From Sainthood to Saintly Kinship: How Claiming Saintly Kinship Is Structuring the Social and Patronage Relationships in Rural Punjab,Pakistan

Abstract

This article problematises ‘sainthood’ as a sacred spiritual construct by the understanding and appropriation of the same. We have examined claims of Chishti and Dhuddi biraderies (endogamous kinship groups) as spiritually elevated and socially superior groups based on our recent fieldwork in three villages in the district of Vehari, Punjab. We take a case study of Chishti biraderi’s claims of spiritual ascendency because of their descendance from Shaykh Farid (d. 1265 CE). Chishties’ position as chosen ones is contested by Dhuddi biraderi who claim their descendance from an equally famous Sufi saint Dewan Baba Haji Sher (d. 752 CE). Our research shows how claims of saintly kinship reflect the power struggle in rural Punjab where the appropriation of saintly kinship as well as contestations of similar claims are advanced by zamindar (land owner) patrons to reproduce their position of power and privilege.

Introduction

Sufism (term used to represent multiple forms of Islamic mysticism) holds an important place in rural Punjab, Pakistan, where socio-economic and political hierarchies dominate all aspects of social life. The rural landscape of Punjab is the locus of multiple socio-economic identities and associations like zamindars (land-owning class), kammis (landless artisan class), pirs (spiritual mentors) and mureeds (devotees) as broader socio-economic makers of rural Punjab. Among them, the most pervasive hierarchical manifestations are based upon ownership of land that marks the making of biraderies (endogamous groups), zaats (castes) and qaums (tribe, a term used interchangeably with biraderi and zaat). Daily use of these overlapping notions representing different forms of kinship affiliations is located in one’s intention to determine both closeness and distance. For example, when people want to talk about their immediate family they mostly refer to as tabbar (kin living together) or khandaan (lineage of inward kinship). However, people use different notions like biraderi, zaat and qaum when they have to invoke their comparatively distant kinship relations.

Apart from these close or distant kinship expressions, Punjab is also divided into another different type of socio-economic class that separates people into two broad categories of zamindars and kammis. Such a hierarchical arrangement is further consolidated in Punjab when zamindars are aligned with religiously elevated lineages of saints. Such a blend of spiritual lineages with socio-economic hierarchy poses serious questions to be explored when seen against the structures of kinship and patronage in rural Punjab. The process of patronage when seen in relation to land and state in Punjab dates back from 1300 AD to the present times (Eaton, 2009; Malik and Malik, 2017). Eaton’s (2009) evidence of Sufi saints in general and Baba Farid of Pakpattan in specific is directly relevant to the villages of study where Chishties are one important family and patron saints of the area. There is this strong feeling of reverence for Chishties (as noted by Eaton, 1982) because the villages of study are located almost 75 km from the mausoleum of the saint and then Chishties are also important zamindar patrons of the area. Similarly, the case study of the Dhuddi family is presented to show how saintly kinship plays an important role in a social and political sphere of competition. We introduce a detailed ethnographic layout of the villages of study and how the competition plays out in the following section of the paper.

However, it is important to understand first, how Sufism is seen as pivotal in Punjab as an important social aspect, which ‘during the last one thousand years, has penetrated all aspects of human life’ (Singh and Gaur, 2009: 2). During the colonial times, and to some extent even before that, the socio-political engineering process of Sufism was also appropriated to secure the political objectives of the Raj. British Raj ‘attempted to appropriate and manipulate Sufi tradition – its language and symbols, its sacred sites and heroes – for political gain’ (Rozehnal, 2010: 121). Therefore, there is a blend of the history of making claims of sainthood and saintly kinship on one hand, and socially shared representations of individuals in groups on the other hand. We have tried to understand how the appropriation of sainthood becomes a part of the larger Punjabi rural structure. The same legacy has entered the post-colonial state structures and political administration of Pakistan, where political structures have evolved with the evolution of state structure in Pakistan.

