Mewat - A Region of Mixed Identities and Communal Tensions

By Arjun Kumar August 3, 2024 The Extreme Orthodoxy That One Witnesses in This Region Encompassing Parts of the Modern-Day States of Haryana, Rajasthan, And Uttar Pradesh in Northwestern India Is Often Attributed to The Tablighi Jamaat, Which Was Born In Mewat In 1927 ------ The Lal Masjid at Tijara, in Rajasthan's Alwar district ------ To most people, Gurugram is a metropolis. Sometimes referred to as ‘Millennium City’ on account of the extraordinary growth it witnessed from the late 1990s onwards, the city may seem a shining star in the corporate firmament of India, but to an explorer it appears more like an island of modernity touching the urban chaos of the national capital. And a short drive east, west or south of the city reveals rustic waves in the ocean that surrounds it. And sometimes those waves threaten to engulf it. Between July and September last year, those waves did come a wee bit close. In the form of a riot that began in Nuh and triggered restrictions that impacted the Millennium City too! Section 144 was imposed at the end of July and mobile internet was suspended to prevent the spread of rumours and fake news. The news that was factually correct was that a religious procession did trigger violence in Nuh in the form of stone pelting, six people died including two home guards and the cleric of a Gurugram mosque, a car was torched in Sohna and the region remained tense for a while. Most folks saw this incident in isolation but if they were to study the deeper history of the region, there is a pattern to this, perhaps emanating from the confused identities of its inhabitants. And when the ‘region’ is mentioned, it is not limited to the confines of the Nuh district of Haryana but touches parts of Faridabad, Gurugram and enters Alwar in neighbouring Rajasthan as well. A region that is called Mewat, and whose people were termed ‘Meos’ – a name that seems to have fallen out of usage over the last decade and a half. According to scholar Suraj Bhan Bhardwaj, the Meos originally lived in the hills and forests of the Aravalli ranges. From these secluded strongholds, they foraged northward into towns and cities – in fact, into the edges of Delhi itself - indulging in cattle-lifting, violent raids and robberies, causing fear in the population. In the latter part of the 13th century CE, the Mamluk Sultan Ghiyas-ud-din Balban (reign 1266-87) decided to crush these raids once and for all. His troops moved into the area, the forests began to be cut down, garrisons established and new roads built and existing routes made more secure for travellers. The trigger for Balban’s action has been described by the Muslim thinker Barani, in these words (translation): “The turbulence of the Mewatis had increased, and their strength had grown in the neighbourhood of Dehli… At night they used to come prowling into the city, giving all kinds of trouble, depriving the people of their rest; and they plundered the country houses in the neighbourhood of the city. In the neighbourhood of Dehli there were large and dense jungles, through which many roads passed. The disaffected in the Doáb, and the outlaws towards Hindustan grew bold and took to robbery on the highway, and they so beset the roads that caravans and merchants were unable to pass. The daring of the Mewatis in the neighbourhood of Dehli was carried to such an extent that the western gates of the city were shut at afternoon prayer, and no one dared to go out of the city in that direction after that hour, whether he travelled as a pilgrim or with the display of a sovereign. At afternoon prayer the Mewatis would often come to the Sar-hauz, and assaulting the water-carriers and the girls who were fetching water, they would strip them and carry off their clothes.” Another version of this trigger, given by Sandeep Balakrishna of the Dharma Dispatch, is that the Meos were originally Yaduvanshi Rajputs who made this forested region their bastion for a stand against the Delhi Sultanate. While forcefully entering the region, Balban did a few more things – post a mass slaughter of Meos, he began giving tracts of land in Mewat to his soldiers for them to settle there. And importantly, he converted most of the remaining Meos to Islam. Let’s see how that turned out. Cut to 2016! A newspaper report titled ‘Gangs of Mewat’, referring to Nuh district, mentioned that two Mewati Imams had been arrested for alleged terror links. The report quoted a police officer as saying that while the gangs operating here used to steal cattle or motorbikes earlier, they had since become more organised and had begun robbing trucks on highways and even kidnapping drivers for ransom. The cop also mentioned that if these gangs were ever intercepted, they were prone to extreme violence. Shades of the 13th century? While Balban’s forced conversion may have failed in his intended objective of ending the lawlessness of the region, it left its visible imprint here. As one drives south of Gurugram, the glass and chrome towers are quickly replaced by fields, and instead of corporate executives we come across peasants engaged in agricultural pursuits. The remarkable aspect of these agriculturists is that they are almost uniformly Islamic in their faith. But a more nuanced probing shows that there is little that is uniform in their customs and practices. Among the first villages that appear is the quaintly named Sanp ki Nangli. Hidden away in its folds are several tombs, appearing like stragglers from history and separated from each other by fields. Their external plaster has long since fallen, taking with it the embellishment they may have had, but the structures still reveal signs of past grandeur. An elegant dome atop one, designs on pillars in another, faint traces of painting in a third. And a fourth tomb that has become part of a peasant’s house. When this author entered the tomb, a bored looking buffalo looked up. The tombstone this animal was standing on was of one of the Khanzadas, rulers of this region between the 15th and 16th centuries CE. The monuments built by them dot Tauru, Bhondsi and Sohna also. Further down the road is Nuh, headquarters of the Haryana district of Mewat. Pronounced ‘Nuhu’ by locals, its parameters point it to being