It is safe to assume that anyone with an even rudimentary interest in the study of the Punjab has heard of Malerkotla, one of only two towns within the present-day state whose majority population is Muslim (the other being Qadian). Malerkotla's fame, based on its lack of religious and communal strife, is in one telling traced back to Nawab Sher Muhammad Khan, its early eighteenth-century governor. Tradition claims that the nawab appealed to Emperor Aurangzeb to spare the lives of the two young sons of Guru Gobind Singh (the tenth Sikh Guru) who had been captured by imperial forces in 1704 or 1705. This courageous, albeit unsuccessful, attempt, today known as the haah da naara or Cry for Justice, inspired the guru to bless the town—a blessing that, tradition maintains, spared Malerkotla the many catastrophes that have befallen northern India since that day. In another telling, Malerkotla's peace derives from the blessing of its fifteenth-century founder, Shaikh Sadruddin Sadri Jahan (Haider Shaikh), whose tomb is situated in the center of town. And in still another, the town's specialness is said to have resulted simply from the number of saintly dead (mainly Muslim but also Sikh and Hindu) whose shrines (and thus whose baraka or power) dot its landscape.
Drawing on both oral and archival evidence, Anna Bigelow's Sharing the Sacred is the first monograph to take a critical look at Malerkotla and the collective memories that have shaped its reputation as an “oasis of tolerance.” In the process, she rightfully abandons sentimental platitudes and makes clear that waging peace is as complicated, involved, and profound as waging war—and in the former, Malerkotla is on the front line. Although Malerkotla's is a reputation that all Punjabis—Sunni, Shia, Hindu, Sikh, Jain, and so on—take very seriously (in examples of such we are sometimes told that Malerkotla provides a snapshot of the vibrancy and plurality of pre-partition Punjab, a shared memory on which contemporary Punjabis wax eloquently), its citizens do not simply assert these claims of tolerance but regularly act on them, maintaining their reputation by enacting a number of microstrategies, individually and collectively, to deal effectively with conflict whenever it arises. The challenges faced and the various strategies adopted by them and the various organizations within Malerkotla are outlined throughout Bigelow's text and brought to life through the many interviews with her interlocutors.
Sharing the Sacred, however, goes well beyond the description of Malerkotla's sanctity and its citizens' strategies for maintaining peace and tolerance. Not only are we introduced to the various rituals and understandings surrounding the dargah or tomb of Haider Shaikh that allow its citizens to “practice plurality” and position themselves and their town within Malerkotla's symbolic and ritual universe, but also Bigelow rightfully situates the town within the political and historical landscapes of the Punjab. She notes the many challenges the town faced prior to India's partition and how those were met, the history of its many nawabs, and how and why its Muslim citizens are often wooed by non-Muslim politicians throughout the state. In the final regard, it is quite common knowledge that the Akali member of Parliament for Malerkotla (the Akali Party generally represents Jat Sikh interests) is always a Muslim.
This is a generously exquisite text that is lovingly yet critically crafted, and as such, it deserves high praise indeed. My complaints with it are very few. Clearly, Bigelow's strength is shown particularly when she deals with Islam within India and within the Punjab. Her discussion of Muslim rituals throughout Malerkotla is inspired, allowing us to easily forgive her few historical inaccuracies regarding Sikh and Hindu events of note (p. 75: Aurangzeb, for example, and not Shah Jahan had the ninth Sikh Guru executed in 1675). A glossary of Arabic/Persian and Punjabi/Hindi terms would have been helpful, as would further elaboration on the shrines of the many other sainted dead throughout the town, with their shrines noted on the maps supplied.
These minor complaints notwithstanding, Sharing the Sacred, among other things, puts to shame the growing literature underscoring the now-clichéd clash of civilizations thesis put forward by Bernard Lewis and the like. As such, it should be recommended reading not only for all those interested in Sikh studies, South Asian Islam, comparative religious studies, and the history of modern South Asia, but also for journalists who attempt to make sense of the current crises in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
