On 27 December 1963, Moi-e-Muqqadas, a holy relic believed by many to be a strand from the beard of Muhammad, went missing the from the Hazratbal Shrine in Jammu and Kashmir, leading to widespread protests across the Indian subcontinent.
The relic was recovered on 4 January 1964.
The relic was brought to India in 1635 by Syed Abdullah. It was then passed through his son Syed Hamid to a Kashmiri businessman named Nooruddin. In the late 17th century, the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb imprisoned Nooruddin and seized the relic, moving it to the Sufi tomb in Ajmer. Aurangzeb returned the relic in 1700 after Nooruddin had died. The relic was preserved by his descendants and kept in a place that later became the Hazratbal Shrine. [1]
On 27 December 1963, news broke out that the holy relic was stolen from the shrine. Around 50,000 people carrying black flags demonstrated in front of the shrine. [2] According to The Times of India , the Srinagar superintendent of police said that he believed that the theft had occurred around 2 am when the custodians of the shrine were sleeping. [2]
The next day, the Chief Minister of the state, Khwaja Shams-ud-Din, reached the shrine and announced an award of ₹ 100,000 for providing information regarding the theft. On 29 December, a curfew was imposed and police arrested the Congress leader Mohammad Shafi Qureshi. To investigate the theft, on 31 December, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru sent the head of the Central Bureau of Investigation, Bhola Nath Mullik, to Kashmir. [2] Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq set up the Sacred Relic Action Committee, of which he was the president. [3]
On 4 January 1964, the relic was recovered, and the Sadr-i-Riyasat Karan Singh organised prayers at a Hindu temple to help dispel communal tension. [4] The relic was inspected and identified by Sayyid Meerak Shah Kashani as being genuine. Shah Kashani said he had seen the relic many times and could easily identify it. [5]
Sayyid Meerak recited a poem: [5]
The Garden is bright with the light of Muhammad
The light of Muhammad is reflected in every flower and every plant.
— Sayyid Meerak, [5]
When Mullick informed Nehru about the recovery, Nehru said to Mullick that "you have saved Kashmir for India". In his memoirs, Mullick claims that the information about the investigation was not disclosed. The Home Minister of India, Gulzarilal Nanda, also said in the parliament that the thieves "shall be identified". [6]
On 17 January 1964, he named the three people who were arrested for the theft. They included three Kashmiri Muslims namely, Abdul Rahim Bandey, Abdul Rashid and Kadir Butt. The latter was believed to have affiliations with the Pakistan, Nanda said.
Identification by its caretakers and other investigation made by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir (law and order), special identification team says its authenticity is indeed original. Post identification, a public deedar ("viewing") of the Holy relic was organized on 6 February coinciding with the anniversary of martyrdom of the fourth Caliph of Islam, Ali bin Abu Talib. [7] [8]
The incident triggered riots and ethnic cleansing of Hindus in East Pakistan. [9] Hundreds of thousands of Hindu refugees poured into India between December 1963 and February 1964 as a result of the violence. [10] The stories of atrocities told by these refugees caused violence and rioting against Muslims in Calcutta in the Indian state of West Bengal. [6] [9] Thousands of Christian tribals were also evicted later from East Pakistan and arrived in India as refugees. [9]
A fictionalized version of the incident is the subject of Salman Rushdie's short story "The Prophet's Hair" (1981).
Srinagar is a city in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region. It is the largest city and summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, which is an Indian-administered union territory. It lies in the Kashmir Valley along the banks of the Jhelum River, and the shores of Dal Lake and Anchar Lakes, between the Hari Parbat and Shankaracharya hills. The city is known for its natural environment, various gardens, waterfronts and houseboats. It is also known for traditional Kashmiri handicrafts like the Kashmir shawl, papier-mâché, wood carving, carpet weaving, and jewel making, as well as for dried fruits. It is the second-largest metropolitan area in the Himalayas.
The history of Kashmir is intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent in South Asia with influences from the surrounding regions of Central, and East Asia. Historically, Kashmir referred to only the Kashmir Valley of the western Himalayas. Today, it denotes a larger area that includes the Indian-administered union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, the Pakistan-administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, and the Chinese-administered regions of Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract.
Events in the year 1964 in the Republic of India.
The tomb of Jesus refers to any place where it is believed that Jesus was entombed or interred before being resurrected.
Khwaja Shams-ud-Din was the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir for a brief period of time from 12 October 1963 to 29 February 1964. He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1956 and re-elected in 1962, 1967 and 1972. It was during his administration, on 26 December 1963, that the Prophet's Relic was stolen from the Hazratbal Shrine. Weeks after that incident, he was replaced by Ghulam Mohammed Sadiq.
Dal lake, originally known as Sureshvari Dal, is a lake in Srinagar, the summer capital of the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region. It is an urban lake, the second largest lake in Jammu and Kashmir, and the most visited place in Srinagar by tourists and locals. It is integral to tourism and recreation in the Kashmir valley and is variously known as the "Lake of Flowers", "Jewel in the crown of Kashmir" or "Srinagar's Jewel". The lake is also an important source for commercial operations in fishing and water plant harvesting.
The Kashmir conflict is a territorial conflict over the Kashmir region, primarily between India and Pakistan, and also between China and India in the northeastern portion of the region. The conflict started after the partition of India in 1947 as both India and Pakistan claimed the entirety of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is a dispute over the region that escalated into three wars between India and Pakistan and several other armed skirmishes. India controls approximately 55% of the land area of the region that includes Jammu, the Kashmir Valley, most of Ladakh, the Siachen Glacier, and 70% of its population; Pakistan controls approximately 30% of the land area that includes Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan; and China controls the remaining 15% of the land area that includes the Aksai Chin region, the mostly uninhabited Trans-Karakoram Tract, and part of the Demchok sector.
