Category Archives: World Opinion

Turkish memorial in Ballari

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Karnataka (under research project), Travel & Tourism, World Opinion, , , ,

Before I set out on a journey to Turkey, I decided to visit the Turkish Martyrs Graveyard Memorial in Ballari, built in memory of Turkish Prisoners of War (PoW) of the First World War.

Turkish Memorial
Turkish Memorial

The memorial is actually a spiral column built over a rectangular platform. Indian and Turkish flags flutter on both sides. The cylindrical spiral structure in white is surrounded by fountains, multi-coloured floral plants with Ashoka trees and rose plants on the border. The memorial is located close to the airport.

TurkishMemorial02MPOs27dec2018

There are two marble-dressed graves on its left side. A memorial plaque on one of them refers to General Agha Pasha Abdussalam, the prince from the Ottoman ruling family of Turkey, buried there. The second one refers to Turk Askeri.

The epitaph on the memorial (it also has a Turkish translation) reads: “Here lie the Turkish martyrs brought to India in the year 1918 as prisoners of war during World War I from the Suez Canal front where they had fought. God bless them all.”

Turkey is a nation straddling eastern Europe and western Asia. Suez Canal is a sea-level waterway in Egypt connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez. And Ballari is in South India. These contradictions increased my  curiosity to unearth the links.

A tale of tragedy and futility of war silently unfolded when I began digging deep into history. I realised that the memorial traces its roots to the brutal first world war.

Tale of tragedy

After about a century since the war ended, the memorial in Ballari stands tall silently reminding the greed of rich belligerents trying to get richer by inflicting large-scale violence, brutality and futility.

Austria and Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914, over the assassination of a leader, triggering the first world war. A web of entangling alliances and the manoeuvrings of diplomats and generals dragged ambivalent nations into an unnecessary war.

The war pitted the Central Powers—led by Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey—against the Allies—led by France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan and the United States. The Allies won the war which claimed maximum lives in the history.

The Allies captured soldiers of rival forces, while soldiers of the Allies were taken captive by the Central Powers. About 1.5 lakh soldiers from Turkey were taken captive by the British forces. Turkey had detained 34,000 British soldiers.

The two sides had a common problem, lack of prisons to keep captive soldiers. And they were unwilling to keep rival soldiers in their motherland.

TurkishPOWmpos27dec2018

About 8,000 soldiers from Turkey, Germany and Austria, in British captivity, were placed in British colonies, in Egypt, India, Burma (now Myanmar).

Sumerpur in Rajasthan; Ahmednagar, Belagavi and Ballari in Bombay province; Kata Pahar in Bengal and Burma were chosen for the detention of prisoners.

Soldiers from Austria and Germany were interned at Ahmednagar, Christian citizens and women at Belagavi, and Turkey soldiers at Sumerpur, Ballari and Burma.

The British establishment shipped the prisoners from the port city of Basra in Iraq to Karachi and later sent them to Kolkata by train. One team was sent to Burma, while the second one to Sumerpur, Ahmednagar, Belagavi and Ballari.

The entire exercise was ironical and a large number of soldiers died on the way to Karachi from Basra. Hundreds of them were injured while being shipped. All these met with gory and gruesome deaths due to hunger, starvation and a lack of treatment.

Conflicting theories

Historians consider their journey as a procession of deaths. Many of them, who had survived starvation before reaching India, lost their battles against changing weather conditions and food.

Hundreds of them fell prey to infectious diseases as prisoners from different nations were housed collectively. In the Egyptian camps, a contagious eye spread relatively quickly blinding prisoners.

As many as 137 soldiers were kept at Allipuram Jail in Ballari. There are conflicting theories on how they died. One theory says a trigger-happy British officer massacred them en masse. The second theory quotes plague as the cause for the deaths.

Locals claim that there used to be hundreds of graves of Turkish soldiers in the area until the 1980s. A major part of the remains was erased during the expansion of the Bellari Aerodrome.

Commemorating sacrifice

The Turkish Embassy in Delhi negotiated with the Indian government for a memorial to commemorate the sacrifice made by the soldiers for the nation ten thousand miles away from their motherland. As a result, the Turkish Martyrs Graveyard came up in 1980.

Since then, the Indian and the Turkish flags are hoisted twice a year – on August 15 and January 26.

Details of Turkey soldiers in Ballari come from the lone report of Red Cross Society. A high-level committee at the  Geneva convention in 1971 decided to send the Society teams for reports on charges of brutalities meted out to soldiers at camps.

A team visited Ballari, Egypt and Myanmar as part of the decision. The team members visited Ballari on March 17, 1971, and submitted a report regarding the medical facility, food, physical and mental health of the prisoners. The most common complaint from the prisoners was that they hardly heard anything from their family members.

Due to isolation, the futility of war and uncertain future, most of them became mentally ill. They had converted a hall meant for prayer to play games. They also used the hall as a coffee house, played Dice Chess Dominoes, consumed Turkish coffee without milk and demanded books in the Turkish language for reading.

In the end, the report expresses confidence that the Turkey soldiers would surely say that the British establishment took proper care of them in India once they reached their hometowns. However, it is not known even today if they returned to their hometown.

The ordeal of soldiers from England and India in Turkey prisons was no different. There are memorials all over the world commemorating sacrifices made by foreign soldiers. Most of these soldiers laid down their lives for the British imperialism.

These memorials never reveal why wars were fought; why soldiers were killed; why they were shipped and interned in different continents; what happened to their families after their deaths. These memorials also mirror inhuman acts of war.

(Translated by Jagadish Angadi)

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Spectrum> Spectrum Top Stories / by Rahamat Tarikere / December 19th, 2019

AMU researcher publishes book

Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Education, Green Products, Science & Technology, World Opinion, ,

Aligarh, UTTAR PRADESH :BookBrassicaceaeMPOs27dec2018

Aligarh :

Dr Naser A Anjum, a DBT-RLF researcher (Scientist-D) in the Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University edited “The Brassicaceae – Agri-Horticultural and Environmental Perspectives” in collaboration with Prof Om Parkash Dhankher (University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA), Prof Juan F Jimenez (Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, San Luis Potosí, Mexico), Dr Sarvajeet S Gill (MD University, Rohtak) and Dr Narendra Tuteja (ICGEB, New Delhi). The Frontiers Media, Lausanne, Switzerland has published the book.