The historical division of land ownership categorises people first in broad categories of land-owning zamindars and landless professional artisan castes known in vernacular parlance as kammis. Within these broader categories, there lies another important and often ignored source of competition, that is, among the lineages of different Sufi saints. This paper is primarily contributing to the same aspect and problematises the traditional categorisation of rural Punjab. This paper brings forth an analysis of saintly kinship as an extension of the same competitive social structure which goes beyond the two broader categories of zamindars and kammis discussed extensively (see, for example, Ahmad, 1977; Ali, 2003; Alvi, 1995; Eglar, 2010; Gilmartin, 2012; Amjad, 2013). Historically, an important observation in this regard is the colonial discourse formation where convenient categorisations have been essentialised as fixed representative identities (Ibbetson, 1987; Rose, 1997). We find the so-called fixed identities, when coupled with structures of land ownership, giving shape to peculiar socio-economic and spiritual landscapes. But, the process also entails attendant claims and contestations not only of being zamindars but also of sainthood. Therefore, we situate appropriation of Sufi saints as an extension of micropolitics within given social and economic structures. Another interesting factor is kinship which can be understood as possession by making claims of saintly descendance and lineage. This, however, does not mean that the claims are extended only by those who hold control over Sufi shrines and claim saintly lineage directly from the said saint. The most interesting part of such operationalisation, in our case, comes from contention of the uninterrupted flow of Sufism where the status of zamindar has to compete with the corresponding status of zamindar saint – a process we refer to as becoming more equal in Punjab’s hierarchical social context.

What entails in the wake of this difference is the encompassment of ‘inequality’ as an evil, which ‘is nevertheless inevitable in certain domains’ (Dumont, 1980: 12). What is often disguised as equality represents the naturalisation of certain forms of inequalities as André Béteille (1994: 1010) reminds us, ‘when people say they value equality, they may not all mean the same thing’. This paradoxical relationship between equality and inequality, ideological equality and its practical aspects are central to the understanding of sainthood in rural Punjab. The relationship between equality and inequality as pointed out by Dumont (1980) and Béteille (1994), along with many other scholars (Dirks, 2001; Dumont, 1986; Guha, 2013; Togawa, 2002) is what informs our understanding to dig deeper into the institutions of sainthood and saintly kinship to understand why and how Sufis are appropriated by their claimants to legitimise and sustain their position of social superiority and spiritual elevation.

Instead of borrowing Eurocentric ideas of personhood (Fowler, 2004; Lukes, 1973; Riches, 2000; Strathern, 1992), a culturally informed and socially mediated sense of selfhood or personhood is regarded as an important paradigm that serves as the theoretical premise of the present article. Hamza Alvi (2001: 51) describes the idea of selfhood in Punjab as ‘subjective’ and ‘shared’ that transcends individuals. Selfhood and personhood in Punjab are similar to a collective enterprise socially formed and collectively lived especially by the privileged (social, economic and political) segment of society. Similarly, Lyon (2004) maintains that the ‘Punjabis are socially encouraged to relate to representatives of groups rather than as individuals’ (p. 70).

In this article, we present a case study of two zamindar families who claim their descent from two famous Sufi saints of southern Punjab, whose appropriation as a personal possession within respective bloodlines is analysed. The purpose of this article is to bring forth the difference between equality among different endogamous groups as an ideological commitment and the process of becoming more equal in Punjab where the meaning of equality as an elusive concept resides in its ability to evade any possibility of being fixed. We can see that evasion of any such fixity has been addressed not only in the literature concerning ambiguity within sainthood or societal Sufism (Ewing, 1983, 1988; Philippon, 2020; Werbner, 1996) but it has also been important for the general anthropological understanding of equality and/or inequality (Béteille, 1994; Koch, 2018; Tilly, 2001).

Given the complexity of the social order of rural Punjab, saintly kinship and Sufism play an important role that transcends the usual spiritualist claims, that is, spiritual guidance and training of the individuals on their way to unite with God. In our case, the saintly kinship claims provide political bases and patronage towards the clientele who also happen to be devotees, though not permanently but at least in transitory periods of political correctness. Therefore, the guiding questions that this article answers are as follows: how are spiritual positions and claims created, mediated and contested in rural Punjab? Also, what kinds of sources are used to make and contest claims providing legitimacy and social acceptance to the relational hierarchies and relations of inequalities?

While addressing the above questions, this article argues that sainthood is neither fixed nor sanctified when seen in the context of the everyday social life of rural Punjab. Instead of following the passivity of terminological expressions and theoretical debates, we bring in the claimants and contestants to enrich our discussion on the subject. To do so, this article presents ethnographic accounts of presumably spiritually elevated biraderies and the ways through which they organise themselves along with the means and methods of self-representation and strategies they employ to produce and sustain their legitimacy, while contesting similar claims made by others. In this manner, the traditional understanding of biraderi as a homogeneous social group (Ahmad, 1977; Ahmed and Amjad, 2013; Eglar, 2010; Javid, 2012; Lyon, 2013) is contested, while highlighting the intra-biraderi competition and struggles. Also, the traditional understanding of Sufism as the egalitarian social schema is challenged by this article by highlighting the contestations, claims and socially mediated legitimacy through which Sufism operates in the social settings of rural Punjab.

