Historical and Religious Debates amongst Indian Ismailis 1840-1920

23 Pages·1.074 MB·English

by  Zawahir Moir

....
Historical and Religious Debates amongst
Indian Ismailis 1840-1920
ZA WAHIR MOIR
During the middle and the later years of the nineteenth century and the
early part of the twentieth, a number of writers of Indian Ismaili origin
researched and hotly debated the nature, history and origin of their faith,
some strongly imbued with the desirability of abandoning it for Shia Ithna
Ashari or Sunni Islam or even Hinduism, others equally convinced of its
continuing authenticity and power. Today largely forgotten - and easily
passed over for their apparencair of antiquarian sectarianism - these
-1 Isinailisenseof
writings in fact reveal the extent to which the relig·~lO=U=S~~~~----C
identity was rooted in, and carved out of, the complexities and ambiguities
I,
, of their South Asian past, whilst also responding to the emergent political
realities of early twentieth-century Indian national movements. However,
before examining these writings in more depth, it is necessary to introduce
and contextualize them by briefly recalling firstly, the general socio-
religious position of the Ismaili communities in northern India around
the middle of the nineteenth century, and secondly, the period of public
dissension and turmoil that followed the arrival of the First Agha Khan
Hasanali Shah in Bombay in 1845.
BACKGROUND
The Indian Nizari Ismailis, whose spiritUal leader (Imam) the newly
arrived Agha Khan (d.1881) claimed to be, were a mixed and scattered
group, not easily categorized as Muslims or Hindus, and not all prepared
to acknowledge the Agha's authority. Besides the few hundred families
then resident in Bombay in the 1840s - a growing commercial class who
were to present the Agha Khan with his most serious challenges - they
mostly comprised a scattering of small-scale trader, artisan and agriculturist
communities extending northwards through Guj arat, Kathiawar, Kachchh
and Sindh as far as Punjab and Kashmir. Following their own traditional
accounts, most believed themselves to have been originally converted to
the Ismaili faith, generally known as the Satpanth (true path), by a line of
?
I
132 ZAW AHIR MOIR
charismatic FITS or missionaries sent by the Nizari Ismaili Imams in Iran
from about the twelfth century onwards. In particular many of those living
outwardly as Khojas1 in the southern region from Bombay to Sindh,
claimed to have been LohaI).a Hindus brought to the faith by FIT ~adruddln
in the early fifteenth century (Arnould). By contrast, many others, especially
in the northern region of Punjab - the so-called Gupti Ismailis and
Shamsis - practised an extreme form oft aqiyya (concealment), following
____t he Satpanthin s§cre!wlJ.ilst conforming outwardly to Hindu customs and
life:style; they also mostly-claimed tohavebeen-convertedrn the thirteenth -
century by FIT Shams, the predecessor of FIT ~adruddln (Aziz 1974).2
Besides these main divisions, there were also other groups in Gujarat who
were specially devoted to FIr Satgur Niir (probably a near-contemporary
of FIr Shams), or who, like the Imamshiihis, had split off from the main
Ismaili fold during the sixteenth century, and come under increasing
Hindu Mahamargi or Swami Narayan influences (Contractor). To the west
of the main Ismaili communities in Gujarat and Sindh, i.e. in Rajasthan,
there were lesser-known groups, such as Niziirpanthis and Mahapanthis,
who seem to have been converted to Ismailism in medieval times but to
have later become re-Hinduized, or even re-Islamized, whilst preserving
tantalising traces of their original affiliation (Khan 1997).
-.. __ .. ------.- Given the considerable variety of practice alriongsftlie IndiariIsmru.lis;--
_-~.
it will be at once apparent that the most striking feature of the Satpanth (and
that which proved most baffling to outsiders) was its syncretism: the fact
that it managed to combine the basic elements ofIsmaili Islam with a range
of local Hindu concepts and customs. This defining characteristic can be
partly ascribed to the flexible conversion strategies of the founder FIrs,
who, for a variety of reasons - some associated with classical Ismaili
philosophy, others perhaps more politically inspired - had sought to
project the Satpanth as the completion of Hindu beliefs rather than as anew
1 The term Khoja is derived from the title Khwiija, meaning Lord. For recent
general accounts of the Indian Nizfui Ismaili Khoj a Satpanthis, see Shackle and
Moir.
