63 Anna Bigelow: Punjab’s Muslims Punjab’s Muslims: The History and Significance of Malerkotla Anna Bigelow North Carolina State University ____________________________________________________________ Malerkotla’s reputation as a peaceful Muslim majority town in Punjab is overall true, but the situation today is not merely a modern extension of the past reality. On the contrary, Malerkotla’s history is full of the kind of violent events and complex inter-religious relations more often associated with present-day communal conflicts. This essay is a thick description of the community and culture of Malerkotla that has facilitated the positive inter-religious dynamics, an exploration of the histories that complicate the ideal, and an explanation of why Malerkotla has successfully managed stresses that have been the impetus for violence between religions in South Asia. ________________________________________________________ When the Punjabi town of Malerkotla appears in the news, it is often with headlines such as “Malerkotla: An Island of Peace,” (India Today, July 15, 1998), or “Malerkotla Muslims Feel Safer in India,” (Indian Express, August 13, 1997), or “Where Brotherhood is Handed Down as Tradition” (The Times of India, March 2, 2002). These headlines reflect the sad reality that a peaceful Muslim majority town in Indian Punjab is de facto newsworthy. This is compounded by Malerkotla’s symbolic importance as the most important Muslim majority town in the state, giving the area a somewhat exalted status.1 During a year and a half of research I asked residents whether the town’s reputation as a peaceful place was true and I was assured by most that this reputation is not merely a media or politically driven idealization of the town. Indeed, the term most frequently employed to characterize the communal atmosphere is bhaichara, meaning brotherhood or brotherly affection. Malerkotla residents seem genuinely to believe that their hometown enjoys an unusual amount of community harmony and inter-religious friendship. The local perception reaffirms the public reputation of this mid-size industrial town (pop. 106,802) as a near utopia of inter-religious harmony. Remarkably, this ideal reflects the reality, at least in terms of the recent history of the area. At the time of Partition in 1947 the town did not experience the bloodshed and violence that devastated the rest of the state. During subsequent periods of communal tension in India, Malerkotla has transcended tensions and overcome the strains of violent events such as the destruction of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992 or the riots in Gujarat in 2002. Such potentially precipitating incidents often provide the impetus and pretense for violence and social conflict.2 Yet the peace in Malerkotla during these periods is not simply an extension of the pre-1947 status JPS 12:1 64 quo. On the contrary, throughout the history of Malerkotla as a kingdom (1454 to 1948) there have been numerous instances of inter-religious conflict ranging from wars to riots. Such a past history of antagonism may easily be an exacerbating factor in communal conflict, yet we shall see that Malerkotla’s past does not inhibit its generally positive inter-religious dynamic. Another commonly cited challenge to communal relations is the degree of economic competition. In Malerkotla there is a substantial majority of Muslims (about seventy percent) but they by no means have a monopoly on either economic or political power. Thus, although two of the most commonly identified exacerbating conditions that make communities “riot-prone” or open to inter-religious conflict – a history of inter-religious conflict and competition in the economic and political arenas – are present in Malerkotla, peace has by and large prevailed since 1947. Precipitating incidents and their subsequent tensions have been easily and quickly dissipated. This essay will provide a synopsis of Malerkotla’s history, situating the territory within the broader context of Punjabi and Indian history. Through this historical excursus, the peace in Malerkotla during and after the Partition of the subcontinent will appear even more surprising. It will become clear that historically, Malerkotla is no utopia and that the present peace is the product of active efforts on the part of local authorities and residents to make the unique history of the town a symbolically significant resource for community building and pluralism in the present. The Past was a Sovereign Country Founded in 1454, Malerkotla was a princely state until 1948 when, in the aftermath of India’s independence from Britain, these autonomous units were dissolved. At the time of its dissolution, Malerkotla was 167 miles square with a population of 85,000. The rulers of the kingdom were Pathan Afghans distantly related to the Afghan clan of the Lodhis, the last dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate prior to the advent of Mughal power in 1526. According to local histories the first Lodhi Sultan, Bahlol, granted the territory to the progenitor of the Malerkotla ruling family, the Sufi saint Shaikh Sadruddin Sadar-i Jahan, popularly known as Haider Shaikh. The original settlement was called Maler which