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When Dewan Zainul Abedin Ali Khan of the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, popularly known as Gharib Nawaz and revered by Muslims and Hindus alike, decided to boycott the visit of the Pakistani prime minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, to protest the beheading of an Indian soldier by Pakistani troops along the Kashmir border, he displayed his fiercely nationalist side. So much so that Uddhav Thackeray of Shiv Sena demanded that Khan, 61, should be awarded the Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian honour. And last year in July, when Khan demanded that the visits of film stars and producers to the shrine should be banned, he inadvertently showed his conservative side. Khan, who is also the Sajjadanashin (successor to the Chishti order), had said that prayers by actors, directors, producers and musicians at this 12th-century shrine for the success of their films and TV serials is "intolerable".
Khan, the 22nd descendant of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, has been in dispute with the khadims, or the priests of the shrine, for the last 39 years on mostly jurisdiction- and authority-related issues - a problem that afflicts most Indian places of worship, irrespective of religion. He fired the first salvo in the 1990s when he opposed the khadims' way of dealing with devotees. The khadims, on their part, say that Khan can welcome dignitaries to the shrine and preside over some meetings, but cannot perform the prayers. "The Dewan does not have any right to perform the prayers in the dargah (shrine). There have been times when he issued controversial statements in this regard," says S H Hussein, the Gaddinashin khadim.
"We are not governed by the views of the Dewan (Khan) as everyone is allowed to come to the dargah. We are following the teaching of Khwaja Sahib and performing our inherited duty of serving," says Sayed Waheed Angara, the secretary of Anjuman Committee, an organisation of the khadims of the shrine. Sufi saints, indeed, were not known to turn back visitors. His boycott of the Pakistani prime minister has clearly offended some khadims who feel this isn't the way of the Sufis. The khadims also resent what they claim to be his interference in the day-to-day operations.
Khan did his graduation from Government College, Ajmer. After that he enrolled to study law but left the course midway. He is proficient in various languages including Urdu, Arabic, Persian, Hindi and English. Khan has scholastic taste and is popular for advocating easy and unorthodox method of prayers. "The Dewan title was given to us during the Mughal period. Queen Victoria reaffirmed the title through her Viceroy," says Nassarudin Ali, Khan's son.
Khan first hit the limelight in 1992 when he welcomed the Rath Yatra of Lal Krishna Advani. The senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader had launched the nationwide journey to arouse public opinion about replacing the Babri mosque at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh with a temple. This didn't go down well with a section of the population and there was an attack on Khan in 1995. The central government has provided security to him since then.
Khan, in conversations, likes to talk about emancipation and harmony and has never shown a fanatic or dogmatic streak. He has a vast library in his house and claims to have thorough knowledge of the Gita and other Hindu scriptures. Khan has always condemned all terrorist activities happening anywhere in the world. He has a big family: three sons and five daughters. When Khan is ill or indisposed, it is Nassarudin, his son, who fills in for him at the shrine.