2The Guptis were sometimes referred to as Shamsis. Hollister suggests that the
Shamsi communities in Punjab, NWFP and Jammu practised a less extreme form
of taqiyya than the Guptis, maintaining, for instance, the custom of burying rather
than cremating their dead. Some sources also claim that sections of the Shamsis
were originally converted not by FIr Shams of Multan but by a later sixteenth
century FIr of the same name. It may also be noted here that the recent new converts
in Punjab (converted by local missionaries after 1913) were known as Sheikhs. I
am grateful to Mumtaz Sadik Ali for this information. See also his latest book
Ismailis through History, Karachi, 1997.
¥
HISTORICAL AND RELIGIOUS DEBATES AMONGST INDIAN ISMAlLIS 133
and alien creed. Most famously, this approach was expressed in the dual
identity of the Ismaili Imam as both the direct successor of Ali and the
Tenth Avatar (avatar) ofVi~lnfu - the long-awaited Nakalank. But the
same approach also permeated the whole fabric of the Ismailis' religious
and social life. For example, though most Khojas were no doubt vaguely
aware of the significance of the Koran, they were far more devoted to the
teachings of their own ginans - the hymns attributed to their leading Pirs,
which they regularly recited in their Jama'tkhanas (assembly halls) in the
mixed languages of northern India. Similarly, whilst they followed the
Shia practice of offering prayers three times daily, professing faith in
a,
Allah, Prophet Muhammad and Imam Ali, these prayers, the Sindhi du'
were largely given over to recitations of the names of their own Pirs and
Imams (including their Hindu Avatars) and were on regular occasions
preceded by the distribution of holy water (Mujtaha Ali).
A comparable combination of Islamic and Hindu forms also cha
racterized their outward life. For instance, many Khojas in Bombay
and Gujarat bore Hindu names, dressed like Lohal).a Hindus and followed
Hindu property law, but they-alsopractisedfi.rf!If!lc;isiol1 and_mostly'--____
preferred to arrange their marriages and funerals through local Sunni
mullahs. Amongst the Punjab Guptis, as already suggested, the adoption
of complete taqiyya resulted in what would now be judged as startlingly
schizoid life-styles. Thus apart from following the Satpanth in secret, these
groups were otherwise indistinguishable from caste Hi~idus, having Hindu
names, participating in Hindu festivals, cremating their dead, intennarrying
with Hindus and keeping to a vegetarian diet.
Hasanali Shah's decision to settle in Bombay in the 1840s, formally
transferring his headquarters from Iran to India, ushered in a long period
of dissension and transformation in the Indian Ismaili community. Although
links had always been maintained between the previous Imams and their
Indian followers (especially through the hereditary line of Khoja
representatives - vakils in Kachchh responsible for the collection /
transmission of tithe monies to Iran), such links had necessarily been loose
and intermittent, and after the break-up of the line ofIndian Pirs at the end
i
of the fifteenth century, there had been no centralized authority capable
of imposing conformity across the wide range of locally autonomous I
.1
communities. Almost at once the Agha Khan's arrival on the scene began I'
to challenge this situation.
It is unnecessary here to recount the detailed story of all the successive
conflicts that characterized the relations between the Agha Khans and the
minority of dissident Bombay Khojas during the next sixty or seventy
years. That story is, I think, already sufficiently familiar through the work
c
134 ZA w AHlR MOIR
of various recent scholars CAs ani and Masselos). For the present purpose
what needs to be brought out is the extent to which most of these disputes
focused on the twin issues of the Agha Khan's claims to exercise authority
over the Ismaili communities, and the socio-religious identity of those
same communities. In particular, representatives of each of the major
traditions that had previously quietly combined within the eclectic folds of
the Satpanth, began to assert strong claims or viewpoints concerning what
each group considered to be the essential character of their faith. Though
--- theintiriiate character oftlie-se InovemenfS is-sometimes hard to define-;-tIie-
underlying logic was simple: if groups whom the Agha Khan claimed to
lead could p:rove themselves to be Sunnis, Shia Ithna Asharis, or Hindus,
then they would be freed from his interference and exactions.