remains the name of a neighborhood that surrounds the tomb of the founding Shaikh. Kotla came into being in 1659 when a descendent of Haider Shaikh received permission from the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707) to build a fortified city. After this period the jagir or land grant originally endowed by Bahlol Lodhi was confirmed as a hereditary state and the ruler was given the title of Nawab. As the Mughal Empire declined after the death of Aurangzeb, Malerkotla increasingly sought independence from Delhi and allied with Ahmad Shah Abdali (d. 1773) whose forces dominated the region of Punjab in the mid-eighteenth century. In the late eighteenth century Malerkotla alternated between alliances and battles with the surrounding larger Sikh states such as Patiala, Nabha, and Jind. When Maharaja Ranjit Singh consolidated his power in the northern Punjab under in the early nineteenth century, Malerkotla and these 65 Anna Bigelow: Punjab’s Muslims neighboring Sikh States in the Cis-Sutlej region accepted British protection in 1809, thereby preserving their territorial integrity and some degree of autonomy. In 1947 three simultaneous events – the end of British power, Indian independence, and the Partition of the subcontinent – left Malerkotla as the only significant Muslim principality in East Punjab on the Indian side of the new border. With the dissolution of princely states in 1948, Malerkotla joined the administrative unit known as Patiala and the East Punjab States Union (PEPSU). PEPSU was dissolved in 1954 and the territory of Malerkotla was absorbed into the Punjab State, District Sangrur and the area known as Malerkotla is reduced to the town alone. Surrounding villages still look to Malerkotla as the largest local center of industry and commerce, and the center of the district’s government. One of the strongest connections is to the spiritual center of the town – the tomb of Haider Shaikh. The Coming of Haider Shaikh Both oral and written histories of Malerkotla usually begin with the arrival of the Sufi saint, Shaikh Sadruddin Sadar-i Jahan. In a history of the dynasty written by Iftikhar Ali Khan, the last Nawab of Malerkotla, the Shaikh is described as a Sherwani Afghan from Khurasan, “a very pious man of much celebrity in his time.”3 Haider Shaikh, as he is popularly known, was sent to the region from Multan by his spiritual preceptor.4 He settled on the bank of a small river to engage in religious devotions. According to numerous sources, in 1451 Bahlol Lodhi encountered the saint on his way to conquer Delhi at which point he established the Lodhi Dynasty (which lasted until 1526).5 Bahlol Lodhi asked the saint for the blessing that he would be victorious in the war. After conquering Delhi, the Sultan returned and in 1454 married his daughter Taj Murassa Begum to Shaikh Sadruddin, and gave her a number of villages in the region as a marriage portion.6 The saint and his Afghan wife had two children – a daughter, Bibi Mangi, and a son, Hassan. In 1458, Haider Shaikh also married the daughter of Rai Bahram Bhatti, the Rajput ruler of Kapurthala, a nearby principality, and had two more sons, ‘Isa and Musa.7 The saint died on 14 Ramadan, 922 hijri/1515 C.E.8 The eldest son Hassan was denied the inheritance of the jagir (land grant), having fallen out of favor with his father.9 Thus, after Haider Shaikh’s death, ‘Isa inherited the jagir, Musa became a dervish and did not marry, and the descendants of the disowned Hassan became the caretakers, or khalifahs, of the saint’s tomb. Although ‘Isa inherited the bulk of the state, a portion went to Hassan and his heirs, setting a precedent of dividing the jagir among the male heirs that would result in constant disputes persisting to this day. Under Akbar, Maler (as it was still known at that time) was a part of the Delhi Suba,10 subsidiary to the Sarkar of Sirhind.11 Six generations after Haider Shaikh, Bayzid Khan became the first true ruler of the territory, after he was awarded the title of Nawab by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. Under Bayzid the estate was enlarged, and he received permission to build a fortified city in 1657, which came to be called Kotla, meaning fortress.12 Bayzid supported Aurangzeb in his campaign JPS 12:1 66 against his elder brother Dara Shikoh for the throne at Delhi. Having thus gained great favor with the court, he was allowed to build the walled city and to strike coins. According to a history written by Iftikhar Ali Khan, the last Nawab of the kingdom, Bayzid was also responsible for the building of the tomb shrine for their forebear Haider Shaikh. Sher Mohammad Khan and the ha da narah The most famous ruler in Malerkotla’s history is Nawab Sher Muhammad Khan, who ruled from 1672 until his death in 1712. This was a particularly critical period in the history of Punjab as the growing popularity and authority of the Sikh Gurus brought them into increasing conflict with the Mughals. Following the torture and subsequent death of the fifth Guru, Arjan Dev, at the order of the Emperor Jahangir, hostilities between the Sikhs and the Mughals grew. Periodic battles with the Mughals and later the invading Afghan armies of Ahmad Shah Abdali13 continued. During these wars