page_title: Shia Islam in the Indian subcontinent
section_title: Shi'ism in Punjab
hierarchical_section_title: Shia Islam in the Indian subcontinent / History / Colonial Period – British Raj / Shi'ism in Punjab
caption_attribution_description: English: Tazia procession in chiniot city at "Ashura"
context_page_description: Shia Islam was introduced to the Indian subcontinent during the final years of the Rashidun Caliphate. The Indian subcontinent also served as a refuge for some Shias escaping persecution from Umayyads, Abbasids, Ayyubis and Ottomans. The immigration continued throughout the second millennium, until the formation of modern nation states. Shi'ism also won converts among the local population. Shia Islam has long history and deep roots in the subcontinent. However, the earliest major political influence was that of the Shia dynasties in Deccan. It was here that the indigenous and distinct Shia culture took shape. After the conquest of Golconda by Aurangzeb in the 17th century, and subsequent establishment of hereditary governorship in Awdh after his death, Lucknow became the nerve center of Indian Shi'ism. In the 18th century, intellectual movements of Islamic puritanism were launched by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in Najd and Shah Waliullah and his sons, with Shah Abdul Aziz being the main flag-bearer of modern anti-Shi'ism in Delhi, resulted in continuous persecution of Shia community and laid the foundations of organised violence against them.
context_section_description: By the end of eighteenth century, Mulla Mehdi Khata'i, a disciple of Shaykh Hurr-al Amili's student Mullah Muhammad Muqim. His student, Syed Rajab Ali (1806–1866 AD) revived Shia scholarly tradition in Punjab in the nineteenth century.The emergence of Lucknow as an intellectual hub for Shi'ism in North India during the reign of the nawabs of Awdh played significant role in introduction of organised Shi'ism and Shia scholarship to Punjab. Clerics trained at the Asif-ud Daula seminary in Lucknow spread throughout North India to preach Usuli Shi'ism and connect people to the central religious authority at Lucknow. In the nineteenth century AD, Allama Abul Qasim Rizvi (1833 – 1906 AD) arrived in Lahore after having completed higher education in Iraq, and founded an Imamia seminary in 1879 patronized by Nawab Ali Raza Khan Qizilbash. Elites like the Qizilbashs in Lahore, Faqirs and Gardezis in Multan and Shah Jiwana and Rajoa Sa'dat in Jhang contributed heavily to the spread of Shi'ism in Punjab.
  In Attock district, there were few Shia neighbourhoods, majority of them being Syeds. In Rawalpindi, the district Gazetteer of 1893 – 94 reports only some Gakhars openly registering themselves as Shias. In Shahpur district, the only 1.8% of the population said that they followed the Shia creed. In Lahore, they were a minority spread across the city.
  The Gazetteer of Jhang District of 1883 – 1884 reads:-
  "Shi‘as are unusually numerous in Jhang, a fact due to the influence of the Shi‘a Kuraishis of Shorkot and Hassu Balel, and the Sayads of Uch who are connected with the famous Sayad family of Belot in Dera Ismael Khan District and Shah Jiwana and Rajoa in the Jhang District. They are the most bigoted type. They observe the Muharram most strictly, abstaining from all luxuries for the first ten days of the month, and on the 10th they accompany the Taziahs bareheaded and bare-footed. They throw dust on their heads and beat their breasts with extreme violence, and allow neither Hindu nor Muhammadan to approach the Taziah without baring his head and removing his shoes".
  The coexistence of Shias and Sunnis was noticed in other parts of Punjab as well. The following passage is taken from the 1923–24 Gazetteer of Multan:
  "They are careful in the observance of the Muharram; and although Sunnis join freely in tazia procession, such observances are particularly unknown, except in the quarters where there are Shias to start and organize them. Generally speaking, there is very little bitterness between the Sunni and Shia sect, and in the ordinary intercourse of life, there is little to distinguish the two".
  In the beginning of the twentieth century AD, Shia-Sunni debates were on the rise following sectarian riots in Lucknow. Allama Syed Muhammad Baqir Naqvi Chakralvi and other Shia scholars of Punjab held public debates with many Sunni scholars in the early years of the twentieth century. These debates during the British rule allowed Shias to present their case in the public without fear. The Multan District Gazetteer mentions this phenomenon:
  "There is organized proselytizing, but every now and then a man is, by conversion or by loan of books, induced to change his sect, and there seems no doubt that the conversions from Sunnism to Shi’ism are more common than the vice versa".
  
  Another factor was the wealth generated by the newly developed Canal irrigation system made it possible for the Shia elites of the area to spend lavishly on Muharram and build Imambargahs.
  The Jhang District Gazetteer of 1929 reads:-
  “Shi‘ism is on the increase in the district. The influx of wealth on account of canal irrigation has invested some Sayyid families with added importance, and has proved helpful in spreading Shi‘ism”.
  The number of followers of Syed Ahmad Barelvi, known as Wahabis, had started to increase and thus the bitterness between Shias and Sunnis was also on the rise. The 1915 Gazetteer of Mianwali District recorded Shia phobia as follows:
  "All the Pathan clans, excepting a small number of Shias Kazilbash Pathans in Bhakkar tahsil, are very strict Sunnis
caption: Tazia procession at Ashura in Chiniot city.
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