Of these groups, it was perhaps the Sunni Khojas who created the
biggest stir in the publiclife ofBombay in the 1860s (Newspapers). Basing
their claim that the Khojas were really SunniMuslims owing no obligations
to the Ismaili Imam, largely on their marriage and burial customs, it was
this group which in 1866 boldly challenged the Agha Khan to defend the
legitimacy of his position in the Bombay High Court before Justice
Arnould. The upshot, of course, was a notable victory for the Agha Khan,
in the course of which a wealth of historical evidence was adduced to .
-establish (a) the special position enjoyed by the Ismaili Imam within llie--
broad Shia branch of Islam as the direct descendant of Ali, (b) that the
Khojas themselves had originally been Hindus converted to Ismailism by
Plr ~adruddin, and had always acknowledged the Imam's authority, and
(c) that such Sunni customs as the Khojas had adopted had been part of
their taqiyya. As a result of this decision a minority of Sunni Khojas chose
to sever their links with the loyalist majority.
By contrast, the later claims advanced by the Bombay Shia Khoj as from
the 1870s .onwards, though potentially stronger than the earlier Sunni
Khoja attacks, were in practice weakened in legal terms by the Agha
Khan's convincing victory ill the earlier case. None the less several
ingenious arguments were put forward by this groups to support their
contention that the Khoja community were really mainstream IthnaAshari
who had been led astray by the fraudulent claims of the Agha Khan. For
example, they put forward evidence (a) that the Agha Khan's claim to
an uninterrupted line of descent from Ali was distinctly dubious (a point
left unresolved by the earlier Arnould judgement), or (b) that he and
the members of his family privately followed Ithna Ashari practice. In the
face of strong opposition from the Agha Khan party, many Shia Khojas
left the community in 1901, and their claims were also firmly dismissed
•
HISTORICAL AND RELIGIOUS DEBATES AMONGST INDIAN ISMAIUS _ 135
by Justice Russell in the Haji Bibi case of 1908 in Bombay (Judgement).
Finally, as regards the public expression of Hindu-minded Ismailis, the
situation is more complex since for a long time these groups remained
muted. In a sense, however, their viewpoint - or rather the Hindu ele
ments in Indian Ismailism - had been partially expressed in the earlier
case brought to the Bombay High Court in 1847, when Justice Perry had
ruled that Khoja property was subjectedto Hindu not Islamic law, as the
AghaKhan's party had argued. Butitwas not really till much later in 1913-
14 that a more wholehearted mass expression of Hindu Ismaili opinion was
manifested, this time, appropriately enough, not from the sophisticated
____ Bombay Khojas but from the long-forgotten Gupti communities in Punjab
and Gujarat.3 Called upon then by the Third Agha Khan to come out of
hiding and openly declare themselves as Muslim Ismailis, some authorities
claim that as many as 40,000 eventually came out positively in response
to this appeal, leaving perhaps a sirnilarnumber who felt unable to abandon
their traditional Hindu life-style, including some who in a sense followed
the logic of their convictions by joining the Arya Samaj (Nizami).
THE ISMAILI WRITERS AND THEIR DEBATES
The dozen or more writers of Ismaili Origiil whose works reflect and
illuminate this long period of religious and legal dissension in the Indian
Ismaili community may be roughly divided into four main categories. The
first and earliest group includes two writers (a) Khaki Khoj a, whose rather
mysterious tract Guptpanth kii shajara (also calledShajara) seems to have
appeared around the time the Agha Khan case was being heard in Bombay
(1866), and (b) Sachedina Nanjiani whose better-known Khojii vratiint
was published in Ahmedabad in 1892. Although, as we shall see, these two
works vary considerably in sophistication and reliability, they may be
associated in so far as they both represent first attempts by Ismaili writers
to research and reconstruct the early hi~tory of the Satpanth, each providing
new - and to the contemporary community - controversial accounts of
the nature and origin of its Hindu elements.
The remaining three groups belong to the next generation of Ismaili
writers, all emerging more or less simultaneously during the first quarter
3 I am grateful to Mr. Mahboobali Khoja of Karachi and also to his friend
Mr. Sherali (whose family was originally Gupti) for providing the information
about the Agha Khan's appeal to the Guptis.
