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Why Khwaja Garib Nawaz outlived the fame and glory of emperors

Ajmer, RAJASTHAN:

The Ajmer Sharif Dargah at night during the Urs (Courtesy Rajasthan Tourism)

We are celebrating the 811 annual Urs (death anniversary) according to the lunar calendar of Khwaja Gharib Nawaz of Ajmer who was born on February 1 1143 AD  in Sijz, Sistan, Iran. He left the world on March 15, 1236 AD in Ajmer, Rajasthan. Since that time his disciples and followers have been celebrating his death anniversary as per the Sufi traditions.

The Sufi mystics celebrate the death and not birth as for them death means a reunion with Almighty Allah.

He was brought up in Khurasan, Iran, while his father Ghayasuddinn died when he was 15. He studied in Isfahan, Samarqand, and Bukhara, and went to Baghdad in search of a spiritual mentor. There, he met Hazrat Khawaja Usman Harooni. Thereafter, he went to visit the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Eventually, he came to Ajmer in India via Lahore where he lived for the rest of his life and became his resting place after death.

It’s a surprising truth that Muslim kings ruled for around 800 years over India and built many historical monuments such as the Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Humayun Tomb, and Qutub Minar, and yet none of them is alive in the hearts of people except in the history books. Unlike kings and rulers, Khwaja Gharib Nawaz won the hearts of millions of helpless, poor, weaker, and underprivileged people and seekers of truth. With divine mercy, he became Gharib Nawaz (supporter of the poor), though his original name is Moinuddin (helper of the religion).

He fulfilled Huqooq ullah (God’s rights) and Huqooqul ibad (human rights) equally and served the weak and poor, loved the unloved, and fed the hungry irrespective of caste, creed, gender, and religion. It was his outstanding service and love towards humanity that attracted people from across the society, unlike any rulers. They loved and followed this Sufi mystic and therefore he was called “Sultanul Hind”, the king of the Indian subcontinent. He then developed the Chishti Sufi order in this subcontinent and became the Sufi mystic with the highest following in the world.

The scene outside the Ajmer Sharif dargah

The uniqueness of his Sufi order and his character was that he greatly impacted others with his pious character and selfless service and he accepted and accommodated the local traditions and made them part of his Sufi order.The message of universal fraternity, harmony, and brotherhood spread by the Sufis saints was so loud and inclusive that even after their union with God (Wisal-e-ilahi), their hospices remain abuzz with the people of all walks of life.

On top of all Indian shrines, the Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti known as Daghah Khwaja Gharib Nawaz in the heart of Ajmer city surrounded by Tara Gadh hills is the shining example of love, harmony, unity, and fraternity.

Maulana Rumi beautifully talks about the human heart:

Ek dil behtar hazaran Ka’be ast

(One heart is far better than a thousand Ka’baas).

He further says (Translated version):

Bring your heart in your hand; your soothing is more important than a pilgrimage. A single heart is better than a thousand Ka’abas. The K’aba was built by Allah’s Khalil (friend) Prophet Hazrat Ibrahim (Abraham), while the heart, in contrast, was created and tested by the Almighty God Himself.

The great Sufi saint of India Khwaja Moinuddin Chishty who is also known as Gharib Nawaz of Ajmer often taught the people: love towards all and malice towards none. His disciples and successors held this message of their mentor by tooth and their hospices became the center for spreading universal love and affinity. His disciple Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi often recited the following couplets of Persian poet Abu Said Abul Khair:

“If people spread thorns in your path, you just put flowers in their way; otherwise the entire path would become thorny”.

Sufi saints in a prayers at the Dargah during the Urs

Today, we Muslims in India must not forget what Khwaja Gharib Nawaz of Ajmer Sharif and Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi taught us.

The love, fraternity, and affection shown by the Sufi saints to the common people won their hearts, and their hospices (khanqahs were the center of love where people from all walks of life began to flock to seek succor for their miseries. These Sufi saints respected the local customs and culture to the extent that even many of them became vegetarian due to respect for their non-Muslim brothers. Khwaja Gharib Nawaz, Khawaja Nizamuddin Aulia, Sarmad Shaheed, Bu Ali Shah Qalandar, and many others had become pure vegetarians in respect of their non-Muslim brethren. Their philosophy was simple: live and let live; love and compassion to all, no hate or discrimination on the ground of caste, creed, culture, religion, and gender.

