Daily Times

Given the current pandemic, the Saudi authorities announced to scale down this year’s Hajj; allowing only a thousand pilgrims residing in the Kingdom. Overseas pilgrims will not be allowed. In the wake of Cholera in Karachi, a ban on Pakistani pilgrims to Makkah was imposed in 1950 as well. Centuries ago, it was an arduous journey from Indian Subcontinent. Travelling by land incurred long journeys associated with the risk of sickness, weather hardships, robbery, wars and the passage through hostile terrains. Steamships, railways and later, the airways made Hajj much easier.

The Mogul rulers paid special attention to Hajj. It was under Akbar’s patronage that Hajj was organised at state expense along with the provision of subsidies to pilgrims. He appointed a senior noble as Mir Hajj. Three Royal Ships provided free transportation to pilgrims. The ancient port of Surat in Gujarat was a leading port of embarkation for Indian pilgrims and got known as Bab-ul-Makkah. During the Mogul era and until the 18th century, pilgrims from India could travel to Makkah either by overland caravans or by sailing ships. The Indian pilgrims usually preferred the sea route. Yet, this was also not free of problems. Portuguese had strict control over the Indian Ocean introducing ‘armed trading’ in the 16th century. Most ships travelling from India to the Red Sea were forced to carry their pass. The Portuguese were opposed to Islam and sought monopoly over the spice trade. Besides, piracy was rampant. The conditions at one point became so non-conducive for Hajj that religious scholars at the Mogul court declared pilgrimage to Makkah as nonbinding under the circumstances.

In British India, Hajj continued to get attention. More so, following a devastating epidemic of Cholera in 1865, which killed 15000 pilgrims during Hajj. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 brought regular steamer traffic from Europe and Africa through the Red Sea to the Port of Jeddah, reducing the passage time significantly over the previous route. With steamer traffic, it became commercially viable for shipping lines, throughout the world to operate for Hajj. Jeddah was the gateway to Makkah and a route for merchants and pilgrims. Indian ships also brought sought after spices, pearls, precious stones, silk and Sandalwood perfumes. From the 1860’s Arabia was an interest in Britain. It used the hajj for further political propaganda purposes in 1918 when it sponsored some Indian Muslim soldiers in Egypt to go on pilgrimage.

The largest number of pilgrims in the late nineteenth century came from British India

There was a great fluctuation in travel demands, for 30,465 pilgrims sailed from Bombay in 1906, it was 11,700 in 1919. Not all pilgrims held a return ticket and a number were stranded in Jeddah for a lack of funds to return.

The largest number of pilgrims in the late nineteenth century came from British India. Concerns were raised about the exploitation of pilgrims. Some of them lacked funds to return, braved insanitary conditions and near sinking of a ship. In 1886, the British government appointed Thomas Cook & Son as the official travel agent for the Haj pilgrimage. Starting a business in Bombay and Calcutta, it opened an office in Finlay House, McLeod Road, Karachi. Often, there would be quarantines given infections especially the outbreaks of cholera. The Bombay and Persia Steam Navigation Company was founded in 1877. It was long managed by Turner Morrison & Co. Ltd, Bombay and participated in the Pilgrim trade from the very early days. In connection with the Bombay Persia’s Company’s pilgrim ship scheme, the agents arranged to send the steamship via Karachi in 1914. The Bombay and Persia Steam Navigation Company was renamed as the Mogul Line. It was the largest shipping line operating from Indian ports and had a monopoly of the Hajj pilgrim traffic. It had a Lion’s share, operated over seventy per cent of pilgrim ships from India in the 1930s. Modern of the Mogul Line ships were SS Alawi (built in 1924) followed by SS Rizwani (built in 1930). The main ports of embarkation were Bombay, Calcutta and Karachi.

The agents of Mogul Line campaigned to close Calcutta port for embarking pilgrimage ships. The Hajj Committee and certain sections of the Muslim community, especially from Bengal, approached the Scindia Steam Navigation Company to enter the market. This was an Indian company founded in 1919 by Gujarati businessmen. It took the opportunity, built two new steamers at the cost of over Rs. 50 lakhs and commenced services in 1937. Its new steamer EL Medina became very popular. This was a faster ship and made the voyage from Karachi to Jeddah in six days seven hours in March 1938 – which was then a record. She carried 850 passengers and made an average speed of 15 knots.