Nawab Sher Muhammad Khan and the Malerkotla forces played prominent roles. Interestingly, in spite of his support for Aurangzeb and the Mughal regime in their battles against the Sikhs, most available sources, including numerous Sikh histories from the nineteenth century onwards, emphasize only one event in Malerkotla’s history: the ha da narah or “cry for justice.”14 The ha da narah was given by Sher Muhammad Khan after a particularly vicious battle with Guru Gobind Singh. After the Guru and his family broke through the siege at Anandpur, his mother and his two younger sons, Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh, were separated from the Guru. They were betrayed, captured, and taken to Sirhind (approximately fifty kilometers northeast of Malerkotla) where their fate hung in the balance. Refusing to convert to Islam, the sahibzadas (children of the Guru) were condemned to be bricked alive into a wall. Of all the assembled allies of Wazir Khan, the Mughal governor of Sirhind, Sher Muhammad Khan was the only one who spoke up in the children’s defense. He declared that their quarrel was with the father not the sons, and that their lives should be preserved. He went so far as to declare the death sentence un-Islamic, violating the acceptable rules of combat. Although the appeal was unsuccessful and the Guru’s sons were killed, this is by far the single most famous moment in Malerkotla’s history. In Iftikhar Ali Khan’s history, the narrative is drawn out at great length and includes quotations from a letter supposedly written by the Nawab to the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707) on the children’s behalf. The Nawab’s sense of justice and tolerance are emphasized, and thereafter this incident becomes a leitmotif of sorts in his history, as it is periodically referenced as evidence of the liberalism and tolerance of the Nawabs towards the Sikhs, and the special place that the town in the Sikh heartland has as the beneficiaries of Guru Gobind Singh’s blessing. However there is a dark cloud over this moment in history. A biography of Banda Singh Bahadur, a devout follower of Guru Gobind Singh, reports that Nawab Sher Muhammad Khan took captive a 67 Anna Bigelow: Punjab’s Muslims woman attached to the house of Guru Gobind Singh.15 This woman, Anup Kaur, refused to accept Islam or the overtures of the Nawab, and killed herself. Her body was reportedly buried near the tomb of a Sufi saint, Shah Fazl. Banda Bahadur Guru Gobind Singh died from a stab wound in Nanded in the Deccan region of central India. Not long before his death he met a Hindu Bairagi, Madho Das who attached himself to the Guru.16 Adopting the name Gurbaksh Singh the former Bairagi became more widely known as Banda Singh Bahadur when he gave up the path of renunciation and took up arms for the Guru. Following Guru Gobind Singh’s death, Banda and a large army of Sikhs briefly (1710-12) conquered sizeable areas of Punjab, but it appears that he did not approach Malerkotla. Whereas other Muslim principalities such as Sirhind – the scene of the martyrdom of the Guru’s sons – were razed to the ground, Malerkotla was spared. Although any number of reasons could explain this, Iftikhar Ali Khan, the last Nawab of Malerkotla, declares in his history of the kingdom (as do many residents) that Banda did not attack the otherwise rather vulnerable state out of respect for Nawab Sher Mohammad Khan’s defense of the two sahibzadas. In terms of the popular understanding today, alternate explanations for Banda Singh Bahadur’s avoidance of Malerkotla are not necessary and are not sought. Despite such moments of tranquility, wars between the multitude of Sikh principalities and outside Muslim invaders persisted. Malerkotla fought on the side of the Mughals until their power dissipated, at which point the rulers supported Ahmad Shah Abdali and the Rohilla Afghans who repeatedly invaded from the northwest in the middle of the eighteenth century. In the eighteenth century the various Punjab chiefs fought frequently. They formed alliances and attacked each other by turns, depending on to whom they owed money or whether they judged victory likely. Sometimes they fought at the behest of more powerful leaders such as the Mughal ruler at Delhi, Muslim chieftains such as Ahmad Shah Abdali or Adina Beg, Hindu forces like the Marathas, or Sikh leaders such as Banda Bahadur or Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Malerkotla’s Nawab Jamal Khan (r. 1717-1755) fought more or less constantly against the various Rajas of Patiala, a large Sikh state to the east of Malerkotla. Initially he fought against Ahmad Shah Abdali, but then joined forces with him. The next ruler Bhikam Khan (1755-1763) fought along side Abdali against the combined forces of the Sikhs in February of 1762 in a battle not far from Malerkotla, Ahmad Shah and his allies killed many thousands of Sikhs.17 This event has gone down in Sikh history as “the Great Holocaust,” or Wadda Ghalughara. After this nadir of relations between Malerkotla and the neighboring Sikh states tensions persisted for some time with Amar Singh of Patiala capturing several villages in 1766 and 768 from Bhikam Khan’s brother Nawab Umar Khan. Several Nawabs were in power