The book covers Agri-Horticultural and Environmental role of members of Brassicaceae, an angiosperm family that includes model plants such as Arabidopsis, Alyssum, and Brassica, developing model generic systems like Boechera, Brassica, and Cardamine and several cultivated plant species including radish, rocket, watercress, wasabi, horseradish, vegetable and oil crops.

According to Dr Anjum, the book is available at https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/3959 for free consultation and download.

source: http://www.amu.ac.in / Aligarh Muslim University / Home> AMU News / Public Relations Office,  Aligarh Muslim University / December 26th, 2018

After 97 years, a forgotten British massacre uncovered

Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Community Involvement / Social Issues, Freedom Fighters (under research project), Leaders, Travel & Tourism, World Opinion, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

KERALA :

The British unleashed ruthless violence over Mappilas to quell the rebellion in south Malabar taluks

A mass grave in Adhikarathodi, Melmuri, where 11 bodies had been buried after the massacre. (Photo courtesy: Sameel)
A mass grave in Adhikarathodi, Melmuri, where 11 bodies had been buried after the massacre. (Photo courtesy: Sameel)

Ninety-seven years ago on this day, the British army massacred 246 people in a small village in the Malappuram district of Kerala as part of a crackdown against the Mappila rebels.

The Mappila Rebellion was part of the non-violent Khilafat Movement led by Mahatma Gandhi and the Ali Brothers in 1921-22. The Mappila Muslims, who reside in the south Malabar region, had taken the movement seriously and engaged in combat with the well-equipped British army.

Ali Musliyar (Courtesy: Wikimedia)
Ali Musliyar (Courtesy: Wikimedia)

The Mappila warriors, under the leadership of cleric Ali Musliyar and Variyam Kunnath Kunjahammed Haji (V K Haji), captured the taluks of Eranadu and Valluvanadu from the British and established their own rule.

After a short period, the British suppressed the rebellion savagely by letting loose the Gurkha Regiment, Dorset Regiment etc. According to official data, more than 2,300 people were killed and over 45,000 rebels were imprisoned in different jails  across the country (the numbers are five-fold higher in unofficial records).

The rebellion had a huge impact on the region as well as the country. Mahatma Gandhi distanced himself from the rebels stating that the rebellion was just “an outburst of fanatics”. Several works, both critical and in support of the rebellion, have been published, but most of them are silent about the British crackdown on the rebels.

Two bodies were buried in this grave. (Courtesy: Sameel)
Two bodies were buried in this grave. (Courtesy: Sameel)

Unmarked graves

This bloodbath, which was largely forgotten, came to light after a three-year-long research by a journalist. Illikkal Sameel, who is with a Malayalam media organisation, spent four years documenting the history behind unmarked graves in a village  located 3 km from the Malappuram district headquarters. In a detailed report published in Madhyamam Weekly, a Malayalam magazine, Sameel has illustrated the brutality of the British towards the Mappila, mostly innocents, including the old and the sick, to terrorise the rebels who had driven the mighty English force away from the region for months.

Cover page of Madhyamam Weekly.
Cover page of Madhyamam Weekly.

In an ironic twist, Sameel, who resides in a nearby village, got to know about this forgotten historical episode four years ago from a friend, K Ashraf, who is pursuing his PhD from Johannesburg University, South Africa. Ashraf informed Sameel about the undocumented graves dating back to 1921 present in the area.

Initially, Sameel could find only five graves at Adhikarathodi in Melmuri village but nobody had any details about those buried there. After tracing the descendants of those buried, Sameel obtained information of 40 people from nine graves. All the graves had more than one body buried and among them one had upto 11 bodies.

“Malabar struggle is a well-researched topic from Kerala’s freedom movement and several scholars are still trying to explore more aspects. But I could find no trace of this particular massacre in any of those works,” Sameel said.

“In a casual conversation, a researcher in Malabar history mentioned Dorset Regiment and their involvement in suppressing the rebellion. I dug further to get details of the regiment and their expeditions, that was also futile,” Sameel explains.

From an octogenarian physician Dr Thorappa Muhammed, Sameel got to know that the number of people killed in the massacre was more than he could count. Muhammed told him that the number would go above 200 and challenged him to look at official British  documents for more information.

Connecting the dots

“Most of the documents are not publicly available now, so I started flipping through the contemporary chronicles of officials. Among them, I went through a book of the  Personal Assistant of Kozhikode Collector Mr Gopalan Nair’s ‘The Moplah Rebellion 1921’, which was published in 1924. In that book, he has just mentioned that the Dorset Regiment met some rebels near Melmuri and it led to the killing of 246 people on October 25, 1921,” said Sameel.

A book by the then police inspector of Malappuram, R H Hitchcock, describes every moment of his life as a British officer in Malappuram.

“The book is no more in print, hence, I got a photocopy of the book from one of my friends and a professor at Malappuram Government College, Dr Jameel Ahmed,” said Sameel.

BookMalabarRebellionMPOs27dec2018

Another historian, Dr M Gangadharan, has cited British officials G R F Tottenham and C T Atkinson in his work on the Malabar struggle. Sameel found Tottenham’s book to be the most valuable as the author had added all the official communications, notes, commission reports etc., that were available during the rebellion.

“I stitched all these details together with the verbal accounts of various residents and stories of survivors to write this report. It was a painful effort,” said Sameel.

Earlier efforts 

In the early 2000s, an article published in ‘Souvenir’ as part of the Pookkottur War anniversary had made some efforts to cover the massacre.

Some young enthusiasts and writers had also made videos regarding this massacre and related artefacts still available in the area. The information for these efforts led Sameel to more graves.

Two feet deep grave. (Courtesy: Sameel)
Two feet deep grave. (Courtesy: Sameel)

‘Girls were murdered’

“Dr Thorappa Muhammed had mentioned graves dug by Muslim women as men were unavailable to conduct the funerals,” elaborates Sameel. “I found two such graves in the latest expedition. Unlike the usual six-feet deep Muslim graves, these were only two feet in depth,” he said.

