[Shia Group] Hindu Followers of Imam Hussian
Naqvi Al Bukhari
Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:48:50 -0800
Let the humans be awake, Every Community will say 'Hussian is
ours"
One of the most important events in Islam is the battle of Karbala
fought in 680 CE in which Hazrat Imam Hussain, grandson of the Prophet
and son of Fatima Zehra and her husband Imam Ali, was killed along
with a small band of disciples and family members in a bloody war
against the tyrant Muslim ruler Yazid.
This event occurred in the Islamic month of Muharram, and it is
for this reason that this month is observed with great solemnity
across the world including India -- the land of peace where Imam
wanted to go.
In India, what is particularly striking about the observances of
Muharram is the prominent participation of Hindus especially in
northern parts of the country in the ritual mourning.
In several towns and villages, Hindus join Muslims in lamenting
the death of Hussain, by sponsoring or taking part in lamentation
rituals and tazia processions.
In Lucknow, seat of the Shia nawabs of Awadh, prominent Hindu
noblemen like Raja Tikait Rai and Raja Bilas Rai built Imambaras to
house alams, standards representing the Karbala event. Among certain
Hindu castes in Rajasthan, the Karbala battle is recounted by staging
plays in which the death of Imam Hussain is enacted, after which the
women of the village come out in a procession, crying and cursing
Yazid for his cruelty.
In large parts of rural India, Hindus believe that if barren women
slip under a Moharrum alam they would be blessed with a child.
Perhaps the most intriguing case of Hindu veneration of Imam
Hussain is to be found among the small Hussaini Brahmin sect, also
called Dutts or Mohiyals, who are found mainly in Punjab and in
eastern some parts India including Bihar.
The Hussaini Brahmins have had a long martial tradition, which
they trace back to the event of Karbala. They believe that an ancestor
named Rahab traveled all the way from Punjab to Arabia, where he
became a disciple of Imam Hussain.
Some Mohyal Brahmins migrated eastward and became as some sub-
divisions of Bhumihar Brahmins, some of whom are also descendants of
Hussaini Brahmins and mourn the death of Imam Hussain.
In the battle of Karbala, Rahab fought alongside Imam against
Yazid. His sons, too, joined him, and most of them were killed. The
Imam, seeing Rahab’s love for him, bestowed upon him the title of
Sultan or king, and told him to go back to India. It is because from
this close bond between Rahab and Imam Hussain that the Hussaini
Brahmins derive their name.
After Rahab and those of his sons who survived the battle of
Karbala reached India, they settled down in the western Punjab and
gradually a community grew around them. The Hussaini Brahmins
practised an intriguing blend of Islamic and Hindu traditions. A
popular saying refers to the Hussaini Brahmins or Dutts thus:
Wah Dutt Sultan,
Hindu ka Dharm
Musalman ka Iman,
Adha Hindu Adha Musalman
Oh! Dutt, the king
[Who follows] the religion of the Hindu
And the faith of the Muslim
Half Hindu, half Muslim.
Another story is related as to how the Dutts of Punjab came to be
known as Hussaini Brahmins. According to this version, one of the
wives of Imam Hussain, the Persian princess Shahr Banu, was the sister
of Chandra Lekha or Mehr Banu, the wife of an Indian king called
Chandragupta.
When it became clear that Yazid was adamant on killing the Imam,
the Imam’s son Ali ibn Hussain rushed off a letter to Chandragupta
asking him for help against Yazid. When Chandragupta received the
letter, he dispatched a large army to Iraq to assist the Imam. By the
time they arrived, however, the Imam had been killed.
In the town of Kufa in Iraq, they met with one Mukhtar Saqaffi, a
disciple of the Imam, who arranged for them to stay in a special part
of the town, which even today is known by the name of Dair-i-Hindiya
or ‘the Indian quarter’.
Some Dutt Brahmins, under the leadership of one Bhurya Dutt, got
together with Mukhtar Saqafi to avenge the death of the Imam. They
stayed behind in Kufa, while the rest returned to India. Here they
built up a community of their own, calling themselves Hussaini
Brahmins, keeping alive the memory of their links with the Imam.
The Hussaini Brahmins believe that in the Bhagwadgita Krishna had
foretold the event of the Imam’s death at Karbala. According to them,
the Kalanki Purana, the last of eighteen Puranas, as well as the
Atharva Veda, the fourth Veda, refer to Imam Hussain as the divine
incarnation or avatar of the Kali Yug, the present age. They hold Imam
Ali, Imam Hussain’s father, and son-in-law and cousin of the Prophet
Muhammad, in particular reverence, referring to him with the honorific
title of ‘Om Murti’.
An eminent example of Hussaini Brahmins was Sir Ganesh Dutt Singh,
who was a freedom fighter, administrator and educationist in which
capacity he did a lot for improving education and health services in
the state in the pre-independence era. Sir Dutta made generous
donations from his earnings and personal property for the development
of educational institutions, like radium institute in Patna Medical
College, Darbhaga Medical College, Ayurvedic College and schools for
the blind, deaf and dumb, among others.A short film based on the life
and works of Sir Dutta has been made by Bollywood director Prakash Jha.
