Shiite Men’s Guilds of Hyderabad: An Overview

Abstract

Initially it was difficult for me to learn much about the guruhan; the first few people I consulted were well-to-do, educated Sunnis and Shiites, who dismissed these organizations as composed of ignorant uneducated men who knew nothing about the true nature of Islam or the forms of worship actually required by the religion. When I pressed such critics for their specific objections, they singled out the unnecessary emotion and violence with which—according to these critics—the associations perform acts of self-mortification in public. Of course many of the practices related to Muharram in general have repeatedly been criticized by some educated Shiites, and foreign visitors have occasionally encountered a reluctance to discuss Muharram ritual on the part of those Muslims who feel such practices have nothing to do with orthodox Islamic observances. Sir Richard Temple, British Resident at the court of the nizam of Hyderabad, made the following entry in his journal under the date of May 14, 1867:

In the evening I went out driving to see the tazia processions by torchlight in Chadarghat. The usual crowds and detachments of the Nizam’s troops were present. About midnight the torchlight procession of the “Na’l Sahib” took place. I wrote to the Minister to know if it was worth seeing, but he replied that it was attended only by the lowest class of the population.¹