“As per some official documents and the accounts of descendants of the dead, a significant amount of the people killed in the massacre were innocent. Family members told me about men, including aged and sick, being forcefully dragged out of their  home and shot. Two girls who were trying to protect their fathers were also shot by the army,” Sameel added.

Punished for links?

Apart from a telegram communication of the officials mentioning the short-engagement between Dorset and rebels in Melmuri after the Mappilas were attacked, there is no other evidence to lead us to the motive behind the massacre.

“A large gang reported last night four miles north-west of Malappuram. Operations are undertaken against them by Dorsets, Artillery and armoured cars. Enemy met in jungle west of Melmuri opposing our troops there and in the houses, refusing to come  out when ordered to surrender and offering continued opposition resulting in 246 rebel casualties,” reads the telegram.

Sameel assumes the British unleashed violence in that particular place due to the presence of a big chunk of Ali Musliyar’s students and giving shelter to V K Haji when he was in underground.

He rules out any connections to the alleged Mappila brutality, including forceful conversion of non-Muslims. “In my research, I could not find any credible information about the forceful conversion. Rather, there are mentions of participation of lower caste people in the rebellion,” Sameel claims.

“If such forceful conversions had happened, where are the later generations of those people. But till now nobody came forward claiming as the descendants of ‘those people’,” says Sameel.

“The story of forceful conversion was to demonise Mappila warriors and justify the British brutality. Even the leaders in the freedom movement believed this story and ignored the ruthless suppression of the rebellion,” he added.

In his article, Sameel gives an account of assistance from Thiyya family, lower caste Hindus, to extinguish the fire set on homes of Muslim neighbours by the army.

The course of rebellion changes

The entire course of the rebellion changed after the massacre as more rebels surrendered. Also, the popular support to the rebellion had also diminished. The British created an impression among the people that none,  despite being active or inactive in the rebellion, would be spared.

“This was the British strategy to terrorise the rebels as well as sympathisers of rebels to give a strong message: ‘either support British or die’,” Sameel added.

The British officials themselves accepted that all they killed were not rebels, but they cheered the increase in the number of submissions as a result of the army act.

“In the interval before they (Dorset Regiment) came into action, there had been several encounters with the rebels and on October 25th the Dorsets had killed 246 Mapillas in the Melmuri area. Not all of these probably were active rebels, and the encounter seems to have had a considerable moral effect, for shortly afterwards petitions began to be received from ‘amsams’ in the neighbourhood of Malappuram offering submission,” Under Secretary reported to superiors. (Tottenham, 39).

In the correspondence of F B Evans, I US, Special Civil Officer, he wrote that Malappuram Kazi with thousands of men and women pleaded for amnesty after the massacre. In continuation, he regrets about the bloodbath, saying, “I think this may be put down as the effect of the Melmuri show on the 25th when no doubt a certain number of comparatively innocent people were unavoidably killed.”

Complete cover-up

British and upper caste historians deliberately neglected this episode for their benefits, alleges Sameel.

British officials tried to cover up this brutality to suppress the rebellion as part of maintaining themselves from further reactions from Muslims from other parts of India and to avert the global scrutiny of the war crime.

Sameel demands an open apology and reparation from the British government for their brutality on innocent people.

“The massacres the British army unleashed as part of a crackdown on the rebellion in Malabar, including the one in Melmuri, was one of the deadliest violence in India when one looks at its intensity. There were families without men, as all men were killed or taken to prisons. Those families need both an apology as well as compensation. The Indian government should pressurise the UK for this,” Sameel said.

For generations to come

After publication of the article, Sameel received several calls from different corners detailing other similar massacres. He is planning to write a book with more descriptions and related events.

There is also a plan to produce a documentary on this. Malayalam filmmaker and director of hit movie ‘Sudani from Nigeria’, Zakaria Muhammed, has agreed to produce the documentary under the banner of his production house – Cross Border Camera.

Sameel hopes the history books will feature this episode in the coming days. “The episode of the massacre was known among the victims’ families, till the last generation. The present generation is not aware of this. I hope my work will instil curiosity among them,” Sameel added.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Specials / by Ajmal V / DH News Service, Bengaluru / October 25th, 2018

Ali Musliyar — most prominent leader of Mappila Uprising

Community Involvement / Social Issues, Leaders, World Opinion, , , , , , , , , , ,

Nellikkunattu Desam (Evanad Taluk – Malabar District) KERALA :

AliMusliyarMPOs27dec2018

The Malabar rebellion (also known as the “Moplah War”, Mappila Lahala in Malayalam) was an armed uprising in 1921 against British authority and landlords in the Malabar region of Southern India by Mappila Muslims and the culmination of a series of Mappila revolts that recurred throughout the 19th century and early 20th century. The 1921 rebellion began as a reaction against a heavy-handed crackdown on the Khilafat Movement by the British authorities in the Eranad and Valluvanad taluks of Malabar. In the initial stages, a number of minor clashes took place between Khilafat volunteers and the police, but the violence soon spread across the region.

An estimated 10,000 people lost their lives, although official figures put the numbers at 2337 rebels killed, 1652 injured and 45,404 imprisoned. Unofficial estimates put the number imprisoned at almost 50,000 of whom 20,000 were deported, mainly to the penal colony in the Andaman Islands, while around 10,000 went missing.

Contemporary British administrators and modern historians differ markedly in their assessment of the incident, debating whether the revolts were triggered off by religious fanaticism or agrarian grievances. At the time, the Indian National Congress repudiated the movement and it remained isolated from the wider nationalist movement. However, contemporary Indian evaluations now view the rebellion as a national upheaval against British authority and the most important event concerning the political movement in Malabar during the period.

Early life and career in Mecca

Ali Musliyar was born in Nellikkunattu desom, Eranad taluk, Malabar district to Kunhimoitin Molla and Kotakkal Amina. Kotakkal Amina was a member of the famous Maqdoom family of Ponnani, known for their religions scholarship. Musliyar’s grandfather, Musa, was one of several “Malappuram Martyrs”. Ali Musliyar began his education studying the Qur’an, tajwid and the Malayalam language with Kakkadammal Kunnukammu Molla. He was sent to Ponnani Darse for further studies in religion and philosophy, under the tutelage of Sheikh Zainuddin Maqdum I (Akhir), which he successfully completed after 10 years.