Chishty Sufis continued to adopting of local traditions. For instance in Delhi, Hazrat Amir Khusrau was the one who started celebrating Basant Panchami to make his mentor Nizamuddin Auliya happy. Since then, the Basant celebration is continuing on the premises of Dargah Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya.

Being a Persian scholar and follower of a Sufi order, I came across the anthology of Sufi poets like, Rumi, Jami, Khusro, Shah Niaz be Niaz, Baba Bulle Shah, Shah Zaheen Taji, Bedam Shah Warsi in both Urdu and Persian languages. Their metaphysical and mystic poems were very impressive, moving, and touching. This has increased my curiosity to know more about it, I got a chance to attend a 3-day-long Sufi music concert in Delhi, organized by famous music composer and film director Muzaffar Ali with the title of Jahan-e-Khusrau in Humayun tomb. This concert is organized by him every year and attended by world-famous Sufi musicians and vocals from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, and many other countries. However, every year the well-known vocalist Abida Parveen of Pakistan steals the show.

As soon as she starts her melody in the most fascinating and moving voice, the people begin crying in their hearts. It seems as if she is on the direct hotline with the Almighty God. Though more than 2 decades have passed, I still remember the rhythm of her voice and her selection of poems from the anthologies of Amir Khausrau, Baba Bulle Shah, Shah Zaheen Taji, and Shah Niaz Bareilvi.

The following metaphysical mystic poems of Shah Niaz Barelvi recited by Abida Perveen attracted my special attention:

Yaar ko hum ne ja baja dekha, kahin zahir kahin chupa dekha…

I saw my beloved everywhere, somewhere apparent and somewhere hidden.

Kahin mumkin hua kahin wajib, Kahin fani kahin baqi dekha.

Somewhere He was merely a possibility and somewhere He was imperative. Somewhere I saw Him ephemeral, and somewhere I found him eternal.

Kahin wo badshah takht nashin, Kahin kasa liye gada dekha.

Somewhere, I saw Him a king sitting on His throne, and sometimes I saw Him mendicant with a begging bowl.

Kahin wo dar libas e mashooqan, Bar sare naz aur ada dekha.

Somewhere He was in the most beautiful attire, displaying His unique charm and attraction.

Kahin ashiq Niaz ki surat, Seena giryan to dil jala dekha.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi handing over a Chadar for offering at the tomb of Moinuddin Chisty for the Urs

Somewhere He was like a lover Niaz, beating his chest and his heart was in flame.

This unique hymn of God almost mesmerized the entire audience. There was a pin-drop silence as the people felt that divine light is pervading from all sides. After hearing this fabulous hymn, I decided to pay my obeisance at his shrine built about 300 years ago in Bareilly.

Though he associated himself with both the Chishti and Qadri orders of the Sufis, he favoured the Chishty order in which the saints were encouraged to reach the maximum number of people whoever they may be. In the footsteps of his predecessors, he also followed the local customs and traditions to win the hearts of people from all creeds and castes. His main emphasis was to clean the heart instead of cleaning the apparent body and clothes.

The Chishty Sufi order was established in Indian Sub-Continent by Khwaja Gharib. It’s organised by Baba Fariduddin Ganj Shakar Pak Patan and it flourished to the highest level by Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi. The basic philosophy of Chishty Sufis is to love the unloved, welcome the ignorant, and serve the unserved. They united the human heart and lived in harmony by their nature of acceptance of others’ good things from local tradition and influenced others by their pious and selfless character. They said that whoever comes to us give them food and don’t ask about their religion. that’s the beauty behind flourishing their Sufi order even though it’s increasing day by day after 800 years. Khwaja Gharib Nawaz shrine is 5th largest gathering spiritual place in the world after the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudia Arabia and Najaf and Karbala in Iraq..

Right from Khwaja Gharib Nawaz of Ajmer to Baba Farid Pak Patan, Nizamuddin Auliya Delhi,   Sabir e pak in Peeran Kaliyar, Amir khusrau Dehlavi,

Sarmad Shaheed, Bande Nawaz Gesu Daraz in Gulbaga, Baba Tajuddin in Nagpur, Makhdoom Ashraf Jahangir Simnani in kichowcha and Alaul Haq Pandvi in Bengal, Shah Niaz in Bareilly and Haji Waris Ali shah in Dewa have their respective chains of Sufi shrines spread all over the Indian Sub-Continent. They continue to rule over millions of hearts through their unique philosophies of unconditional love and compassion.  Anyone observes the impact of local traditions in their shrines’ rituals and amongst their followers.

