From Magic to Mysticism and to Reform

Nabajyoti Ghosh | State, Economy and Society in the Age of Delhi Sultanate | Roll no. 62 ǀ UG II

Course Instructor: S.A. Rizvi

From Magic to Mysticism and to

Reform HOW SYNCRETIC LOCAL TRADITIONS BECAME THE MASTER

NARRATIVE OF ISLAM IN ASSAM AND ITS IMPACT ON ISLAM IN

POST COLONIAL BRAHMAPUTRA VALLEY

Introduction

The most conspicuous outcome of the lengthy contest (16th-18th century CE) between the

Muslim powers in Delhi ruling over most parts of South Asia and Modern Day India and

the rulers in the mediaeval epoch of what is now the state of Assam in Modern India,

namely the Ahoms (13th century-19th century CE Eastern Assam), the Kamatapuris (13th

century CE Western Assam), the Kamarupis ( century CE Central Assam) and the Koch

(16th-17th century CE North Bengal and Western Assam) was the gradual inflation of the

Muslim population in the ambit through infiltration and conversion, thereby introducing

Islamic traditions in the regional demography.1 (Gait, 1906) However, Assam came into

contact with Muslims as early as 12052, but the story of the propagation of their faith in the

region is unique and responsible for the form it has taken in modern day Assam in the post-

colonial era. Despite the demographic upsurge, the propagation of Islam as a ‘faith’ and a

‘set of beliefs’ started as late as in the early 17th century by wandering Muslim mystics.

They introduced the Muslims of Assam to the Namaz, the contents of Quran, the Hadiths

and other Islamic literature with which they were barely acquainted, through a regime of

folksongs, instrumental music and dances. Being Be-sharia Sufi saints they gave their

followers an Islam characterized by heterodoxy. A kind of Islam which may attract the

1 Gait, S. E. (1906). (2nd Edition, 1926) A History of Assam. Guwahati, EBH Publishers

2

Sharma, M. (1994). Religion : Buddhism,Sikhism, Islam and Christianity. In H.K.Barpujari (Ed.), The

Comprehensive History of Assam (Third Edition ed., Vol. III, pp. 211-260). Guwahati: Publication

Board Assam.

disapproval of the Muslim Ulema. Writing on this very era, Shihabuddin Talish, the writer

who accompanied Mir Jumla in his expedition in Assam reflects in his Fatiyyah-i-Ibriyah,

“As far as the Mussalman who had been taken prisoner in former times had chosen to marry

here, their descendants act exactly in the manner of the Assamese, and have nothing of

Islam except the name; their hearts are inclined far more towards mingling with the

Assamese than towards association with the Muslims. The Muhammedans who had come

here from Islamic lands engaged in the performance of prayer and fasting, but were

forbidden to chant the call to prayer or publicly recite the ‘word of god’ ”3 This grasps the

Islamic attitude in Mediaeval Assam in a very critical manner, nevertheless gives us a lot

to ponder upon. The reason why Talish is so critical of the Muslims in Assam is because

the Islam defined to and by him must have seemed irreconcilably different to the one which

prevailed in Mediaeval Assam. This leads to a plethora of questions pertaining to this very

theme. How did the Assamese Muslim define Islam? How did this definition come about?

What did this definition of Islam led to? What was Islam’s relation to other faiths and

beliefs in the Brahmaputra valley in the mediaeval era? And finally what would we find if

we juxtaposed the Master narrative of Islam in the rest of India and West Asia and the

master narrative of Islam in Mediaeval Assam. And what was the political implication of

this ‘difference’ on Islam in colonial and post-colonial Assam

It would be rather preposterous to come to a conclusion on to how the Assamese Muslim

defined Islam, without answering how he came to define it. How did Islam crystallize in

3 Quoted in Gait, S. E. (1906). (2nd Edition, 1926) A History of Assam. Guwahati, EBH Publishers. pp. 153

the Assamese society? Were the Assamese and Muslim dichotomous as identities or were

they in a constructive dialog?

In what follows I would try to answer these questions first and then try to take cue from

the derived answers to answer the question on the definition of Islam by an Assamese

Muslim in the Mediaeval and Post Medieval Era, its nature and what it led to. Its relation

with the other socio-religious traditions of the Brahmaputra Valley. The dichotomous

relation between the Greater Islamic traditions in the lands from which Shihabuddin Talish

came from and the ‘Islam’ which flourished in the “…wild and dreadful country…”4 of

Assam and how it affected Islam in colonial and post-colonial era.