He then went to Haram, Makkah (Mecca) for further education. After spending seven years in Mecca, he went on to serve as the Chief Qasi in Kavaratti, Laccadive Islands.

Musliyar in Malabar

In 1894, after learning of the slaying of his brother and several other family members, Musliyar returned to Malabar. He discovered that many of his relations and fellow students were lost during an 1896 riot. In 1907 he was appointed as the Chief Musliyar of the mosque at Tirurangadi, Eranad taluk.

The revolt of 1921–22 began following the police arrest of a number of Tenancy Association – Caliphate Movement – Indian National Congress leaders in August, 1921. Rumours that the British troops had destroyed the Mampuram Mosque led to large scale rioting throughout South Malabar against both wealthy Hindu landlords and the British.

Although the British army troops were quick to take the upper hand in many towns, a number of rebels initiated guerilla operations, forcing the British to deploy additional military units and introduce “aggressive” patrolling. The revolt came to an end in February 1922. Ali Musliyar was among a dozen leaders who were tried and sentenced to death. He was subsequently hanged at the Coimbatore Prison on 17 February 1922.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Musliyar

source: http://www.milligazette.com / The Milli Gazette / Home> Online News> Family & Kids / pub online: April 05, 2016 and print April 01-15 2016

Lohri legends: the tale of Abdullah Khan ‘Dullah’ Bhatti, the Punjabi who led a revolt against Akbar

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Leaders, Travel & Tourism, World Opinion, , , , ,

PUNJAB :

The Punjabi festival of Lohri commemorates Dullah Bhatti for his act of defiance against the Mughal emperor.

Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons

Lohri in Delhi has bonfires, popcorn, peanuts, pine nuts, gur or jaggery and til and sundry sesame sweets. Around the bonfire, people gather to sing a popular Punjabi folk song , Sundar munderiye, about a certain Dullah Bhatti who helped to rescue poor Punjabi women from the rather cruel zamindar, landlord.

In the big city, cut off from folk legends, most of the people who sing that song are unaware of who Dullah Bhatti was. Bhatti, though, is a historical figure, a contemporary of Mughal emperor Akbar who lived  in Pind Bhattian, a town about 50 kilometres west of Lahore.

Rai Abdullah Khan Bhatti – to use Dullah’s full name and title – lived in tumultuous times. Akbar was just beginning to consolidate the Mughal state, setting in process a new order that would ensure that his dynasty would rule Delhi for the next three centuries to come. The Mughal state proceeded to implement a system of land revenue devised by Akbar’s brilliant Rajput finance minister, Todar Mal, called the Zabt system. The Zabt revenue system made Mughal officers responsible for both the assessment and collection of revenue.

Punjab in chaos

What was victory from Delhi, though, often meant chaos and destruction on the ground, as old ways of life were overturned. The Zabt system underpinned the Mughal state but proved to be the end of the road for local power centres in the Punjab, as all authority was concentrated in the Mughal administration. One of those local power centres was Dullah Bhatti’s family, a Rajput landowning clan made powerless by the financial scheme of Mughal finance minister, Todar Mal. As a result, the Bhattis rebelled against Akbar – and lost. Both Dullah’s father and grandfather were executed – at the time, Dullah’s mother was pregnant with him.

Legend now has it that Akbar’s son Jahangir and Dullah were born on the same day. To make Jahangir brave, Akbar was advised to have his son breastfed by a Rajput wet nurse who – in an incredibly filmy twist – happened to be Dullah Bhatti’s mother, in one version of the legend. A more prosaic explanation for this myth is that the Mughals initiated a policy of reconciliation with the Bhattis. By providing Dullah and his mother with royal patronage, the Mughal state hoped to assuage their hurt, win them over and – most importantly – prevent future rebellions.

Things, however, didn’t go according to plan. Bhatti grew up to swear revenge on the Chughtais, Mughals who had executed his father and grandfather. So fierce was this local resistance that, says historian Ishwar Dayal Gaur, Akbar had to shift his capital to Lahore from Delhi for two decades to try and get things under control. Gaur also adds that Akbar exempted the Bari Doab or Majha (the region between the rivers Beas and Ravi) from taxes and also made peace with the Sikh guru, Arjan Dev by visiting him in Goindwal – Bhatti’s revolt was so effective that the Mughals couldn’t afford to make any new enemies.

Dullah Bhatti becomes legend

Ultimately, though, Akbar prevailed, the Mughals capturing and beheading Dullah publicly in the main bazar area of Lahore. Till the last, though, Bhatti remained defiant and his final words as recorded by sufi poet  Shah Hussain were, “No honourable son of Punjab will ever sell the soil of Punjab”. His grave still exists in Lahore, although interestingly, there is no official recognition of the spot. Pakistan – a country which is dominated by Punjabis – still takes much of its national mythos from the Mughal state, making its recognition of Dullah Bhatti’s revolt against Akbar a rather delicate matter.

Nevertheless, Dullah’s revolt passed into popular Punjabi legend and his feats as a Robin Hood are still celebrated today in the popular song Sundar munderiye, which talks of how he protected Punjabi girls from being abducted by the Mughal zamindar. The custom of giving money and sweets to children, who go from door to door singing the song, is said to honour Bhatti’s acts of generosity, of looting the tributes and taxes sent to the emperor and redistributing them among the poor.

In 2015, Bhatti’s tale was even made into a Punjabi pop number, although the video of the song, interestingly, portrayed him as a Sikh battling the Mughals, rather than the Muslim Rajput Bhatti historically was. Given that our histories rarely talk of the complex nature of Mughal India, and reduce most situations to a mirror of the communal conflicts of the modern age, this, perhaps, is an expected error.

source: http://www.scroll.in / Scroll.in / Home> Festival Celebrations / by Shoaib Daniyal / January 13th, 2016

The last song of Awadh

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Leaders, World Opinion, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Awadh, UTTAR PRADESH / BENGAL :

Wajid Ali Shah. / Courtesy Lakshmi G Joshi
Wajid Ali Shah. / Courtesy Lakshmi G Joshi

Of Wajid Ali Shah, and how a popular ‘thumri’ from another century reached us.