Dr. Hafeezur Rahman is an author, Islamic scholar, TV host and the founder of Sufi Peace Foundation.

source:http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home / by Dr Hafeezur Rahman / posted by Aasha Khosa / January 29th, 2013

Still standing

NEW DELHI :

Sikander Mirza Changezi, Founding Member of Shah Waliullah Public Library, showing the Diwan [book] of the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Diwan-e-Zafar. Photo: Video Screengrab.

Located in a narrow lane in front of Jama Masjid, Old Delhi, Hazrat Shah Waliullah Public Library is home to around 25,000 books including rare works in Urdu, Hindi, Persian, Arabic and English.

When the area witnessed communal riots in 1987, a group of young individuals formed the Delhi Youth Welfare Association (DYWA) in Shahjahanabad – today’s Old Delhi, to help people with food and medicines.

With time, the group started expanding its activities to education and opened a library in 1994. This library was named after the revered Islamic scholar, Hazrat Shah Waliullah, who was a Muslim reformist in 18th century India.

Reporter, Camera & Edit: Oohini Mukherjee, Zeeshan Kaskar.

Special thanks: Taqi Mohammed, Mohammad Naeem, Sikander Mirza Changezi.

source: http://www.himalmag.com / Himal, South Asian / Home> Culture> India> Video / by Oohini Mukherjee and Zeeshan Kaskar / October 04th, 2022

Shah Rukh Khan only Indian to feature on British magazine’s list of 50 greatest actors of all time

Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA:

Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan (File Photo | PTI)

London : 

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan has become the only Indian to be named in an international list of 50 greatest actors of all time by a prominent British magazine.

The 57-year-old actor is included in Empire magazine’s list which also recognises Hollywood giants like Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Anthony Marlon Brando, Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson and many others.

In the accompanying short profile, the magazine said Khan has a career that has now spanned four decades of “near unbroken hits, and a fanbase of pretty much billions”.

“You don’t do that without outrageous amounts of charisma and absolute mastery of your craft. Comfortable in almost every genre going, there’s pretty much nothing he can’t do,” it added.

From his extensive filmography, the publication highlighted Khan’s notable characters from four movies — Sanjay Leela Bhansali-directed “Devdas”, Karan Johar’s “My Name Is Khan” and “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”, and “Swades”, directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar.

His dialogue from the 2012 movie “Jab Tak Hai Jaan” — “Zindagi toh har roz jaan leti hai… Bomb toh sirf ek baar lega” (Every day life kills us a little. A bomb will kill you only once) — has been recognised as the “iconic line” of his career.

“Jab Tak Hai Jaan” was filmmaker Yash Chopra’s swansong and featured Khan as an Indian Army Major named Samar Anand. The film also starred Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma.

The actor will be next seen in the actioner “Pathaan”, set to be released worldwide on January 25, 2023. Directed by Siddharth Anand, the movie also stars John Abraham and Deepika Padukone.

Khan will also star in two more movies — action-entertainer “Jawan” with filmmaker Atlee and the Rajkumar Hirani-directed “Dunki”.

“Jawan”, a pan-India project, is set to come out on June 2, 2023, while “Dunki”, also starring Taapsee Pannu, will release in December 2023. 

source: http://www.varthabharati.in / Vartha Bharati / Home /December 20th, 2022

Bhatkal: Majlis-e-Islah wa Tanzeem organises panel discussion on “Understanding Indian Constitution”

Bhatkal, KARNATAKA:

Majlis e Islah wa Tanzeem on Thursday held a panel discussion to mark the 74th Republic Day on the topic understanding Constitution of India and our fundamental rights.

The event was held at the Rabita Hall here in Bhatkal.

Academician and lawyer Yaseen Mohtesham, Advocate Imran Lanka, senior journalist Syed Salik Barmavar, and Prof Sahil Mujavar participated as the panelists while former Majlis e Islah wa Tanzeem General Secretary Dr. Haneef Shabab moderated the event.

Several aspects of Indian Constitution and the current scenario of the country were discussed during the panel discussion.

Prior to the event, Jamat-e-Islami Hind Karnataka Secretary, Akbar Ali addressed the event and shed lights on the values and principles of Constitution of India.

