Hindustan | SabrangIndia

Yaadon Ki Baaraat Book Review: A must-read for all who take pride in Hindustan’s Ganga-Jamni Tehzeeb

Wed, 21 Aug 2019 06:36:08 +0000

I have just finished reading “Yaadon Ki Baaraat”, Josh Malihabadi’s autobiography. Josh was a revolutionary Urdu poet known as Shayar-e-Inquilab! The original autobiography is in Urdu. I read its Hindi version, translated by Hansraj Rahbar and published by the good old Rajpal & Sons. The book is simply unputdownable and I read it from cover to cover holding my breath. A fascinating read about a bygone era. I wished I had been born during those glorious days

Josh Malihabadi was born as Shabbir Hasan Khan in 1896. He was from an Afridi Pathan family based in Malihabad, a small town near Lucknow, the city of nawabs. And Shabbir Khan was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Or should I say a golden spoon. His abba was a big zamindar with untold wealth. As a small kid, Shabbir fed sugarcanes to his pet elephant! His abba travelled in a “paalki” borne by eight “kahaars”. A young Shabbir was homeschooled by 4-5 ustads. He was a child prodigy who had mugged up Persian classics like Gulistaan and Bostaan. But his doting father was against Shabbir going to a school. He was so possessive!

After Shabbir’s satyagraha, he relented and sent Shabbir to schools first at Sitapur then at Lucknow. As a young man, Shabbir joined the MAO College in Aligarh, only to be thrown out for playing a prank with his junior! At the MAO College (now AMU) Shabbir Hasan Khan was a boarder, staying at the Mumtaz House. By this time, he was also a full-fledged Urdu poet. His “takhallus” (nom de plume) was Josh Malihabadi. In fact, poetry was in his DNA. His ancestors were also renowned poets. In 1924, Josh Malihabadi became an employee of the Hyderabad Nizam. The Nizam respected him but soon Josh was kicked out of Deccan for reciting a nazm against the Nizam himself! He went to Datia and Dholpur to try his luck but to no avail. Then he came to Delhi, got monetary help from Sarojini Naidu, Bulbul-e-Hindustan and launched his own magazine Kaleem. The magazine prospered until his business partner deserted him. For some time, Josh Malihabadi worked at the Shalimar Pictures in Pune as a songwriter but lost his job when the owner migrated to Pakistan! He got the editorship of Aajkal, courtesy his bosom friend Pandit Nehru.

By 1955, Josh Malihabadi was being courted by Pakistan. Pakistanis told him that after Nehru’s demise, Muslims would be persecuted in India. Josh Malihabadi’s grandsons would be forced to wear dhoti and keep choti. And then Josh Malihabadi committed the biggest blunder of his life. Breaking hearts of Pandit Nehru and Maulana Azad, he bid adieu to Hindustan and became a Pakistani citizen! Tall promises made by his Pakistani friends soon turned out to be Narendra Modi’s “achchhe din”! Achchhe din never came and Josh soon found himself embroiled in the petty politics of Pakistan. People jealous of Josh Malihabadi made life miserable for him. Pandit Nehru called him back to India but shayar-e- inquilab was too proud to retrace his steps. The book makes the reader sad at Josh Malihabadi’s plight as a revolutionary poet sells his wife’s ornaments to keep the chulha burning!

The book is full of anecdotes. It also brings to light horrors of the zamindari system. How cruel the feudal system was. Sample this example. As a young boy, Shabbir Khan was a spoilt brat. He carried an airgun. One day, a poor barber’s son didn’t salaam him. Shabbir got so angry that he fired his airgun at the small kid. The metal ball pierced the little kid’s back. He cried in agony while the young Shabbir again hit him.

The book also throws light on conspiracies at the Nizam ‘s court. Sycophants ruled the roost while upright guys suffered. Josh Malihabadi also spent some time at Shantiniketan at Tagore’s request. Meat was banned at Shantiniketan and Josh ‘s servant Jugnu smuggled mutton inside Josh’s room!

Josh Malihabadi was very close to top Indian leaders especially Pandit Nehru, Maulana Azad and Sarojini Naidu. Once Nehru fired his secretary for speaking lies to Josh on telephone. Sarojini Nsidu was like a sister to Josh.

Overall, the book is a captivating one. A must-read for all who take pride in Hindustan’s Ganga-Jamni tehzeeb.

(Mr. Amitabh Kumar Das is a 1994 batch IPS Officer.)

