Monumental effort

Reema Abbasi’s “Historic Temples Of Pakistan: A Call to Conscience” documents the country's pluralistic heritage

July 27, 2014 06:58 pm | Updated July 28, 2014 12:06 pm IST - New Delhi

Author Reema Abbasi at IIC in New Delhi. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar.

Author Reema Abbasi at IIC in New Delhi. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar.

For Pakistan-based writer and journalist Reema Abbasi, the last decade has been spent in the pursuit of a “utopia called pluralism.” Like all utopias, hers has also been shaped by a hostile present — one that threatens the past as much as the future. The battle, she says, “is to free hope from the fringes of the conscience and consciousness; erase malignant apathy; to rescue Islam’s secular values from Islamism, and to celebrate divinity by pledging consecration for its prime avatar — Humanity.”

With her new book, “Historic Temples Of Pakistan: A Call to Conscience”, she accomplishes all these. A labour of love and conviction, the book presents a side of the country not many would be familiar with.

Published by Niyogi Books, the book travels through the four provinces of Pakistan — Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh — detailing their landscapes, local populations and temples as well as their keepers. Also incorporated are asides about the celebration of Hindu festivals, and an idol maker in Sindh. These accounts are supplemented with nearly 400 photographs by Madiha Aijaz, the writer’s companion in a year of travels to these sites, as well as archival research. Such dedication might seem misplaced, or even astound, but as Abbasi says, “History is worth worshipping in itself”.

Some of these sites are the 1500-year-old Panchmukhi Hanuman Mandir in Karachi, “perhaps the only shrine on the globe that houses a natural, non-manmade idol of Hanuman...” and one of the few to survive the onslaught on temples in the area that followed the demolition of Babri Masjid; Katas Raj in Chakwal district in Punjab, considered one of the holiest sites of Hindusim for being a place of refuge for the Pandavas for four of their 14 years in exile; the Kalka Cave Temple in Arore, Sindh, where devotees testify to the power of the deity. “These sites are imbued with so much faith and history that they are naturally valuable to all. They have a pull which we witnessed,” says Abbasi.

Madiha Aijaz, who has been interested in photographing rituals and understanding what they signify, says, “My primary concern was to capture the architectural value, and the diversity of the communities who visit. There’s Sindhis, there’s Maharashtrians, there’s Balochis, there’s all kinds of different communities visiting. To be able to show that cross section required multiple visits, multiple permissions.”

The writer says the journey to these sites was surprisingly obstacle-free. “One would assume that it was the influentials who were helping us but actually we were facilitated by the people who were part of the community there...We were just taken into the fold and really welcomed.” Aijaz adds, “We worked in a guerrilla style, the two of us. I would carry my lenses, tripod lights and we’d just walk up a mountain or go under a cave.”

Although Abbasi has consistently upheld the ideals of secularism in her writings, recent events have lent the book a greater urgency. Earlier this year, a temple in Sindh was burnt down by extremists. Last year saw over 500 Hindus fleeing the country. In this atmosphere of communal discord, the temples documented in the book stand as a sobering reminder of the pluralistic heritage of Pakistan. “Not only are they vestiges of ancient lore in Hindu mythology, they also stand like warriors of Time; pitted testaments of a peaceful, pluralistic past,” the author writes.

Through the book, the writer says she is issuing a call to the nation’s collective conscience.

“We have to respect and preserve and take forward a society that answers all calls to prayer, and gives them the same kind of importance. Basically, I am talking about the supremacy of all faiths and not a single faith.”

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