The terms Sheikh-ul-Islam, Mufiti Azam, Qazi-ul-Quza etc. do occur in the books of Islamic history. The institution of Mirwaiz however, is unique to Kashmir. It may be an Islamised version of the office of Dalai-Lama and part of our Buddhist legacy like Pagoda Architecture of Jamia Masjid. Whatever be the origin of this institution, the present Mirwaiz family was elevated to this position during the Afghan Rule.
Afghan’s took control of Kashmir during the days of Ahmad Shah Abdali’s invasion of India. He was motivated for this invasion by Hazrat Shah Wali-ullah of Delhi. Afghans finding Kashmir’s bereft of proper religious understanding asked a fiery young speaker from Tral, to deliver sermons before Friday prayers in Jamia Masjid. The speaker himself was probably influenced by the movement of Shah Wali-ullah. Once appointed, he soon gained popularity and became spokesman of purist Islam in the Valley. This was not digested by those who wanted to maintain the status quo and had developed a vested interest in the prevailing perversions. A rival priest family from Pampore exploited this situation, assuming the same title, started to defend the status quo. For this purpose, they started delivering sermons in Khankhah-i-Moula. Like Barelvis and Deobandis in India, the traditional conflict between sharia and tareeqa schools of thought was represented in Kashmir by two Mirwaiz families. By the time of Dogra rule this rivalry had developed into a problem of law and order. To overcome this problem the mosques of Srinagar city were divided between the two families through a royal decree.
Notwithstanding this opposition, popularity of the Mirwaiz family from Jamia Masjid grew immensely. The Mirwaiz family soon assumed the importance of a central leadership of Muslim affairs in the valley. The family also played an important role in the elevation of Muslim masses. It was Mirwaiz Moulana Gh. Rasool of this family who established Islamia High School, the first institution of modern education for Muslims of Kashmir. This was a revolutionary step as Muslim clergy elsewhere in the sub-continent had opposed the modern education. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan had to take cudgels with religious leaders in pursuit of popularizing his educational movement. Emergence of Mirwaiz family however led to popularization of South Asian traits among Kashmiri Muslims who were hitherto attached to their central Asian identity. Length of pheron was slashed and use of shalwar popularized. Discarding exclusive use of pheron on the basis of some religious inhibitions sounds strange in view of the fact that Arabs even now use similar juba and consider it a symbol of Islamicity
During the tenure of Mirwaizship of Moulana Yousuf Shah the family got marginalised. He was the one who patronized young-men associated with Sheikh Abdullah in their tirade against Dogra family rule. Their efforts led to mass upsurge of early thirties. After the upsurge Dogra rulers in pursuance of their carrot and stick policy decided to transfer Sheikh Abdullah to some remote village school and offered a wazifa of six hundred rupees to Mirwaiz Yousuf Shah. Sheikh straight away came to Khankah and announced his resignation from the service. Mirwaiz out of his simplicity accepted the wazifa and fell in the estimation of his people. Sheikh exploited this mistake to his advantage. In spite of this being the first and the last mistake of Mirwaiz Yousuf Shah he couldn’t re-establish hold of his family over the masses again. Another contribution of Moulana Yousuf Shah was his Kashmiri translation of the Holy Qura’n. Although not the first Kashmiri translation as claimed by the late Mirwaiz, it is an important service that he rendered to Islam in Kashmir. By dissenting conversion of Muslim Conference to National Conference and accession of Kashmir to India, Mirwaiz Yousuf Shah played a historical role and laid the foundation of the Muslim freedom struggle secessionism in Kashmir. For this role he and the Mirwaiz family suffered a lot. Besides delivering Friday Sermons for years after 1947 the family couldn’t play any significant role in Kashmir politics.
In 1963, the Mirwaiz family regained political significance. Mirwaiz Moulana Farooq became leader of Awami Action Committee during the Moi-Muqdas agitation. He was the one who dominated Kashmir scene during this agitation and became a rallying point for masses in absence of a viable leadership. The politics of Kashmir which had become unipolar after the migration of Mirwaiz Yousuf Shah in 1947 again became bipolar. Kashmir no more remained Sheikh Abdullah and Sheikh Abdullah no more remained Kashmir as once mentioned by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. It was probably the concern for growing popularity of Pro-Pakistan Mirwaiz Family that motivated Nehru to order release of Sheikh Abdullah in 1964. With his release, pre-partition Sher-Bakra divide revived, hold of the Mirwaiz family again got confined to down town localities.
When Sheikh Abdullah compromised with the central government and became Chief Minister in 1975, Mirwaiz Moulana Farooq again got a chance of swaying the valley. Had Mirwaiz pursued the path of leading freedom movement as he did immediately after Indra-Abdullah accord Mirwaiz family would have again regained its popularity. Mirwaiz instead of following this path soon became victim of some conspiracies and engaged in unproductive somersaults. It was this policy that led him to identify with the Janta Party and get engaged in slogans of “Double Farooq”. Eruption of militancy and mass upsurge of early nineties caught all actors of traditional politics by surprise. Situation demanded immediate decisions. Those who could take such decisions utilized the situation to their advantage. The ones who were accustomed to be guided by remote controls, remained indecisive and became victims of the situation. Moulana Farooq was one of them. In fact those controlling triggers of the remote control where themselves taken by surprise and where yet in process of formulating their own response.
Mirwaiz Omar Farooq assumed the position of Mirwaiz soon after the death of his father. Keeping in view his infancy in politics, the society granted him tacitly a grace period of immunity from introspection. Now when this period seems to be getting exhausted, Kashmiri Muslims are likely to become more demanding and expect a proactive role from him. Active role in politics demands strong initiatives and proper home work. Crowd receptions and preoccupation with overseas trips are not an answer to this demand. Neither Kashmiri society can afford this extravagance nor are these ventures going to add anything to the stature of Omar Farooq. Proper response on the other hand can make the Mirwaiz family a decisive factor of twenty first century Kashmir politics.
