'Sacred' Rage

The intriguing case of Ghulam Rasool—the faith healer’ from Kashmir

- Naseer Ganai

A narrow lane in Kupwara's Chogul village, barely wide enough for two people to pass, leads to the one-and-a-half-story house of mendicant Ghulam Rasool, popularly known as 'Lasae bab'.

His door, as his followers say, is always open to everyone. This is his sister's house, a typical Kashmiri brick-and-mortar affair. Children play on the big lawn out front. On the veranda, there is a hookah and two women, both wearing burqas with their faces uncovered, are waiting for him. They talk to each other as they wait for Lasae bab.

One of them had travelled all the way from Srinagar. "Bab is angry today and will not come out of his room. But I will wait and see if he comes out or I will have to come tomorrow, early in the morning. Without seeing his face, I cannot return home to Srinagar," she says.

In Kashmiri culture, the terms peer and bab hold significant spiritual and cultural meanings. Peer is derived from Persian and is generally associated with a spiritual guide or saint. Bab is an affectionate term for an elder and in the context of spirituality; it refers to a holy person or a saintly figure.

Turning to the other visitors, the woman from Srinagar says, "If Lasae bab believes you deserve his attention, he will call you." Her faith in Ghulam Rasool is unshakable.

At the entrance on the main road, everyone in Chogul seems to revere Ghulam Rasool. "His father was a farmer," says a shopkeeper, who runs a business nearby. "He was the only son among four daughters. Bab completed his matriculation in the 1960s and then renounced everything. He went to the mountains for meditation and didn't return for twelve years.

When he came back, he was a changed man. He doesn't take any money or ask for anything. He only responds to your queries if he wishes," he adds.