Epilogue

Summary

Independence brought about an important shift in the relationship between the state and the pirs of Sind. Unlike the British, the rulers of Pakistan were Muslim and so Islam became intimately connected with the ideology of the new nation and their attempts to legitimise their leadership of a Muslim state. Although the Pakistan movement had been primarily a political struggle, it was identified with Islam in the minds of many of its supporters. Initially proclaimed to have nothing to do with the business of the state, Islam as a bridge linking the state with society at large was too attractive for the authorities to ignore. Governments consequently tried, to varying degrees, to take advantage of the legitimising potential offered by Islam. Within this framework, their approach to the institution of the pir was fairly consistent. Whereas shrines have been suppressed in other Muslim countries such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia, pirs and their dargahs, both in Sind and elsewhere in Pakistan, have been seen as important sources of influence which governments can wield in their own favour. But policies which were intended to undermine the power of pir families by redirecting the reflected glory of the original saints on to the Governments themselves, only served in the long run to reconfirm the political value of shrines and their representatives. The overall result has been that pirs have survived as important powerbrokers in the political equations of the Sindhi countryside.

Official government policy from the late 1950s was to reduce the power of pir families on the grounds that it was incompatible with the political and religious goals of successive administrations.