The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c12.s6.4

c12.s6.4

Jafar Sharifs description of the Muharram scene for the eighteenth-nineteenth century is still more detailed. Writes he: Whenever the Muharram chances to coincide with Hindu festivals, such as the Ramnavmi or the birth of Rama, the Charakhpuja, or swing festival, or the Dasahra, serious riots have occurred as the processions meet in front of a mosque or Hindu temple, or when an attempt is made to cut the branches of some sacred fig-tree which impedes the passage of the cenotaphs. Such riots, for instance occurred at Cuddapa in Madras in 1821, at Bhiwandi in the Thana District, Bombay, in 1837. In the case of some disturbances at Hyderabad, it is said that Hindus, who act as Muharram Faqirs (who erect them, *Tazias*, themselves and become *Faqirs* during Muharram), sometimes take the part of Mussulmans against their coreligionists.⁷⁴