Category Archives: Travel & Tourism

Muslims in Kolkata find a place to call home

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

Kolkata, WEST BENGAL :

Tanvi Sultana speaks at a gathering organised by Sanghati Abhijan at Jadavpur. Photo: Special Arrangement
Tanvi Sultana speaks at a gathering organised by Sanghati Abhijan at Jadavpur. Photo: Special Arrangement

Two voluntary groups enable Hindus and Muslims to interact and look beyond communal misconceptions.

After being turned away by several landlords for months, Aftab Alam and his three friends, all of them doctors, finally found a place to rent in south Kolkata. Their elation, however, was short-lived. Soon after moving in, a neighbour told their landlord that they ought to be evicted, arguing, “Four Muslim men staying in a predominantly Hindu neighbourhood is problematic.”

Dr. Alam recalls, “It was disheartening. I rented the flat to the rest after strenuous night shifts. Suddenly, the peace was disrupted…[we had] huge expectations from Kolkata.”

His predicament was unexpectedly addressed. When he spoke of it on social media, Dr. Alam was contacted by Sanghati Abhijan (SA), a voluntary group that recently initiated its ‘Open-a-Door’ campaign to stop discrimination against potential Muslim tenants. SA’s volunteers resolved the situation by engaging peacefully with the neighbours, the landlord and the tenants themselves.

“We thank them for their support at a critical time,” says Dr. Alam. The intervention helped him and his friends stay on instead of relocating, as they had first planned.

‘Communal remarks’

In another instance, Tanvi Sultana, an undergraduate student, was allegedly targeted with “communal remarks” while looking for a flat in south Kolkata, at times being instructed not to bring beef to her residence. As with Dr. Alam and his friends, SA helped her live in the same apartment. “I thank them and wish for the initiative to grow,” Ms. Sultana says.

Since February, SA has helped about 30 such home-seekers in dire need via its social media group, ‘People’s Unity’. The platform provides a database of houses, apartments and guest houses, with information such on the location of the property, contact details of owners, and rent. The group’s meetings are eye-openers on the communal tensions between property owners and tenants.

“We only enlist property owners who are keen on letting out accommodation without discriminating against a particular faith or on the basis of marital status,” said Dwaipayan Banerjee, one of SA’s co-founders. However, Mr. Banerjee admits that while “hundreds” of tenants approach them, the property owners are “far fewer” in numbers.

SA’s members say they want to “break the culture of silence” which, in turn, could “curb rising Islamophobia.” Anindya Ray Ahmed, a student, was told openly by brokers, “Muslims are dirty and potential terrorists.”

He was ‘rejected’ by 16 landlords before he could find a place to live, but after accepting a deposit, the landlady telephoned him to say, “My husband has a problem with Muslims, so you cannot stay.” Mr. Ahmed alleges that she lowered his deposit down in a bag from her floor above, declining to “stand near a Muslim.”

SA’s members favour direct mediation, but their Facebook page has witnessed about 150 such disagreements and their resolution through virtual owner-tenant interaction on the social media platform.

In another incident, SA informed the Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association and authorities when two students faced misbehaviour from the superintendent and boarders at their hostel “for being Muslim.” An enquiry committee is looking into this case.

SA member Deborshi Chakraborty calls this “exponential ghettoisation” because, often, Muslim tenants seek proximity to their religious peers so that they will not be judged.

Alongside, SA has been prey to moral policing and expressions of paranoia by potential lessors.

The campaign has apparently irked Tripura’s former Governor Tathagata Roy, now Governor of Meghalaya. On August 11, he re-posted a newspaper article on SA and remarked on social media that the paper was trying to “teach Hindu house-owners of Kolkata that they must rent out their premises to Muslims. Otherwise, they are not sufficiently ‘secular’.”

Along similar lines, the Know Your Neighbour (KYN) campaign aimed at reducing communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims is gaining momentum in Kolkata and several districts, too. On a shoestring budget, KYN has organised meetings, sponsored heritage walks, staged plays, and focussed on food to find common ground.

Participants of the Know Your Neighbour campaign visit to Metiabruz in Kolkata. Photo: Anirban Kar | Photo Credit: Anirban Kar
Participants of the Know Your Neighbour campaign visit to Metiabruz in Kolkata. Photo: Anirban Kar | Photo Credit: Anirban Kar

Food walks

“We arrange food walks as the city has a massive culinary culture developed over centuries,” said Sabir Ahamed, a KYN organiser. “Cultural ignorance brews fear. Financial constraints coupled with little-known practices like the Dastarkhān, a traditional space for meals kept on a yellow cloth featuring Urdu couplets, became the basis for speculation over why Muslims ‘eat in bed’. Such ‘myths’ must be broken, which is why we translate the Muslim ‘jargon’ that often dictates daily routine,” says Mr. Ahamed. His intends to delve deeper into this in his forthcoming Masjidi Kolkata project.

