Jhulelal- A Fluid Identity

‘He whom you call Allah and my people call Krishna, are but one and the same!’... ‘Jhulelal’ Lal Shahbaz Qalandar

Lal Shahbaz Qalandar Shrine in Pakistan, 

Photo Courtesy (https://www.wikiwand.com/)

We are all aware of the famous song, “Lal Meri Pat.” In the song’s refrain, the line goes, “Jhule lal, Jhule lal, Mast Qalandar, Jhule lal.” The word “Jhule lal” means “swinging red,” popularly referring to the associations between Lal Shahbaz and his red cloak. However, the term equally refers to the deity Jhulelal. Jhulelal was a water deity who was said to have emerged from the Indus River in the form of a ‘palla’ fish.  When Lal Shahbaz Qalandar travelled to Sindh in the 1200s, he did not define himself as Muslim (just as Jhulelal did not call himself Hindu). Lal Shahbaz’s stories became entangled with those of Jhulelal’s.

Hindus look upon him as their saint - their incarnation of the god, and Muslims look upon him as a Sufi saint. While Muslims revered Lal Shahbaz as a saint, Hindus saw him as an incarnation of Jhulelal.

Jhulelal goes by several names: Udero Lal (meaning “the one who has sprung from the water”, Varundev, Dariya Lal (the Red River), Zinda Pir (the Living Saint), and Lal Sai. His most popular name, Jhulelal, comes from a story of his crib swinging by itself, hence the word “jhula,” meaning “swinging,” attached to him as a nickname. Varundev is a common identity in the Karachi area, as Udero Lal was considered a reincarnation of the Vedic deity Varuna, the god of the river. The Sri Varundev Mandir on the island of Manora in Karachi is devoted to the worship of the Hindu deity Varuna, including all of his reincarnations.

Jhulelal is not a regular Hindu/Sindhi/Sufi/Islamic deity. For one, Jhulelal or Daryalal is known and worshipped in many forms, across religious sects. Although there are several tales of Jhulelal known across Sindh and the global Sindhi diaspora, there is a complex synergy between Jhulelal, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar of Shehwan, Shaikh Tahir of Uderolal and Khwaja Khijr, worshipped at different times by different groups. The link that connects these deities and saints is singular: The Indus River. Jhulelal is a part of the Daryapanthi or Daryahi sect which worships the Indus, a form of river or water worship that may have its origins dating back to the ancient Mohenjo-daro civilisation.

Jhulelal and the composite sect of saints are also known interchangeably as the Zinda Pir or Jind Pir: The Living Saint.

How did Jhulelal become a saint of the Muslims?

He is said to have appeared on the island of Khwaja Khizr near Sukkur, in Sindh, to save a Muslim woman who was coveted by a Hindu king. He is said to have finally disappeared from the village of Jahejan, later renamed as Udero Lai, where he had asked his followers to build two sanctuaries in the same complex: One for his Hindu followers, a samadhi, and another one for his Muslim followers, a “qabr”.

This wonderful symbiosis of religions under the guardian saint singing in the Sindhi language lasted for three centuries and moulded the personality of the Sindhi man who will not drop a reference to a Hindu god merged in the personality of the saint of Sehwan. The song has been rendered into Punjabi too and now invades the vast territory of Punjab. The singers of “Jhulelalan”, like Abida Parveen, have become legends in Pakistan. Sindhis all over the world greet each other with the words, “Jaikochavando Jhulelal thenjathinda Beda-Paar” (Jhulelal will lead you towards success)”.

However the Sunni orthodoxy of northern Pakistan, strengthened by their participation in jihad, began to dominate Pakistan’s ideology in the 1980s. Sunni madrasas, enriched by jihad, began to penetrate Sindh to “set it right”; and today threaten the foundations of the pluralist culture of Sindh, particularly by allowing forcible marriages of Hindu girls to Muslims. The mausoleum of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan Sharif was targeted again and again as Muslims and Hindus sang and danced together at the shrine. In February 2017, a “suicide” bombing at the shrine killed 88, including women and children. The attack was carried out by the Islamic State (ISIS), the Sunni terrorist gang born in Iraq to avenge the rise of the Shia majority there. Its presence in Pakistan together with al Qaeda threatens the way of life of the Pakistani people, as shown by this attack, carried out by a local Muslim converted to violence. Not long ago the mausoleum of Data Ganj Bakhsh was suicide-bombed in Lahore, where not long ago Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims lived peacefully together and accepted the mystic saint as the guardian spirit of the city.

A bridging Prophet- Jhulelal

Jhulelal laid stress on unity, on the supremacy of intelligence and of the intellect, and on breaking down the barriers of caste and creed. To promote and ensure this unity, the Sindhis celebrate the day of Cheti Chand and refer to it as 'Sindhiat' day, sacred to all Sindhis, be they Hindus or Muslims. On this auspicious day, fairs are organised all over the country, where people get together. They sing and dance; they eat and drink sweet drinks of milk mixed with pounded poppy seeds and ground almonds. They sing penjiras (series of couplets in praise of the River God) and Arti, songs that express their love of, and praise for Jhulelal.

Today, Sind is no longer shown on the map of India, for it is now a part of Pakistan. Yet Sind is everywhere. Wherever the Sindhis are, Sind lives and breathes, a vivid and vital thing, for everywhere the Sindhis have held aloft the banner of their individual identity, even though they have merged with the people of the areas in which they live.

Deity of Jhulelal, worshipped by Sindhi Hindus 

(Photo Courtesy- http://www.sindhishaan.com/)

A YouTube Video link to the song 'Laal Meri Pat' sung and recreated at Coke Studio

 References-

• Jhulelal or Zinda Pir: Of river saints, fish and flows of the Indus (Scroll.in)

• Jhulelal: The God of the Indus (https://www.livehistoryindia.com/)

• Jhulelal (Sufism) - OER2Gooer2go.org