Schematically, this paper first sets the stage for Punjab’s social, cultural, economic and historical structures that lay the foundation for status and prestige in rural Punjab. In this part, we discuss the role of colonial political structures of land administration that played a historic role as one of the important markers of social hierarchies and identities. Since sainthood in rural Punjab is directly relevant to land-based social hierarchies, therefore, a brief provision of colonial land policies and administration as a context would help us diversify and demystify sainthood to show its competitive nature and innate political implications. The second part of the paper will discuss in detail the site of ethnography along with sources of data that inform the presented arguments. The final section analyses how spiritual positions and claims are created, mediated and contested in rural Punjab to show that sainthood and saintly kinship embody power struggles and institutions of socio-political inequality in the everyday life of Punjabi villages.

Biraderies, sainthood and political Sufism: a colonial legacy

An important aspect that helps us understand the economic and political aspects involved in Sufism, sainthood and biraderi is the colonial restructuring of the Punjabi society. Gilmartin (2012), while looking at traditional rural societies like Punjab in Pakistan, argues that genealogy was a ‘central organizing social and political principle of British policy in new British cultural and environmental order’ (p. 295). For him, the ‘diagnostic marker of these changes was the critical rise of biraderi’ in the new ‘settled agricultural society of the Punjab’ (Gilmartin, 2012: 295). Colonial social engineering instigated and sustained by British colonisers gave birth to economic hierarchies in Punjabi society which was a somewhat less hierarchical society in and before Mughal times. These hierarchies were not only economic but also social and religious where the role of hierarchy remains important in everyday Islam (Ahmad, 1966; Gautier and Levesque, 2020; Hussain, 2019; Lindholm, 1986). Similarly, colonial administration extended political and economic patronage as an empire with far-reaching socio-religious consequences (Robinson, 1998). Punjab’s biraderi-based property order is an intended and inevitable outcome of British colonisation where zamindars were at the top of the ladder with kammis as the lowest echelon of the social order (Gilmartin, 2012).

Focusing on the politics of sainthood is, therefore, an attempt to highlight the strong link between sainthood and larger societal structure mutually constituting and constitutive of each other. This dialectical relationship is referred to as politics of sainthood where the state tries to maintain control on the power of hereditary saints on one hand and keep the influence of saints intact on the other hand (Ewing, 1983). We argue that Sufism is not to be considered as a given or established category. Rather, sainthood is more than a mere religious category. It embodies authority, social elevation and righteousness by those who claim to be descendants of Sufis. The social construction and sustenance of sainthood, according to Boivin (2016: 3), is done through the ‘performance and display of authority’ in mundane affairs of life. In this sense, the relationship of biraderi, sainthood and saintly kinship is to be seen as a hierarchical order based on the cultural, social and political capital that each group, saint and claimant acquires over time by continuously reproducing and capitalising through claims to saintly kinship.

In rural Punjab, land ownership has been established as a principal source of livelihood that plays an important role in overall social organisation (Ahmad, 1970, 1977; Ali, 2003; Eglar, 2010). Gilmartin (1979: 7) argues that ‘in village communities’, control of land is a ‘major influence in providing cohesion and in determining the distribution of status and authority’. Taking a step further, this article extends the debate by bringing in the role of saintly kinship in issues related to equality, land-based hierarchies and the self-acclaimed elevated status of biraderies.

In our case, people in rural Punjab see themselves not as individuals but as biraderies. Accordingly, people make choices about equality and inequality to navigate their way through social structures. These biraderies are not formed solely by the relationship to the land (landowners or landless) but also by their claims to be descendants of Sufis. In such a case, we see Sufism as a religio-political terrain that signifies worldly concerns related to power, prestige and influence than equality, love, brotherhood and spiritual mentorship. Furthermore, the whole institution of Sufism and the practice of claiming saintly kinship, in our case, appear to be a complex interplay of economy, ideology, religion and social status. To use Ewing’s (1988) notion of ambiguity, this article finds that the complex arrangement of socio-political and economic interests creates deliberate ambiguity that ensures both stability and functioning of the system in favour of those who hold power. It is a complex social system embodying the interplay of economy, social position and ideology that plays a central role in society’s practice of Islam. This practice defines Sufism as a relation in which Sufi descendants became resources for their devotees to find solutions to the mundane problems of daily living, therefore, creating relationships of inequality, hierarchies and patronage.