This led to fierce competition between the two companies which started a rate war. Mogul Lines practically carried pilgrims for free and also provided them incentives like an umbrella and a container for carrying holy water. The new entrant, Scindia Steam Navigation Company, incurred heavy losses. Ultimately, a settlement was agreed between the two companies to quote no less than Rs. 115 as the return passage fare. Despite this agreement Mogul Line continued to charge low fares. Representations were made again in the Legislature which led to the fixation of uniform, stable and economic rates. But with the outbreak of World War II, pilgrim traffic closed down transiently.

An interesting question of the proper allocation of expenditure under the reformed administration arose. The Bombay Government demanded payment retrospectively for its expenses in connection with police and public health arrangements made for Hajj pilgrims in Bombay and Karachi, since 1921-22. This was estimated to cost the Government of India 47,469 rupees for the quinquennial ending 1925-26, while the yearly charges for the coming years to be 12,000 rupees. The committee sanctioned this expense.

In 1927, a 10-member Haj Committee was constituted, headed by Mr D. Healy, the commissioner of police, Bombay, which was replaced by the Port Haj Committee in 1932. There had been a considerable fall in pilgrim traffic from Bombay since 1931. Bombay held pride of place as a pilgrim traffic centre for over 50 years, but in 1932 she yielded her position to Karachi.

The British took a neutral stance in terms of religious liberty including Hajj. In 1929 a committee was formed under the chairmanship of Mr H B Clayton to look into the arrangements of Hajj. Seth Haji Abdullah Haroon was one of the committee members. It made several recommendations: to ensure the pilgrims had enough funds to cover the costs, improvised accommodation at Calcutta, Bombay and Karachi ports with the provision of a well-facilitated Haji camp at Karachi, fixation of a uniform fare on all pilgrim ships and provision of adequate facilities on ships including space and food. It looked into the railway. Three port committees were constituted to overlook the arrangements at Bombay, Calcutta and Karachi and this arrangement remained in place till 1947. Haji Abdullah Haroon was the chairman of Karachi Haj Committee in 1930, 1933 and 1939. In 1930, Haj season health officials made arrangements at Karachi for anti-cholera inoculations. By the late 1930s, the experience of hajj had undergone a remarkable modernisation.

In the 1930s, ships named S S Jehangir, Islami, Alavi, Rehmani, Akbar and Rizwani sailed from Bombay and Karachi. These were owned by Mughal Line (The Bombay and Persia Steam Navigation Company Ltd), under the operation of Messrs Turner, Morison and Company Ltd.

During the voyage, pilgrims were supplied with cooked food as cooking onboard by passengers was strictly prohibited. A pilgrim was supplied with morning tea, breakfast, luncheon, afternoon tea and dinner. Unlike first and second class passengers, deck pilgrims were required to express at the time of buying their tickets preference between rice and chapatti and whether they would have dry fish with a vegetable dish. The return fare with food charged from Karachi and Bombay was Rs 602 and Rs 626 for the first class pilgrims, Rs 427 and Rs 451 for the second class pilgrims and Rs 172 and Rs 178 for the deck pilgrims. The Mughal Line information brochure of 1937 showed a uniform raise of Rs 2 and four annas in the fare of all classes. In 1942, Karachi to Jeddah return fare was Rs 196 for deck passengers and Rs 716 for Cabin passengers.

The Hajj was affected by World War II with the emergence of flights gradually replacing long sea journeys. During the period 1946-50, 80 per cent of pilgrims arrived by sea and only seven per cent by air. When pilgrims left for Haj by air in October 1946, it was reported in the media as: “Eighteen pilgrims left here to-day for Mecca and Medina. They are the first pilgrims to fly from India to the Holy Land.”

In its early years, Pakistan Government chartered ships for pilgrim voyages. 32,000 Pakistanis went for Hajj in 1951. This was the highest number for any one nation outside Saudi Arabia itself. The Pan Islamic Steamship Company was established in 1950. It acquired an old P&O ship and re-branded it as Safina-e-Hujjaj in 1958 to cater needs of maritime transportation of Pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. This was the first Pakistani passenger ships that ferried pilgrims from Pakistan to and from the Holy land. It was in service until 20 February 1976. In the early 1980s, due to the competitiveness of air travel and low-cost flights, the number of sailings started declining. The last ship to perform Hajj service was MV Shams in 1994. The sea voyage from India was completely stopped in 1995 and all Indian pilgrims began arriving by air.

The writer is a Consultant Physician at Southend University Hospital, Essex, the UK