Calling time on caretakers of J&K’s Sufi shrines

The Waqf Board, in a bid to promote transparency and set its finances in order, has banned donations to caretakers of shrines and ousted them. The move threatens to consign ancient rituals to obscurity and push into penury families that have looked after the upkeep of the spiritual centres for centuries

As the sun sets on a Friday in Srinagar’s old city, 82-year-old Yaseen Zahra is awaiting the azan (call to prayer) at the entrance to the 600-year-old shrine of Shah Hamdan, which is dedicated to Persian saint Mir Sayyid Ali Hamdani, who propagated Islam in Kashmir in the 14th century.

Mr. Zahra is among the hundreds of ‘mujavirs’ (traditional caretakers of shrines) who were ousted after the Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board, in an unprecedented move, issued a directive on August 18 banning “forcible donations across the shrines of J&K UT (Union Territory) with immediate effect”. The move brought to an end the centuries-old practice of ‘Nazr-o-Niyaz’— offerings from devotees to ‘mujavirs’, which is similar to the ‘chadhava’ given to priests who perform rituals in Hindu temples. The authority said the ban was imposed after several complaints from devotees about purported corruption.

Within 48 hours, scores of donation boxes were seized and over 100 ‘mujavirs’ and their belongings removed from prominent shrines in the Valley — including 36 caretakers from the Ashmuqam shrine in Anantnag, 20 from the Charar-e-Shareef shrine in Budgam and eight from the Khawaja Naqshband Sahib shrine in Srinagar. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and J&K Waqf Board chairperson Dr. Darakhshan Andrabi, 48, described the ban as “a cleanliness drive”. “The era of transparency has begun in the Waqf Board,” she said.

All 133 mosques and shrines in the Union Territory come under the direct control of the J&K Waqf Board in accordance with the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019, which was introduced following the withdrawal of Article 370, granting special status to J&K, on August 5, 2019. The board receives no government funding and runs solely on donations.

The caretakers say the ban violates the Central Waqf Act, which allows them to accept donations and mandates that they hand over 7% of the collection at shrines to the board. Compared with the centralised revenue collection system of the now-abolished J&K Muslim Waqf Board, the new board had granted them powers to receive endowments in the form of cash and jewellery, recruit workers and manage their own affairs.

Though the dislodging of ‘mujavirs’ and removal of donation boxes might lead to a rise in the Waqf Board’s monthly collection by 15%-20%, it threatens to consign ancient rituals performed by them to obscurity and push into penury families that have looked after the upkeep of the shrines for centuries.

“It seems our ‘pir’ (saint Hamdani) is upset with our misdeeds. We have never heard of such government orders in the past. We pray every day for sanity to prevail and restoration of the old order, which has been in place for centuries,” says Mr. Zahra, who is no longer allowed to collect ‘niyaz’ dropped by devotees into ‘saisen’ (donation) boxes placed at fixed points on the premises of shrines. In return, ‘mujavirs’ offered ‘Tabarruk’ (small, crunchy sugar balls and dates), just like ‘prasad’ in temples.