The Lucknow gharana of Kathak is famous for its repository of thumris. In fact, the very genre of thumri found immense patronage in the nawabs of Awadh. The last ruler, nawab Wajid Ali Shah, was a great lover of the arts. He wrote his first play, Radha Kanhaiya Ka Qissa, in 1843, when he was barely 21 years old. The British saw him as a debauched ruler wasting his wealth on entertainment.

Nineteenth-century India remembers the nawab as a romantic poet, a benefactor of the arts and a great lover of classical music and dance. By the time he ascended the throne in 1847, he had written two long romantic narrative poems (or masnavis) titled Bahr-E-Ishq (The Ocean Of Affection) and Darya-Yi-Ta’Ashshuq (The River Of Love). He adopted the pen name Akhtarpiya. An admirer of the Hindu god Krishna, he wanted to adapt these poems into a play in raas/rahas format.

Shah’s idea of staging these plays was beyond grandiose. According to the account of one Iqtidar-ud-daula who witnessed the play in February and March 1851: “The play was staged in 14 sessions (with intervals of one-two days between each session. The whole play took a month and 10 days to finish). Not every scene was staged in Qaisarbagh (a large complex housing gardens, manicured lawns and palatial buildings). Consecutive scenes were played out in different parts of the garden. In fact, some scenes were played out in different parts of the city.” It goes on to vividly describe the setting where canvas tents on bamboo frames were erected across the city along with “larger-than-life frames of scenery”. The elaborate preparations for each play took a whole year and cost £12,000 (around Rs10 lakh now) to produce.

Thus, Shah entertained himself with grand sessions of rahas. Here was a Shia Muslim king who consulted priests and celebrated Hindu festivals like Saawan, Holi and Basant Panchami with great pomp. He learnt Kathak from his court dancer-musician, Pandit Thakur Prasad. He appointed to his court the dancing duo of brothers Kalka and Bindadin Maharaj. The Kathak legend, Pandit Birju Maharaj, is a descendant of this family.

The nawab invested state wealth on arts and culture for the benefit and entertainment of his people. If the mounting expenses didn’t bother the British, Shah’s secular love for the arts and excessive indulgence did. They annexed his throne in 1854 and sent him into exile.

The book Asrar-I-Wajidi (1856) by Zahiruddin Bilgrami describes scenes of sorrowful locals who lined up on streets and wailed as the nawab left Lucknow. A caravan of a thousand people started from Lucknow on 13 March 1854 towards Calcutta (now Kolkata). For Wajid Ali Shah, there was nothing more painful than being separated from a place he loved so much and its people. His sorrow took the form of a song that spoke of displacement and loss. The song reflected an allegory to a human being’s last journey on this earth, when the body is carried on the shoulders of four pall-bearers.

Babul mora naihar chhooto jaaye

chaar kahaar mil, mori doliya sajaave

mora apna begaana chhooto jaaye

angnaa toh parbat bhayo, dehri bhayi bides

le ghar babul apno, main chali piya ki des

A large part of Shah’s writings have, unfortunately, been lost. Those that have remained, have luckily been preserved through music and dance by the descendants of his court musicians and dancers. This particular thumri reached us in its pristine condition from Kathak doyen Pandit Shambhu Maharaj. According to his first student, the late Maya Rao (in her autobiography Maya Rao—A Lifetime in Choreography, 2013), K.L. Saigal, who learnt the song from Pandit Shambhu Maharaj, spending months with him, seeing him perform it countless times and finally learning it, decided that he would sing it in the film Street Singer (1938).

In 1947, when Saigal died, All India Radio broadcast the song as a tribute. Thumri got a new lease of life on the classical music concert stage. The late Akhtaribai Faizabadi aka Begum Akhtar, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and Kishori Amonkar, among others, immortalized the song. In the 1974 film Aavishkar, starring Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore, this song, sung by the late ghazal singer Jagjit Singh and wife Chitra Singh, weaves many scenes together. While Wajid Ali Shah might have been a political eccentric, he is credited with being a revivalist in the world of Hindustani classical music, dance and Urdu drama.

source: http://www.livemint.com / LiveMint / Home / by Veejay Sai / December 01st, 2017

Meet India’s only oud maker

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Leaders, World Opinion, , , , , , ,

Rampur, UTTAR PRADESH :

Workers put finishing touches to violins at Zamiruddin's workshop in Rampur, UP. / Credits: Rohit Ghosh/Qrius
Workers put finishing touches to violins at Zamiruddin’s workshop in Rampur, UP. / Credits: Rohit Ghosh/Qrius

Zamiruddin’s old house in Purana Gunj, Rampur, a town 175 km east of New Delhi, is as nondescript as they come. But enter it and you might just find yourself transported, musically, to ancient Egypt.

Stacked on the shelves and lofts in rooms around the house’s rectangular courtyard are ouds, a musical instrument dating back thousands of years to the time of the Pharaohs.

This is the only place in India where you can buy an oud, a short-necked, pear-shaped stringed instrument that produces a sound similar to that of the sarod. The oud is oft used in Middle Eastern and North African music.

“My father [Haseenuddin] was the first and only person in India to make ouds,” said Zamiruddin, owner of New Slovakia Musicals. “Now, I am the only one…”

How the oud came to India

The oud dates back to ancient Egpyt. When it came to be used in Persia, some 3000 years ago, it was called the barbat, while it was called the al Oud (wood, or specifically thin wood) by the Arabs.

The oud came to India with the spread of Islam. In his book Two Nations and Kashmir (1956), Lord Birdwood notes that it was during the rule of Zain-ul-Abuldin in Kashmir that musicians from the West Asian region came, and brought the lute and the oud with them.

Discovering the instrument: Haseenuddin’s story

Zamiruddin inherited the business from his father Haseenuddin in 1996 and named it New Slovakia Musicals. / Credits: Rohit Ghosh/Qrius
Zamiruddin inherited the business from his father Haseenuddin in 1996 and named it New Slovakia Musicals. / Credits: Rohit Ghosh/Qrius

Once a cabinet-maker in Rampur, the lyrical story of how Haseenuddin started making ouds goes back 70-odd years.

