THE PEOPLE

MUSLIMS

The total Muslim population of Akola district increased from 1,37,355 to between 1961 and 1971. The 1,86,819 percentage of Muslim population to the total population is a little over 10 per cent. It is not necessary to describe at length the Muhammedanism of this district. It is very much in composition like the neighbouring Amravati district. It is in essentials the true Islam of three continents but it bears the marks of long contact with a powerful but kindly idolatry. Hindus worship largely at the tombs of Muslim saints and Muslims have borrowed some Hindu marriage customs and touches of their religious prejudices. Their philosophy is perhaps summed up in the phrases "Hama u'st, hama ba u'st, hama az u'st: He is all, all is for Him, all is from Him." They attribute to all phenomena reality and even life, though only as emanations from God, so differing from the common Hindu view. The Muslim fakir believes merely that the differences in value ordinarily made by the world are unreal, the Hindu sadhu that only unreality and illusion surround him; but both live in fact very much the same life. The organisation of Muhammedanism includes several figures. Above all stands the Mufti, the final authority on matters of religion, who alone can give fatvas thereon. In a Muslim country he would be appointed by the king but here a great public ceremony among Muslims might be sufficient. Berar is said by some to have two Muftis the Maulavis of B'alapur and Ellichpur but other say that it is incorrect to apply the title to any one in the area. In a lower grade, though of much importance are the tnaulavi, kazi, and mashaikh (called also pirzada and pirpadre). The tnaulavi should answer masla, questions, put to him; the kazi holds the shariat karri., order-work, telling the plain layman simply what commands God has laid upon him; the mashaikh instructs his murid, disciple in the tariqat, marifat and haqigat, the deeper mysteries of the 'way, knowledge and reality' about God. Another classification might be made to include the different officers in charge of individual masjids, mosques. Here may be kazi, naib-kazi, khatib, pesh imam, muazzan and nulla, exact staff varying according to the means of the worshippers. The peculiar duties of the kazi are to decide on questions of religion and to give judgment in religious cases brought before him. Final authority in regard to the mosque also rests with him. He may act either personally or through a naib-kazi or even through the naib of a naib or a pesh-imam, temporary or permanent, may take the place of both kazi and khatib. The khatib should read the prayers; the muazzan in the larger mosques gives the azan, call to prayer, and is also caretaker; the mulla is generally the officer who lays out the dead and muttering the consolatory and sanctifying bismilla, kills animals for the sellers of meat; but the officers below the rank of kazi are often combined in different ways. An annual gathering called urus is often held in memory of a local saint and is attended by both Muslims and Hindus. Urus literally means nuptials, but the bride of the saint is death.

Practically all Muslims of the district are Sunnis except the few Bohras who are found in the larger villages. These belong to a heterodox sect of the Shiahs. Mr. E. Kitts, in the Berar Census Report of 1881, adds that the "Bohras believe in eight Imams only and, say that the last has come and gone. They follow a fifth rejected version of the sacred text. They are generally traders but occasionally agriculturists. Burhanpur is said to be their fons et origo, and all the good Bohras desire to lay their bones there They are not uniform in their worship; some evince a tendency towards the Sunni creed. In prayer, they differ from both Sunnis and Shiahs in that they follow their multa, praying aloud after him, but without much regularity of posture. The times for commencing their devotions are about five minutes later than those observed by Sunnis. After midday and sunset supplications, they allow a short interval to elapse, remaining themselves in the mosque meanwhile; they then commence the afternoon and evening prayers and thus run five services into one." They shave their heads, wear long beards, cut their moustaches close, and wear a turban, a shirt falling below the knee, loose trousers, and long shoes called ujjaini. They are said to cleanse their dead with morbid thoroughness, even using a syringe and sprinkling over the food or tobacco of the funeral feast some of the last water used. Both Bohras and Cutchis often closeheir shops in the rains and take an annual holiday of two months or more.

