Religious Tolerance In Chitral

In old times when Chitral was a part of Dardistan, there were not any concepts of Religions in this area. The ways of living of the people were based on their customs and traditions. Many invaders came through Chitral, these customs and traditions were affected mostly by the invasions from the surroundings and other external influences. During the time of Hazrat Usman Ghani, some preachers of the newly emerging religion of that time “Islam” were introduced in northern part of Chitral but the influence of Budhism and zonorastism lingered on custom and values in this area for long time because of the surroundings ruler’s invasions by time to time in this parts of the world.

In 800 A.D, the ruler of Chitral was Bahman Kohistani who were later defeated by Muslim invaders. After him, in 1060 A.D a well-known Ismaili preacher Pirshah Nasir Khesraw came to Badakhshan and started his preaching in Umgan, Sinkiang, Hunza, Gilgit and Chitral. Pirshah Nasir Khesraw had a knowledge of mysticism, philosophy, and Astrology, they told the people about mysticism, philosophy and astrology for the first time. Dates for festivals were fixed based on changes of season, astrological events and introduced new traditions in different life events i.e. Pathak, Nowruz, Rawshan Chiragh, Khalifa Basaik, Qasida Khowani with Gharba (Tambourine) etc. Later different historians wrote about the Raees Dynasty in Chitral, they belongs to pure Sunni sects of Islam and introduced perfect Islamic system of life-based on Quran ,Hadees and Fiqqa . They developed an Islamic society and made Qazi, Munshi, Mirza e.t.c for the first time in Chitral. Different archeological finding in chitral refers Rayees period “DAKHMA’S”, Ryees kept their dead bodies on the wall niche in the basement of a specific house called a “Gombat Miran” which was also a trend in Iran. Hereupon during the Katoor Dynasty, all Islamic systems were developed.

During the above-mentioned periods there were two sects of Muslims, Ismaili and Sunni and the another non-Muslim kalasha people lived in this area , there were not any religious contention between them in the area. The Kalasha culture have from the beginning a separate system of life, their etiquettes, festivals all are the part of their faiths i.e. the festival of Chaumus, Chilam Joshi, Uchal, Bribo and Pru. From the beginning there is no intolerance found between Muslims and Kalasha, and some Muslim young boys participate with them in some festivals.

Since 1892, when Chitral was a part of sub-continent under domination of empire, both sects of religious people Sunni, Ismaili and ruling classes struggled to achieve their political aims. The religious contentions as in 1917 and then in 1926, but the result was not fruitful because of the manner of Chitralis as, are, genetically and morally peaceful. The root cause of the events of 1917,1926 and 1980 seems political aims of both involved parties.

It is fact that religious tolerance is necessary for the individuals within a society to get along specially when a variety of cultures and peoples with different religious beliefs live in one community, the meaning of religious toleration, people allowing other people to thing or participate other religion and beliefs, so religious tolerance should be moral imperative as well since in tolerance so very bad for our character.

According to my opinion, the main factor in creating an atmosphere for intolerance is:

1. The only political aim of politicians and other parties.
2. The other cause is ignorance as the influential persons take advantage from the ignorance of the common people to use them for their aims.
3. Poverty: “means of lively hood and poverty a community or a person lacks the financial resource and standard of living, might be used and victimized to created intolerance”.

To create an atmosphere for religious tolerance it is necessary to educate the people and create awareness.