in Malerkotla in rather rapid succession, and excepting Jamal Khan, the military acumen and political competence of these rulers appears to have JPS 12:1 68 been minimal.18 At one point, under Bahadur Khan (r. 1763-1766) the principality was reduced to the boundary walls of Kotla, a mere three miles in circumference. Fluctuating relations with the Sikh chiefs in the neighboring states of Patiala, Nabha, and Jind also characterized this period. There were, however, bright spots. In 1769 Nawab ‘Umar Khan signed a treaty with Raja Amar Singh of Patiala guaranteeing mutual protection and respect. By 1771, Nawab ‘Umar Khan assisted Amar Singh against a usurper who had taken over during Patiala’s campaign against the Marathas.19 From this point forward, the neighboring Sikh rulers would occasionally come to the aid of the much smaller and more vulnerable Malerkotla against extra- local Sikh invaders such as the 1795 attack of Sahib Singh Bedi.20 Sahib Singh Bedi Sahib Singh Bedi ostensibly attacked Malerkotla over the perennial issue of cow killing. Sikhs and Hindus both abstain from killing cows, holding the cow to be sacred as a source of life and sustenance. Muslim consumption and ritual sacrifice of cows has often been a stated provocation for inter-religious conflict, a precipitating incident. However, in this case, as in most others, there were other motivations for the attack. Sahib Singh Bedi was a direct descendant of Guru Nanak and since the time of the first Guru his family commanded great respect and authority within the Sikh religion and the socio-political power networks of Sikhs throughout Punjab. Bedi and his family had a loyal personal following who believed that the first Guru’s power descended through his blood lineage.21 Following the death of Guru Gobind Singh and his disciple Banda Singh Bahadur, political and religious authority among the Sikhs became diffuse. The missal period saw the rise of missals, clan and family based power centers, which functioned within a kind of confederacy to the extent that Sikh interests could provide a unifying force, particularly regarding the challenges by Mughal authorities, Afghan invaders, and the increasing influence of the British East India Company.22 However, these missals enjoyed relative autonomy and were not above fighting with each other if the opportunity presented itself. During this period Sahib Singh Bedi was among those who wielded both spiritual authority and considerable charisma and was able to amass an armed force. At Malerkotla Sahib Singh Bedi’s forces were ultimately repelled with assistance from Patiala.23 Malerkotla joined the British in fighting the Marathas in the early part of the nineteenth century. During this period Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the great Sikh ruler, was in the process of expanding his control over most of the Punjab, from present day Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh to the northwestern regions of present day Pakistan and in the south to the Malwa region in which Malerkotla is located. Arriving at the town in 1808, the Maharaja demanded such an enormous amount in tribute that the state was forced to borrow heavily from its wealthier neighbors – Nabha, Jind, and Patiala. The Nawab at the time, Ataullah Khan, offered an elephant, but Singh demanded 1,000,000 rupees.24 Summoning all his resources, he 69 Anna Bigelow: Punjab’s Muslims drummed up only 566,391 rupees. Maharaja Ranjit Singh attacked on October 22nd and the Nawab threw himself at the mercy of his wealthier Sikh neighbors.25 Finally, in 1809 the British and the Maharaja signed a treaty which placed the Cis-Sutlej region in which Malerkotla is located under British protection. From 1809 onwards Malerkotla supported the British and assisted in a number of key campaigns – against Kabul, in the Gurkha wars, and also during the 1857 Rebellion.26 Family disputes over the right to succession which had plagued the kingdom for years continued, but were now arbitrated by the British government.27 Relations with the British appear typical of British dealings with other kingdoms. The Malerkotla rulers were listed in attendance at various courts, or darbars, of the Viceroys, ranked ninth among the Punjab states, and given an eleven-gun salute.28 Exhaustive lists of exchanged gifts and other formalities are detailed in the Nawab’s history and are mentioned in the various Gazetteers and other colonial accounts. From 1809 onwards a resident British official exercised varying degrees of control over local governance. British records depict the royal family as deeply in debt and constantly on the verge of ruin.29 The British also complained of tendentious family relations. As one Captain Murray observed in a letter to the Political Agent at Ambala, Sir George Russell Clerk, dated May 16, 1831, I believe it to be impossible to extract any generally beneficial measure from the collected members of this turbulent and distracted family because their conflicting interests, ceaseless intrigues and mutual jealousy are too opposed to system and inimical to order, to be regulated on just and fundamental principles.30 In an 1836 letter Clerk himself reiterated this pessimistic impression describing a visit