Majlis-e-Islah wa Tanzeem President Inayathullah Shabandri, General Secretary Abdul Raqeeb MJ, prominent NRI businessman Yunus Kazia, senior journalist Aftab Kola, and others were also present during the event.

The event concluded with a quiz program compiled by Aftab Kola on Constitution of India.

source: http://www.english.varhabharati.in / Vartha Bharati / Home / January 27th, 2023

The Muslim-left legacy of an Urdu library in Mumbai

Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA :

The Awami Idara continues to be a welcoming, convivial space for local readers. Photo courtesy: Gautam Sharma

The Awami Idara, rooted in a working-class Muslim neighbourhood, connects the long history of Southasian Muslim labour activism to political movements and events across Mumbai, Southasia and beyond.

Upon entering the Awami Idara (People’s Institution) library in the summer of 2022, I first met the older members of the library peering over their newspapers. Having visited many other Urdu libraries dotted across India, I did not find the welcoming elderly newspaper readers surprising. More unusual, however, was a small but imposing bust of Vladimir Lenin perched above them all, and a hammer and sickle. The iconography reflected the library’s Marxist leanings, and its historical connections with the Soviet Union and transregional leftist movements. This history sharply distinguishes what is by reputation Mumbai’s largest Urdu library from many other Urdu collections in India.

Indeed, the distinctive mission and history of the Awami Idara are apparent from the moment one enters the library. Open from 6 to 10 pm, the library’s hours reflect its historically intended audience – labourers who worked at mills and factories during the day and read and gathered in the evenings. The library is located near the centre of a residential, working-class Muslim neighbourhood in Mominpura, Mumbai. Founded in 1952, it is surrounded by both homes and small-scale mills and factories, and seems designed not to impress visitors but to provide a welcoming, convivial space for local readers. While many readers visit the library to read newspapers or socialise, the walls are lined with thousands of Urdu books which, according to the library’s internal catalogue, are shelved in a strict numerical fashion and bound in uniform yellow covers.

The library for Muslim mill workers continues to survive in an era of right-wing Hindu nationalism. Photo courtesy: Amanda Lanzillo

In recent years, several newspaper and media reports have celebrated the unique and unusual nature of the Awami Idara, particularly the fact that a leftist library aimed at Muslim mill workers continues to survive and adapt in an era where right-wing Hindu nationalism flourishes. Others focus on the shifting religious ideologies evident in the surrounding neighbourhood, expressing surprise at the lack of conflict between Muslim movements claiming religious orthodoxy – most notably local proponents of the Ahl-i Hadith movement – and the left-leaning library. The fact that the largest and oldest Urdu library in Mumbai is a leftist organisation that once boasted strong ties with the USSR does sometimes seem incongruous in today’s political environment.

The Awami Idara is part of a long history of Southasian Muslim labour activism and an often-overlooked Indian Muslim left, rooted in the mills and factories of cities like Mumbai. The yellow-bound volumes lining the walls of the library hold wider histories, connecting the mill worker-readers of the Awami Idara to both local and transregional histories of the left.

Working-class readers

The Awami Idara and its collections force us to question our assumptions about how Muslim workers conceptualised their communities, neighborhoods and social and political connections. As the historian Arun Kumar argues, labourers’ efforts to avail themselves of night libraries – like the Awami Idara – and night schools in urban India from the early twentieth century more broadly belie our assumptions about labourers’ presumed illiteracy and lack of interest in education.

Many of the materials held by the Awami Idara – particularly those collected by the library in its early years, in the 1950s and 1960s – address readers as labourers, emphasising a reader’s identity as a mazdoor (worker). During my visits in May and June 2022, among the first texts to catch my eye was a volume titled Mashīn aur mazdoor (The machine and the worker). First published in 1941, and updated in 1946, it reflects regional debates about the role of the working class in the years immediately preceding independence and Partition, and its presence in the Awami Idara suggests the continued relevance of these debates in the post-Partition India of the 1950s.

Founded in 1952, it is surrounded by both homes and small-scale mills and factories, and seems designed not to impress visitors but to provide a welcoming, convivial space for local readers.

Published in Lahore, Mashīn aur mazdoor was authored by Abdul Bari Alig, often remembered today as an early mentor and teacher of Saadat Hasan Manto, and about whom Manto authored a notable biographical sketch. Bari was also the proprietor of several leftist newspapers in Punjab, and his writing ranged from a biography of Karl Marx and translation of his works to a history of Islamic civilisation and a treatise on the French Revolution, as well as a 450-page account of the rise of the British East India Company.

