The Rape of the Lock

In a silver and crystal bottle, wrapped in three cloth bags, nestled in three wooden boxes, locked in a cabinet, in the innermost of four cells, protected by four guards, a brownish hair from the head of Mohammed has lain for three centuries in Srinagar's mosque of Hazrat Bal. On holy days, the prophet's hair is tenderly removed from its resting place, attached to a chain and locked around the waist of one or the other of five Bandey brothers, the hereditary keepers who alone are permitted to touch the sacred relic and show it to Moslem worshipers in the mosque's great quadrangle.

In Srinagar, beside Kashmir's famed Dal Lake, thousands of pilgrims were gathering for last week's festival of Shaab-e-Baraat when the sorrowful news crackled from houseboat to houseboat, from hut to hut. The guard on duty at Hazrat Bal (literally Majestic Place) had left his post long enough for thieves to saw out the strongroom locks, smash the cabinet and make their getaway. The prophet's hair was gone.

All day, after the loss was discovered, wailing pilgrims bearing mourning flags braved bitter cold to march on the mosque. Then grief turned to fury. Next day a screaming mob burned and looted through the capital until police broke up the crowds by firing over and, sometimes, under their heads, killing two and wounding several other pilgrims. Though officials feared the excitement might provoke violence between Hindu and Moslem communities, on New Year's Day worshipers of both faiths paraded peacefully together, Hindus chanting "Har Har Mahadev!" (Praise to God), Moslems crying "Allah O Akbar!" (God is great).

The Kashmiri government offered a princely reward--$21,000 outright plus a $105 lifetime annual pension--to anyone who "traces or helps in tracing" the relic. From New Delhi came two senior Indian police officials to help authorities in Srinagar, which is in the Indian-held half of disputed Kashmir. In Pakistan, India's Prime Minister Nehru was blamed as "the real thief," though the press also hinted that the "satanic" plot might have been "conceived in the so-called intellectual cells in a faraway Western capital," meaning Washington. Indians were equally sure that the affair was a Pakistani scheme to incite Kashmiris against them.

Then, at week's end, mourning throngs flung away their black banners and started dancing in the streets. The hair of the prophet had been found, abandoned in the grounds of the mosque. Radio Kashmir blared joyful music as pilgrims waited for the news that the sacred relic had been wrapped again in three cloth bags, placed inside three wooden boxes, locked in its cabinet in the innermost of four cells, and was carefully watched over by four badly shaken guards.

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