The Land of sorcerers and magic.

During his visit to Sylhet (the region adjoining Kamarupa, now in Bangladesh), Ibn Battuta

noted that “the inhabitants of these mountains are noted for their devotion to and practice

of magic and witchcraft”5 . Around 1595 Ain-i-Akbari described the inhabitants of Kamrup

as “addicted to the practice of magic (jadugari)”6 Kamrup came to be seen as an exotic land

inhabited by yogis, shamans and practitioners of other occult, sorcery and abstruse

practices. From the very beginning of the Turkish invasion, Sufis, who sought to arrest the

transcending reality of the world without any intercession or any intervention from

4 Shihabuddin Talish; quoted in Gait, S. E. op cit. pp. 153

5 Ibn Battuta; quoted in Eaton, Richard. M. (1994) The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier. Oxford. pp.

77 6 Ibid pp.77

liturgical or the ecclesiastical classes were the foremost of those who imbued the yogic

traditions in their lives. 7

By the time Muslims established their rule in Bengal and Kamarupa, much of the Islamic

missionary zeal had dwindled in the hearts and minds of the Muslim rulers and military

commanders. In a rather peculiar fashion, Sufism carried forward Islam in Assam and

rather in a reciprocal relationship with the existing traditions of the valley. Though Islamic

colonies are heard of in Assam in as early as 1254, Turkish invaders of Assam could not

concentrate on affairs of religion since they were mostly involved in military expeditions.

Turkish patronage of Islam was characterized by monetary sanctions to support Muslim

preachers for maintaining religious institutions and the latter being roughly an arrangement

for hospitability of the moving troops. Consequently the conversions that took place from

time to time were mainly at the instance of the wandering Sufis saints, pirs and fakirs.

Which is quite distinct from the mode in which Islam came to Northern South Asia in 1192

or rather in 711 in Sindh and Punjab, where it came as the apparatus of an invading army

and its sultan for legitimizing their conquest and establishment in Northern South Asia.

The sanctification of the newly conquered land was carried out by the building of the

mosque of ‘Qubbat-ul-Islam’ translated as ‘The Might of Islam’8 or ‘The Pinnacle of

Islam’9 with ‘trophies of war’ reliefs from desecrated temples as ornamentation (which

spawned theories pertaining to iconoclasm around it in recent historiography10) whereas

7 Ibid pp. 78 8 S.A.Khan, Asar al-Sanadid, Vol. 1, p. 310; Horowitz, ‘Inscriptions’, 1911-12; J.A. Page, A Historical

Memoir on the Qutb (1926) 9 Simon Digby ‘The Sufi Shaikh as a Source of Authority’ in Richard M. Eaton (ed.) (2003) India’s Islamic

Traditions 711-1750 New Delhi. Oxford University Press, pp 234-262 10 Sunil Kumar in Suvir Kaul (ed.), The Partitions of Memory, The Afterlife of the Division of India,

Permanent Black, New Delhi 2001, pp. 140-82

the needs of spiritual pursuits and an easier path to devotion and mediation was met by

Sufi Shaikhs.11, Islam entered into a dialog with traditions of Mediaeval Assam with Sufi

mystics as the common ground of interaction. Invading Muslim armies merely brought the

presence of an Islamic state in Assam whereas Sufi Shaikhs, pirs and fakirs established and

spread Islam’s word in a syncretic dialog, critiquing the phrase ‘Islam was spread from the

edge of the sword’ and creating an ‘alternative’ Islamic identity.