KYN’s walks journey into quintessential ‘Muslim pockets’ of Kolkata — Metiabruz, Khidderpore and parts of central Kolkata around the mosques set up by Muslims from Kutch — are followed by interactions with locals.

“Although I am a resident of Kolkata, I had never been to Khidderpore. I took this opportunity to know more about Bengal’s Islamic culture, and to redeem myself of the guilt of assuming that it is a crime-prone area,” says Sanjukta Choudhury, who participated in a KYN walk.

Novelist, academic and foodie Samim Ahmed, an expert on both the Mahabharata and Nawab Wajid Ali Shah’s Bengal, says visits to areas like the Sibtainabad Imambara, a less ornate grave of the last King of Oudh, Wajid Ali Shah, “adds more excitement to the walk.”

Often, visitors discuss food traditions with locals and learn, for instance, about the German bread distributed in Kolkata during the Second World War, dry fruits, and recipes for delicious haleem and biryani.

Non-Muslims are invited to break bread with their Muslim counterparts in KYN’s ‘Dosti ki Iftari’ get-together.

Linguistic explorations, such as tracing the etymological roots of ‘azaan’ (the Islamic call for worship) ringing within the old architecture of the Nakhoda Masjid, are also encouraged.

“Hindus barely visit these pockets of Kolkata, whereas such paranoia is less intense in the rural areas. We aim to eradicate cultural misconceptions by spreading knowledge on prevalent Islamic practices,” Mr. Ahmed says, adding, “Such walks provide an opportunity for communities to know each other in an atmosphere of unmitigated fun.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kolkata / by Tannistha Sinha / Kolkata – August 25th, 2018

Second Lucknow ‘fixed’ in sepia

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Community Involvement / Social Issues, Leaders, Travel & Tourism, World Opinion, , , , , , , , , , ,

WEST BENGAL :

Liveried servants of the Nawab of Oudh wait with a palanquin in one of the rare photographs of Metiabruz, during Wajid Ali Shah’s time. The royal insignia is embroidered on the back of one of them. Copied from the original by Rashbehari Das
Liveried servants of the Nawab of Oudh wait with a palanquin in one of the rare photographs of Metiabruz, during Wajid Ali Shah’s time. The royal insignia is embroidered on the back of one of them. Copied from the original by Rashbehari Das

A portfolio of fast-fading photographs that provides possibly the only pictorial document of the second Lucknow that Wajid Ali Shah had created in Metiabruz, after he was exiled there, is urgently in need of preservation. The photographs are, moreover, some of the earliest examples of the art as practised the world over.

Amjad Ali Mirza of Garden Reach Road, in his 60s, who is a great-great-grandson of the ruler of Oudh, possesses the photographs. But he doesn’t know how to preserve these friable prints whose sepia has, in some cases, turned a ghostly shadow of its former self. Says Mirza: “I have no doubt about the authenticity of the photographs. The portfolio is ancestral property. It was handed down to me by my uncle, Yaqub Ali Mirza, who died in 1973.” Some of the photographs are captioned in Urdu. But the identity of the photographer shall always remain a mystery. Oscar Mallitte, a French commercial photographer, we know, had captured a view of the village at Garden Reach, circa 1864, but there is no evidence he did this assignment.

Abdul Halim Sharar (1860-1926) tells the story of Oudh in his book Lucknow: The Last Phase of an Oriental Culture. In it, he has also documented the last days of Wajid Ali Shah in Metiabruz, where he set up a city whose splendour surpassed Lucknow’s glory in the pre-Mutiny days. The palaces, pleasure gardens and zoo that the Nawab had created on the banks of the Hooghly come alive in these photographs, not much larger than postcards. It is as if chemicals and light had “fixed” the scenes that Sharar’s readers conjure up in their mind’s eye.

Soon after the Mutiny had fizzled out, the Nawab was released from confinement in Fort William and he returned to Metiabruz. There, while turning abstemious, he developed a passion for animals and for building beautiful houses. Before the Zoological Gardens was established in Alipore in 1876, the Nawab had already acquired a large menagerie that included rare birds, deer, horses and an open-air snake-pit that left visitors awestruck. But after Wajid Ali Shah’s death in 1887, Metiabruz became a hell-hole almost overnight.

The photographs prove that Sharar, when he described Metiabruz, never deviated from reality. Unlike the Lucknow architecture, with its embarrassment of stucco ornaments, the buildings of Metiabruz are constructed on the lines of European bungalows. The lines are simple but no less grand than the palaces of Lucknow.

