DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4646#0098
98
/
One of tlie troop assumes the dress of a woman with a garment
reaching down, to the knees, forming a butt for immodest meriment
Again, other persons dress up as Africans, whose barbarous gestures
and uncouth language they mimic to the amusement of the crowd.
Others dress as birds, and one pretending to be a hawk, may be seen
darting after others disguised as paddy birds. Among these •' King
Crow" prominently figures. Grossly indecent comic songs are sung by
these performers and all kinds of buffonery are indulged in. A stand-
ing joke is to dress a fellow up as a Marwarree, who is told that his
wife, from whom he is supposed to have been absent for ten or twelve
years, has just been delivered of a child, and his good fortune in be-
coming a father under such circumstances, is humorously, however
coarsely, expatiated on by the bystanders.
How different is the Shia Mohurrum. In Bombay the Moguls
mourn at the Mohurrum in the ardent passionate way that they do
in Persia. The Khojas, true to their religious character, take a
medium course between the Sunis and the Persians. They look with
the greatest horror on the buffoonery of the Suni taboots, regarding
it as impious. But upon the other hand, they do not indulge in the
violent and demonstrative grief of the Persians. What the Khojas
do is to shut themselves up in the Jamat Khana and listen respect-
fully to the reading of the history and martyrdom of Hassan and
Hosein. This shows however, that there is a radical difference
between their view of the great Aliitc anniversary, and that of the
Sunis. So much for the Khojahs as a community.
I shall not say much my Lord, about what the Aga has done since
he has been in Bombay, because the witnesses who will be called
before your Lordship will give their evidence as to that, under the
sanction of an oath, but I can say by way of anticipation, that all that
has come from him in the way of advice to his Khoja followers is
consistent with his being a sincere and faithful Mussulman. One of
the first things which set the party of the Aga against him, was the
dispute about the Khoja female succession, in which as I have said,
the Aga wished to supersede Hindoo custom by Mahomadan law. In
11845 the Aga came to Bombay like a Pope driven from Pome to
Avignon. Here he was received with great distinction by all the
Khojas, including the Relators and Plaintiffs, not merely • as a man
of rank and a Syud (for why should the Khojas more than others
/
One of tlie troop assumes the dress of a woman with a garment
reaching down, to the knees, forming a butt for immodest meriment
Again, other persons dress up as Africans, whose barbarous gestures
and uncouth language they mimic to the amusement of the crowd.
Others dress as birds, and one pretending to be a hawk, may be seen
darting after others disguised as paddy birds. Among these •' King
Crow" prominently figures. Grossly indecent comic songs are sung by
these performers and all kinds of buffonery are indulged in. A stand-
ing joke is to dress a fellow up as a Marwarree, who is told that his
wife, from whom he is supposed to have been absent for ten or twelve
years, has just been delivered of a child, and his good fortune in be-
coming a father under such circumstances, is humorously, however
coarsely, expatiated on by the bystanders.
How different is the Shia Mohurrum. In Bombay the Moguls
mourn at the Mohurrum in the ardent passionate way that they do
in Persia. The Khojas, true to their religious character, take a
medium course between the Sunis and the Persians. They look with
the greatest horror on the buffoonery of the Suni taboots, regarding
it as impious. But upon the other hand, they do not indulge in the
violent and demonstrative grief of the Persians. What the Khojas
do is to shut themselves up in the Jamat Khana and listen respect-
fully to the reading of the history and martyrdom of Hassan and
Hosein. This shows however, that there is a radical difference
between their view of the great Aliitc anniversary, and that of the
Sunis. So much for the Khojahs as a community.
I shall not say much my Lord, about what the Aga has done since
he has been in Bombay, because the witnesses who will be called
before your Lordship will give their evidence as to that, under the
sanction of an oath, but I can say by way of anticipation, that all that
has come from him in the way of advice to his Khoja followers is
consistent with his being a sincere and faithful Mussulman. One of
the first things which set the party of the Aga against him, was the
dispute about the Khoja female succession, in which as I have said,
the Aga wished to supersede Hindoo custom by Mahomadan law. In
11845 the Aga came to Bombay like a Pope driven from Pome to
Avignon. Here he was received with great distinction by all the
Khojas, including the Relators and Plaintiffs, not merely • as a man
of rank and a Syud (for why should the Khojas more than others