The Shaikhs the Pirs and the Fakirs

The Muslim preachers who carried the message of Islam into almost every town of Assam

were known by various designations depending upon their spiritual bend and activities -

pirs, gazis, fakirs, etc. Sufis came to be known as pirs in the popular phraseology, and were

known for their pious ways and moral preaching. They claimed to grant intercession with

the God owing to the supernatural powers possessed by them which also enabled them to

perform miracles. Finding God was believed to be possible only through the guidance of

the Pirs. Many followers of pir cult speak of their need for a guide to instruct them in holy

ways. Others visited the pir in times of worldly requirements bringing material offerings

(sinni). The pir usually responded to request for help with tawiz (amulets), and mantra

(blessing with holy power). It was because of these healing powers (karamat) that votaries

of devotees, transcending paradigms of class, caste, religion, etc., congregated to these pirs

and their dargahs. Gazis or religious warriors were those who achieved sainthood in the

course of noble and valiant missionary campaigns. Fakirs were the product of the

interaction between Sufism and Vaishnavism. In mystic terminology fakir means a person

11 Simon Digby op cit. pp 236-237

who "lives for the Lord alone." Absolute renunciation of private property and resignation

to the will of God (tawakkun) were considered essential for a fakir. But in popular idiom

the phrase ‘fakir’ was used for a pauper or a beggar. They paid less heed to the rules of

Shariat (Islamic law) and absorbed themselves in mysticism.12

Many such Muslim preachers, endowed with piety and religious passion, often men of

learning, who, through their own personal interest in the expansion of Islam, and inspired

with a divine call, had decided rather gracefully to roam from place to place and met

disciples. Through their missionary fervor, saintly powers, foresight, and above all,

learning and generosity, these Pirs, Fakirs and Gazis won the hearts of the local

commonalities. This in due course of time led to their deification, and played an important

role in the religious life of the people in the region.13

Worthy of mention of all the great sufi shaikhs and pirs of the syncretic traditions of Assam,

Ajan Pir, also known as Shah Milan or Shah Miran left in his legacy one of the most

conspicuous manifestations of the syncretic traditions of Assam, his compositions of Zikirs

and Zaris , songs in praise of the lord which are laden with instances of influence from

vaishnavite traditions of Kirtana and borgeet which was introduced to Assam by the Neo-

Vaishnavite saint Shrimanta Shankaradeva. 14

12 Ahmed, S. (2014, August 19). Islam in North East India -17th to the 19th Century (Unpublished Thesis).

Retrieved March 3, 2015, from Shodh Ganga:

http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in;8080/jspui/handle/10603/16737

13 Ibid 14 Sarma, S. N. (1994). Social Life. In H. Barpujari (Ed.), The Contemporary History of Assam (Third ed.,

Vol. III, pp. 170-210). Guwahati: Publication Board Assam.; Archana Barua, Crossing the Border : Inter-

Religious Dialogue in Mediaeval Assam in Sujata Dutta Hazarika (ed) (2008) Peace In Dialogue:

Universals On Northeast India (Reflections On Northeast India): Akanksha Publishing House.

Missionary and proselytising activities were further boosted up by the prevailing social

conditions of life among the Hindus. North East India by that time had not been

‘Hinduized’ (using this term on the analogy of M.N. Srinivasan’s ‘Sanskritization’) and

religious traditions which in later historiography was identified as ‘heterodoxy’ had

predominance in most of these parts. In fact, Hinduism came to north-east very late; though

it once existed in the ancient period but lost ground with the advent of the Tai Ahoms in

the 13th century CE15. Hence, the Muslim missionaries were received favorably by the low

castes Hindus - despised and condemned by the small number of upper castes - and the

swarming mass of indigenous habitants, who were yet to be fully taken into the fold of

‘Hinduism’.16

An Assamese Definition of Islam

"Underlying the creedal, doctrinal, and ritualistic unity in Islam, the Muslim world, at the

micro level, presents a much more complex reality of unquestioned pluralism and

diversity."17

Islam is a cultural system as well as it is a well-defined ideology. This cultural system finds

two manifestations. First, the universal ideas stemming from the ideology which are

venerated all over the Islamic universe e.g. the five cardinal pillars of faith which are

Shahadat, payment of Zakat, Siyam, salat and hajj are shared all over the world by

15 Sharma, M. (1994). Religion : Buddhism,Sikhism, Islam and Christianity. In H.K.Barpujari (Ed.), The

Comprehensive History of Assam (Third Edition ed., Vol. III, pp. 211-260). Guwahati: Publication

Board Assam.

16 Ahmed Syed op cit. 17 Ashim Roy, Islam in South Asia: A Regional Perspective, pp. vii.

muslims. Secondly there are those cultural values, which are essentially social in character

and are adapted into the system from the culture of the region, in which a particular Muslim

group is residing.