Overlooking the river or surrounded by expanses of water, they are connected by bridges. Flags flutter on their tiled roofs. There is hardly any Islamic influence in their architecture, save a low-rise with triple minarets. Ostriches, deer, sheep and horses were the showpieces of the Metiabruz parkland. The snake-pit resembles a giant termite hill. One can almost hear the harsh calls of the clumsy pelicans and cranes strutting around the aviary. The liveried servants wait outside the palace gate with a palanquin. The piscine insignia of the royal family of Oudh is stitched on to the back of one man’s coat. There are two significant photographs. In one, the gang of smiling labourers carry construction material on their heads as they create the new Metiabruz. Another shows the buildings of Metiabruz being demolished. An exquisite way of life being wiped away forever.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph / Home> West Bengal / by Soumitra Das in Mirza / July 14th, 2003

The Ghazi of Peace

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Community Involvement / Social Issues, Leaders, Travel & Tourism, , , , , , ,

Bahraich, UTTAR PRADESH :

Shahid Amin, one of India’s most creative and learned historians, explores Indian syncretism through the legend of an 11th century warrior-saint.

Dargahs such as the one in Ajmer (above) and Bahraich symbolise India’s syncretic heritage. Vishal Srivastav
Dargahs such as the one in Ajmer (above) and Bahraich symbolise India’s syncretic heritage. Vishal Srivastav

Book- Conquest and Community: The Afterlife of Warrior Saint Ghazi Miyan

Author: Shahid Amin

Publication: Orient BlackSwan

Pages: 348

Price: Rs 850

Three decades ago, the historian Shahid Amin wrote a brilliant piece, ‘Gandhi as Mahatma’, which is in many respects the locus classicus of what became the subaltern school of Indian history. What he offered was far more than what is ordinarily called “history from below”, showing that the masses made of Gandhi what they could, stepping outside the role habitually assigned to them by nationalist historiography. The Mahatma, Amin suggested, had been metamorphosed into a floating signifier.

In the present work, Conquest and Community, which cements Amin’s reputation as one of India’s most creative and learned historians, he extends this mode of analysis and turns his attention to Salar Masud or Ghazi Miyan as he is more popularly known, a warrior saint whose cult appears to have been well established by the 14th century.

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The story of Ghazi Miyan begins, we may say, with Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, whose name is calculated to turn the middle-class Hindu into a figure of rage: this early 11th century warrior made repeated incursions into India, “utterly ruined the prosperity of the country” and desecrated the shrine of Somnath. Folklore would inscribe a place for Salar Masud as Mahmud’s nephew, though contemporary records make no mention of such kinship, and representations of him as a warrior taking up arms on behalf of his uncle until he was felled in battle in 1034 against a confederation of Hindu kings began to proliferate.

More surprising still is the fact that the Ghazi was transformed into a Sufi saint, the extent of whose following and reputation might be gauged by the presence at his dargah of Mohammad bin Tughlaq, the Sultan of Delhi. Abdur Rahman Chishti’s 17th century hagiography, Mirat-i-Masudi, would displace Mahmud with Miyan Ghazi. To this day, the cult of the 11th century Indo-Turkic warrior saint thrives in north India, and Hindus and Muslims continue to be drawn in large numbers to his dargah at Bahraich.

Just how is it that the popular assent to the cult of Ghazi Miyan was garnered across the religious divide, and that too with respect to a figure associated in educated Hindu minds with the image of the rapacious Muslim invader? Amin says rather modestly that his “book eschews definitive explanations” and that he is not interested in asking why a 17th century Sufi wrote the text “at the time that he did,” or why “Hindu castes felt no compunction in installing a Muslim warrior on their domestic altar”.

He sets out, rather, to explore those aspects of the Ghazi Miyan narrative which took hold firmly in Gangetic popular culture. This leads him knee deep into some extraordinary anomalies. The commonplace view of Muslims in India renders them as beef eaters, but the Ghazi Miyan of folklore is a protector of cows, the saviour of oppressed cowherds, and a determined foe of the landlords who claimed as their prerogative the right to impregnate the virgin daughters of the Ahirs. In a similar vein, the ballads celebrate the story of the married Brahmin woman, Sati Amina, at whose home the sandalwood tree has dried up.

The family priest avers that the tree will regenerate upon the Ghazi’s arrival — and so it does. In gratitude, Amina washes the feet of the Ghazi and his followers, the Panchon Pir, and then serves them a lavish meal. What could be more violative of the social order than for a Brahmin woman to cook for a Muslim man? Yet, as the very name Sati Amina signifies — Amina is the Prophet’s mother — this is a story about in-between spaces and the risks (and pleasures) of transgressive and forbidden acts.

By the 19th century, as Amin shows, the cult of the Ghazi had become a source of acute anxiety to British, Muslim, and Hindu elites alike. Colonial ethnographers and officials had set out to clearly differentiate “Hindu” and “Muslim” communities, and the presence of a large number of Hindu worshippers at the sites associated with the Ghazi was immensely bewildering to them. On the specious ground that Bahraich was a “cosmopolitan” site and therefore not deserving to be characterized as a special religious endowment of the Muslims, the British sought to bring the dargah under their control and pocket the considerable donations left by devotees.

