In anthropological methods, life stories are a reliable source of evidence about the cultural patterns of a community and society. The autobiography of Professor Ruchi Ram Sahni also gives a glimpse of pre-colonial Punjabi society, primarily the Hindu community and how it was changing in the early years of the British rule.
D.I. Khan of the 1860s was a small town (its population was 31,700 in 1901). The Muslims were a majority, with a population of 18,700, whilst Hindus were a sizable minority with population of 11,500 in 1901. Obviously the population was even smaller in the 1860s at the time of Professor Sahni’s childhood. The autobiography is mostly focused on the community life of Hindus – both in D.I. Khan and Lahore.
Hindus dominated the businesses and indigenous banking (Sahukara) of D.I. Khan, which was on the trade route between India and Afghanistan. Annually nomadic Afghan tribes (Pawandas) brought wood, fruits, gold and other goods from Central Asia and on their return took wheat, cloth and hides from India. The town was also a river port at the Indus, sending boatloads of goods for export to Karachi and Shikarpur. Sahni’s grandfather came from Bhera, starting business as a cloth merchant. Under his father, the business grew into a major commodity trade and banking establishment.
Overall Sahni observes that there was a high level of communal harmony and tensions, if they ever surfaced, were more often between Shias and Sunnis than Hindus and Muslims
The pre-colonial society of D.I Khan consisted of caste and denominational communities, which were relatively self-contained and organised around their respective moral orders and customs. It was a stable and orderly society locally, despite the political upheavals of Afghan invasions, the collapse of the Mughal Empire and the Sikh rule ending up with the British conquest and colonialism.
Muslims and Hindus lived in their respective quarters (mohallas) with separate Bazaars, each divided into castes and clans. These communities were not entirely static. There was some mobility across towns and villages and occupations, as Sahni’s grandfather’s migration from Bhera suggests. Individual tutors, Pundits for Hindus and Maulvis/Hafizes for Muslim children, historically dispensed education. The trades were learnt by apprenticeship. The Christian missionaries (1861) came with British rule and they started a middle school.
The British rule also established a modern bureaucracy for revenue collection, enforcement and adjudication of laws and public health. As an example of the British administration Sahni writes that Waziri tribesmen used to raid the town and loot stores, resulting in periodic violence. The Deputy Commissioner, instead of starting a battle, built an inn for them outside the town, where they were served food and entertained with sports. It helped contain them.
The Hindu community in D.I. Khan had a seasonal rhythm of fairs, Ram Leelas (religious dramas on the life of Krishna) and picnics on the river, usually sponsored by rich merchants. The poor neighbours were admitted to these private entertainments at the pleasure of sponsors. “The Mohammadans never joined and, indeed, would not have been admitted”. Probably Muslims neither expected nor desired to be included. The two communities kept to themselves, interacting in the market and with occasional personal friendships. Sahni’s father partnered with a Muslim friend experimenting to convert base metals into gold — a fantasy of those times. Overall Sahni observes that there was a high level of communal harmony and tensions, if they ever surfaced, were more often between Shias and Sunnis than Hindus and Muslims.
Ruchi Ram Sahni in the 1940s, Lahore
The missionary middle school was the first modern educational institution. Yet when three Hindu boys were converted to Christianity, the Hindus withdrew their children from the school and proceeded to found their own school, funded by a communal levy on traders in the grain market. Hindu and Sikhs were more willing to pursue education. They had many times higher literacy rates than Muslims, as per the Imperial Gazetteer of India, North-West Frontier Province (1900s). The autobiography alludes to many Hindu erstwhile citizens of D.I. Khan who joined judicial or revenue departments of the Punjab government.
Institutions of (British) modernity
The middle-western Punjab from Darya Khan to Sahiwal was a barren tract during the times when Professor Sahni was growing up. There were no railways and roads, which often initiated change. And without those the old order remained strong. The camel ride from Indus to Jhang was a well organised means of travel, charging one rupee and four annas per person riding in the Kajawah carrying four passengers on the back of a camel. It occurs to me that passengers could not have observed religious or caste taboos about sharing the ride. Even in the customary system, there would have been exceptions to rules.
Lahore was another matter. It was the capital and the historic centre of empires that had ruled over the Punjab. It was a multicultural place. The British rule was the latest of the empires. Yet it turned out to be most transformative on account of the ideas, technologies and institutions that it brought.
Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs of Lahore had their respective Mohallas and Bazaars, but given the urban interdependencies and proximity, they were not as segregated from each other as in D.I. Khan. Ruchi Ram Sahni’s Government High school was in the walled city, in a Sikh Haveli. His residence was in a guest house in a mixed neighbourhood. Later when he was a prosperous professor, his home was in the mixed neighbourhood of Bhati Gate, near Haveli Nau Nahal Singh (a restored building on the tourist circuit now).
Yet the walls of social segregation remained high. Even between the educated Hindus and Muslims, social mixing on a community basis was not practiced. Sahni writes that as late as the early 20th century, “at the Government House social parties Hindus (were seated) in an enclosure completely screened off from the view of non-Hindus. The arrangements were strictly in the hands of orthodox Hindus.” The centuries-old social segregation laid beneath the separatist nationalism that eventually led to the Partition of India.
The British introduced new institutions, occupations and activities, which were socially integrated, with some accommodations for religious sensitivities. Schools, colleges and public offices and services were generally neutral regarding caste and creed, though individuals’ private life was left to their choice of customs and beliefs.
Lahore began to have these new institutions immediately after the British conquest. Rang Mahal Mission School in the heart of the old city was founded in 1849, the year the British took over the Punjab. Government College Lahore, where Sahni studied, was established in 1864 and Punjab University chartered in 1882. These were the institutions where various communities came together. Lahore Water Works, to provide a piped water supply, was built in the walled city in 1882. It was meant to replace the wells as the source of water whose contamination contributed to the annual epidemic of cholera. The people took some time to take to the piped water, as there was general distrust of British intentions.
Anglophiles have long eulogised railways as the blessing of the Raj. Regardless of the motives of the British, it was an institution that transformed the landscape and greatly facilitated travel. It was also instrumental in changing the social structure; forging new occupations and creating new class alignments.
First, Professor Sahni hired a Muslim mistry for his workshop to repair and make laboratory apparatus. This mistry had worked in the Railway Workshop as a mechanic-turner. Later more workers were hired, mostly trained in the Railway Workshop. Second, my own observation of growing up in the Walled City is that a large number of men in my neighbourhood worked as blacksmiths, lathe operators and carpenters in the Workshop. The railway had changed the occupational profile of Muslim neighbourhoods long before l was born. My great-grandfather was among the first batch of Indian train guards, probably in the 1880s. So were many other relatives who were clerks, draughtsmen and foremen in the railway establishments. Lahore’s famous Brandeth Road foundries and machine shops were the spin-offs of the Railway Workshop.
Mohammad Qadeer is Professor Emeritus at Queen’s University, Canada. His recent books are Pakistan: Social and Cultural Transformations in a Muslim Nation (Vanguard, 2011) and Multicultural Cities: Toronto, New York and Los Angeles (University of Toronto Press, 2016). He may be reached at MQ35@hotmail.com
