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Silenced Histories, Razed Shrines: the Difficult Task of Rediscovering India and Pakistan's Shared Heritage

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Silenced Histories, Razed Shrines: the Difficult Task of Rediscovering India and Pakistan's Shared Heritage SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 255 Silenced Histories, Razed Shrines: The Difficult Task of Rediscovering India and Pakistan's Shared Heritage HEMANT RAJOPADHYE ABSTRACT The national identity of Pakistan is rooted in the 'two-nation theory'the very basis of the creation of the countrywhich says that the Hindus and Muslims of the subcontinent were two different nations and therefore, the Muslims were entitled to a separate homeland where Islam would be practiced as state religion. Does Pakistan's quest for identity, however, mean neglecting the non-Islamic culture present in the country? This brief calls attention, for example, to the Hindu temples and shrines in various parts of the country that now stand in a state of disrepair. It argues that Pakistan must work with India to rediscover and celebrate their shared cultural heritage and syncretic pastthis will, in turn, help end mutual hostility and distrust. INTRODUCTION In November 2017, Chief Justice of Pakistan e Katas Raj complex has several ancient Mian Saqib Nisar expressed serious concern over temples dedicated to Shiva, Ram and Hanuman. the state of the ancient Katas Raj temple complex e Shiva temple is considered one of the most one of the most revered Hindu places of worship sacred and nds mention in the Mahbhrata. in Pakistan's Punjab province.1 He took suo motu e Pandavas are believed to have spent a notice of the news reports about the drying up of considerable part of their exile there. e pond at the sacred pond in the middle of the complex and the centre of it is thought to have been created by asked for a comprehensive report from various the teardrops of an inconsolable Shiva as he ew state agencies.2 Indeed, the revival of old and across the sky carrying the dead body of his wife dilapidated Hindu temples has been a Sati. contentious issue in Pakistan in the past couple of Katas Raj, however, is sacred not only for decades. Hindus. e Archaeology Department of Pakistan Observer Research Foundation (ORF) is a public policy think-tank that aims to influence formulation of policies for building a strong and prosperous India. ORF pursues these goals by providing informed and productive inputs, in-depth research, and stimulating discussions. The Foundation is supported in its mission by a cross-section of India’s leading public figures, academics, and business leaders. To know more about ORF scan this code ISBN: 978-93-88262-29-3 © 2018 Observer Research Foundation. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from ORF. Silenced Histories, Razed Shrines: The Difficult Task of Rediscovering India and Pakistan's Shared Heritage has found and registered many Buddhist and Sikh in the same way as the celebrations of other shrines of religious and historical signicance in Hindu and Sikh festivals in Pakistan. For example, and around the temple complex. In spite of such a during the term of Pervez Musharraf, the public rich legacy, however, Katas Raj had remained in celebrations of Basant Panchami (or the festival obscurity after Partition of 1947, until then that marks the arrival of spring) and Holi (the Deputy Prime Minister of India L K Advani visited festival of colours) were banned in Pakistan in the temple complex during his trip to Pakistan in 2005, when bilateral relations hit a low. e ban 2005. e visit received wide publicity in Pakistan was lifted as relations improved, and in 2017 and led to two signicant developments: the Nawaz Sharif personally participated in the government of Pakistan started the restoration of celebrations. the Shiva temple, and also invited Hindu pilgrims from India to celebrate the shivratri there. In THE STATE OF NON-ISLAMIC RELIGIO- 2007, Pakistan even sent a team of archaeologists CULTURAL SHRINES to India to brief Advani about the state of restoration work, which was supposed to be Apart from the Katas Raj complex, there are many completed in three years. other important Hindu shrines in Pakistan, such ese friendly overtures did not last long and as the Sun temple and Prahladpuri temple in in 2011, entry to the shrine was prohibited Multan, Shri Varun Dev Mandir in Karachi, following the assassinationscarried out by Hinglaj Mata temple in Balochistan, and the religious fundamentalistsof Salman Taseer, Kalka Devi cave and Sadhu Bela temple in Sindh. Governor of Punjab and Shahbaz Bhatti, a ere are many Jain and Buddhist shrines as well. Catholic leader and minister of minority aairs. All these shrines, however, have been largely e two were strong advocates of the anti- neglecteddeliberately or otherwiseby a blasphemy laws and minority rights in Pakistan. succession of civil and military regimes. ese assassinations were seen as a serious It is dicult to get accurate details about non- setback to the status