To the Ashraf or Muslim elites, their low-class and illiterate brethren who consorted with Hindu devotees were little better than idolaters, and the Muslim clergy had no difficulty in attributing the ignorance of Muslim devotees to their frequent social intercourse with Hindus. The zealots of the Arya Samaj and Hindu revivalists expressed alarm that “their” women were willing to surrender their dignity before a Muslim warrior saint, all too often in the hope of gaining male progeny. Such had been the consummate nature of Muslim dominance that, in Amin’s marvelously elegant and provocative rendering of the revivalist view, Hindus “partaking of holy unction” at “the altars of Muslim saints” were “virtually ingesting the leftovers from their Muslim neighbours’ kitchen.”

Few questions have animated Indian historiography, and discussions in the public sphere, as much as the relations between Hindus and Muslims. Amin’s study is a signal contribution to this literature, and he is particularly enlightening in his suggestion that while we cannot be dismissive of those who have posited a syncretic Indian past, it behooves us to view syncretism not only as a narrative of pluralism and accommodation but also in equal parts as a story of agonism, conflict and clash. His masterful study argues that while our narrative understanding of the Ghazi Miyan saga cannot stop at viewing him as “just a conqueror”, it must also contend with the fabrications and the verisimilitude engendered by local histories, ballads and folklore.

In what Amin calls “the quotidian culture of north India” reside perhaps our best hopes for neutralising those who would seek to homogenise the Indian past in the vain and dangerous quest to create the patriotic and “new Indian national”.

The writer is professor of history, University of California

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Lifestyle / by Vinay Lal / October 10th, 2015

Gunning For ‘Gun House’ Once Again!

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Karnataka (under research project), Science & Technology, Travel & Tourism, , , , , ,

Mysuru, KARNATAKA :

GunHouse01MPOs26sept2018

Yesterday evening as I was turning the pages of SOM to scan the headlines, I literally jumped out of my skin in excitement upon stumbling on the news that the Gun House Imperial Restaurant that used to once function from the Palace Gun House was soon going to throw its doors open once again to customers after a gap of thirty long years. I do not know what this bit of news is going to mean to other people but to me it perhaps is the beginning of the coming true of a long cherished dream and the end of a sense of anguish that had been gnawing at my heart strings ever since the hotel suddenly shut its doors without as much as a hint that it was going out of business.

My first memory of this once very beautiful landmark of our city is from the early sixties when I used to go there once a year in the company of Prof. M. Salar Masood, the younger brother of my maternal grandfather Alhaj M. Khaleelur Rahman. He was a Professor of Geography at Manasagangothri and it was he who usually took all the children of the large household on frequent excursions to the Palace, the Jagan Mohan Art Gallery, the Zoo, the Brindavan Gardens and Srirangapatna.

The large household that I am talking about was more of a hostel than a home as at any given time it used to have at least a dozen children of all shapes, sizes and ages! This was the result of my grandfather’s penchant for inviting all his relatives, especially those from the Malnad areas, to leave their children under his care here in Mysuru for their education. That is how I became an inmate of this warm and cozy nest of immeasurable happiness when I joined the Good Shepherd Convent School in the year 1960.

Our visits to the Palace Gun House used to be an annual affair to watch the ceremonial firing of the canons housed there to mark the beginning of the Dasara festivities. It used to be a very exciting moment with all of us expectantly staring with unblinking eyes at the red-turbaned guard on horseback at the Southern Gate of the Palace. Upon a cue from the Durbar Commandant that the Maharaja had arrived, he would raise the red flag which used to be the signal for the head of the battery to shout “Fire” at the top of his voice. That was when the gunners in green tunics and red turbans would start touching the firing holes of their loaded canons with smouldering wicks in a sequence. The almost blinding orange flash would be accompanied by a deafening boom followed by a thick cloud of acrid black smoke that I would find intoxicating!

The batch of seven cannons would be reloaded twice to complete the volley of the twenty-one shots that had to be fired for the occasion. And, this reloading had to be done only after thoroughly rinsing the barrels with cold water and brushing them dry once again. This precaution was most essential to ensure that there were no traces of smouldering gunpowder inside that could prematurely set off the powder charge the moment it was rammed down the barrel!

A team of City Armed Reserve (CAR) Police personnel conducting dry practice of cannon firing at the Mysore Palace
A team of City Armed Reserve (CAR) Police personnel conducting dry practice of cannon firing at the Mysore Palace

Somewhere down the years, for some inexplicable reason, these seven cannons along with their four accompanying ox-drawn powder carriages were shifted to the long verandah of the Palace where they now stand all through the year except when they are taken to the Bannimantap Grounds on Vijayadashami Day for the breathtaking Torchlight Parade that is undoubtedly the pride of our annual Dasara!

