Decolonising the Hajj: Nationalist Politics and Pilgrimage Administration the British Empire in the Mid-twentieth Century

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article argues that viewing the hajj through the lens of decolonisation allows us to see the complexity and conflicts that went into transforming the global pilgrimage to Mecca from a set of rules and processes governed by empires to one governed by independent nation-states. It examines the effects of nationalism and decolonisation on the hajj through three case studies involving different parts of the British Empire at different times between 1937 and 1963. The examination of the sacking of the Indian Vice Consul as a result of Saudi intrigues in 1937 demonstrates nationalist efforts by the Saudis to contest British imperial control of hajj affairs. The efforts of Malaya's Pilgrimage Advisory Committee in the 1950s illustrates nationalist efforts to integrate the pilgrimage with national development goals in ways that presaged the later development of Tabung Haji. Finally, nationalist politics and decolonisation processes in Nigeria and Sudan resulted in the effective closure of the overland route across the savannahs to the Red Sea by which most West African pilgrims had travelled to Mecca since medieval times. Taken together, these cases demonstrate a diversity of ways that nationalist politics and decolonisation processes had transformative impacts on hajj administration, reflecting shifting global power dynamics and significantly altering the pilgrimage experience for millions of hajis up to the present day. The analysis invites greater historicization of the ways that nationalisms and decolonisation have simultaneously reshaped and reinforced transnational and global phenomena.