“My father and his younger brother Ameeruddin lived together. In 1942, my uncle visited Bombay and bought a violin. He became so engrossed in playing it day in and day out that he completely detached from his surroundings,” recalled Zamiruddin.

One day, Ameeruddin accidentally dropped the violin and it shattered to pieces. Heartbroken, he continued to become more and more miserable as the weeks passed. Unable to see his brother in that state, Haseenuddin then studied the violin that had become a tangled lump of wood and strings, Zamiruddin told me.

“My father was a genius. Using his skills and things available at hand, he made a new violin for my uncle.”

Seeing the joy on Ameeruddin’s face made Haseenuddin realise his latent potential in making the instrument. “Along with chairs, tables, beds, and wardrobes, he started making violins on a large scale. The year was 1947.”

Gradually, the demand for violins soared so high that Haseenuddin gave up making furniture and concentrated only on the instrument, becoming an established violin-maker in India. His violins had a big market in Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, where music was a big part of the school curriculum.

Zamiruddin started assisting his father soon after finishing his graduation.

Then came the oud

Zamiruddin shows an oud crafted at his workshop. / Credits: Rohit Ghosh/Qrius
Zamiruddin shows an oud crafted at his workshop. / Credits: Rohit Ghosh/Qrius

“Some people visited us with an oud in 1984 and introduced themselves as dealers and exporters of musical instruments. They showed the stringed instrument to my father and asked if he could make it and said that every other craftsman in India had refused to,” said Zamiruddin.

Haseenuddin, who had already made a name for himself by making quality violins, was up to the challenge.

“I advised my father against it, owing to the oud’s complicated design. He, however, chided me and said I should never doubt the skills of a master craftsman. His first oud was a success, after which we started producing them on a large scale—120-odd ouds a month,” reminisced Zamiruddin.

During that time, the ouds were exported to Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and other Middle Eastern countries. “Ouds are made in the Middle East, but my product is better. India has a variety and better quality of wood compared to the Gulf, which is a desert. Also, my ouds are cheaper. An oud made in Syria may cost Rs 80,000, but mine are Rs 18,000 a piece,” said Zamiruddin, who inherited the business in 1996 after his father passed away.

Yet, despite the many pluses his ouds have, he has no immediate plans to export them to foreign markets, given the low returns.

According to him, no two ouds are the same, neither in dimensions nor the sound they produce. “Ouds are handmade. So, something that has been cut and carved by hand won’t have the precision of machines. Hence, every oud is unique, even if made by the same craftsman.”

Spreading the music

Zamiruddin uses the backyard of his house as his workshop, where 30-odd workmen sit cross-legged on the floor, designing violins and ouds. At any point, he has about 40 ouds ready.

Although the ouds do not sell as much as the other musical instruments, Zamiruddin has found many buyers online. “Connoisseurs of music contact me online. Two months back, I even sold one to a person from Mumbai,” he said.

So, although not as well known as its more famous stringed siblings, the oud may yet find a wider market and fanbase.

Rohit Ghosh is an independent journalist based in Kanpur.

source: http://www.qrius.com / Qrius / Home> Music / by Rohit Ghosh / February 19th, 2002

Women who patronised Delhi

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Leaders, Travel & Tourism, World Opinion, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

DELHI :

Grand design: A view of Fatehpuri Masjid | Photo Credit: V_V_Krishnan
Grand design: A view of Fatehpuri Masjid | Photo Credit: V_V_Krishnan

From Haji Begum to Qudsia Begum, there is a a long list of women who contributed to the city’s grandeur

Women who patronised Delhi and converted it into a centre of art and culture, besides making it verdant and floral by laying parks and gardens, can be traced right from the time of Bega Begum or Haji Begum who built the beautiful tomb for her husband in Nizamuddin, which became the model for the Taj Mahal. After her, the daughters of Shah Jahan made it a paradisiacal city (just as Nur Jahan had done so earlier in Lahore and Kashmir). They were followed by Qudsia Begum and in recent times, in a small way though, by Lady Willingdon, Aruna Asaf Ali, Indira Gandhi and Sheila Dixit, among others. From the mid-17th century, the social and cultural fabric of Shahjahanabad has borne the stamp of women as during the Mughal era they acquired considerable wealth and influence. Much of what survives in Shahjahanabad reminds us of them and their contribution, compiled from different sources.

The imperial city was given overall shape under the supervision of Shah Jahan himself. His diktat determined the encircling of the city wall and the two main streets, running north-south and east-west, respectively at their junction of the palace complex (Red Fort) and the congregational Jama Masjid. “Within the limits of this centralised plan, it was mainly individual enterprise that led to the creation of commercial, religious, public spaces and homes.” Among the landmarks of the city were its mosques, three of which were commissioned by the wives of Shah Jahan after the death of Mumtaz Mahal – Akbarabadi, Fatehpuri and Sirhindi masjids named after the three. Akbarabadi Begum of Agra built a grand mosque to the south of Red Fort which was demolished by the British after the Revolt of 1857. Akbarabadi Begum was gifted a garden by Shah Jahan to the north-west of the city which came to be known as Aizzabad or Shalimar Bagh. The Begum then built a sarai within it. It was in this garden that the coronation of Aurangzeb took place on the July 31, 1658, after he had deposed Shah Jahan and also the place where Gen Ochterlony caught a chill that led to his death. Another wife of the emperor, Fatehpuri Begum built a mosque at the western end of the street that led from the Red Fort, which is known after her name. The Sirhindi Masjid, just outside the city wall, was built by the third wife, Sirhindi Begum.

Women of influence

Shah Jahan’s elder daughter, Jahanara commanded great influence and resources. She was well-educated and also had leanings towards Sufism. Jahanara’s wealth enabled her to patronise works of learning, like commentaries on Rumi’s Masnavi and for commissioning architectural projects, in which the pride of place was taken by the moonlight square, Chandni Chowk.