•
136 ZA WAHIR MOIR
of the twentieth century. Not only do many of these writers in varying
degrees seek to respond to the challenging historical material presented in
the Agha Khan case and by Khaki and Nanjiani, but each group also
articulates - often in open debate with their rivals - one or other of those
.m ain viewpoints concerning the essential nature ofIsmaili identity, whose
more public manifestations in Bombay were briefly described in the
introductory section of this paper. That is to say, for the viewpoint ofthe
Shia Khojas, the most vigorous and polemical expression is to be found in
____t he writings ofEdulji Dhanji Kaba, a prolific Guj arati author, whose works-"
include Khoja komnl tavarikh (Amreli, 1912) and Khoja panth darp an
(Amreli, 1913-14). As for the third group - representing arange of Hindu
Ismaili perspectives - we shall be looking briefly at three writers, all
influenced by the Arya Samaj, namely, Pindi Das, Ram Chandar and
Radha Krishan, all of Gupti origin, and particularly active from 1913-14
onwards.
Finally _. and forming the fourth and the largest category - are what
may be best described as the Ismaili revivalists - a group of Agha-Khani
loyalists who, acting more or less in concert, sought to create a renewed
sense of traditional Ismaili identity, strong enough to hearten and educate
their supporters and refute their opponents. Active for several decades
_~from about 1905 onwards, mainly in Bombay, these Gujarati writers
included Jaffer Rahimtoola, Master HashimBogha, Alimuharnmad Chunara
and Ebrahim Varteji. Together they produced a stream of publications,
ranging from newspaper articles, books about Ismaili history and religion,
and educational text books, to polemical replies to Shia and Arya Samaj
attacks and even volumes of poetry. Amongst their most significant works
are Rahimtoola's Khoja komno itihiis (Bombay, 1905), Bogha Master's
Asaliyate Khojii (Bombay, 1912) and Varteji's Aftiibe haklkat (Bombay,
1916) and VedikIsliim (Bombay, 1921).
Before analysing the positions adopted by these several groups in more
detail, that is to say explaining their differences, I must briefly draw
attention to two or three general features, which they have in common.
First and foremost, of course, was their preoccupation with Ismailism
itself. Thus, although their individual and group opinions vary enormously,
along with their degrees of certitude, they are all ultimately asking similar
questions about the Satpanth. How did it begin? Is it still valid? If not,
what should replace it? And if it is still to be accepted,how should it be
represented?
The comparative freedom with which these questions were asked also
points towards the second common ground shared by these writers,
•
HISTORICAL AND RELIGIOUS DEBATES AMONGST INDIAN ISMAILIS 13 7
namely, the fact they represent the first generations of Indian Ismaili
writers able to take advantage of the general climate of religious freedom
associated with the consolidation of the British Raj during the nineteenth
century. No doubt there· were limits to that freedom - marked by the
successive vernacular press acts - but for Ismailis of all sorts, inured to
earlier periods of orthodox persecution and accustomed to the need for
taqiyya, the opportunities opened up to express their views over a range
of vital issues, and even to answer their critics, were certainly novel
experiences, which several of the writers themselves acknowledge. New,
too, was the growing availability of printed vernacular and English trans-
-lations of many of the major scriptural texts belonging to the different
South Asian religious traditions - Hindu, Islamic, Jain, etc. As we shall
see, most of these writers, particularly the Ismaili revi valists, made ample
use of this newly accessible material to challenge their opponents and
identify new sources of support for their own positions.
KHAKIKHOJA
Next to nothing is known about Khaki Khoja, the author of Gupt Panth ka
Shajara, other than what can be deduced from the internal evidence of his
undated work. That is to say, since he quotes extensively from the ginans,
and his bookis written in Bombay-style Urdu rendered in the Khojki script,
it seems almost certain that he was of Khoja Ismaili origin, and may have
lived in Bombay. His evident aversion to tithes' payment suggests that he
may have been connected with the early Bombay Khoja opposition to the
First Agha Khan on that score, whilst some of his sceptical representations
of the Ismaili Pirs and Imams seem to indicate that he is writing from a Shia
perspective. As indicated earlier, it also appears from Nanjiani's later
account that the Shajara may have come out shortly before the Agha Khan
Case in 1866; certainly it makes no direct reference to the historical
materials produced in that case, though it does include :f:Iasanali Shah in its
lists of Ismaili Imams.