the least developed district of the state. The gender ratio is massively skewed, in favour of the male population. As per the 2016 report, the place recorded 44,000 kids born every year but had no gynaecologist; it contributed to at least a fourth of the incarcerated prisoners in the jails of Bhondsi and Faridabad, as well as Alwar. Literacy was the least in the state and only a fraction of those enrolled in primary school reached class 10. Female enrolment in colleges was miniscule. There was limited water available for agriculture. During the pandemic, people seemed more apprehensive about getting themselves vaccinated than about Covid itself. In this scenario, crime thrived. As it had in the 13th century too! And yet amidst all this, lay the tiny tomb complex of Sheikh Musa, at the outskirts of Nuh town. Dating to the 14th century CE, the most interesting feature of the tomb complex is its gateway. The twin minarets that flank the gateway on either side have the reputation of ‘shaking’. When this author first made the trip to Nuh and climbed up to the top of a minaret, two men sitting on the opposite one showed him how the mechanism worked. Apparently, if you held one of the supporting pillars at the top of a minaret and tried to shake it, movement could be discerned in the opposite minaret. A demonstration of the process left this author stunned. For a few seconds, the minaret shook as if a tremor had taken hold. Truly an engineering wonder – one that could outclass any of Gurgaon’s glass towers in solidity. A decade old picture of the gateways of the Sheikh Musa tomb in Nuh - the two minarets with the shaking effect on either side ------ South of Nuh lies the village of Kotla, home to a large mosque whose architecture resembles that of the Tughlaqs. Atop a hill here are the remains of an old fort. Locals at the mosque advised the author to avoid going up – apparently, some illegal rock mining was being done there with the ‘miners’ not being the welcoming sort. The next stop was the village of Ferozepur Jhirka, the objective here being a tomb complex remarkable for its design. When shown a picture of the structure, a couple of elderly Muslim gentlemen pointed this author in the direction of the place. But curiously, they referred to it as a ‘Mandir’ or temple. On reaching the place, it looked exactly like an Islamic mausoleum. Standing on a high platform and looking like a small fort, the tomb complex bore a strong structural resemblance to the tomb of Sultan Ghari, near Vasant Kunj in Delhi. Inside was a building named Masjid Nahar Khor. Some of the stones on its walls carried patterns of elephants and horses – this depiction of living creatures on an Islamic building was entirely out of place. However, when this use of animal motifs is put alongside the reference to the place as a temple and the fact that the Islamic folk in the village do not worship here, it shows that the place may have been the site of a temple, now long lost. Perhaps the conversion of the populace was accompanied by a changeover of their architectural heritage also. Not that the change met its aim of making them law abiding. In the violence of 2023 that impacted Nuh and touched the edge of Gurugram, Mamman Khan, the MLA representing Ferozepur Jhirka was one of the accused and was later arrested from Jaipur. Research has revealed that centuries after their conversion, the Meos retained links to their roots, drawing pride in being Rajputs, often observing Hindu customs during ceremonies. They had even created their own version of the Mahabharata epic – the Panduan ka Kara, which was recited by fakirs wandering in the region. The extreme orthodoxy that one witnesses in the region today is often attributed to the Tablighi Jamaat – which was born in Mewat in 1927 – and was aimed at getting Muslims to be more religiously observant. Looking around Mewat today, the results are all too obvious. The town of Tijara, in neighbouring Alwar district, is also a part of Mewat region. But it appears more prosperous than Nuh, its population mix more pluralistic. A hilltop fort, once in ruin, is now a marvellous heritage hotel, run by Neemrana Hotels. Alongside the road leading from Tijara town to the hotel lies the medieval Lal Masjid, a huge three-bay building that was once the congregational mosque of the place. But the mixed identities never quite go away, and here they are manifest in a large, octagonal tomb in the town. The structure exactly resembles the octagonal Lodi and early Mughal mobility tombs. But locals refuse to accept it as a tomb. Instead, it is called ‘Bhartari ka Gumbad’ with Bhartari being the former Hindu King of Ujjain who came to Tijara to do penance. Another example of mixed identities here! Octagonal structure named Bhartari ka Gumbad in Tijara, Alwar ------ What does the future hold for this region of mixed identities? While aspects such as immunisation have shown a great improvement over the last decade, progress in infrastructure has also brought a fillip in criminal activities. A 2024 report shows a high incidence of cybercrime emanating from this region, with as many as 500 cases of cyber fraud being registered daily. And unlike the highway robberies of the past which mostly involved young men, this time even women and the elderly seem to be participating in crime. Reforming this region does not need the violent approach of a fanatical Balban but an inspired administrator. In July this year, the religious procession that came to Nuh was not greeted with stone pelting but with garlands, by both Hindus and Muslims. Yes, police presence was strong and mobile internet was kept under check. But there is hope that if people of the region work together towards a better future, the energies expended on crime may be more usefully deployed in better pursuits. Source: Mewat: Once A Region with Mixed Identities, Now Marred By Communal Tensions ----- Arjun Kumar is a heritage explorer by inclination with a penchant for seeking obscure sites. A brand consultant by profession Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflectNew Age Islam's views. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/interfaith-dialogue/mewat-mixed-identities-communal-tensions/d/132861 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism