Shajeem Fazal is a PhD candidate at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IISER Bhopal.  For his PhD dissertation, he is working on Panegyric literature in the context of South India. His research interests include anthropology of the ‘Everyday’ and Ethics.

Dr. Swati Bakshi received her PhD from the Center for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM) from the University of Westminster, UK. Her research areas include the intersections of space & place, gender, popular culture and society.

This essay is an invitation to think about the entanglement of Muslims with Hindus in the outskirts of Janakpur. A singular attention to the history of Hinduism's arrival in Janakpur obscures other modalities of citizenship for Muslims and other ethnic groups. In our work, we look at how Muslims in Janakpur connect to a past in which they do not have a significant role in constituting the idea of the ‘Hindu sacred city’. Nor do they have an active role in the construction of religious myths and performances such as Vivah Panchami. 

Can we imagine a Muslim time in a city that runs on an Hindu mythological time? With an ethnographic study and comparative analysis of two different mohallas (neighbourhoods): Mithileshwari Nohayi (fig 1.1) and Dashrath Nagar near Pagla Dharamshala, the authors demonstrate how the rising Hindu nationalism has altered their relationship with the Vivah Panchami festival and the need to locate these concerns within the history of Muslims in the state. Our interest in this study not only relates to how Muslims respond to Hindu majoritarianism in terms of individual and social action, but also in how the circulation of affects creates a different space for them to engage with themselves. Our ethnography suggests that our interlocutors have traditionally been able to participate in the grand festivities that take place around the Vivah Panchami festival in Janakpur. But an uncertain environment of ambiguities, suspicions and distrust has necessitated that Muslims renegotiate their religious self in terms of what constitutes haraam (forbidden) or halaal (allowed). In both of these field sites, people met at the mosque not only to discuss matters of faith, but also how to engage with the Hindu community.

Often, our ethnographic interlocutors informed us of the ambiguities concerning their participation in Hindu festivals such as Vivah Panchami. Early in our fieldwork, we learned that most of the proclamations coming from the mosque in two of our ethnographic sites were related to concerns about being a 'better Muslim'. Still, the women interlocutors had doubts and uncertainties about whether they should participate in these festivals at all, as it is haram for them to do so. We propose that such notions of moral perfectionism have been created by the complexities of Hindu-Muslim proximity and it is the heterogeneity of everyday life that allows them to do so (Das 2017, 248). Such notions of suspicion of others should be placed in the larger context of political conflict, as anthropologists such as Naveeda Khan (2012) show in her instrumental work 'Muslim Becoming'. For instance, the mother of one of our interlocutors Fayiza, a researcher from the North-South Collective, often worried if at all they should send her son to the school that has sewn ‘Om’ on the upper pockets of the uniform. In the light of these conversations exploring the threads of community relationship, identity and belonging, we present two ethnographic vignettes as windows to explore the central concerns of this study:

Ethnographic Scene 1

In this particular section, we will give a brief picture of how the everyday life of Muslims in one of these mohallas is organised. Our first site of study, Mithileshwari Mohayi, Ward No. 3 Janakpur, is a quiet Muslim mohalla with pukka houses on both sides of the street. Some houses display flags that include the Nepalese national flag as well as the Islamic flag showing the holy mosque in Medina. When you ask them why? The oldest man in the community tells you that it's part of our identity and a way to show respect to who we are. The identity is also reaffirmed through the sacred half moon and a star sign in green colour welded on the Iron gates.

Anthropologist Malinowski insists on looking at the “routine of a man’s working day, the details of his care of the body, of the manner of taking food and preparing it; the tone of conversational and social life around the village fires, the existence of strong friendships or hostilities, and of passing sympathies and dislikes between people” (Malinowski quoted in Fernando and Fadil 2015, 66). Such attention helps us to unravel the domestic intricacies and also to study how larger structures of social life are developed. Many interlocutors with whom we interacted, described how their day usually begins with prayer followed by domestic chores and ends with the same prayer at the end of the day. Sometimes they tend to miss the wajib (obligatory prayer) because of the gendered nature of domestic work. The way the houses are built and maintained with flags atop of it, is very much related to their conception of the sacred and the profane. Although the pilgrimage to holy Mecca becomes a distant dream to our informants, it still shapes the eternal expectations and piety. In the case of Mithileshwari Nohayi, there are only a few Hajjis (who have performed the Hajj) and they told us how careful and considerate they are after performing the Hajj to Mecca. The mosque has treatises (Fig.1.2) in which it prescribes the modalities of performing the Hajj including the circumambulation one does during the Hajj. As we mentioned earlier that people consecrate their houses with flags depicting the holy Medina, also suggests the strong prophetic tradition that informs their daily lives, and their perception of the sacred. Their idea of a year is also centred around waiting for festivals such as Milad U Nabi, Eid Ul Adha, Eid Ul Fitr. In other words, an entire year is anticipated around these festivals. 

In Mithileshwari Nohayi, a curious teenage boy and his mother welcome us into their  home. We ask her if she participates in the Vivah Panchmi festivities, “No, we don't, it's haraam”, she firmly replies. The young boy explains that it's risky to go because people might recognize and ask us to leave. We have heard this has happened before”. The older men of the mohalla gathered at the mosque confirm this. An elderly man in his 70s reminisced that he used to go to the Janaki temple to see the rituals and procession. But that is no longer possible. “The Indian virus is affecting the fabric of Hindu Muslims relationships”, a middle-aged man tries to explain to us. “Earlier Vivah Panchmi was a festival where everyone could participate but now anything related to Janaki Mandir is moving away from the Muslims. There was love and harmony but it's no longer the same. In some other districts Muslims are advanced, they send their children to schools so that they do government jobs. With education they reach their potential. They fight local elections and become ward president. But here there is an internal tussel. There is no education, if people are educated they are concerned about their generations. Here people just come and eat”.