As the title implies, Khaki's book is largely made up of a series of
genealogies or tables detailing the lines of Islamic Prophets, Shia Ithna
Ashari Imams, Ismaili Imams and Avatars, as well as their 'Indian' Pirs
and assistants (Maheshvaras and vakils). It also includes brief narrative
accounts of certain key episodes in the history of the Ismaili mission
in India, such as the lives of Satgur Nur and his disciple Chach, the
subsequent alleged foundation of the Satpanth by Pir Sadrudctin and
Sohodev Joshi (see below), and the later disputes leading to the separation
-
138 ZAWAHIRM01R
cifthe Imamshahis in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Unfortunately,
unlike Nanjiani, Khaki says very little about the sources of his Shajara.
However, it seems probable that he drew upon certain older manuscript
sources and traditions, especially for his genealogies, and that he may also
have investigated Imamshahi materials at Pirana and mainstream Khoja
materials at traditional centres in Kachchh and Gujarat.
From the point of view of its implications for Indian Ismaili identity, the
_____m ()st intriguing part of Khaki 's Shajara lies in its dramatic treatment of the
secret pact between ¥"rr $adruddin and Sohodev Joshi said to havebeen---
concluded in AD 1420. According to the Shajara, Sohodev Joshi was a
former Brahmin prince descended from Chach, the disciple of Satgur Nilr,
who is traditionally supposed to have murdered his master before creat-
ing his own following amongst the Mahamargis in Gujarat and Punjab.4
Khaki also describes Sohodev as a leading Mahamargi, deeply versed
in Vaishnavite and Islamic mysticism, who had at one time even being
captured by Pathans and forcibly converted to Islam. Helped by a wealthy
Lohal)a named Kapur, Sohodev made the acquaintance of Pir $adruddin
in Punjab. The two men then engaged in a lengthy dialogue in the course
of which they both decided to put away their religious differences and
forge a new Ismaili Hindu synthesis, referred to as the Satpanth. As part
ofthe new system, a series ofHindulIsmaili equivalences were worked out ---~
(e.g. Vi~hl)u as Imam, etc.), and a flexible arrangement agreed according
to which those who joined the Satpanth but preferred to continue outwardly
as Hindus, could do so as Guptis, whilst those who were ready to appear
opeilly as Ismailis became known as Khojas. However, though Khaki's
narrative does not explicitly state this, it implies that some sort ofIsmaili
Gupti-cum-Mahamargi community had existed before this agreement,
apparently going back to the conversions made by Satgur Nilr and Chach.
Finally, it also emerges that Khaki himself views the formation of the
Satpanth as amounting to a form of conspiracy, which resulted in the
creation of a profitable source of income for the Pir and his successors
(through their implied misappropriation of the money intended for the
Imam), while leaving their hapless followers relegated to a limbo between
Islam and Hinduism.
In trying to assess the historical significance of Khaki's Shajara, a
distinction may usefully be drawn between its immediate effects upon
4 Among present-day Hindu Gujarati writers, PIr Sadruddln and Sohodev are
included amongst the founders of the Maharuargi sect, also known as Nizarpanthis.
SeeMallison and Moir in Puru~iirtha, 19, 1996, pp. 265-76.
HISTORICAL AND RELIGIOUS DEBATES AMONGST INDIAN ISMAILIS 139
the Khoja community and its longer-term historical interest. As far as the
community was concerned, it appears that the Shajara' s critical represen
tation of the Satpanth's origin and abuses initially had strongly negative
effects, leading several hundred Khoja families in Bombay and Gujarat
to secede. Thereafter, although the work continues to be occasionally cited
by later writers, notably Nanjiani and Kaba, it hardly seems to figure
even as an object of criticism - in the writings of the later Ismaili revival
ists. What is more, the extraordinary, multi-layered figure of Sohodev
disappears entirely from the official Ismaili historiography which those
writers helped to create. In particular, at least from the time of Laljibhai
----Devraj's official edition of the ginans (1904+), the name Sohodev is
applied to PIr Sadruddin l1imself, with the implication that his adoption
of it was part of the PIr's syncretic approach to Hindu conversions.