Birth, Marriage and Death among Muslims.—In ordinary Muslim families, the azan, the declaration of faith in Allah and His Prophet, is whispered into a child's ear either immediately it is born or at some time on that or the next day; some whisper the azan into the right car and the akamat which should be slightly differently worded, into the left ear. On the 7th, 14th, or 21st day, akika is performed, when the child's hair is shaved and the weight in silver is given to the fakirs; goats are sacrificed two at least for a boy and one for a girl, and their flesh is distributed among relations and the poor. The mother may do her ordinary household work but is, otherwise, apparently unclean for forty days during which time she may not even offer prayers. Marriages are seldom celebrated before the parties have attained the age of puberty but may take place when the boy is only ten and the girl only seven or eight years of age. The meher is an important feature in marriage negotiations; it is a sum which the bridegroom settles on the bride but does not actually pay at the time of marriage. It varies in amount and its existence largely protects the wife against the power of divorce enjoyed by the husband; she can remit the debt if she likes. A dowry, jehez, is also given by the bride's father; it usually takes the form of land, houses, cattle, jewellery, furniture and clothes.

At death the corpse of either man or woman ought to be covered with a white cloth, but a practice has grown up of laying above this an upper red cloth in the case of a woman who dies before her husband. Hymns are chanted as the funeral procession passes to the graveyard. The body is generally placed in the grave lying on its back with its feet to the south but bagli burial is also known; in this form the corpse is placed in a sitting posture in a recess at the side of a grave and the earth is hollowed above its head to leave room for a turban to be tied when the trumpet of Azrael first sounds, lest the deceased be late when the dead rise on the day of judgment. If a tombstone, taviz, is put on the grave, it is cut with a rounded top for a man and with a flat and slightly hollowed top for a woman. Funeral feasts and alms are also given and mourning is observed for three days. Further ceremonies are performed on the third day, slum or fateha; the tenth, daham; twentieth, bastam; and fortieth, chihilam and then annually, barsi. The expenses of the various days are different. Muslims of low standing are somewhat infected with Hindu ideas about the supernatural; they also say that no epidemic disease ever occurs in Muharram; they talk of fairies, parts, living in any pretty garden; and their magicians are said to differ from the Hindus only in using Hindustani instead of Marathi for the formulas.

MARRIAGE AND MORALS

Hindus: The ethics of marriage differ from community to community, While the Hindus consider it as a sacrament sanctifying the body and an essential pre-requisite for the attainment of moksha, the Muslims look upon it as a contract.

Marriages among Hindus are governed by rules and restrictions falling under the categories of endogamy, exogamy and hypergamy. A Hindu may not marry outside his caste or his particular sub-caste which, according to social custom, is considered endogamous. He is confined for the choice of a wife within this group. Outside the caste or sub-caste within which a man may marry, are a set of further sub-divisions which prohibit the marriage of persons related through males which are called endogamous groups. Marriage is prohibited within certain degrees of relationship. Marriage within the same gotra is prohibited. Hypergamy relates to the social rule by which a woman should be married to a man who is either her equal or superior in rank. Such practice is widely prevalent in North India by which men of a higher sub-caste will take in marriage women from lower ones but will not offer their daughters in return.

It is customary among most of the Hindus to marry a girl before puberty. However, the position has now largely changed with the passing of the Sharda Act and other legislations. Among the Hindus there was much diversity as far as marriage of widows was concerned. Brahmans prohibited it on the ground that marriage was a sacrament which a woman could go through only once. Divorce was also prohibited. Dowry either in the form of bride price or hunda was also customary.

Some Peculiar Marriage Customs. -Infant marriages were once much current but that is not so now under the modern influences. So far as the sacramental aspect of marriage among Hindus is concerned, it has already been dealt with. Here some peculiar customs are noted. Among Brahmans and Kunbis, the bride and bridegroom used to spit at each other when they were being bathed together on the second day of marriage. Among Agarwal Banias, the bridegroom is seated first on an ass-an animal regarded by Hindus with contempt and then on a horse or he at least touches an ass with his foot. Among Kunbis, when the bride and the groom go to bow before the family deities, they walk on brass plates turned upside down. Kunbis and other castes have a ceremony called ghod savasin in which the bridegroom pretends to be angry and refuses to go to the bride's house. A small boy is dressed in female clothes and takes in his hand a pestle (musal) with ghogar, (small bells) tied to it and dances around the bridegroom to pacify him. A Banjara bride hides herself after the ceremony and the bridegroom accompanied by music visits several houses in search of her. Rangaris have a ceremony called jhumandal in which the women parade the roads with lamps of sarki, cotton seed, singing as they march on. Rangaris, Ghatodi Chamars, Dhobis and Dohors put the bride and bridegroom, wearing black blankets, to sit on a bullock and take them in that fashion to the temple of Maruti for worship. Rangaris, Baris and Dhangars practise the ghoda nachna, by which a man riding a wooden horse dances in front of the married pair when they go out at night for the bidh procession.