The Islam in Assam follows this very theory. Islam’s social history in Assam is rather

characterized by its regional formulation. Practicing syncretistic beliefs and practices,

Islam made mutual adjustments on the social horizon. Much of these local elements could

be seen in the social organization, rituals pertaining to birth and deaths, festivities, beliefs

and behavioral patterns, which could be described as ‘the religion of practice’18 (not to

mention the local influence in the realm of language, food, dress, habits, etc.). This

practical religion includes preternatural theories about understanding of the universe and

are guided by charms and sorcery19, and veneration of Muslim saints and Hindu or local

deities to mention a few. The Ahom state even used these believes as practical

psychological weapons in war strategies.20 Much of these practices can be seen even today

among the Muslims of north-east India. It was the prevalence of these syncretistic local

traditions of Muslims, which led Sahabuddin Talish, to state that the Muslims of the region

were only ‘muslims by names’.

According to Dr. S.N. Sarma who authored the chapter on Social Life in Mediaeval Assam

in the celebrated ‘The Comprehensive History of Assam’, “The Assamese Muslim in social

life is a synthesis of the Islamic and the Hindu social customs.”21 It is rather intriguing to

18 Sarma, S. N. (2007). Social Life. In H. Barpujari (Ed.), The Contemporary History of Assam (Third ed.,

pp. 170-210). Guwahati: Publication Board Assam 19 Gait, Sir E. A. op cit. pp 292 20 Ibid pp 292 21 Quoted in Sarma S.N. op cit pp.186

see that the historian has used the terms ‘Hindu’ and ‘Assamese’ in an interchangeable

value setting. This can be very problematic since the ‘Assamese’ culture as a term

addresses many tribes which do not identify themselves with ‘Hinduism’ (e.g. Mishing

tribe) or have comparatively recent affiliations to ‘Hindu’ culture (e.g. Ahoms). Therefore

it would be safer to call this synthesis as one between ‘the culture of Islam’ and the ‘culture

of Assam’. Nevertheless this synthesis brought the aforesaid characteristic elements to

Islam in Assam. In what follows we shall try to understand the consequences of this

syncretic engagement.

Social Stratifications and ‘Religious Reforms’

Islam’s syncretic engagement with local traditions gave birth to a numerous numbers of

customs and traditions what we now identify as ‘Islamic’ traditions of Assam. But here we

will concentrate on two such traditions which impacted the socio-political life of the

Assamese Muslim in the colonial and post-colonial era. Which are, the social hierarchy in

the local Islamic society and the Socio-religious reforms of 19th and 20th century. I would

treat these as isolated events and processes but also try to weave a central argument through

them.

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

Despite of this theoretical equality, regional formulation has constructed an in-built

hierarchy in the Islamic society in the subcontinent, which follows the Hindu caste system

closely. With the introduction of the converts, especially those belonging to the

intermediary and the lower rungs of the ecclesiastically sanctioned heavily stratified Hindu

society, social stratification made a slow but steady incursion in the Muslim society.

Scholarship on this issue suggest the presence of caste-like features among the Muslims in

different parts of India. 22 This caste system was further reinforced by the legalization

offered through the idea of birth and descent as criteria of status in Islamic law (Shariat)

by the four schools of jurisprudence i.e., Hanafi, Shafi, Maliki, Hambali. They formulated

an elaborate scheme of a social hierarchy according to birth and descent. It is also worth

considering that Islam had inherited, in a sublimated form, from the pre-Islam pagan

Arabia, the system of local grouping, with Arabs claiming themselves to be superior to

non-Arab’s.23 In a similar manner the Assamese Muslims, in the period under review, like

their Hindu counterparts, were divided into four main caste-like divisions:

a. sayyids,

b. shaikhs,

c. mughals, khans, quraishs,

d. Numerous autonomous and functional groups like marias, dhunias, julahas, mahimals,

nagarchi, gains, koyets, and bausiyas.