Rural Punjab, sainthood and the social settings: introducing ethnographic landscape

The arguments presented in this article are based on ethnographic participation observations from 2016 to 2021. The main sites of participant observations were the villages of Khokhra, Amin Kot and Jagga, which are located in mauza (basic revenue unit) Khokhra where both devotees/clients and patrons/saints’ descendants reside. Chishti patron saint’s village which he owns is known as Jagga and Dhuddi patron saint family owns the village of Amin Kot. Furthermore, we have been visiting the shrines of Baba Farid of Pakpattan and Baba Haji Sher Dewan, attending Urs (the annual celebration of the death anniversary of the saint), regular meetings of the elders of biraderies, inter-and intra-biraderi conflict resolution gatherings, election campaigns, political and religious processions, ceremonies of marriages and deaths where most of the gift-exchange practices take place symbolising the cultural and/or political capital. In addition, the analysis is further informed by the archival records available with the Revenue Department of Punjab as well as in District Commissioner’s Office in Vehari. These archives included voters’ lists, ownership of land, election results, court cases, and genealogical or family trees of both the families representing each other’s claims and counterclaims.

Apart from participant observation, we have conducted 28 in-depth semi-structured interviews. With purposive sampling, participants were selected across a diverse range of socio-political hierarchies. This includes elders of the biraderies, their political supporters and candidates, intermediaries through which they run their mundane affairs, riaayas (landless clients who depend upon zamindars to live and till) as well as older people in both villages for oral historical accounts. This process, however, was not smooth given the nature of the conflict between the two biraderies. Despite our best efforts, we could not talk to Pir Muhammad Iqbal Chishti, the elder and leader of Chishti biraderi, as the first author of the study belongs to the Dhuddi biraderi. Due to the nature of competition between both families, it does not bode well to visit the village of competitor zamindar without serious need. The first family belongs to Baba Farid-ud-Din Ganj Shakar of Pakpattan whose claimants comprise Chishti biraderi, the second one belongs to Baba Haji Sher Dewan whose claimants comprise Dhuddi biraderi. Both Durbars are located in southern Punjab making both biraderies live side by side for centuries claiming spiritually elevated status vis-à-vis each other. Given the nature of the conflict and to respect the request for anonymity, all names of respondents in this research have been changed.

According to oral traditions, Baba Haji Sher Dewan is one of the oldest saints of South Asia and is believed to be a disciple of Hazrat Imam Hussain, grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). It is widely believed and propagated that Baba Haji Sher Dewan belongs to Dhuddi biraderi. However, Baba Farid of Pakpattan is a 12th-century Sufi mystic and saint whose recognition goes beyond Muslims. He is also considered to be a spiritual guide in Sikhism. He is one of the leading Sufis of the Chishti silsala (Sufi order) established in South Asia by another famous Sufi saint Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki. Despite having existence in different historical periods but with the same purpose, that is, spiritual guidance to the people and to introduce the teachings of love, companionship and equality to the wider public, descendants of Baba Haji Sher Dewan and Baba Farid engage in a somewhat competitive relationship where they struggle (symbolically as well as materially) to represent themselves superior while presenting the others as inferior. This difference is also spatially inscribed as the village of Jagga and its adjoining lands are primarily owned by the Chishti family headed by Pir Muhammad Iqbal Chishti. He is revered as a descendant of Baba Farid of Pakpattan, elder, and patron of the area. Due to his lineage, he is widely respected by the people of the area. Except for the members of Dhuddi biraderi, almost everyone would touch his feet out of respect when they meet and greet him. Similarly, the village of Amin Kot and its adjoining lands are owned by Dhuddi biraderi who present themselves as descendants of Haji Baba Sher Dewan with Zia Ahmad Khan as elder and patron of the area. Although touching the feet of the saint’s progeny is considered as giving respect to the saint, people on the side of the Dhuddi family would hesitate in general to show that kind of respect to the Chishti elder. As a case in point, we heard the riaaya of the Dhuddi family talking about the alleged arrogance of the Chishti elder while greeting people. They were of the view that no one needs to bow before a fellow human being referring to the devotees of the Chishti family.