As regards to its historical reliability, it is clear that the Shajara needs
to be treated with considerable caution, not only in view of its author's
evident intention to discredit the Khojas but also because of the contrived,
story-like quality it deploys. The need for caution is also generally
underlined by Nanjiani who, though he givesTredirtoKhaki fofh.avi-n-g-----
made a pioneering attempt to collect up Ismaili sources and traditions,
considers that many of the Shajara's stories are not to be relied upon. At
the same time it would also be a mistake to dismiss the work as wholly
lacking in historical credibility. For example, preliminary examinations of
the manuscript versions of the ginans (as opposed to the authorized printed
copies) suggest that Sohodev may indeed have been an independent
personality, not just an alias for Sadruddin, though what exactly his role
was remains obscure. Similarly, recent research is beginning to confirm at
least some of the broader historical elements hinted at in the Shajara's
accounts, namely, the role of the Mahfunargis in the formation and spread
of the Satpanth, the extentto which the early Ismaili PIrs relied upon Hindu
religious and political support, and the significance oft he Gupti communities
as evidence of those early alliances and accommodations (Kassam).
SACHEDINA NANJIANI
If Khaki Khoja's ancient genealogies and graphic tales of secret pacts and
conspiracies seem in some ways to place the Shajara in a late medieval
setting, Sachedina N anjiani' s Khoja vratant, with its systematic conception
and framework and critical use of historical sources, bears more of the
hallmarks of modernity. Also, unlike Khaki Khoja, Nanjiani himself is a
fairly well-documented figure. Born into what would seem to have been
'+'
140 ZA WA HIR MOIR
a well-to-do Ismaili family in Kachchh, he himself met the First Agha
Khan more than once - first in the company of his grandfather on a visit
to Hyderabad in 1842, and later with his father in Kachchh. Pursuing his
career as Assistant Revenue Commissioner in Kachchh state, he began
to collect material for his history from 1874 onwards. The result, Khoja
vratant, was printed in Ahmedabad in 1892 and laterreprinted (in abridged
form) in 1918; he himself probably died sometime before 1912. Though
at some stage - perhaps after the First Agha Khan case, he decided to
-----become a
Shia Ithna Ashari, he does not allow his own views t6 cbloutliis-
historical judgement. Khoja vratant is a personal exploration of his roots,
and a sober, rational attempt to help the Khoja community to overcome its
present confusion and division by coming to terms with the full complexities
of its past. That it was soon recogIlized as such is shown by the extent it is
laterreferred to by various government memoirs and gazetteers (Enthoven,
Sadiq Ali).
The variety of source material consulted by Nanjiani in his long period
of research is particularly impressive, including the ginans themselves,
K.ha.1d K.hoja's Shajara, Arabic and Persian sources cited in the 1866
Agha Khan Case, the Persian text of Farishta as well as various works by
Western orientalists and Hindu religious texts. He himself also describes
-----.. -visits "made to check the archives belonging to the Ismaili ValdIs in Bhuj,- ----
---~-----
as well as the traditional Ismaili Sayyid centre at Kera and the Imamshahi
Dargah at Pirana. With a pioneer spirit somewhat unusual for the period,
he also investigated, as we shall see, the bhajans preserved in the oral
tradition of the Meghval communities in Kachchh and Gujarat.5
Khoja vratant aims to cover almost the whole history of the Ismaili
movement, including the Fatimid and Nizarii Alamut periods (909-1256),
and also to summarize as much of the Hindu tradition as seems to be
relevant.· But the core of the work's contribution - and that which
concerns us here - is its originalinvestigation into the early history of the
Satpanth in Kachchh and Gujarat, and in particular the relations between
the first Ismaili missionaries and their Hindu converts. In following this
line of research, it also appears that Nanjiani is consciously seeking to
advance beyond the two most important previous contributions to the·
5 There seems to be no recent socio-anthropological study of the Mahfunargi
communities, who retain evidence of early contacts with the Nizari Ismaili
mission - contacts which were apparently subsequently broken. Contemporary
Indian writers on Gujarati folk literature prefer to derive the term Nizar from nija
(pure).