Gender, sect and shrine: discursive contestations at Bibi Pak Daman, Lahore

ABSTRACT

The syncretic traditions and practices at a shrine can defy the prevalence of rationalistic bureaucratisation and authorised tradition along a number of vectors. One can find such activities at one of the most thriving shrines of Lahore, Pakistan, that of Bibi Pak Daman. Not only is this site unusual because of the veneration of women spiritual figures, additionally the contesting claims and practices found at this site map onto sectarian (Sunni-Shia) boundaries and challenge the very origin, found in modern historiographical narratives, of the shrine. Cleavages around gender and sect increase with the administrative taking over of the shrine by the postcolonial state of Pakistan, which is ideologically determined to wipe out pluralistic practices in the name of modernisation. Interestingly, this study shows that, contrary to disenchantment arising from bureaucratic modernisation, rationalising claims perversely add a few more localised practices giving depth to the shrines sacred geography and make no difference to devotee numbers.

KEYWORDS:

• Sufi shrine
• Sunni
• Shia
• syncretic traditions
• Chishti order

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The killing of 89 Shias in February 2013 and the subsequent protests demonstrate this heightened tension.

2. It is clear that the women under consideration are the ‘spiritual elite’. Pemberton (2013) is subtle enough to understand that differentiation by class (though not caste) is crucial to her insertion of women into the dominant patriarchal framework at play.

3. Although much less researched this parallels the veneration of the Panj Pir (Five Pir) throughout the same area. (Snehi 2009).

4. As Haroon Khalid (2015) has articulated so well in his popular travels in Pakistan, the question of fertility is closely related to shrine practices.

5. It is the reason that female politicians of Pakistan preferred to take patronage from the shrine of Bibi Pak Daman. In 1994 the then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto visited the shrine and announced a grant to improve the facilities of the shrine. Following in a path well-trodden by her father, this was an intercession into the Punjab (a political hinterland for the Peoples Party) through its popular spiritual centres. Benazir was also interested in affirming its role as a woman’s shrine and therefore legitimating her own authority as the head of the Islamic republic. Similarly, in September 2017, Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of the deposed prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, ensured visiting the shrine during her first electoral campaign.

6. These notions of womanhood have been well explored by Barbara Metcalfe (Metcalf 1984) in her analysis of the book: ‘Jewellery of Paradise’.

7. Zaidi, Tehzeeb. Binte-Ali Lahore Mei. Lahore: Yaum-e-Hussain Organizing Committee Central Pakistan, 2008.

8. One narrative holds that it contains the graves of six ladies from Muhammad’s household (Ahl Al-Bayt). Ruqayah bint Ali ibn Abu Talib was the daughter of the first Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abu Talib with his wife Umm al banin bint Huzaam. Ruqayah bint Ali was the full sister of Hadrat Abbas ibn Ali and also the wife of Muslim ibn Aqeel (emissary of third Shi’a Imam Husayn ibn Ali to Kufah). Others are said to be Muslim ibn Aqil’s sister and daughters. It is said that these ladies came here after the event of the battle of Karbala on the 10th day of the month of Muharram in 61 AH (October 10, AD 680).

9. Kanhaiya Lal is the author of Tarikh-i-Punjab (A History of the Punjab), a Persian account, first published in 1877 under the period of British colonial rule.

10. The research in this paper was carried out by a team of students Lahore University of Management Sciences, for the research done on a presentation in their class on ‘The Three Punjabs’, 2009, Marium Durrani, Tajwar Awan, Noveen Abid, Anum Basir, Talha Mehmood.

11. Haroon, Khalid. (29 November 2011). The Shrine of the Unknown Ladies. Lahore Nama. http://lahorenama.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/the-shrine-of-t/ accessed 27/10/17, 14:22.

12. Ibid.

13. Just as the 1955 Munir ruling arguably cleared the ground for the ultimate banning of Ahmediyas (see Ali Usman Qasmi 2015).

14. These have been translated from Urdu by Surjit Singh Kalra. Our italics and translations to English of Urdu words.

15. Though ironically, the Auqaf has instigated the barring of women from the inner sanctum of many shrines.

16. Punjab Auqaf department took over the shrine of Bibi Pak Daman in 1967. Since then the department takes care of the administration and management of the shrine, largely, from the income earned from the shrine. The shrine income comes under multiple heads of Rents, Cash Boxes, Shoe Contracts, etc. However, one can see, in Table 1 that the maximum income incurs in the Cash Box head, suggesting the increase of visitation. One can also see the steady growth of the overall income in the years between 1976 and 2016 coinciding with the period of religious radicalisation.

Table 1. Income of Bibi Pak Daman.

17. Field-Notes collected by the writers during their visit to the shrine in November, 2009.