Mughal ladies who continued the tradition of Jahanara and Roshanara were Aurangzeb’s wife, Aurangabadi Begum who built a mosque near the Lahore Gate. The emperor’s two daughters, Zinat-un-Nissa and Zeb-un-Nissa, were also great patrons. Zeb-un-Nissa is the author of poems composed under the alias ‘Makhfi’. A skilled calligraphist, she patronised many writers, poets and learned men and commissioned several important books and tracts. She was buried in the Tees Hazari Bagh, inherited from Jahanara, but her tomb is hard to find.

Her sister Zinat-un-Nissa built a grand mosque beside the Yamuna in 1700 which is called Ghata Masjid now, her tomb, north of the mosque, was demolished in the aftermath of 1857 while the mosque was used as a bakery for British troops.

Story of Sunehri Masjid

Qudsia Begum laid Qudsia Bagh to the north of the city in 1748 whose grand buildings and a mosque were badly damaged during 1857. She also constructed Sunheri masjid near the southern gate of the Red Fort in 1751, whose dome were originally gilt-covered. A noted Shia, she constructed a number of buildings in Jorbagh, at the Dargah of Shah-e-Mardan, the shrine of the footprint of Hazrat Ali. Fakhr-ul-Masjid, near Kashmeri Gate, was built in 1728-29 by Kaniz Fatima in memory of her husband, Shujat Khan, a commander of Aurangzeb’s time who was killed during a military campaign in Kandhar.

Rabia Begum built a palatial house south of the Jama Masjid in the 18th Century. She was the wife of Muhammad Khan Bangash, the Governor of Farukkhabad, Agra and Allahabad. Rabia also commissioned a number of other structures, including Pul Bangash. Some buildings are named after unknown women such as Burhiyas’ (old women’s) mosques, two other anonymous ladies built Mir Afzal’s mosque in the Lal Kuan area in 1806. In fact, there were a large number of mosques and temples built by women at that time. These included three mosques, a Kali temple and several Shiva temples. Mubarak Begum, a dancing girl, built a mosque in Lal Kuan which came to be known as “Randi-ki-Maszid”. But now it is known after her name. She was the chief mistress of Gen Ochterlony. Better known than her and other 18th Century women was Begum Samru, a Kashmiri dancing girl of Chandni Chowk who had married the European military adventurer, Walter Reinhardt ‘Sombre’. His nick name, Sombre, or ‘dark’ was corrupted to Samru. After his death, his begum inherited the estate of Sardhana. She also successfully led military expectations and made astute political alliances.

Zinat Mahal was the wife of Bahadur Shah Zafar who became a powerful influence within the palace, and controlled a good deal of wealth. In 1846, she built a mansion in Lal Kuan Bazar. Her aim was to establish herself in the city, so that when the emperor died, her property and person would not be under the jurisdiction of the new emperor, who might be one of his older sons. So how can one overlook the contribution of women (royal or not) to Delhi’s grandeur?

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society> History & Culture /  by R.V. Smith / December 10th, 2018

Treasure in a clay pot: The buried copper coins of Delhi’s Khirki Mosque

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Travel & Tourism, World Opinion, , , , , , , ,

DELHI :

The style of writing on the coins indicates that they might be from the Lodi dynasty. Photo: V.V. Krishnan | Photo Credit: V.V. Krishnan
The style of writing on the coins indicates that they might be from the Lodi dynasty. Photo: V.V. Krishnan | Photo Credit: V.V. Krishnan

The discovery of over 250 copper coins at Khirki Mosque is expected to throw light on Delhi’s medieval period

Khirki is crowded, with narrow roads and tall buildings bundled together like Lego bricks stacked precariously. Smack in the middle of this chaos is Khirki Mosque, a 14th century fortress-like structure built during the Tughlaq dynasty.

The mosque is fenced in by high compound walls and the uneven ground is lower than the houses that surround the structure. It is deathly quiet inside, with its myriad archways partially lit by Delhi’s smoggy sunlight. Standing there, it is easy to imagine a priest, or a trader, furtively hurrying along the walls of the mosque to find a spot to bury treasure.

Treasure is what the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) found two months ago in this complex — a hoard of small copper coins vaguely resembling those bite-sized Britannia biscuits from the 90s.

Happy chance

A team from ASI’s conservation wing was levelling the ground in early September as part of ongoing conservation work when one of the workers’ pickaxes landed on a mud pot. Work was halted and ASI archaeologists were called.

The office was abuzz when they learned about the discovery, says N.K. Pathak, superintending archaeologist, ASI-Delhi circle. “As soon as the coins were discovered, there was a big halla. For archaeologists, discoveries like this are always exciting, no matter the value. Everyone said, Khazana mil gaya!” he says, laughing.

The style of writing on the coins indicates that they might be from the Lodi dynasty. | Photo Credit: V.V. Krishnan
The style of writing on the coins indicates that they might be from the Lodi dynasty. | Photo Credit: V.V. Krishnan

The discovery of these coins is what those in the field call a ‘chance discovery’, as opposed to a planned dig. The mosque is also the site of an earlier discovery of 63 coins in 2003, which was also a chance discovery. There is a possibility that both sets of coins might be from the same era.

Preliminary investigations of the 254 coins reveal that they are from Delhi’s medieval period — 13th to 16th century — the latter part straddling the early modern period. Proper identification can happen only after they are cleaned and studied, says Pathak. “However, some of the coins belong to the reign of Islam Shah Suri.”

Inscriptions on the coins

Islam Shah Suri is the son of Sher Shah Suri, who founded the Sur dynasty and ruled Delhi for seven years from 1538 to 1545. “Most Islamic coins have inscriptions (what we call legends) on them — the name of the ruler and their father’s name. In this case, some of the coins had ‘Islam Shah Suri, son of Sher Shah Suri’ inscribed on them,” says Shahmoon Ahmad, Assistant Archaeologist, ASI-Lucknow circle, who will be studying the coins further.

Notably, it was Sher Shah who introduced the precursors to the modern rupee and paise — the silver rupaiya and the copper paisa. The gold coins issued by the Sur dynasty were called mohurs. “Discoveries of gold and silver coins are rather rare. Copper coins are not that much of a surprise,” says Pathak.

That’s because copper coins were reused by the general populace; the gold and the silver ones had to be re-minted with the names of current rulers, adds Ahmad.