The hierarchical divisions heavily influenced by the Assamese Hindu society were not the

only imports from the same. They also adopted some aspects of the Hindu ideologies and

practices, though not as rigorous as in the case of Hindu Caste system. These caste-like

divisions are still functioning and heavily influence Islamic society in Assam. As elsewhere

22 Levy, R. (1957) The Social Structure of Islam. London: Taylor and Francis Group; Imtiaz Ahmad

(ed.).(1977) Caste and Stratification Among Muslims in India. New Delhi: Manohar. 23 Imtiaz Ahmed op cit, .pp. xxx-xxxi

in the Indian sub-continent, in Assam too, the upper castes traced their ancestry in foreign

lineages and racial groups that later spawned in the subcontinent whereas the lower rungs

were for people from functioning groups. Sayyids, shaikhs and quraishs were Muslims of

foreign lineage; whereas mughals and khans or pathans were racial groups found among

the Muslims elsewhere in the sub-continent. On the other hand, marias, dhunias, julahas,

mahimals, nagarchi, koyets, and bausiyas were the autonomous caste groups based on

hereditary professions. Many of these castes were local converts who had retained their

former professions and caste rules.24

As an interesting anecdote, I would like to mention that the Sayyids who belonged to the

upper classes claimed to be descendants of the Islamic Shaikhs, saints and preachers. This

can be seen as an extension of the authority of the sufi shaikh which was characteristic of

the Chishti and Suhrawardi silsilah’s in the era of Delhi Sultanate.25

RELIGIOUS REFORMS IN 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY

Muslims all over the world experienced a shift in their value systems in the 19th and 20th

century in which they sought to make Islam a more ‘this-worldly’ religion from an ‘other-

worldly’ religion. This meant giving less credibility to the faith of contemplating on God's

mysteries, and stressing more on God's capacity to intercede for men on earth. 26

This was interpreted in Assam as a movement to ‘free’ Islam in Assam from its syncretic

elements. The persistent efforts by religious reformers in the 19th and early 20th century

24 Ahmed S. op cit 25 Digby, S. op cit. 26 Robinson, F. (2000) Islam and Muslim History in South Asia. New Delhi: Oxford University

Publications.

to get rid of such ‘un-Islamic accretions’ and ‘excrescences’ from the illiterate Muslim

folks, and to instil in them the orthodox form of the faith, failed to achieve much success.

Islam chose to remain syncretic over a more orthodox form dictated by the Hadiths and the

Ulamas. A reason for why this shift didn’t happen could be that social customs and

behavioral patterns were so deeply entrenched in the society that they could not just be

ignored, another reason could be the illiteracy of the Muslim population in Assam which

failed to grasp the complex contemplations of the Ulama and fell back upon their beliefs.

CONCLUSION

We see from the above study that the social history of the Muslims in Mediaeval Assam

is an instance of local syncretic traditions becoming the discourse of Islam. Even though

Muslims in Assam lived by the universal ideas characteristic of Islam, they also adopted

traits and cultural values from their social environment. With the evolution of the Assamese

societies these traits matured into traditions embedded in the fabric of Muslim society of

Assam. Much of these local syncretic traditions could be seen in their social behaviours,

customs and beliefs. The puritan movements in the 19th and early 20th century to make

Islam in Assam ‘free’ of such syncretic traditions in order to give it a more ‘pure-form’

failed at any success. As the Muslims missed the comfort of the local traditions once they

moved out of them, they turned back to it. Now the home to the second largest Muslim

population in India, Assam stands as a land where Islam was spread from the healing hands

of wandering mystics.

To sum up, I finish with this excerpt from a Zikir composed by Ajan Fakir, which perfectly

captures the celebration of syncretism in the valley of Brahmaputra,

“IN MY MIND, OH ALLAH! I HAVE NO DIFFERENT THOUGHT. HINDUS

AND MUSLIMS ARE

BOUNDED BY THE SAME ACT OF DIVINE RULES OF ALLAH.

Word count: 3447 words (excluding footnotes and bibliography)

3577 words (Gross total)

Select Bibliography

Ahmed, S. (2014, August 19). Islam in North East India -17th to the 19th Century (Unpublished Thesis).

Retrieved March 3, 2015, from Shodh Ganga:

http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in;8080/jspui/handle/10603/16737

Barpujari, H. (Ed.). (1994). The Comprehensive History of Assam ((2007) 3rd ed., Vol. III). Guwahati:

Publication Board Assam.

Eaton, R. M. (1994). The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier. New Delhi: Oxford University

Publications.

Eaton, R. M. (Ed.). (2003). India's Islamic Traditions 711-1750. New Delhi: Oxford University

Publications.

Gait, E. A. (1906). A History of Assam ((1926) 2nd ed.). Guwahati: EBH Publihers.

From Magic to Mysticism and to Reform

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