This is the final article in a four-part reportage series from Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir. You can read the first, second, and third articles here, here, and here.
Chowgam (Kishtwar): Whenever Kishori Lal Shan feels down, he visits the shrine of Shah Asrar-ud-Din Baghdadi, which is located a stone’s throw away from his pharmacy in Kishtwar town of Jammu and Kashmir.
“I take a bath in the morning and visit the shrine. It gives me peace of mind,” said Shan, who is also a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader. “My wife and kids also pay obeisance there. When our cow gives birth, my mother would dispatch me with the first ghee for the earthen lamps at the shrine.”
Kishori Lal Shan, a BJP leader in Kishtwar, is a regular visitor at the shrine of the Sufi saint Shah Asrar. His wife and children also pay obeisance at the shrine. Photo: Jehangir Ali.
In the town of Kishtwar – which has a history of communal tensions that have turned deadly in the past – the shrine of Shah Asrar, a 17th-century Sufi saint with roots in Iran, is a unifying force that brings together Hindus and Muslims of this mountainous district in the heart of Chenab Valley.
Located adjacent to the sprawling Chowgan ground which is hemmed in by the majestic Himalayan mountains, the shrine’s sanctum sanctorum houses the grave of Asrar in a small, square room where the air remains heavy with the fragrance of rose oil and fumes of burnt incense sticks.
The sanctum sanctorum of the shrine houses the grave of Shah Asrar, a 17th century Sufi saint with roots in Iran and a direct descendent of Prophet Mohammad, Islam’s most revered prophet. Photo: Jehangir Ali.
Asrar’s father, Farid-ud-Din Baghdadi, is credited for spreading Islam in Chenab Valley. Baghdadi, whose mausoleum is located in the other part of the town, arrived in Kishtwar in 1664 when it was under a Hindu Rajput ruler, Raja Kirat Singh.
Under Farid-ud-Din’s influence, the Raja accepted Islam.
“Kirat Singh was given the name of Sa’adat Yar Khan by Aurangzeb in 1687 …. The chief temple of Kishtwar in the centre of the town was converted into a mosque,” Kashmiri author and first registrar of Delhi University, G.M.D. Sofi, writes in Kashmir: Being a History of Kashmir, an authoritative and in-depth history of Jammu and Kashmir.
According to Rashid Shah, a local, Singh’s family also offered their daughter in marriage to Baghdadi, “Two sons were born out of Baghdadi’s second wedlock, and Asrar Shah saheb was one of them,” he said.
Local residents delight in narrating Asrar’s ‘miracles’ which are believed to have attracted people of all faiths to the Sufi fold of Islam. At a young age, Asrar, who is the direct descendant of Abdul Qadir Gilani, a widely respected Hanbali scholar from Iran and the founder of Qadiriyya sect of Sufi Islam, commanded the respect of the people of Kishtwar with his humility and miracles.
One popular story has it that Shah Asrar brought to life the only dead son of his friend and a Hindu resident of Kishtwar merely by nudging him with his walking cane while chanting some Quranic verses.
“He granted eyesight to the blind, made walls move, and cured people afflicted by deadly diseases,” said Haji Mushtaq Ahmad Shah, who lives in the shrine’s neighbourhood.
Mushtaq Shah is the custodian of dozens of precious 17th-century manuscripts written in Persian, Arabic and Kurdish languages which detail the travels of Baghdadi, his poetry and a charter of lineage of Sufi saints who are direct descendants of Prophet Mohammad, Islam’s most revered prophet.
Mushtaq Ahmad Shah has built a double-storied structure adjacent to the main shrine which is home to many precious relics and manuscripts. Photo: Jehangir Ali
A double-storied structure built by Shah adjacent to the shrine also houses the personal belongings of Shah Asrar, including a strand of his hair, a bowl made of fishbone which has Quranic verses inscribed on it, a walking cane, a sword and a cap among others.
The relics of Kishtwar’s syncretic past are displayed every year during the annual festival of Shah Asrar in November when thousands of people, including Hindus and Sikhs, converge in the town to pay their respect to their beloved saint.
The annual festival of Baghdadi, Shah Asrar’s father, is celebrated in June.
“Saints don’t belong to one religion,” said Ramesh Thakur, a resident of Kishtwar’s Chatroo village, who said he has been attending the annual festival every year for decades, “I have a spiritual connection with the saint and I have been blessed by him in a way in which even my Muslim friends aren’t.”
According to residents of Kishtwar, Shah Asrar’s respect, concern, and love for people, regardless of their religion, gained him a massive following in the district.
Rakesh Kumar Gupta, a cloth trader, believes that his Hindu faith doesn’t forbid him from visiting the shrine of the Sufi saint Shah Asrar in Kishtwar town. Photo: Jehangir Ali.
“Hindus of Kishtwar don’t confine themselves to temples only. It is a town of Sufi saints. I am a pujari at a temple but I also pay obeisance at Asrar saheb’s shrine,” said Rakesh Kumar Gupta, a trader whose shop was allegedly looted and set on fire in the 2013 communal riots in Kishtwar.
Shan, the local BJP leader who is also the chairman of Kishtwar’s Block Development Council, said that the shrine is a symbol of communal harmony in the town where Hindus live in majority. Kishtwar has witnessed some of the deadliest riots in Jammu and Kashmir, many of them timed to set the tone for polarisation ahead of elections.
“It is because of the saint’s blessing that Muslims and Hindus of Kishtwar continue to live in harmony. There have been many ugly communal incidents but the two communities have sorted them out amicably,” said Shan.
Gupta, 55, a BJP supporter, believes that his Hindu faith doesn’t forbid him from visiting Shah Asrar’s shrine, “I don’t stop my Muslim workers when they want to offer prayers. All religions teach us tolerance and respect for others. Politics has divided us but Asrar saheb continues to unite us.”