The circulation of affect has its genealogy to the public sphere circumscribed by the exchange of hate and violence Muslims face in Janakpur as well as in India. Ethnography informs us how Muslims employ registers of speech which has its initial trace to what happens for Muslims in India. If one tends to locate the ethics of Muslims in Janakpur it is almost impossible to draw its boundaries to the region alone rather demands an attention to expand the scope of study. 

During our preliminary fieldwork in Janakpur we happened to meet Asghar Ali, a religious leader in the locality of  Rahim Path. Asghar Ali was mostly agitated throughout the conversation regarding the significance of a mosque next to the Ram Mandir in Janakpur. We discussed issues related to Hindu Majoritarianism in India and how much the Muslims in the neighbourhood were informed about this matter. As we were leaving, Asghar Ali asked one of the authors to stay back. He said that being a Muslim, the author will understand the situation in a much better and nuanced manner. Later he added “It is all because of Allah’s Shukur that things are happening well. You will better understand.” A first hand impression of this statement can be read in relation to the religious identity of the particular author and the normative way in which Asghar Ali identified the corresponding author as a Hindu from India. The authors understand Asghar Ali's statement as an act of affirmation, both as a citizen and as a religious person in Janakpur. He invites us to ask the immediate question: What does it mean to be a Muslim in Janakpur? What is his idea of Hinduism? Where does it come from and what kind of social relationship has he developed with the Hindu community? One cannot fully fathom this conversation unless we identify these registers of language and speech and their connection to what is happening in India.

Ethnographic scene 2

At our second site Dashrath Nagar near Pagla Dharamsala we met with Fayiza in her home. While the young researcher had political opinions originating from her fieldwork, Fayiza’s mothers observations were rooted in her more than a decade long lived experience in Janakpur. Fayiza’s mother repeatedly mentioned the ailments she had, including diabetes and many others, and cited names of Hindu doctors who helped her heal. She informed us how her doctors happily participated in the Eid celebrations on her invitation. But what exactly is the significance of this moment? Can we trace the genealogy of such a moment where it could be traced not only within the history of conflicts but rather in the ethical dispositions that Muslims have learned encountering hate speech and violence. For instance, while we were speaking to the elderly people at the mosque, Alam Bhai intervened in his firm voice about his encounter with the Hindu state. “Local politics and politicians have abandoned us. Earlier I used to go to the Janaki temple and see it from the inside but now the Hindu Samrat Sena is threatening the Muslims to stay away…”. This is similar to the experience of Fayiza’s mother. She recounted that she was active in local politics in the region and that the leadership used to involve people from different communities to discuss the organisation of festivals such as Vivah Panchami. It is also important to note that the cracks in Hindu-Muslim relationships became acutely visible during the Corona pandemic when the notions of shared space and cultural relationships were challenged. At tea shops Hindus would tell Muslims to go away. They were discriminated against as corona spreaders.

As the common public sphere shrank, how did Muslims perceive the role of the state in their daily lives? Fayiza, the 23-year-old researcher, is still processing the findings of her extensive fieldwork with Muslim communities in eight districts of Janakpur. Underscoring some of her findings, she mentioned that there are common concerns in different districts, such as education and development. She also mentioned how religious leaders conceptualize the role of citizenship in relation to the state in their daily lives. Fayiza mentioned that in one of the districts, "Maulvi Saheb told us that the government should help us by appointing teachers in madrasas and imams in masjids. There is no political leadership for the Muslims. They face problems for basic things like getting a birth certificate and so on".

The authors understand the Maualvi's statement about getting a birth certificate as related to the idea of being a citizen, but it is also important to note how the state is perceived at the level of being a Muslim in terms of fulfilling one's religious leadership duties. Because normally it's the ulema who would appoint the imams, but in this case it's the other way around, the Maulavi sahab expects the state to pay attention to these matters. Our interest here is to see the negotiations that take place in this context between the Maulvi as a religious leader and the state. In the middle of the conversation, she also told us that there is a fear among the Muslims because they are in the minority. In her words, "Even if they have good relations with the Hindus, there is no guarantee that things will not go wrong.

Our ethnographic encounters at the outskirts and in the central part of Jankapur, shows a pattern of peripheral relationships and marginal position of Muslims, their struggle for equal citizenship rights and a quest to maintain cultural ties with the city of Janakpur that they call home. The absence and invisibilization of these questions, concerns and fears in the overarching Hindu identity of Janakpur necessitates a deeper anthropological engagement with the community. In a lecture given by Anthropologist Sasanka Parera as part of the Winter School held in Janakpur city in 2024, he said that when we talk about placemaking through pilgrimage we should not only focus narratives that corroborate the idea of place but we need to look at absent narratives that complicate the dominant notions and understanding of place. The name Janakpurdham, its significance in the Ramayana circuit with constructed temples, vivah rituals and pilgrimage assert the city's Hindu identity while erasing other socio-cultural identities such as the Muslims who have lived in Janakpur city and surrounding areas for generations. 

References

Das, Veena. 2011.  “Moral and Spiritual Striving in the Everyday: To Be a Muslim in Contemporary India” in Pandian, Anand and Ali, Daud. Eds. Ethical Life in South Asia. Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 232-252.

Fadil, Nadia, and Mayanthi Fernando. 2015. “Rediscovering the ‘Everyday’ Muslim: Notes on Anthropological Divide”. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 5 (2):59-88.

Khan, Naveeda. 2012. Muslim Becoming: Aspiration and Skepticism in Pakistan. Duke University Press, Durham & London.

The authors would like to thank Dr. Sabin Ninglekhu and Dr. Renny Thomas for their support and guidance in completing and publishing this ethnographic piece