Similar accounts of criticism against the competitors are also located in patterns of land ownership. For instance, both families are equal owing to their land ownership. If family land ownership is considered collectively then the Dhuddi family owns more than 400 acres of land and the Chishti family owns nearly 100 acres of land. Both families own their respective villages where their riaaya are dependent upon respective zamindar patrons for their housing needs and land to cultivate. This enables zamindars for patron-client relationships they have with their riaaya and the socio-political and economic capital that they employ to assert and extend their control and claims over the area. As equal as they may seem socially and politically, both families are engrossed in a constant struggle to elevate themselves from each other so that the influence can be extended to other villages. In doing so, they are permanently engaged in every process of electioneering, influencing state institutions (courts, police, district administrations, etc.) to extend patronage to their clients along with serving as social institutions to mediate local conflicts and family issues in their respective areas of influence. This way of embodying power and prestige is common in rural Punjab where zamindars mediate at the local level (Ahmad, 1977; Lyon, 2004, 2019; Mohmand, 2011; Martin, 2016).

According to colonial land records, historically, Chishti biraderi was not among the land-owning castes. In the 1870s, one of the elders of Dhuddi biraderi had to marry off his daughter to a man from Chishti biraderi because the Dhuddi elder did not have his daughter’s match within his biraderi. Originally, both the families were living as neighbours in Khokhra from which both families have migrated to their contemporary villages of Amin Kot and Jagga. As per Islamic inheritance laws, the land from the Dhuddi family was transferred to the Chishti family making the former a land-owning caste in the region. This serves as a so-called justification for the Dhuddi biraderi to look down upon Chishti biraderi and consider them inferior calling them faqirs (wandering mendicants) and beggars. This version of historical genealogy about the socio-economic standing of Chishties is, however, vehemently challenged and denied by the Chishti biraderi who claimed their landed heritage since the 12th century. Interestingly, these versions of family histories were neither esoteric nor peculiar to elders of the communities. Rather, these versions are shared across the socio-economic divide within the villages. In the case of Dhuddi biraderi, they also presented us with traditional genealogical family trees to support their superior status of land ownership. There was, however, no possibility to authenticate such genealogical trees about different biraderies as they usually are available with different details in different households of the same village.

Keeping in mind the contested and contradictory history, constant struggle to assert and extend their political power, and claims to respect by wider society, it is easy to understand why and how claims to sainthood and saintly kinship are important and what kinds of differences they can make in a setting of rural Punjab.

Although hierarchy is rejected in scriptural texts of Islam, undeniably, the practice has hardly been as egalitarian as one wishes it to be. Therefore, we see a ‘similar hierarchical logic is operative in the realm of Muslim shrines, in which the pure saint encompasses the impure temporal order’ (Basu, 1998: 118). This holds in our case as well where Sufism is realised as a hierarchy of social order influencing the claims and counterclaims of sainthood. Resultantly, we have broadened the realm of the hierarchical social order of Punjab by looking at shrines as embodying the saint beyond the shrine when coupled with biraderies such as Chishti and Dhuddi. It is necessary for the debate about the appropriation of the Sufi saint also because if confinement is considered as a possibility then the image of a saint as living charisma that remains available cannot be held. Thus, the making and unmaking of the claims about the appropriation of saints can potentially open up the contextualised debate, which helps in locating the domain in either of the binaries as purely spiritual connoting other-worldly and everyday reality as this-worldly.

Sainthood beyond the saint: descendants of saint and making of claims

Similar to most of the Sufi saints, Baba Farid of Pakpattan was also considered as the source of blessings, prosperity and spiritual purification for the people and the area (Eaton, 1982; Mubeen, 2016). People would come from far off places to visit him to seek his blessings both for this world and hereafter. His devotees hail from all classes of the society comprising both ordinary people as well as governors and rulers of South Asia. Claiming progeny of such an esteemed Sufi certainly elevates the social status of the claimant. With social prestige also comes economic and political capital to reproduce and sustain the position of power and privilege. The same power and privilege have always been a part of Chishti biraderi’s history and this remains quite visible in almost all forms of social, political and spiritual capital in the villages of the study. Therefore, claimants of sainthood and saintly kinship have assumed various roles throughout history sometimes as patron saints, rulers, feudal lords and frequently, as intermediaries mediating between the state and the society. Owing to their lineage, the elders of the Chishti biraderi not only inherited the landed estates but also their claim of superiority over other biraderies. Since Chishti biraderi is the bloodline of Baba Farid of Pakpattan, therefore, they believe that their status as more equals is to be respected, appreciated and reproduced by society at large. One of the elders from the Chishti biraderi in Khokhra village claims,

