Custodianship of Shahidganj in colonial Lahore: Land, land use and the formation of religious community, 1850–1936

Abstract

This article presents the history of the administration and management of the Lahore Shahidganj, a site that was disputed between Muslims and Sikhs, from 1850 to 1936. Drawing on a rare and detailed record of land bequest, management of the Shahidganj site by its ‘unreformed’ Sikh mahants from 1850 to 1928, and representations by Anjuman-i Islamia and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), this article accounts for almost 100 years of history of development, use of and ambitions for this site. This highly textured account of personal and familial interests, urban land use and Sikh and Muslim shrine worship and orthodoxy at the Shahidganj is one of very few long-ranging studies of religious endowments in colonial India. The dispute over Shahidganj has largely been understood through the lenses of symbolic association and communal politics; this study complicates the understanding of formation of community at this place of worship in colonial north India by focusing on the nature and significance of custodial control over the site under colonial law and administrative practice. It demonstrates public participation and use of this religious site to be contingent on the rights and practices of custodians, both real and prospective. This article complicates the view that places of worship in colonial India were inherently accessible and supported the formation of religious publics, instead demonstrating how religious uses of the Shahidganj site were managed and deeply contested.