Women of the Empire at Ajmer's Dargah: Negotiating Sacred and Civic at a Prominent Sufi Pilgrimage Site, 1900–1920

Abstract

This article examines the experiences of four colonial and imperial women at the Sufi tomb complex of Muin al-Din Chishti (d.1236 CE) in Ajmer during the latter years of British Raj in India. It specifically looks at the ways in which pre-modern sacred sites and their male custodians were implicated in various municipal and legal apparatuses of the early twentieth century through petitions, complaints and patronage of women as pilgrims, visitors or family members. We first look at the complaints of a courtesan from Lucknow, who petitioned the British Government to claim maintenance from the Sajjada-Nashin (the biological descent of the Sufi saint buried there). Then we move on to Muslim lady who complained to the colonial officials about being tortured and ill treated by her Sufi in-laws. The third incident pertains to the wife of the British Chief Commissioner of Ajmer, whose molestation by Khadims (keepers of the shrine) was deftly brushed under the carpet by the local administration. The fourth is Queen-Empress Mary herself, who granted royal patronage to the shrine by donating money which was then used to build an ablution tank and called the Victoria Tank. Tracing these fragmentary stories of their visits, this article argues that colonial and imperial women negotiated parallel forms of spiritual and political authorities at sacred spaces in order to fulfil their personal and public obligations. Their encounters with the bustling burial complex, its keepers and administrators also urge us to ponder on broader issues of gender, sexuality and race as they played out in such significant nodes across colonial South Asia.