Courtesy: themorningchronicle.in

The post Yaadon Ki Baaraat Book Review: A must-read for all who take pride in Hindustan’s Ganga-Jamni Tehzeeb appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Babur on Hindustan: Excerpts from the Babur-Nama

Wed, 30 Dec 2015 12:31:44 +0000

Four days ago, December 26 was the death anniversary of Babur the founding Mughal. He died on December 26, 485 years ago in 1530. Reviled in recent Indian history by proponents of the supremacist Hindutva brigade (remember Sadhvi Rithambara’s rantings of Babur ki Aulad to revile all Indian Muslims as the Sangh Parivar legitimised the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992), Babur (Zahiru'd-din Muhammad Babur, original name) was a man of letters who had a keen fascination for flora and fauna besides being an intrepid traveller-warrior. Babur-Nama (Memoirs of Babur), originally written in Turki was translated into Persian during his grandson, Akbar’s reign. We bring you some excerpts

Of Hindustan
Hindustan is of the first climate, the second climate, and the third climate; of the fourth climate it has none. It is a wonderful country. Compared with our countries it is a different world; its mountains, rivers, jungles and deserts, its towns, its cultivated lands, its animals and plants, its peoples and their tongues, its rains, and its winds, are all different. In some respects the hot-country (garm-sil) that depends on Kabul, is like Hindustan, but in others, it is different. Once the water of Sind is crossed, everything is in the Hindustan way (tariq) land, water, tree, rock, people and horde, opinion and custom.

Of the northern mountains
After crossing the Sind-river (eastwards), there are countries, in the northern mountains mentioned above, appertaining to Kashmir and once included in it, although most of them, as for example, Pakli and Shahmang (?), do not now obey it. Beyond Kashmir there are countless peoples and hordes, parganas and cultivated lands, in the mountains. As far as Bengal, as far indeed as the shore of the great ocean, the peoples are without break. About this procession of men no-one has been able to give authentic information in reply to our enquiries and investigations. So far people have been saying that they call these hill-men Kas.[1] It has struck me that as a Hindustan pronounces shin as sin (i.e. sh as s), and as Kashmir is the one respectable town in these mountains, no other indeed being heard of, Hindustanis might pronounce it Kashmir.[2] These people trade in musk-bags, b:hri-qutas,[3] saffron, lead and copper.

Hindus call these mountains Sawalak-parbat. In the Hindi tongue sawai-lak means one lak and a quarter, that is 125,000, and parbat means a hill, which makes 125,000 hills.[4] The snow on these mountains never lessens; it is seen white from many districts of Hind, as, for example, Lahor, Sihrind and Sambal. The range, which in Kabul is known as Hindu-kush, comes from Kabul eastwards into Hindustan, with slight inclination to the south. The Hindustanat[5] are to the south of it. Tibet lies to the north of it and of that unknown horde called Kas.

Of Rivers
Many rivers rise in these mountains and flow through Hindustan. Six rise north of Sihrind, namely Sind, Bahat (Jilam), Chan-ab [sic], Rawl, Biah, and Sutluj [6]; all meet near Multan, flow westwards under the name of Sind, pass through the Tatta country and fall into the ‘Uman (-sea).

Besides these six there are others, such as Jun (Jumna), Gang (Ganges), Rahap (Rapti?), Gumti, Gagar (Ghaggar), Siru, Gandak, and many more; all unite with the Gang-darya, flow east under its name, pass through the Bengal country, and are poured into the great ocean. They all rise in the Sawalak-parbat. Many rivers rise in the Hindustan hills, as, for instance, Chambal, Banas, Bitwi, and Sun (Son). There is no snow whatever on these mountains. Their waters also join the Gang-darya.

Of the Aravalli
Another Hindustan range runs north and south. It begins in the Dihli country at a small rocky hill on which is Firuz Shah’s residence, called Jahan-nama,[7] and, going on from there, appears near Dihli in detached, very low, scattered here and there, rocky little hills.[8] Beyond Miwat, it enters the Biana country. The hills of Sikri, Bari and Dulpur are also part of this same including (tuta) range. The hills of Gualiar – they write it Galiur – although they do not connect with it, are off-sets of this range; so are the hills of Rantanbur, Chitur, Chandiri, and Mandau. They are cut off from it in some places by 7 to 8 kurohs (I4 to I6 m.). These hills are very low, rough, rocky and jungly. No snow whatever falls on them. They are the makers, in Hindustan, of several rivers.