to the state to settle a question of succession and inheritance.31 In the process of the investigation, Clerk observed the fractious quality of family relations. What Captain Murray anticipated, my own experience has confirmed. It is vain to effect unanimity among the members of this family on this point. Some of the most influential are interested in subjecting inheritance to the Shurreh (sic), claiming its laws as applicable to all of their religious persuasion. Others discard the Shurreh, deny that its rules have hitherto been the guidance of the family…which is the fact…and prefer to adhere to their ancient usages. Unfortunately their family customs in respect to inheritance have not hitherto been uniform.32 Such internecine disputes took place throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Inayat Ali Khan devotes approximately one third of his 1882 manuscript to his claims to the estate of his brother Ibrahim Ali Khan who, as the adopted son of Nawab Sikandar Ali Khan, inherited the lands and properties of the throne. Although the accession of Ahmad Ali Khan (Ibrahim’s son) was not disputed nor JPS 12:1 70 was the leadership of Ahmad’s son Iftikhar, family disputes over property continue to this day. The Namdhari Massacre The most infamous event in Malerkotla’s history occurred in 1872. At the time Malerkotla was essentially being governed by a British agent, one Mr. Heath, under the jurisdiction of the Deputy Commissioner at Ludhiana, J.C. Cowan. The Nawab, Ibrahim Ali Khan, was a minor when he succeeded his uncle and adopted father, Sikander Ali Khan, in 1871.33 In January of 1872 Malerkotla was attacked by a group of Namdhari Sikhs, a sect widely and onomatopoeically known as the Kukas due to the ecstatic cries they utter during prayer. The Namdharis believe in the continuation of the living personal Guru after the death of Guru Gobind Singh, and so they were and are seen as beyond the pale of mainstream Sikh tradition. However, Namdharis are also often depicted positively as the first freedom fighters, as they called for a boycott of British goods in the late 19th century, established their own postal system, refused service in the army, and waged active struggles against cow slaughter, among other issues. According to Namdhari sources, the attack on Malerkotla was due to their opposition to the British presence there, to the killing of cows by the British and the Muslims, and to the worship of saints.34 Namdhari literature today does not emphasize the Muslim role in subsequent events, but targets British imperialism and intransigent discriminatory policies as the provocation for their attack. Mainstream Sikh historians claim that the group wanted guns and that Malerkotla at the time was weak and an easy target. The British, perhaps unsurprisingly, depict the Namdharis as extremists in need of subjugation. According to the 1904 British Gazetteer, “the fanatic Kukas attacked Kotla, killing some townspeople and plundering houses.”35 Nawab Iftikhar Ali Khan’s History (written in the late 1940’s), on the other hand, tells the story altogether differently. Here the leader of the movement, Baba Ram Singh is described as a “sensible man” who was opposed to the attack on the grounds that Malerkotla had been blessed by the Guru. The attack is said to have occurred without Baba Ram Singh’s wishes and was undertaken by a rogue follower. Iftikhar Ali Khan supplies another motive in his history – a rumor still widely believed in Malerkotla that a Namdhari woman had been raped while in custody just before the assault. Whatever the cause, by all accounts the assault on the state was limited, resulting in few deaths and the theft of some guns. In spite of the relatively minor damage, the punishment visited upon the Kukas by the British was grim indeed. After hunting down and capturing the perpetrators at Patiala, they were brought back to Malerkotla and executed without trial. Sixty-nine Namdharis, including some women and children, were placed in front of cannons and blown away over the course of three bloody days. In fact, the largest gathering of both orthodox Sikhs and Namdharis in Malerkotla is the martyrdom festival or shahidi mela. The annual event is held on January 17, 71 Anna Bigelow: Punjab’s Muslims 18, and 19, the anniversary of the firings. Thousands of people attend although only one Namdhari family lives in Malerkotla year-round. The shahidi mela is an enormous event with all night kirtan, constant langar (communally prepared and consumed food), and all the other trappings of large events, including a bustling street market and a series of speakers on subjects both religious and secular. A smaller festival to commemorate these events occurs on the seventeenth of every month. The events take place on the grounds of the kukain walla kalar, a monument recently erected by the Namdharis in the form of a gigantic sword, perforated with a hole for every martyr with smaller ones representing the children. These events draw Namdharis from the surrounding area, particularly from their center at Bhaini Sahib, approximately an hour distant, and even from Delhi. This fair is also an obligatory stop on the campaign trail of all political parties in Punjab. In 