Chishties are like a blessing for Islam in the whole Indo-Pak region because their elders are sources of blessings not only to people in Pakistan but their blessings are lightening Hindus, Sikhs and people from all religious beliefs across the borders. Those who think that they can compete with Chishties should see how Sayyeds [descendants of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)] greet them [Chishties] knowing the role of their elders like Baba Farid, Khawaja Moeen Ud Din of Ajmer and Nizam Ud Din Aulia.

Thus, the Chishti descendants of Baba Farid, who are an important zamindar family of the area, present themselves as heirs of the barakah (capacity to bestow spiritual blessing) of the saint because the charisma of the Saint is believed to be embodied within the bloodline. However, the claims are contested independently of the status of the saint himself. It is important to treat the sphere of descendants as inheritors of the blessings separately from their position as patrons and influential elders of the area where competition is intense and unforgiving.

It is also established in oral historical accounts that Baba Farid of Pakpattan, following the traditional practice of chilla (committed meditation for spiritual elevation) in sub-continental Sufism, stayed at Baba Haji Sher Dweean’s durbar (mausoleum) for recognition and acknowledgement as a saint. Now, when the competition about the role as a successful patron or elder of the area is invoked, both the biraderies come with a self-vindicating stance. For example, Chishties would hardly visit the mausoleum of Baba Haji Sher Dewan, the Dhuddi saint despite accepting that ‘their’ saint stayed for an extended period in the town of Dhuddies. Chishties believe that following the tradition of Baba Farid, a Chishti saint visiting a Dhuddi shrine would seriously undermine their authority and superiority claims in the area. Similar is the case with Dhuddies who believe that visiting Baba Farid’s shrine is below the integrity of their spiritual position and would seriously undermine their claims of Baba Haji Sher’s superior status.

Both the biraderies try to maintain their local influence through all discursive, political, economic and social means, which leaves spirituality as a contested terrain in the overall social structure. Baba Haji Sher Dewan, as compared to Baba Farid, is not well known, therefore, Dhuddi biraderi does not usually claim to have any kind of superiority because of its lineage. But, they would always invoke their saintly kinship to confront any such claim advanced in the favour of Pir Iqbal Chishti or his biraderi. This feeling is a part of conscious upbringing and identity formation in the biraderi system of rural Punjab. It is elevated to a structural schema of everyday life in which hierarchies pre-exist the individual. For instance, the younger brother of Zia Ahmad Khan (the elder of Dhuddi biraderi), Qamar Zaman Khan, once shared his experience of visiting Baba Farid’s shrine and the socio-psychological pressure that come along. He narrated that once he was at the durbar of Baba Fareed Chishti (the suffix of Chishti is added when competition is invoked) with some of his friends from Pakpattan; while climbing the stairs at the durbar he suddenly started feeling remorseful over why he is visiting the durbar of Chishties despite having the durbar of his Dhuddi saint. The pilgrim he undertook with his friends in search of blessings turned into a journey of remorse and shame that categorically denied the very basis of his assumed superiority and the status of more equal as compared to his rival Chishties. Furthermore, he also shared with us that his feelings of remorse and contempt inside him were because of the arrogance of the progeny (specifically referring to Pir Iqbal Chishti and his sons) of the Chishti saint. For Qamar Zaman Khan, the internal feelings of remorse stemmed from the fact that Chishties do not pay deserved homage to the Dhuddi saint. This account is indicative of the general attitude towards the making of political and spiritual spheres of rural Punjab. Although there are no exclusive claims on Sufis about their belonging to certain social groups, most Sufis are appropriated in a way that cleavages are produced, based on the general hierarchical Punjabi social order.

In addition to the zamindar biraderies, the clientele and riaaya are also part of the claims of their patrons as descendants of Sufis and are believed to be possessors of the source of barakah (spiritual blessings) and karamaat (miracles). Due to structural arrangements with general patron-client relationships, riaaya or clients would hardly deviate from the socially expected course of their behaviour, which keeps the patron in the pivotal position. As a case in point, we never found any of the riaaya of Zia Ahmad khan acknowledging or considering the legitimacy of Pir Iqbal Chishti or his son’s spiritually elevated position in relation to Baba Farid. An elder riaaya of Zia Ahmad Khan is mentioned with respect by Zia Ahmad Khan’s nephew who spends most of his time at the family’s dera (open male guesthouse). The elder who died in 2018 is remembered for his loyalty to the Dhuddi family because he threatened to cut his kinship relations with maternal cousins in a nearby village if they voted for Pir Iqbal Chishti. Similar cases of loyalty are discussed on both sides of the patrons and their clients.