He suspects that this might be true for this hoard as well. There are several paleographic indications — the style of writing — that indicate that some of the coins might be from the Lodi dynasty, which fell less than two decades before Islam Shah’s reign.

However, any discovery, even something as small as a copper coin hoard, is quite significant. “The monument is of the Tughlaq period, but the coins are from the Lodi and the Sur periods. Once we date the coins, we can establish that people used money regularly from the earliest date on the coin to the latest,” says Ahmad.

Interestingly, the fact that there are coins from two different dynasties might mean that this was not the hoard of a single person. “It could be the savings of one or two generations of a family,” he adds.

These coins can also establish other things. “They tell us this area was populated, the jurisdiction of the particular ruler, the prosperity of his rule, the money usage patterns, and so on,” says Pathak.

The coins also show that the mosque was in use during the reign of that particular ruler.

If they were indeed minted during the time of Islam Shah, it would mean the mosque was in use even 200 years after it was built.

Khirki’s secrets

More than half a millennium later, however, the Khirki Mosque is in bad shape. The buildings that flout ASI’s 100-metre-rule is the least of the concerns. There are broken pillars, loose bricks, decaying stones, a decades-old bat infestation, and more. The boundary wall around the monument came up only in 2003, according to an earlier report in The Hindu.

Conservation work, which began roughly mid-August, started with clearing the debris to bring the lower plinth of the monument to an even level, says deputy superintending archaeologist, Sanjay Kumar Singh. “It was also to make the movement of water on the ground smoother, especially in the monsoon. So work began with levelling the ground,” he says.

When the coins were found, the area around the discovery was carefully cordoned off, while all the debris and mud excavated so far were sieved thoroughly for more surprises from the past. “There is possibility to get anything, even pot shards, at any important site in Delhi. Workers, supervisors, and other staff are trained to be vigilant. We tell them this work is different from what the Public Works Department might do,” says Pathak.

Conservation work will go on for another six months, during which time the broken pillars and the decayed chajja stones will be replaced. “We will also undertake ‘pointing and underpinning’ work to fix the loose bricks and mortar. We will be using the lime mortar mix that was originally used,” adds Pathak.

Detailed information on the coins, however, will roll in before work on the monument is finished. “We will first send them to the science branch for cleaning, after which our numismatics branch will come in to decipher the writing. It will take three to four months,” says Pathak.

What are the possibilities of finding more antiquities here? “That’s just it,” he says. “You can never predict what you can find in Delhi and when. What is beneath the earth, you never know.”

janane.venkatraman@thehindu.co.in

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society> History & Culture / by Janane Venkatraman / December 08th, 2018

Light on a leading light

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Education, Freedom Fighters (under research project), Leaders, World Opinion, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

NEW DELHI :

Mustajab Malik
Mustajab Malik

Mustajab Malik’s short film “Sir Syed Ahmed Khan” is quite relevant at a time when media circles are abuzz about a possible Bharat Ratna for him.

Many times adverse conditions bring out the best in a human being. So was the case with Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, a visionary and educationist, whose single greatest contribution among others to the posterity stands in the form of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), the renowned centre of learning.

The 30-minute documentary “Sir Syed Ahmed Khan” is a part of the series “Charagh-e-Hind” directed by Mustajab Malik that traces his life highlighting several important aspects of his personality. “The objective of the series is to inspire the Muslim youth and enable them to change their mindset from ‘we have got nothing’ to ‘we must contribute’,” explains Mustajab, a veteran theatre person. Virendra Vashistha essays the role of Sir Syed and the script is written by Dr. Mohammad Aleem. Born on October 17, 1817 in Mughal nobility, Sir Syed after education joined the civil services. The First War of Independence in 1857, when he was munsif in Bijnor, had a profound impact on his life. Despite suffering personally as many of his family members were either killed or missing, he ensured protection to the women and children left by the British for safekeeping.

“Sir Syed was aware that the 1857 events reflected dissent on the part of Indians and that they were not well prepared for it,” comments historian, Prof. S.M. Azizuddin in the film. “An Essay “On The Causes Of The Indian Revolt” in 1859, the English translation of his discourse, was widely debated in the English Parliament leading many members to demand action against him.

Instead mourning the death of his loved ones, the educationist was deeply hurt by the repercussions on his community and nation. He decided to serve and provide hope in the time of despair. “When Muslims were being targeted and their confidence was at the lowest ebb, he stepped in to guide them in tune with the changing international environment,” remarks Dr. Khwaja Ekramuddin, an Urdu scholar, in the documentary. For achieving that Sir Syed identified knowledge and science as the prime tools and promoted Western style scientific education. He founded a modern madarsa in Moradabad and Ghazipur and the Scientific Society of Aligarh to instil scientific temper apart from having several scientific papers translated into Urdu.

Sir Syed’s meeting with Mirza Ghalib to write the foreword of his edition of Abul Fazl’s Ain-e Akbari, proved a turning point for him. The poet asked him to forget the past and concentrate on current developments and take into account the galloping progress in the West thereby turning him towards social reform.

During his stay in England for nearly two years from 1869 he visited several educational establishments and learning centres inspiring him to replicate them in India. This led to setting up Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College in 1875. “Educating Muslims meant taking India forward,” comments Pradeep Saxsena, a Hindi scholar. In this cause he was helped by several Hindus in cash and kind. Besides seeking funds, Sir Syed also staged plays to espouse the cause. In 1920, 22 years after his death, it became AMU. The institution enrolled a large number of Hindu students and Babu Iswhari Prasad is among the first batch of graduates.

Sir Syed was swayed by all the British did. “He wanted their help and at the same time criticised them as proved by his essay on events of 1857. Besides he also rebutted the allegations made by Sir William Muir in his book “Life of Mahomet” in writing,” says Mustajab adding “he did not take to the streets protesting or led agitations and instead adopted the civilised method.”

The film highlights Sir Syed’s scholarship by informing the viewers of his 1846 book “Athar-al-Sanadid” which documents the Delhi monuments. “It was a first- of-its-kind attempt. In fact this authoritative work which cannot be ignored by anyone studying Delhi monuments,” comments Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi, a historian shown in the documentary.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Friday Review / by S. Ravi / January 08th, 2015