Afghan’s took control of Kashmir during the days of Ahmad Shah Abdali’s invasion of India. He was motivated for this invasion by Hazrat Shah Wali-ullah of Delhi. Afghans finding Kashmir’s bereft of proper religious understanding asked a fiery young speaker from Tral, to deliver sermons before Friday prayers in Jamia Masjid. The speaker himself was probably influenced by the movement of Shah Wali-ullah. Once appointed, he soon gained popularity and became spokesman of purist Islam in the Valley. This was not digested by those who wanted to maintain the status quo and had developed a vested interest in the prevailing perversions. A rival priest family from Pampore exploited this situation, assuming the same title, started to defend the status quo. For this purpose, they started delivering sermons in Khankhah-i-Moula. Like Barelvis and Deobandis in India, the traditional conflict between sharia and tareeqa schools of thought was represented in Kashmir by two Mirwaiz families. By the time of Dogra rule this rivalry had developed into a problem of law and order. To overcome this problem the mosques of Srinagar city were divided between the two families through a royal decree.
Notwithstanding this opposition, popularity of the Mirwaiz family from Jamia Masjid grew immensely. The Mirwaiz family soon assumed the importance of a central leadership of Muslim affairs in the valley. The family also played an important role in the elevation of Muslim masses. It was Mirwaiz Moulana Gh. Rasool of this family who established Islamia High School, the first institution of modern education for Muslims of Kashmir. This was a revolutionary step as Muslim clergy elsewhere in the sub-continent had opposed the modern education. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan had to take cudgels with religious leaders in pursuit of popularizing his educational movement. Emergence of Mirwaiz family however led to popularization of South Asian traits among Kashmiri Muslims who were hitherto attached to their central Asian identity. Length of pheron was slashed and use of shalwar popularized. Discarding exclusive use of pheron on the basis of some religious inhibitions sounds strange in view of the fact that Arabs even now use similar juba and consider it a symbol of Islamicity
During the tenure of Mirwaizship of Moulana Yousuf Shah the family got marginalised. He was the one who patronized young-men associated with Sheikh Abdullah in their tirade against Dogra family rule. Their efforts led to mass upsurge of early thirties. After the upsurge Dogra rulers in pursuance of their carrot and stick policy decided to transfer Sheikh Abdullah to some remote village school and offered a wazifa of six hundred rupees to Mirwaiz Yousuf Shah. Sheikh straight away came to Khankah and announced his resignation from the service. Mirwaiz out of his simplicity accepted the wazifa and fell in the estimation of his people. Sheikh exploited this mistake to his advantage. In spite of this being the first and the last mistake of Mirwaiz Yousuf Shah he couldn’t re-establish hold of his family over the masses again. Another contribution of Moulana Yousuf Shah was his Kashmiri translation of the Holy Qura’n. Although not the first Kashmiri translation as claimed by the late Mirwaiz, it is an important service that he rendered to Islam in Kashmir. By dissenting conversion of Muslim Conference to National Conference and accession of Kashmir to India, Mirwaiz Yousuf Shah played a historical role and laid the foundation of the Muslim freedom struggle secessionism in Kashmir. For this role he and the Mirwaiz family suffered a lot. Besides delivering Friday Sermons for years after 1947 the family couldn’t play any significant role in Kashmir politics.
In 1963, the Mirwaiz family regained political significance. Mirwaiz Moulana Farooq became leader of Awami Action Committee during the Moi-Muqdas agitation. He was the one who dominated Kashmir scene during this agitation and became a rallying point for masses in absence of a viable leadership. The politics of Kashmir which had become unipolar after the migration of Mirwaiz Yousuf Shah in 1947 again became bipolar. Kashmir no more remained Sheikh Abdullah and Sheikh Abdullah no more remained Kashmir as once mentioned by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. It was probably the concern for growing popularity of Pro-Pakistan Mirwaiz Family that motivated Nehru to order release of Sheikh Abdullah in 1964. With his release, pre-partition Sher-Bakra divide revived, hold of the Mirwaiz family again got confined to down town localities.
When Sheikh Abdullah compromised with the central government and became Chief Minister in 1975, Mirwaiz Moulana Farooq again got a chance of swaying the valley. Had Mirwaiz pursued the path of leading freedom movement as he did immediately after Indra-Abdullah accord Mirwaiz family would have again regained its popularity. Mirwaiz instead of following this path soon became victim of some conspiracies and engaged in unproductive somersaults. It was this policy that led him to identify with the Janta Party and get engaged in slogans of “Double Farooq”. Eruption of militancy and mass upsurge of early nineties caught all actors of traditional politics by surprise. Situation demanded immediate decisions. Those who could take such decisions utilized the situation to their advantage. The ones who were accustomed to be guided by remote controls, remained indecisive and became victims of the situation. Moulana Farooq was one of them. In fact those controlling triggers of the remote control where themselves taken by surprise and where yet in process of formulating their own response.
Mirwaiz Omar Farooq assumed the position of Mirwaiz soon after the death of his father. Keeping in view his infancy in politics, the society granted him tacitly a grace period of immunity from introspection. Now when this period seems to be getting exhausted, Kashmiri Muslims are likely to become more demanding and expect a proactive role from him. Active role in politics demands strong initiatives and proper home work. Crowd receptions and preoccupation with overseas trips are not an answer to this demand. Neither Kashmiri society can afford this extravagance nor are these ventures going to add anything to the stature of Omar Farooq. Proper response on the other hand can make the Mirwaiz family a decisive factor of twenty first century Kashmir politics.
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