Another interesting and important aspect to notice is about supporters of the Chishti lineage who are recognised both as clients on one hand and devotees of the lineage on the other hand. Not only these claims are in the making in everyday mundane affairs, but their role is also significant to see how counterclaims are enacted by the Dhuddi biraderi and their clients. For example, the division between clients and devotees blurs further when the days of the election approaches. Methodologically, we have not focused on elections because we consider the scope of the paper to warrant an everyday understanding of the social and spiritual landscape in rural Punjab where sainthood is appropriated in a particular way. However, for a selective and limited discussion of elections, we argue that the same should be seen as an opportunity and an event to (re)claim power, and privilege (re)creating relations of hierarchies and inequality. Both the Chishti and Dhuddi biraderies frame their election campaigns as a process of keeping their spiritual status intact, if not elevated. The saintly kinship is put to the test, that is, whoever wins the elections or if their support brings victory to the desired candidate, it is considered as the authenticity of the acclaimed barakah and karamat of the saint. Thus, this serves a purposeful blend of sainthood which then corresponds to the position and ability to perform the role of patron-zamindar. Invocation of selective historical accounts to support one’s lineage both as saintly elevated and strong patron is common on both sides. Such accounts are often against the historical record of land ownership patterns when oral accounts tell a different story. One following account reportedly from a riaaya of the Chishti biraderi is reported to have been claimed in front of one of the confidants of the Dhuddi biraderi:

Chishties were the real owners of the land from the earliest days of Islam here [Punjab] because they were given these lands in recognition of their services [religious and political]. However, when some of our elders wanted to attain spiritual elevation, they left worldly things. They also abdicated land and wealth etc. Then came the time when lands went to these zamindar castes who boast of the same.

Generally, riaaya of Pir Iqbal Chishti are more inclined towards the acknowledgement of the status of their zamindar as a true saint descended from Baba Farid Chishti of Pakpattan. This choice for acknowledgement of the spirituality of Chishti zamindar is also indicated by the fact that Dewan Amin Khiaoh, himself a matwalli (the one who serves the shrine) of another shrine near the village of Jagga, pays homage to Pir Iqbal Chishti as one of his devotees. The shrine where Amin Khiaoh is recognised as matwalli is of Baba Din Muhammad a Sayyed saint. Dewan Amin Khiaoh shared with us once while having an informal discussion in the courtyard of the mausoleum that he merely serves the saint as the saint’s servant because he does not have nasli (biological) or roohani (spiritual) right to serve as matwalli of the saint. Dewan Amin’s homage is celebrated by the Chishti biraderi not only as a symbol of their spiritual supremacy but also as a source of patronage power. Saintly kinship alone is not enough unless it is coupled with mundane affairs, especially those related to power politics, influence over the socio-spatial organisation of the society and continuous engagement with the opportunities to reproduce moral, social and political superiority in relation to competing social groups, biraderies, saintly kinships and spiritual claims.

Conclusion

This paper contests the traditional notion and understanding of sainthood and Sufism as a source of equality, peace, love and mentorship for spiritual guidance. We have tried to bring the people themselves as agents of our analysis. Based on our extensive fieldwork from 2016 to 2021, we find that equality is not ideal in itself in rural Punjab. Rather, it is a perpetual condition made and dictated by the urge to become more equal. Furthermore, the relationship between claims of descendants of Sufi saints as possessing their sainthood in themselves and the way they strive to become more equal by strategising their use of the same is analysed to highlight the everyday role of religion and culture. This competition for becoming more equals is indicative of the tensions between over-determining rural social order, which can be mistakenly presumed low-lying under the sphere of sainthood. Based on our study, we have intended to add insight to the analysis where not only claims as descendants of Sufis are advanced, but their counterclaims are also highlighted as an important domain for the polemical arguments. Thus, sainthood in Punjab is also part of a similar larger structure where hierarchy is varyingly part of any transformation, be it becoming more equal saintly descendant or competing for the status of a successful patron.