Now, it is not just for the annual firing of the cannons that the Palace Gun House had become dear to me. Long after the show had stopped there and well after I had grown up into a man from the school boy that I was, I found myself drawn to it for a completely different reason. Very soon after I joined the Mysore Medical College to do my MD in Medicine the Mysore royal family converted the place into a restaurant. Because of its unique ambience and the excellent food it served, most of our unit get-together and dinners used to take place there. Then, when I got married, soon after passing my MD, it also became the favourite dining-out place for me and my wife, especially on every Saturday evening!

Incidentally, on the days when my practice was unusually good, I would invariably take her to the Metropole Hotel, which was again in a building that was once a royal Guest House. These two places were the ones that served the best chilli chicken and egg fried rice, which accompanied by some chilled Torino and the timelessness of each others’ company  was nothing but pure Nirvana for the two of us!

Gun House also had a live band where Sebastian Deniz, my favourite singer, used to perform with his fellow musicians on weekends. Fondly known to all as ‘Singing Seby,’ he knew all my favourite Jim Reeves and Frank Sinatra numbers so well that without the slightest need to be told he would start singing them the moment he would see us walking in! He had a voice that could make even unwilling hearts melt which was why perhaps we used to see so many boys taking their still undecided lady loves there for dinner!

Along with Seby’s voice the irresistible chilli chicken too perhaps played its part in breaking down any remaining traces of indecision and resistance to the proposals they made! So when the magical Gun House suddenly shut shop, it was sudden heartbreak for my wife and me and ever since then it has always been a bitter-sweet experience to drive past it. Sweetness from the warm recollection of the almost magical time we once had there and bitterness that it was the end of an era that was so dear to us! Hopefully, the clock is now all set to turn back and the good old days of our nostalgia are poised to come back once again!

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Columns: Over A Cup of Evening Tea  / by Dr.K. Javeed Nayeem MD – email:kjnmysore@rediffmail.com / September 21st, 2018

In a masjid during a mutiny

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Freedom Fighters (under research project), Leaders, Travel & Tourism, , , , , , , , , , , ,

NEW DELHI :

MasjidMPOs21sept2018

In 1857, the mosque built by Shah Jahan’s wife was confiscated by the British

When the city of Shahjahanabad was being built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, his wives and daughter were also involved — they built mosques, markets and sarais to embellish the city.

The emperor’s daughter, Jahanara Begum, was the most prolific, and is best known for building the famous Chandni Chowk (moonlit square), a sarai or inn for travellers, and a beautiful garden known as Begum Ka Bagh.

The road to the mosque

Shah Jahan’s wives — Akbarabadi Begum, Sirhindi Begum and Fatehpuri Begum — built mosques in 1650 CE. The Fatehpuri mosque built by Fatehpuri Begum was aligned to the Red Fort — more specifically, to the Diwan-e-Am via the Naqqar khana (drum house) and Lahori Gate. Nobles who came to the court of the public audience had to dismount here and walk up to the court. As this was inconvenient for them, Aurangzeb had a barbican built in front of the Fort’s Lahori Darwaza so that they could dismount closer to it. Shah Jahan, who was then under house arrest in Agra Fort, sent a note to his son saying that the beautiful bride (Qila) had now been veiled.

The road from Fatehpuri mosque to the Fort passed through Chandni Chowk and Urdu Bazar (the original Urdu Bazar was located in front of the Lahori Gate till part of present day Chandi Chowk) and was lined with trees and flowers. These were cut in the beginning of the 20th century. Basheeruddin Ahmed, the writer of Waqeat e Dar ul Hukumat Dehli (1919), lamented that “the trees on both sides of the road provided solace to the inhabitants in the severe Delhi heat with its summer wind, the loo, in which the eagle abandons the eggs and deer become dark.” Today, when you go from the Red Fort to Fatehpuri mosque at the end of Chandni Chowk, you have to navigate your way through the nightmarish traffic, carts with goods, rickshaw-pullers, e-rickshaws, salesmen calling out to passers-by, and busy shoppers.

Crowded outside, peaceful inside

The mosque is next to the Khari Baoli, or spice market, so the entrance is always crowded. However, once inside the masjid, you realise that you’re in a different world — a world in which you feel a sense of peace and which is in stark contrast to the scenes outside.

Apart from the main entrance in the east, there are two other doorways — one in the north and the other in the south. With their arched entrances and parapets, these doorways have obviously seen better days. Shops outside flank them.

In the courtyard, the first thing that catches the eye is the lovely white dome with its longitudinal green stripes and green lotus finial. A masonry finial crowns it. Though the dome is made not of marble but red sandstone, it has been plastered so perfectly that it gives the impression of being made from marble when seen from afar. Red battlemented parapets run all along the roof in front of the dome.