The Hazratbal Shrine, popularly called Dargah Sharif, is a Muslim shrine located in Hazratbal locality of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, India. It contains a relic, Moi-e-Muqqadas, the blessed hair of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It is situated on the northern bank of the Dal Lake in Srinagar, and is considered to be Kashmir's holiest Muslim shrine.
The Roza Bal, Rouza Bal, or Rozabal is a shrine located in the Khanyar quarter in downtown area of Srinagar in Kashmir, India. The word roza means tomb, the word bal mean place. Locals believe a sage is buried here, Yuz Asaf, alongside another Muslim holy man, Mir Sayyid Naseeruddin.
Kashmiriyat is the centuries-old indigenous tradition of communal harmony and religious syncretism in the Kashmir Valley in Indian-administered Kashmir. Emerging around the 16th century, it is characterised by religious and cultural harmony, patriotism and pride for their mountainous homeland of Kashmir.
The Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir or Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir (JIJK) is an Islamic political party based in the city of Srinagar in the Indian administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is distinct from the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. The organisation's stated position on the Kashmir conflict is that Kashmir is a disputed territory and the issue must be sorted as per UN or through tripartite talks between India, Pakistan and representatives of Kashmir.
Mohammad Abbas Ansari was a separatist political leader and a well known Shia Muslim scholar, reformer, preacher and cleric from Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. He was known for his religious lectures and as a Kashmiri separatist, ex-chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, also founder & chairman of the Ittihadul Muslimeen also known as Jammu & Kashmir Ittihadul Muslimeen (JKIM) a Kashmiri nationalist Shia separatist political party which aims for Shi'a–Sunni unity in Kashmir & independence of Jammu and Kashmir from India through peaceful struggle. He is considered a moderate and has called for an end to violence in that region. He is Succeeded by his son Maulana Masroor Abbas Ansari.
The Imamiyya-Ridhawiyya-Mahdawiyya-Qadiriyya-Naqshbandiyya-Ishaniyya Line of Succession also known as the Sayyid ul Sadatiyya, is a cognatic Sunni line of hereditary succession to Prophet Muhammad and vice-gerency of the 12th Imam Muhammad ibn Hasan al Mahdi in occultation. It is an Orthodox-Sunni school with a central emphasis on the teachings of the Muslim Saint Sayyid Mir Jan. It is furthermore the hereditary line of supreme leadership (Ishaniyat) over the Naqshbandi Sufi Order. The line is also called the Qadiriyya wa Naqshbandiyya hereditary line of succession to Prophet Muhammad and representation of the 12th Imam, differing from the Twelver-Shia tradition in honor of the eponymous ancestors the Hanbali Imam Sayyid Abdul Qadir Gilani and his cognatic descendant the Hanafi Scholar Sayyid Bahauddin Naqshband.
The 1964 East Pakistan riots refer to the massacre and ethnic cleansing of Bengali Hindus from East Pakistan in the wake of an alleged theft of what was believed to be the Prophet's hair from the Hazratbal shrine in Jammu and Kashmir in India. The salient feature of the pogroms was its urban nature and selective targeting of Bengali Hindu owned industries and merchant establishments in the capital city of Dhaka. This resulted in unending waves of Bengali Hindu refugees in neighbouring West Bengal. The refugee rehabilitation became a national problem in India, and hundreds of refugees were resettled in Dandakaranya region of Odisha & Madhya Pradesh.
Ziyarat Naqshband Sahab is a Sunni Muslim shrine, or ziyarat, in Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is one of the traditional Mausoleums of the Hazrat Ishaans, who are descendants of Bahauddin Naqshband and Mughal royals. Besides the Ziyarat Naqshband Sahab in Srinagar, Kashmir, the Hazrat Ishaans have a Ziyarat in Lahore in Begampura.
Khanqah-e-Moula, also known as Shah-e-Hamadan Masjid and Khanqah, is a mosque located in the Old City of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, India. Situated on the right bank of the river Jhelum between the Fateh Kadal and Zaina Kadal bridges, it was first built in 1395 CE, commissioned by Sultan Sikendar in memory of Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani. It is held to be the first Khanqah—mosques associated with specific saints—in the Kashmir valley. It is one of the best examples of Kashmiri wooden architecture, and is decorated with papier mache.
Seer Hamdan is a town in the Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir in India. It has a population of 20,233 people.
The Aasar-i-Shareef Pethmakhama, popularly called Ziyarat Makhama, is a Muslim shrine located in Pethmakhama, Magam, Budgam, Jammu and Kashmir, India. It contains a relic, Moi-e-Muqqadas, which is widely believed to be the hair of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It is situated at Pethmakhama which is nearest to Magam Town of Budgam District and is considered to be one of the Kashmir's holiest Muslim shrine.
Sayyid Meerakh Shah Kashani, properly known as Faqir-i-Milat, was a Sufi poet and 19th - 20th century spiritual leader. He is among the founders of Anjuman Tableeg ul Islam (ATI), first Sunni Muslim organisation in Jammu and Kashmir and Madinat Ul Uloum institute. He was related to the Sufi orders of Qadiriyya, Naqshbandi, Kubrawiya and Chishti Order.
Inayatullah Kashmiri was a prominent Mughal noble of Kashmiri descent in the early 1700s, in the position of the Diwan-i-Tan-o Khalisa.