This blog returns to Firoz Shah Kotla, to seek explanations for the extraordinary events that happen there. We see crowds of people coming to ask for favours from the jinns who are believed to inhabit the ruins. Those found here are not mischievous beings but invisible Muslim saints.
When you visit the medieval citadel on Thursday evening, you may be forgiven for thinking you’ve slipped back 700 years. In shadowy alcoves, lit by candles, you see devotees presenting offerings and prayers. Even more surprising to realise that jinn worship at Firoz Shah Kotla began only in the 1970s.
A fairly new phenomenon is the sight of traditional healers exorcising people who have become possessed by evil spirits. People who believe in the supernatural come to seek ‘solutions’ to their problems. Just as you see at Sufi shrines, people (usually women) in a trance or possessed, actually find a solution. When you walk with me, I can show you videos of healers at work.
The story of Laddu Shah
A popular story goes that the jinn worship is linked to a character called Laddu Shah. In his early life, Shah was a successful black marketeer of cinema tickets. He started visiting Firoz Shah Kotla in the early 1970s to pray, and would play a flute there. People said his playing so charmed the jinns that they gave him the gift of healing.
As Shah went to the citadel more often, he came under the influence of the Baba (jinn saint) and his black-marketeering gradually ceased. He began to feel strongly that the abandoned mosque should once more be used for prayers. One day Shah performed a miracle by healing a paralysed boy; and instead of taking the offered reward, he asked the assembled crowd to offer prayers at the Firoz Shah Kotla mosque.
That’s one story, but Anand Vivek Taneja, in his fascinating book Jinnealogy (Stanford University Press, 2018), proposes additional explanations for the start of the practice in the 1970s.
A bureaucracy of jinns
It was a few months after The Emergency of 1975-1977 that Firoz Shah Kotla became established as a religious site. Many of those who came, both Hindu and Muslim, were from working-class areas of Old Delhi, the parts worst affected by The Emergency’s evictions, forced sterilisations, and demolitions.
These desperate people came for healing at a time of great distress. And what is so interesting is that the petitioning of the jinns echoes the medieval practice of shikwa, a Perso-Islamic legal form of submitting complaints directly to the sovereign.
It’s as though the jinns run a bureaucracy. Many petitions are carefully typed or hand-written with names, addresses, photos, and signatures. Some are photocopied many times and distributed at different places in the ruins, along with the offerings of candles, coins, flowers, fruit, incense, and sweets.
Taneja argues that the practice happens because people have lost faith in traditional forms of government, so are turning to an ancient method of getting justice, directed at the jinns.
Jinn worship vs. ASI
This dijnn superstition and jinn worship at Firoz Shah Kotla is fascinating. However it poses danger to an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) protected monument. The walls and floors of the fort are blackened with oil, and leftover eatables have attracted rodents, which damage the structures. Even the Ashoka Pillar is not spared.
The monument was taken over by the ASI in 1913, and as per the mandate, no religious activity is permitted at a protected site. A police complaint has been filed but the religious activities continue unabated. Officials feel the activities, which are deeply rooted in superstition, can’t be stopped. Until people adopt a scientific outlook towards life, these things will continue” .
Now we invite you to share any information about jinns and their activities in your parts of the world. Next week, we’ll give you an insight into Islamic beliefs and Indian folklore about jinns, Is Feroz Shah Kotla a unique Indian site for jinns, or have you heard of any other places in India where similar activities occur?
Till then, be safe and stay tuned to our blogs!
For the answers to these and other questions you’ll need to wait until our next blog.
Do post your comments on walks@delhimetrowalks.com
If you have walked with me in the past or visited on your own tell us what you found most fascinating.
Inputs by Surekha Narain, design & concept by Catriona Child
Comments & Replies
- Prof. Randall in US: Fascinating stories of jinns, Surekha! I’d love to visit Firoz Shah Kotla next time I’m in Delhi – with luck this December. Thanks again for all the amazing places in your city you’ve introduced me to. I wish there were a jinn tradition in Chicago USA but at least we have this band: https://somnimage.bandcamp.com/album/city-of-djinn. Be safe, Randall
DMW: Thank you, Randall, Look forward to you and the students coming in December. Yes we can visit Feroz Shah Kotla too.
- Prof. Chris in US: Yes! So much enjoyed the birds! And the descriptions of the Pirs / modernity of the ceremonies….
DMW: Thank you Chris – wish you could see the birds and our lovely blue skies. Yes the modernity of the jinn veneration at Firoz Shah Kotla is extraordinary.
- Author Lucy Peck: Great to hear from you! We are also in lockdown, but we have a cottage in the country, so we can get out for walks and do lots of gardening. We chat to our neighbours over the hedges but can’t walk with them. When did you go to Lahore? I do remember being in contact at the time, but I cannot remember when.
That is fascinating about the Moti Masjid in the Lahore Fort – when I have visited there was no sign of any jinn-worship, but maybe I there at the wrong time – not on a Thursday. I like your website and Blog. Keep well (the new greeting!)
DMW: What a joy to hear back from you. Thank you for your prompt reply. So glad to hear you are safe and well. I did go to Lahore in 2015 – even for me and as far as I remember, our guides did not talk of Jinn worship at this site. Take care and lovely to connect.
- Manu Arora in Delhi: A wonderful insight. I have been a part of your walks. This too is fascinating. Maybe the offerings could be used to keep the place clean.
DMW: Thank you Manu. The idea is to enhance our knowledge on the sites we walk around. Unfortunately, the offerings are mostly not money so they couldn’t really be used to help clean up the place. Rather the leftover eatables and papers create litter and attract rodents. It’s a problem. Stay tuned we are planning to come up with a Blog on Offerings.