In Mashīn aur mazdoor, Bari suggests that workers might engage with “changing means of production” wrought by the industrial revolution and the rise of machines to shift the “distribution of power and ownership.” The text also highlights the contribution of Indian labour movements to the freedom struggle, and imagines new roles for Indian workers in the wake of British control. Bari maintaines that “socialism and communism are gaining ground in the political debates of India today. The working class of India is realising its political and economic importance.” For readers at the Awami Idara, the text suggests that labourers shaped the Indian past, and calls on them to exert political influence in a post-colonial, industrial and independent state.

The Awami Idara in historical context

Like many texts held in the Awami Idara, Bari’s Mashīn aur mazdoor suggested that Indian labourers sought to understand their own positionality in regional economic and political events and movements. Far from being illiterate or uneducated about their economic and social experiences, readers at the Awami Idara likely found, within the walls of the library, written polemics and debates that they used to make sense of their own experiences as both workers and political actors.

Across the subcontinent, readers and writers from a wide range of religious communities continued to engage with Urdu.

As a library and physical centre of workers’ intellectual culture, the Awami Idara was unique in Mumbai, and reflected the consolidating social influence of leftist organisations in the city’s working-class neighbourhoods in the 1950s. However, at the time of its founding, it was also part of a long tradition of working-class organisation in Mominpura and neighbouring areas around Byculla – such as Madanpura, Agripada and Nagapada – that stretched back to the late nineteenth century. The construction of textile mills in these neighbourhoods in the late nineteenth century drew in migrants both from elsewhere in Mumbai and across India, with Muslim workers developing extensive settlements around Byculla.

By the 1890s, textile mill workers in Byculla and surrounding neighbourhoods succeeded in organising and regularly shutting down mills to demand better wages and working conditions. Later, in the 1920s and 1930s, communist and socialist organisations in the city sought to provide formal sites for the education of workers in the neighbourhood. For instance, in 1934, the leftist Young Workers’ League of Mumbai rented a room in Byculla to serve as a labour centre in the area.

A book with the seal of the library. Photo courtesy: Amanda Lanzillo

These many years of experience with labour agitation, organisation and strikes meant that readers in the neighbourhood already possessed forms of social and political connection to movements that connected them with other workers across Southasia. Key speeches, texts and arguments likely circulated within the new labour centres, the mills themselves and the workers’ neighbourhoods, long before the establishment of the Awami Idara library. In the primarily Muslim neighbourhoods that the library now serves, these leftist speeches, texts and arguments may have even circulated through some of the same networks and communities that served to sustain Islamic religious knowledge and practice.

Language and religion in the collections

Some texts held by the Awami Idara suggest readers’ interests in Islam and comparative religion. But most mid-twentieth-century Urdu texts held in the Awami Idara are more directly concerned with readers’ class and labour identities. For instance, in Mashīn aur mazdoor, Bari does not address his readers explicitly or exclusively as Muslims, although in other works he is interested in the forms of social organisation reflected in the Islamic past.

The plurality and religious diversity of Urdu writing held at the Awami Idara is not surprising. Over the course of the early twentieth century, some religious nationalist articulations had sought to distinguish the scripts of Hindustani by religious identity – associating Hindi, written in the devanagari script, with Hindus and Urdu, written in nastaliq, with Muslims. But this simplistic imagination contradicted the realities of Southasian readerships. Across the subcontinent, readers and writers from a wide range of religious communities continued to engage with Urdu. The authors of leftist Urdu texts framed their readers primarily as members of a shared class community, responsible for contributing to their fellow workers’ economic and political uplift.

That said, most of the readers at the Awami Idara were from Muslim backgrounds, though they likely differed in their degrees of religiosity (or lack thereof). The Muslim membership of the Awami Idara reflected the surrounding neighbourhood but was also indicative of an often-overlooked demographic reality of both pre and post-Partition urban India. In many of British India’s largest cities, Muslims made up a significant percentage of the industrial working class, and in several cases they formed the majority of regional migrants recruited to industrial mills in the early twentieth century.