Well-to-do Muslims have the marriage ceremony performed according to strict Muhammedan ritual but others adopt some Hindu practices. They often call in a Brahman to fix the auspicious day or they may perform the falnama, taking an omen from the first words seen on opening a book. They erect a marriage booth and cover it with either white cloth or green leaves according to their means When the marriage procession goes to the bride's village, it is always accompanied by the women of the party. It stops outside the village and members of the bride's family bring the tukhmat ka ghada, a pot filled with water, into which the bridegroom drops a rupee, then covering the pot with a new cloth. The bridegroom's father provides a feast on the second day and the kazi performs the ceremony on the third. For this purpose the pair are seated on a bed-stead with a copy of the Koran and with a curtain held between them, the latter being presently withdrawn.

The Berar Census Report written in 1881 by Mr. E. J. Kitts, which has numerous descriptions of curious practices gives on pages 50-51 several indications of wife—capture. Gonds and Kolams still have a mock-fight before marriage. (They perform the ceremony on the village dunghill. Maratha and Telangi Kalals worship the dunghill immediately before the marriage.) "Among the Lajjahars, not only do the bridegroom's party erect the mandap or shed at the bride's house, instead of its being erect ed for them, but with the bridegroom is an assistant known as the landga or wolf. The bridegroom betrays no sign of his intention. The wolf brings the sari, the yellow cloth and the brass bangles. He dances for two hours before the bride's house and suspicion thus being lulled seizes his opportunity to rush inside followed by his principal. They find the bride seated in a bamboo basket. The bridegroom catching her up by the right-hand makes her stand up and slips the bangle on her right wrist, gives her the yellow cloth and propitiates her mother with the sari. Then follows the Hinduised part of the ceremony.

''Among the Bhois, the bride's maternal uncle ties a thread of sheep's wool with a brass ring and five betel leaves to the bridegroom's right hand. When the marriage is complete, the bride's parents sometimes hide her in a neighbouring house and the bridegroom is required to find her personally and bring her forth. Among Telis, Kumbhars, Bhois, Mahars, Mangs and Chamars, when the bridegroom approaches to snap the toran (the string which separates the women's apartment from the rest of the house) the bride's brother, armed with a pestle, asks him for some money. The bridegroom says that he has already paid and refuses, whereupon he is saluted with a shower of cowdung and water."

Recent Enactments.—Social usage in relation to Hindu marriage has been affected by various laws passed right from 1833 when the regulation prohibiting sali was promulgated. A common form of civil marriage for all communities in India was provided by the Special Marriage Act III of 1822 which made it possible for an Indian of whatever caste or creed to enter into a valid marriage, declaring inter alia that they did not profess any religion. This Act was amended by Act XXX of 1923 making it possible for Hindus. Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains (but not Christians, Jews, Muslims and Parsees) to declare their religion and yet get their marriages registered. The Child Marriage Restraint Act XIX 1929 as amended by Act XIX of 1946 prohibited marriages of boys under 18 and girls under 14 years of age. The Hindu Marriage Disabilities Removal Act XXVTII of 1946 validated marriages between parties belonging to the same gotra or belonging to different sub-divisions of the same caste and now the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 which abrogates and modifies all the past laws has made Hindu marriage now strictly adult and monogamous. It has done away with the caste and gotra restrictions which limited the field of marriage and has set down definite conditions under which a decree of nullity and further of dissolution of marriage could be obtained.

As marriage from the Hindu view point created an indissoluble tie between husband and wife, divorce was not known to the general Hindu law. Neither party to a marriage could, therefore divorce the other unless divorce was allowed by custom as it is allowed in so many Hindu communities. The Indian Divorce Act 1869, provided inter alia the dissolution of marriage, but it applied only to cases where the petitioner or respondent professed Christianity (Section 2 of the Act). However, according to the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955, reliefs by way of judicial separation, declaration of nullity of marriage are now recognised (Sections 10 to 13).

Among Muslims celebacy is condemned by the Prophet and every Muslim is enjoined to marry by his religion. The prohibited degrees among Muslims include consanguinity, affinity, fosterage with the wife's sister during the life time of the wife, of the wife of another until the period of iddat probation has expired. According to the Koran and traditions, Muslims are allowed to have four wives. However, except in case of wealthy Muslims, a second wife is rarely taken.

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