The mosque, too, is built of red sandstone. Its unique feature is that it is the only medieval mosque with a single dome, flanked by two 80 ft tall minarets on both sides.

The mosque is built on a plinth of 3.5 ft. In the centre is a lofty archway with two wings which have three scalloped arches on each side. The central mihrab (in the direction of the qibla) is deep and high, and gives a beautiful appearance to the interior of the mosque. The pulpit next to the mihrab is the only piece of marble in the mosque. A mukabbir, or platform, was added in front of the main arch later, so that the imam’s words could be repeated from there and reach all those gathered in the courtyard.

There is a huge oblong tank for ablution in the courtyard that used to be fed by the famous Faiz Nahar (canal) in the Mughal era. A red sandstone enclosure next to it has graves of religious leaders who lived, prayed and taught in the mosque. There are galleries, with rooms on the ends on both sides.

From 1857 till today

The Indian sepoys, or ‘rebels’ as the British called them, who had risen up against the East India Company in 1857 had used this mosque. After the fall of Delhi in September that year, the mosque was confiscated by the British, and the courtyard, galleries and arcades on the three sides were put up for auction. As the dispossessed and displaced Muslims of Delhi post-1857 were in no position to buy it, Lala Chunnamal, a rich merchant of Delhi, bought it at the cost of ₹29,000.

In 1873, Anjuman Rashidin Sulah e Kul Islamia applied for return of the mosque. The British government agreed and tried to buy it back, but Lala Chunnamal refused. In 1877, the British offered an increased amount as well as four villages and bought it back from Lala Chunnamal’s son and restored it to the Muslims of the city. The masjid was brought back into use as a masjid, and remains so till today.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Opinion> Columns / by Rana Safvi / September 16th, 2018

The Paigah’s necropolis

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

Hyderabad, TELANGANA :

PaigahTombsMPOs20sept2018

A visit to what some call the Taj Mahal of the south

What comes to your mind when you think of Hyderabad? Sumptuous haleem and biryani, perhaps? Or the beautiful icon of the city, Charminar? Or maybe the unique khada dupatta and its accompanying necklaces, if you love clothes and handicrafts. All of these are understandable connections. Few would relate Hyderabad to an exquisite necropolis that is hidden away in the heart of the city, which I discovered recently thanks to a friend.

Dilapidated graves

At the entrance of the Pisal Banda suburb in Santosh Nagar, I stopped at a small café and asked for directions to this necropolis. No one seemed to have a clue. As I was following the GPS, I decided to trust it and ventured deeper into the crowded alley. Soon I saw a modern grave enclosure with the words ‘Paigah Tombs’ written on it there. I felt a little cheated, but then to my delight, just behind the grave enclosure was a white gateway which I entered.

On my right lay many dilapidated graves inside a rectangular enclosure. Some were as new as 2009, while some others were at least a century old and reminded me of verses on the dismaying finality of death and the futility of gathering wealth.

With my loud sighing at this state of disrepair, I managed to attract the attention of a caretaker of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Rahmat, who then gave me a conducted tour.

In the courtyard were intricate work on the walls and small cupolas with Grecian horns on the roof, which were not only breathtaking but also striking in their originality. I had never seen work like this before. There were limestone trellises, ornamented pillars and roundels on the façade of the tombs. “You won’t find such work anywhere in the south or north,” Rahmat said proudly.

And how can it be that we speak of a tomb and someone hasn’t already compared it to the Taj Mahal? This is called the Taj of the south, Rahmat said, which I frankly think is gross injustice. There is no similarity in the architectural styles of the two tombs and this one is beautiful in its own right.

Origin of the name

The Maqbara Shams-ul-Umara, now better known as the Paigah Tombs, belongs to a family which was ranked only second to the Nizam of Hyderabad and to whom it was allied through matrimony. The family members were fierce loyalists of the Nizam and maintained an army to fight for the Nizam.

The word Paigah, which means pomp and rank in Persian, was a title given by the second Asaf Jahi Nizam of Hyderabad to the estate of Nawab Abul Fateh Taig Jung Bahadur in appreciation of the royal services rendered by him. The nawab was also conferred with the title of Shams-ul-Umra, which gives the tombs their name.

The first tomb, built in the 18th century and of Makrana marble, is that of Shams-ul-Umra, or the Sun of the Nobles, himself. It is delicate, with limestone and stuccowork on its enclosures. Twenty-seven members of the Paigah family, including the famous Nawab Sir Vicar-ul-Umra, are buried here.

The tombs all lie in a row under a foliated arched gallery with ornamented pillars and spectacular limestone jaalis on the façade of the buildings.

There are a number of open double storey enclosures that mostly hold several tombs inside. Each enclosure has limestone jaalis on the walls and exquisite carved teak doors as entrances. Each jaali is unique — some have motifs of fruits and flowers; others have drums, serpents, and vases.

