Pirs and Pastoralists
Along the agrarian frontier of Multan, 1886-1947
Pastoral nomads in Multan, southwest Punjab (now in Pakistan), lived in a semi-arid jungle until the end of the nineteenth century. The British-Indian colonial administration changed the habitat of these semi-nomadic groups by developing an irrigation system which began to relocate the agrarian frontier from 1886: pasture and jungle were converted into agricultural fields. The sedentarization of pastoralists in the Multan region as a consequence of their altered habitat induced changes in religious practice and belief. Since Islam in Multan is dominated by pirs (Islamic saints) an important focus of my research is how sedentarization processes have influenced the roles and functions of these sacred lineages.
By KARIN DE VRIES
The connection between agrarian frontiers and religious frontiers is emphasized in Eaton's The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760 (1993). Eaton argues that the process of exploitation of the jungle of Bengal and the settling of the population on these new agricultural lands from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries went hand in hand with the Islamization of Bengal by Islamic saints. His contention is that Islam is a religion of the plough. In an article about southwest Punjab 'The Political and Religious Authority of the Shrine of Baba Farid' (1984), Eaton advances a similar hypothesis. The Islamization of the Jats, the most numerous population group in the Punjab, would have occurred in the same period as their sedentarization, namely from the beginning of the sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century. According to Eaton, the shrine of Baba Farid Ganj-i Shakar in Pakpattan played a major role in the Islamization of the local inhabitants of the jungle.
Multan, the area of my research, consisted mostly of semi-arid jungle until the end of the nineteenth century. Because of the scarcity of rainfall in Multan, the agrarian frontier, the intermediate zone between the agricultural and uncultivated areas, was dictated by the course of the rivers. Most agriculture was practised along the waterways and around cities. The natural environment determined the survival strategies of the inhabitants. In addition to sedentary groups the area was inhabited by Jat pastoralists who travelled annually with their herds between the sparsely populated barr (the higher areas of southwest Punjab) and the rivers. The population employed a variety of subsistence strategies; these varied from staying on a piece of land to carry out agriculture to a pastoral lifestyle which meant going where the herd went. Most Multani groups mixed these two lifestyles together. Evidence from colonial sources suggests that there were still both agricultural and pastoral populations until the end of the nineteenth century. Although Eaton situates the process of sedentarization between the sixteenth and the eighteenth century, in Multan this seems to be even more significant for the first half of the twentieth century when large-scale irrigation projects led to a transformation in the lifestyle of pastoralists.
The Raj, the colonial administration, developed an irrigation system by digging canals, an operation which shifted the agrarian frontier. From 1886 onwards, a number of irrigation projects were initiated. The first irrigation project, the Sidhnai Canal, was located to the north of the city of Multan. Land was mostly allotted to local landowners. Other fields were granted to immigrant groups that, according to the colonial regime, were good agriculturists with the object of relieving population pressure in more congested districts. These agriculturists from other districts were mainly Hindus and Sikhs. As a result of the development of the Sidhnai Canal the land available for pasturage diminished. In 1901, the Raj started the development of the Lower Bari Doab colonization scheme. This irrigation system was located in the barr to the south of the Ravi River, an area that was populated mainly by pastoral nomads. Although numerous immigrants came from more congested districts in the Punjab an effort was made to allocate a large proportion of the land to Muslim grantees. Although the land rights of pastoral nomads were recognized, their habitat was curtailed as a result of the increase in agricultural fields at the expense of pasture and jungle. In 1925 a third project was initiated, the Nili Bar canal system. This project was situated to the north of the Sutlej River and encompasses the barr tracts around Pakpattan, Mailsi, and Lodhran. Pastoral nomads received land grants and settled down permanently. The consequences of these irrigation schemes for pastoralists in the Multan region were significant. By 1947, the year of independence, Multan was almost fully sedentary. Most of the pastoral nomads of Multan were settled in canal colonies and 'the aboriginal jangli' was converted from a 'lawless nomad into an industrious agriculturist'.
In my PhD I set out to test Eaton's hypothesis, although not for the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, but for the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. In what way did the religious frontier change as a result of the significant shift in the agrarian frontier? I would like to argue that the irrigation systems that affected the agrarian frontier of Multan, and in effect also changed the lifestyle of the population, had consequences for the way Islam was practised in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Eaton rightly observes that Islamization was a slow process. In my view this process may have endured until the beginning of the twentieth century. The impact of the changing habitat of the local population on the nature of Islam and its effects on the functions and roles of Islamic saints remains to be researched. Available data suggests that, unlike other areas where Islamic saints lost their mediatory functions, in Multan Islamic saints managed to keep their significance through adapting to a changed environment. They remained influential icons of Islam and political mediators under new conditions of nearly complete sedentarization.
References
Eaton, R.M., 'The Political and Religious Authority of the Shrine of Baba Farid', in B.D. Metcalf (ed.), Moral Conduct and Authority, Berkeley (1984).
Eaton, R.M., The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760, Berkeley (1993).
The fourteenth-century shrine of Rukn al-Din Zakariyya. The custodians of this shrine are still an influential sacred lineage within Multan.
Karin de Vries is a PhD candidate of Islamic Languages and Cultures at Utrecht University (funded by NWO), affiliated to the Research Institute for History and Culture, Utrecht and Research School CNWS, Leiden
E-mail: karindevries@yahoo.com
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