2001, the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal addressed the gathering. This was interesting given the well-known support of the Namdharis for the opposition Congress party, which they regard as the party of the freedom struggle they had begun in the mid nineteenth century. Namdharis tend to view Badal’s Shiromani Akali Dal Party with suspicion, as it is associated with the type of Sikh identity politics that tend to exclude non-normative Sikh groups such as their own. In particular, reformist Sikhs object to the Namdharis’ belief in a living guru. However, during an earlier visit to the annual Namdhari gathering in 1999, Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal referred to the living Guru of the Namdharis as “Satguru” during his speech, causing an enormous fracas among his party loyalists and the orthodox.36 At the 2001 mela, no such mention was made, but Badal’s speech was unsurprisingly less compelling to the gathering than the telephone call from the Satguru Jagjit Singh that was piped in over the loudspeakers. In spite of the traumatic event of the Kuka executions, Malerkotla’s rulers remained loyal to their British protectors until the latter’s departure from the subcontinent. From the Oriental and India Office Collection (OIOC) records it appears that a British officer was often the effective authority of the state due to the incompetence of various rulers. These documents indicate that at numerous points the Nawab sought the help of British officials to decide a prickly matter, for financial or military support, and for validation of their local authority. The OIOC files on Malerkotla dwell upon the persistent debt of the ruling family and the need to establish a sound economy. British records also depict all episodes of civil unrest in Malerkotla as a result of mismanagement by the khawanin (the ruling Khan clan) and their near stranglehold on all land ownership rights throughout the kingdom. Unsurprisingly, the history written by Nawab Iftikhar Ali Khan makes no mention of such incompetence or of civil unrest. By and large Khan gives the impression of strong leadership and sound policies with a minimum of intervention from the British. Indeed, events that counter this prevailing image are barely mentioned. JPS 12:1 72 Religious Trouble In Malerkotla the erasure of religious and ethnic conflict from the public imagination and the written record represents a process whereby the values of a peaceful plural community are grounded in an idealized past.37 However, from the above it is already clear that far from being the “Island of Peace” as it was dubbed by the magazine India Today, Malerkotla and its Mulsim rulers were frequently involved in conflicts and wars with Sikh and Hindu groups and kingdoms, and plagued by intrafamilial strife. Although many of these confrontations concern politics and territory, several events clearly carried a religious dimension as well. In 1935, for example, there was a case in which a Hindu group began a katha – the recitation of a sacred text – in a building that overlooked a mosque. As the recitation involved singing and the playing of instruments, it was objectionable to the congregation during times of prayer. The dispute escalated and eventually resulted in a riot in which a Hindu was killed. Nawab Ahmad Ali Khan arrested several Muslim youths and two of them were put to death. Many local Muslims felt these executions were hasty and unwarranted and the matter did not disappear as the Hindus continued their recitation. Eventually a British officer came to settle the dispute, ruling in favor of silencing the katha during prayer times.38 Several years later the issue was reactivated as one of many complaints lodged by elements of the Muslim population who declared that the Nawab and his cronies were biased against Muslims and favored the Hindus to whom they owed money. A group of dissenters eventually left Malerkotla en masse, seeking to present their case before the Punjab Administrator at Lahore.39 These conflicts were similar to events elsewhere as the 1930’s were an intense period throughout India. Identity politics were the order of the day as the combined effects of nineteenth century reformist movements, British enumerative authoritarianism, and the communally based factions within the Independence Movement, particularly the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League, took root. Especially since the consolidation of British authority in the nineteenth century, imperial policies distributed social and political opportunities based upon religious and ethnic identities. Simultaneously, and partially as a response to these efforts, Hindu, Sikh and Muslim organizations developed that defined and disseminated revivalist orthodoxies. Some of these groups worked closely with political parties, such as the Hindu Mahasabha and the Indian National Congress. As a princely state, political parties were not allowed in Malerkotla, but the kingdom was hardly free from the building communal tension. The conflict which began in 1935 with the katha persisted in various guises until 1941. Nonetheless, by the time of Partition, there was adequate local solidarity to sustain the community through that difficult period.