The crypts are made of marble with intricately designed qalams (pen made of dried reed) or takhtis (slate) and headstones. A qalam or small raised mound on the cenotaph denotes that the grave belongs to a man, and a flat design of a slate denotes that a woman is buried here.

The architectural style inside the tombs and galleries is a mix of Rajasthani, Deccani and Persian, while the design on the roof is Moorish. The 30-acre compound also includes a mosque. Prayers are still held here. The sounds of the azaan and namaz waft over the graves. The Paigah family has handed over this architectural marvel to the ASI as part of our national heritage for safekeeping.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Opinion> Columns> Where Stones Speak / by Rana Safvi / January 21st, 2018

Hidden Mughal-era artwork to be latest Red Fort attraction

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Travel & Tourism, ,

NEW DELHI :

This Mughal-era artwork — geometric and floral motifs in an 80-metre-long vaulted arcade called Chhatta bazaar — was hidden under multiple coats of whitewashing applied casually over the years as part of Red Fort’s maintenance and structural conservation work.

New Delhi

An almost a year-long exercise by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to restore a mural serendipitously discovered while cleaning the ceiling of a historic marketplace in Delhi’s Red Fort is on the verge of being completed and will be ready for visitors to see from next month, according to three senior officials familiar with the restoration work.

This Mughal-era artwork — geometric and floral motifs in an 80-metre-long vaulted arcade called Chhatta bazaar — was hidden under multiple coats of whitewashing applied casually over the years as part of citadel’s maintenance and structural conservation work. The ASI had forgotten about the mural’s existence, and discovered it last October when it began restoring the corridor that is lined by souvenir shops on both sides.

In addition to the mural, visitors to the Red Fort will be also have access to buildings constructed by the British during its 90-year-long occupation of the monument between 1857 and 1947. Four British-built barracks, which were under the control of the Indian Army since Independence and were inaccessible to visitors,are being converted into themed museums, said one of the officials cited above.

“The conservation of the painting on the roof of Chhatta bazaar may take another month. People coming to the fort after that will see Mughal-era art that was lying concealed for decades,” said the official, who asked not to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media. “We will hand over all four barracks by end of this month,” he added.

The four museums proposed to be set up at the barracks will be dedicated to the first war of independence in 1857, the Indian National Army led by Subhas Chandra Bose, India’s soldiers who participated in World War I, and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919.

NK Pathak, ASI’s superintending archaeologist, Delhi circle, said that nearly 70% of mural has been restored and the remaining work will be completed in a few weeks. “Lime coats are being manually scraped of with precision, which is a time-consuming process. This is to ensure that the original design is not damaged. Once entire artwork is exposed, we will take measures to protect it. Hopefully, by mid-October, we will be able to finish the work,” Pathak said.

A third official said that around 30-35 experts from ASI’s science branch have been working tirelessly to restore the designs. “Chhatta bazaar’s passageway has bitumen, which is being replaced with red stone. We are also asking shopkeepers to remove encroachment and metal shutters. The shops will now have sliding glass doors. We will not allow any extensions. All efforts are being made to restore the market’s original look,” said the ASI official on condition of anonymity.

There are 32-arched two-storeyed bays on either side of the arcade. The shops, dating back to when the Red Fort was completed by emperor Shah Jahan in 1648, were meant for common people coming to the Mughal Durbar and the setting is a replica of a bazaar in Peshawar, according to historian Swapna Liddle.

The author of Chandni Chowk: The Mughal City of Old Delhi, Liddle said that the market once had shops selling clothers and jewellery. It still draws buyers visiting the fort, but the shops now sell handicraft items, wooden articles, and other souvenirs.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home / by Parvez Sultan, Hindustan Times,New Delhi / September 19th, 2018

Kodagu floods: Pouring out a cupful of compassion

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Karnataka (under research project), Travel & Tourism, , ,

Sakleshpur Taluk, Hassan District , KARNATAKA :

Shaik Ahmed, a roadside tea seller, plans to contribute his earnings on Saturday for rain relief works in Kodagu. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Shaik Ahmed, a roadside tea seller, plans to contribute his earnings on Saturday for rain relief works in Kodagu. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

A tea seller at Channarayapatna has contributed his day’s earnings towards the relief works in flood-affected Kodagu. Shaik Ahmed, 60, opened his shop on Bagur Road at 5 a.m. on Saturday with a board stating that whatever he got on the day would go to the flood relief funds.

Till 6 p.m., he had collected a little over ₹7,000. “My aim is to collect at least ₹10,000 for the relief work. I will keep the shop open till 9 p.m. and will hopefully reach the target,” he said.

Mr. Ahmed, a native of Sakleshpur taluk, has been living in Channarayapatna for the past three decades. For years he worked in hotels, but about six months ago he decided to open a tea stall of his own.