and rights of the minority Islamic heritage structures in Pakistan because communities in the country. As Haroon Khalid, a there are only few available academic texts on the journalist and author writes,3 the Hindu pilgrims subject.6 A few articles in the mainstream media, who assembled at Katas Raj to celebrate the web sites,7 social media pages,8 and scattered shivratri that year were thrown out by local pieces of academic references on broader themes9 fundamentalist groups. e restoration work of are all that exist to provide some idea about these the temple complex was abruptly stopped. structures, their state of disrepair, and the overall ings took a turn once again in January 2017 erosion of cultural diversity in Pakistan. when the repair work for the temple was re- e violence that accompanied the partition launched by then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of the subcontinent in 1947 had made the Hindu with great fanfare as a symbolic gesture to reach and Sikh places of worship in Pakistan, targets of out to the Muslim nation's minority communities extremist attacks; it was the same case with and also soften the country's hardliner image mosques in India. However, antipathy towards abroad.4 e Katas Raj temple's long-winded the religious structures of the Buddhist, Jain and restoration, in fact, may be viewed as a metaphor Christians became more pronounced after the for the overall state of India-Pakistan relations 5 demolition of the Babri masjid in India by right- 2 ORF ISSUE BRIEF No. 255 • SEPTEMBER 2018 Silenced Histories, Razed Shrines: The Difficult Task of Rediscovering India and Pakistan's Shared Heritage wing Hindu fundamentalists in December 1992. university town of Takshashila (now Taxila), near at event, perhaps for the rst time after Islamabad. Some of Pakistan's intelligentsia Partition, triggered extreme and massive anti- believe that the Jains ruled the region for several India and anti-Hindu sentiments in Pakistan. centuries, before the rise of Hinduism.17 Veteran Enraged Muslim fundamentalists demolished a Indologist Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar mentions two large number of Hindu and other non-Hindu major Jain manuscript libraries in Gujranwala, shrines and relics. One example is that of a Punjab,18 which record the rich tradition of Jain historical Jain Mandir near the famous Anarkali scholarship in the region. Bazar of Lahore's old city. It was damaged by a mob after the Babri masjid demolition and then THE DECIMATION OF EVERYTHING later used for commercial purposes.10 According to 'INDIAN' AND 'HINDU' some Pakistani media reports, a part of the old mandir was also used as a madrasa.11 e genesis of the anti-non-Islamic sentiment, e temple was razed to the ground along with and the targeting of shrines belonging to non- other historical heritage structures such as the Islamic religions considered as 'Indian'such as Meharunisa tomb and the St. Andrew's church by Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainismis rooted in the the Punjab government in February 2016 to pave same principles that founded Pakistan as a nation a way for the controversial project of Lahore state in 1947. Pakistan was created on the basis of Metro line.12 ese demolitions were carried out the 'two-nation theory' which states that the despite a Lahore High Court's order to suspend all Hindus and Muslims were two dierent nations, work on the line within 200 feet of buildings of and therefore, the Muslims were entitled to have a historical value.13 A few years earlier, the Punjab separate homeland in the pockets of their government had promised to restore the same majority where Islam would be the 'state religion'. temple. Across Punjab, many other Jain shrines Although, the founder of Pakistan, have been neglected, as is the case with many Muhammad Ali Jinnah had conceived of creating Buddhist sites in the North West Frontier a non-theocratic state,19 his political successors Province (now known as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). declared Pakistan as 'Islamic' in the rst According to the Pakistani media,14 Lahore's Constitution adopted in 1956, paving the way for Jain temple was destroyed as the Muslim all laws to be brought in conformity with the fundamentalists did not dierentiate between Qur'an and Sunnah.20 In the second Constitution, Hinduism and Jainism. Many such incidents and adopted by the military dictator Mohammd Ayub records of complex religious identities, temples Khan in 1962, the word 'Islamic' was removed but and other Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhist was soon re-inserted following a civil backlash. structures have been documented and discussed e nation-state saw forcible conversion of the by some anthropologists and journalists in Hindus in Sindh, atrocities committed on the Pakistan.15 Christians and Ahmadiyyas, and various attempts Various scholars trace the history of Jainism to portray India and the Hindus as enemies of in the Indus Valley back to the era of Alexander the Pakistan.
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