Kashmir, reveals Stien, has always borne a local character. It cannot be doubted that this fact has been a decided advantage for the preservation of historical traditions. It is, like the rest of India, a cauldron in which religions, races, and languages meet, melt and mingle. Here is a confluence of Indian, Tibetan, Central Asian, Greek and Iranian cultures. Hinduism principally prevails in the province of Jammu, Islam in the valley and northern areas and Buddhism in Ladakh. There are also a few Sikhs and Christians. Kashmir's chronicles and other available information, the population of Kashmir had shown already in old times the same homogeneity that it does today.
Still secular ideas prevail
Considering the history of the people, it is not surprising that Hindus and Muslims have much in common and they share many customs and practices on occasions of birth, marriage and death. If comparison be made between the customs of the Hindus and the Muslims, it would be seen that there are many points of resemblance, and the curious prominence of the walnut and the salt and the use of the mendhi dye in both religions; there is the fixing of the marriage day ; the visit paid by bridegroom to the bride's house after marriage; the giving of money and Jewels ; the dress and the title of the bridegroom as maharaja and of the bride as maharani ; the giving of presents on the fourth day after death, and the celebration, respectively of the birthday and the day of death. According to Lawrence, the Rishis, the order of Muslim holy men, the Babas and the Makhdum Sahib Pirzadas are always looked upon as pure Kashmiri and are called Wami, as distinguished from the Saiyads and Saiyads Pirzadas, who found their way to the valley from foreign countries. After the end of the Hindu rule Sanskrit remained for a considerable period the medium of official communication and record in history. The continued popular use of Sanskrit among Muslims was proved by the Sanskrit inscriptions on tombstones at Srinagar near Martand and elsewhere.
It is clear from the brief account that nothing did greater harm to the development of secular ideals and religious tolerance in Kashmir than Sikandar, the Chaks, and the Pathans. Their blind obsession with the craze to add to the number of the faithful and to destroy the religious movements of their forefathers closed their hearts to the call of humanity as it shut their eyes to their ancestors' dreams in store. However, the persecutions and destruction were launched by the rulers who were mostly outsiders, alien to the culture of the people, not by the people themselves. The Hindus and Muslims in the valley did not split apart, and irrespective of the suffering and indignities heaped upon the Hindus by the fanatics who were incapable of seeing a view other than their own, the relations between the two communities continued to be friendly and cordial. This fact was of tremendous importance. |
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