Other particulars about Hindustan
The towns and country of Hindustan are greatly wanting in charm. Its towns and lands are all of one sort; there are no walls to the orchards (baghat), and most places are on the dead level plain. Under the monsoon-rains the banks of some of its rivers and torrents are worn into deep channels, difficult and troublesome to pass through anywhere. In many parts of the plains thorny jungle grows, behind the good defence of which the people of the pargana become stubbornly rebellious and pay no taxes. Except for the rivers and here and there standing-waters, there is little “running-water”. So much so is this that towns and countries subsist on the water of wells or on such as collects in tanks during the rains.

In Hindustan hamlets and villages, towns indeed, are depopulated and set up in a moment! If the people of a large town, one inhabited for years even, flee from it, they do it in such a way that not a sign or trace of them remains in a day or a day and a half [9]. On the other hand, if they fix their eyes on a place in which to settle, they need not dig water-courses or construct dams because their crops are all rain-grown,[10] and as the population of Hindustan is unlimited, it swarms in. They make a tank of dig a well; they need not build houses or set up walls-khas-grass (Andropogon muricatum) abounds, wood is unlimited, huts are made, and straightway there is a village or a town!

(Excerpted from Babur-Nama (Memories of Babur, author Zahiru’d-din Muhammad Babur Padshah Ghazi, translated by Annette Susannah Beveridge from the original Turki, Complete and unbridged, a Venture of Low Price Publications)

[1] Are they the Khas of Nepal and Sikkim? (G. of I.)

[2] Here Erskine notes that the Persian (trs.) adds, “mir signifying a hill, and kas being the name of the natives of the hill country.” This may not support the name kas as correct but may be merely an explanation of Babur’s meaning. It is not in I.O. 217 f. I89 or in Muh. Shirdzi’s lithographed Waqi-at-i-baburi p. I90

[3] Either yak or the tassels of the yak. See Appendix M

[4] My husband tells me that Babur’s authority for this interpretation of Sawalak may be the Zafar-nama (Bib. Ind. Ed. Ii, I49).

[5] i.e. the countries of Hindustan

[6] so pointed, carefully, in the Hai. MS. Mr. Erskine notes of these rivers that they are the Indus, Hydaspes, Ascesines, Hydraotes, Hesudrus and Hyphasis

[7] Ayin-i-akbari, Jarrett 279

[8] parcha parcha, kichikrak kichikrak, anda munda, tashiq taqghina. The Gazetteer of India (I907 I, I) puts into scientific words, what Babur here describes, the ruin of a great former range

[9] This” notes Erskine (p. 315) “is the wulsa or walsa, so well described by Colonel Wilks in his Historical Sketches vol. i.p. 309, note ‘On the approach of an hostile army, the unfortunate inhabitants of India bury under ground their most cumbrous effects, and each individual, man, woman, and child above six years of age (the infant children being carried by their mothers), with a load of grain proportioned to their strength, issue from their beloved homes, and take the direction of a country (if such can be found,) exempt from the miseries of war; sometimes of a strong fortress, but more generally of the most unfrequented hills and woods, where theyprolong a miserable existence until the departure of the enemy, and if this should be protracted beyond the time for which they have provided food, a large portion necessarily dies of hunger.’ See the note itself. The Historical Sketches should be read by every-one who desires to have an accurate idea of the South of India. It is to be regretted that we do not possess the history of any other part of India, written with the same knowledge or research.”
“The word wulsa or walsa is Dravidian. Telugu has valasa, ‘emigration, flight, or removing from home for fear of a hostile army.’ Kanarese has valase, olase, and olise, ‘flight, a removing from home for fear of a hostile army.’ Tamil has valasei, ‘flying for fear, removing hastily.’ The word is an interesting one. I feel pretty sure it is not Aryan, but Dravidian; and yet it stands alone in Dravidian, with nothing that I can find in the way of a root or affinities to explain its etymology. Possibly it may be a borrowed word in Dravidian. Malayalam has no corresponding word. Can it have been borrowed from Kolarian or other primitive Indian speech?” (Letter to H. Beveridge from Mr. F.E. Pargiter, 8^th August, 1914).
Wulsa seems to be a derivative from Sanscrit ulvash, and to answer to Persian wairani and Turki buzughlughi.

[10] lalmi, which is Afghani (Pushtu) signifies grown without irrigation.

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