Mr. Ahmed, a father of three, was moved by the plight of the victims on news media. “I felt bad for the people affected. My wife and children also supported my decision. We have decided to make Bakrid a simple affair this year,” he said. He added that the business on the day was better than most days. On a normal day, he requires 25 litres of milk, but on Saturday he needed 40 litres.

“I did not give tea or coffee to any customer on credit today.My customers obliged. Many of my friends came to my shop just to give me some business,” he said. He plans to hand over the money to the authorities on Sunday.

Many organisations, including the Hassan unit of Red Cross, have collected donations from people for relief works in Kodagu and Kerala. Members of Prakruti Seva Samudaya, which works for the welfare of transgenders, have also raised funds for flood victims.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Hassan – August 18th, 2018

Detailing dargahs of Deccan in ‘Culture of Amity’

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

Hyderabad, TELANGANA :

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The booklet edited by Department of Culture chronicles the dargahs of Hyderabad and sets right some of the preconceived notions about them

How many Dargahs does Hyderabad  have? It is easy to remember. There is the Yousufain Dargah, Jehangeer Peer Dargah, Shah Khamoush Dargah, Husain Shah Wali Dargah, Shah Raju Qattal Dargah… And there ends the list for an average citizen of Hyderabad. The list, in fact, is quite substantial.

In an age where religious lines are hardening, the dargahs in India remain comparatively open spaces where the faith of the person is not questioned while entering. The people who come to find solace range from men sitting in corners in a forlorn way to women who come with their families and friends and sit outside, and then there are couples who pray for the intercession of the saints buried in the dargahs. Said dargahs also keep the social and spiritual life thrumming as they become epicentres for local festivals dictated by the lunar calendar. Urs, sama, chiragaan, sandal are few of the events inside dargahs that people living in the area wait for.

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“Telangana is a confluence of different cultures, religions and beliefs. From the very rustic and rural Bonalu to the newer faiths like Christianity, people in the region have accepted and adopted all streams of beliefs. This book is a tribute to that,” says Mamidi Harikrishna, head of the Department of Culture who has edited the booklet called Culture of Amity being distributed free. The booklet lists 51 dargahs scattered across the city. “The list is exhaustive and we have discovered more. We will be listing 81 dargahs in the next edition of the book,” says Vasanta Sobha Turaga, an architect, who has edited the book along with Harikrishna.

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Between the pages

Without delving into each specific religious space the booklet has information about the dargahs and what goes on in them and how they shape beliefs. “The earliest and the oldest are from the 13th to 14th centuries: the Pahadi Shareef (1266) and Jehangir Peer Baba (1318). And the latest is less than 15 years-old.” The booklet also tracks the progression and change in architectural style. “We have looked at the architectural style of the buildings. But we have also tried to look at the rituals and traditions. There is a lot of intermingling of practices and colourful rituals,” says Turaga who has plans to expand the work into something more substantial.

The booklet also sets right some of the beliefs which people have about the various dargahs. It calls out the belief that the structure atop Moula Ali hillock is a dargah while in reality, it is an ashoorkhana with a few practices of a dargah like the urs that is celebrated in the Islamic month of Rajab.

sources: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society> History & Culture / by Serish Nanisetti / September 10th, 2018

Goa: Safa Masjid

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

Ponda Town, GOA :

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Explore a little-known facet of Goan history with our Quick Guide to the Safa Masjid

Set on the edge of a large tank just outside Ponda town, the Safa Masjid, built in 1560, is the only surviving mosque of the 27 shrines that Ibrahim Adil Shah of Bijapur constructed. Broken columns surround the mosque, which once graced a garden with laterite walkways. It’s among the few ancient Muslim monuments left in a state that has a long association with Islam and its solitude is evidence of the energy with which the Portuguese battled Muslim rulers.

Muslims – who now form just over five per cent of the state’s population – have lived in Goa since at least the 10th century CE, when the Kadamba rulers urged merchants from East Africa and Arabia to settle in the state.

But the kingdom’s affluence soon brought it to the attention of raiders. The raids, which started in the 10thcentury, reached a crescendo with strikes by Allauddin Khilji in 1294 and Muhammad Tughlaq in 1325. After briefly being held by the Vijayanagara Kingdom, Goa in 1358 came under the sway of Alla-ud-din Hasan Shah of the Bahmani family. When the Bijapur sultans took over from the Bahmanis in 1490, Yusuf Adil Shah started a construction campaign, building a mosque and a palace.

Ismail Adil Shah’s defeat in 1510, at the hands of the Portuguese Commander Alfonso de Albuquerque, had disastrous consequences for Goa’s Muslims. Angered that Muslims had helped Adil Shah’s defence, Albuquerque’s soldiers hunted them down viciously.

source: http://www.outlookindia.com / Outlook Traveller / Home> Explore> Story