Muharram Liturgies and Hindu-Muslim Relations in Hyderabad

Abstract

Although it is somewhat less celebrated than Lucknow as a center of Indian Shiite culture, Hyderabad in recent years has become arguably the best place in which to observe the celebration of Muharram in India. This is in part because of communal violence in other parts of the country. During the summer of 1989 no riots or other serious incidents marred Shiite observances in Hyderabad during the crucial first ten days of Muharram, whereas a number of other locations reported civil disturbances occurring especially on Ashura.¹ In Lucknow over 600 persons were reported arrested for defying a government ban on public Muharram processions.² Shiite community leaders had preached sermons in Lucknow calling for defiance of the ban; Kalbe Hussain, general secretary of the “youth wing” of the Shi’a Ali Congress, derided the prohibition on Muharram processions as a “partisan ban imposed on the Azadari processions in order to appease the Sunni lobby.”³ In describing the arrests in Lucknow, The Times of India reported that “responding to the call by the top Shia priest, Maulana Syed Kalbe Jawad, the protesters today [Ashura, August 13, 1989] raised anti-government slogans while courting arrest.”⁴