Harking Back: Land where the living continue to harass the dead

Everyone in Lahore knows about the Miani Sahib Graveyard. You never know who might end up there. My brother and my amazing grandmother both lie buried there. Centuries ago on its edges sat great sages like Guru Nanak and Bulleh Shah, to name a few, while their companions visited the old city.

Of recent the highest court of the land has been upset by what has happened to the “city of the dead”. In this piece we will explore its history, the people who lay buried there, and also the living who continue to threaten the dead. Located to the south of Lahore, this graveyard is first mentioned in accounts about the Ghori ruler Muhammad Shahabuddin (1149–1206), nearly 825 years ago, who was assassinated at Sohawa, near Gujar Khan, while praying most probably by Khatri Khokhars. He allegedly met some wise men in Lahore and set aside a lot of land for a graveyard and, allegedly, named it Miani Sahib. There are other claimants to the name, but this is the oldest I could find.

His slave Qutabuddin Aibak on taking power allocated 40,000 kanals, or 5,000 acres, so that Lahore could “for a thousand years have no problems with burials”. He did not know about ‘the land of the pure’. In a way the land allotment was to honour the memory of his mentor Muhammad of Ghor who had treated him so well. The oldest description about this graveyard when set up is that “from the village of Mozang to the banks of the River Ravi” is how it has been described. But then with time the river meandered westwards and the population grew at Mozang and Lahore.

The Mughals were the first to desecrate this graveyard when Emperor Shah Jehan set up the garden for his daughter Zebun Nisa Begum. The Chauburji monument that we know off was the western outlet to this huge garden and led to the edge of the river. To the east major portions of the graveyard were consumed by the Mughal passion for gardens. Making gardens on its own is a positive attribute, but not if it takes up the space of graveyards.

During the 92 years of turmoil that followed the death of Emperor Aurangzeb and the rise of Maharajah Ranjit Singh, we see major portions of the graveyard being consumed by the powerful of the land. Come the British and some demarcation took place. But then came 1947 and with the large number of people migrating to Lahore we see the setting up of Samanabad, which was entirely not only on the garden of Zebun Nisa, but on large portions of Miani Sahib graveyard.

But then we also see the GOR on Bahawalpur Road being built entirely on graveyard land, and the other smaller chunks of settlement flattening a lot of graves, including some historic ones. So the loot continues, that is till date when from 40,000 kanals what is left, officially, is a mere 1,206 kanals. A government report tells this can “manage 300,000 graves”. The committee that ‘administers’ the graveyard has a reputation no one savours. More and more graves are disappearing as smaller five-marla houses appear at the edges, and the edges seem to shrink.

But no matter how you look at the ‘dead’, the fact is that the poor and the rich of Lahore all end up at this place. Yes Sir, death is the ultimate leveller. But then while this may be true, it are the living who pose a threat any sane people would be ashamed of. That no longer is the case in Lahore. This place has consumed famous families like the Fakir family, who have a quiet portion to one side. So also have the Daultana and so it is with the Chisthi and the Sheikhs of Lahore. You think of any name, and his ancestors will be there. That is part of our history. Let me take up just one family to describe.

The Fakir family of Lahore migrated from Mecca to Bokhara over 800 years ago, where Syed Ghulam Mohyuddin became famous for his piety and learning. His off-springs migrated initially to Chiniot and in the reign of Maharajah Ranjit Singh they moved to Lahore. The brothers Imamuddin, Azizuddin and Nuruddin soon established themselves in the court of the Sikh ruler. Fakir Nuruddin’s sons also established themselves as scholars in the Sikh court as it disintegrated. Since then, in every era, they have carried themselves with grace and distinction as is the wont of this family tradition.

This impressive family has a corner for which they had paid in years gone by, and it was surrounded by a small wall. But then they discovered that portions of it were being sold off by dicey bureaucrats. The same was the case with the Daultana family, and others. I have no hesitation in saying that the grave of my grandmother, granddaughter of Maulvi Noor Ahmad Chisthi, writer of ‘Tehkikat-e-Chisthi’ has also disappeared and sold to a shopkeeper. The LDA now seems to have taken over and has started selling off land. These actions prompted a ‘mureed’ of a saint, whose own tomb has been threatened, to approach the court.

There is a saying that justice is blind, and in the case of a graveyard, even though once the largest in Asia and of immense cultural value, it remains the living who threaten the dead. Just how can any authority sell off land set aside so long ago for the dead? Now they have started, as a massive cover-up, knocking down small walls within the graveyard to show the judges that they are “following their orders”. It seems they want to fool the judges. It is a right royal mess without doubt.

Now a division bench of the Lahore High Court has ‘stayed’ wall demolition and is trying to understand just what is happening. It is a complex matter which has thrown up a lot of questions. Are old graves going to be flattened? Are set aside spaces to be confiscated for which payments were made decades, if not centuries, ago. What will happen to spaces sold very recently by a corrupt LDA who, for some very strange reason, took away power from the Miani Sahib Administration Committee, set up by law under the Miani Sahib Graveyard Ordinance, 1962, which very clearly defined the boundaries of this historic resting place of our ancestors?

This piece is not about what the law says, or even how the highest courts of the land will, or should, interpret whatever laws are laid down. It is about the feelings of a whole city, and of those generations who came before us, and even before them, and back in history as far back as memory goes. Crimes against the dead have been committed by the rulers over the last 800 years plus. But a line has to be drawn and once drawn all houses, shops or other areas taken over illegally, even if paid for, should be returned to the Miani Sahib Graveyard. That is the least that can be done for the dead. Sadly, only the living can do that.