Social solidarities in Muslim working-class neighbourhoods

This fact has often formed the basis of academic studies of “communalism” and conflict among mill labourers and other working-class communities. Scholars have sought to understand whether religious differences spurred labour solidarity and cohesion failures in industrialised Indian cities. But these debates have often overlooked how community institutions in working-class Muslim neighbourhoods contributed to labour movements, class-based identities and localised solidarities.

Popular imaginations of neighbourhoods and communities such as Mominpura have changed significantly over time. The academic Robert Rahman Raman has argued that, in Mumbai, there has been a significant shift over the course of the twentieth century in whether neighbourhoods are popularly seen as “working class” with primarily Muslim residents or “Muslim” with primarily working-class residents. Moreover, the anthropologist Thomas Blom Hansen has noted that, beginning from the 1960s, mill work and other forms of industrial labour in these neighbourhoods were reorganised, contributing to the marginalisation of Muslim labourers from the organised industrial economy. In the wake of the 1992-93 riots in Mumbai, many Muslims who lived elsewhere fled to Muslim-majority neighbourhoods such as Mominpura to escape violence.

As a result, areas that were historically considered labouring neighbourhoods have come to be known as “Muslim ghettos,” even in cases where their economic and religious demographics have not changed significantly. Despite these shifting external understandings and processes of ghettoisation, across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, neighbourhoods like Mominpura have continuously provided a space for Muslim labourers to build local communities and debate their engagement with the broader political world.

Bringing the world to Mominpura

The Awami Idara also provided a space for members of these communities to debate and build an understanding of how their own experiences as labourers fit into global workers’ movements beyond the borders of Mumbai and the newly created nation-state of India. Another text that immediately caught my eye as I paged through the library’s extensive catalogue was a collection of the journal Naya Parcham (New Flag). Nayā Parcham was an Urdu periodical published in Mumbai in the late 1940s and early 1950s, around the same time as the foundation of the library. The journal was associated with the Progressive Writers’ Movement, and compiled by the prominent Urdu writers Rajinder Singh Bedi, Vishwamitter Adil, Muhammad Haider Asad and Zamir Niazi. While it served partially as a space for publishing the works of the Progressive Writers’ Movement, Nayā Parcham also focused on explaining the principles of socialism and Marxism to Urdu readers and keeping them apprised of global leftist movements.

Popular imaginations of neighbourhoods and communities such as Mominpura have changed significantly over time.

Issues of Nayā Parcham were donated to the Awami Idara in the 1950s by the city’s Nawjavan Party, which maintained offices nearby in neighbouring Mandapura. Like the editors of Nayā Parcham, the local leaders of the Nawjawan Party sought to reach Mumbai’s working-class communities, and to provide them with information about global leftist and working-class struggles.

One 1949 issue of Nayā Parcham held by the Awami Idara, for instance, was devoted entirely to the 1949 Chinese Revolution, with articles as well as lessons that Indians might take from the Chinese educational system. Opening with a “salaam” to “the New China,” the issue celebrated that “today the People’s Liberation Army of China covers one-third of China’s territory and leads more than half of its population.” The issue featured three Urdu translations of Chinese poems in praise of the revolution. This emphasis on global revolutionary poetry reflected efforts to reach Urdu readers – and potentially listeners – through literary language highlighting shared social and emotional experiences and desires.

A poem titled Chīn kī bahār (China’s Spring), pronounced:

“China’s spring is being rejuvenated on the battlefield

And this battlefield is uniting the entire world.”

The Awami Idara. Photo courtesy: Gautam Sharma

Poems and articles celebrating the global success of leftist movements encouraged readers at the Awami Idara to understand their struggles as not bound by their neighbourhood, city or nation, but as part of a ‘battlefield uniting the entire world.’ The special issue on the Chinese Revolution reflected the global and transregional outlook of the publication and its intended readers. The experiences of the left across Southasia were of particular interest for Nayā Parcham. Published in the wake of Partition, the magazine especially focused on uniting the left across the newly created border.

It featured, for instance, regular dispatches and notes from Pakistan, addressing Indian readers as Southasian comrades, as shared participants in a class struggle that continued to unite readers across the newly established border. In June 1949, it included a letter from Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, the secretary-general of the Progressive Writers’ Movement for Pakistan, who gained renown for his literary contributions over the subsequent decades. He addressed his article to “Friends! Comrades! And companions!” across the border.

The Awami Idara also provided a space for members of these communities to debate and build an understanding of how their own experiences as labourers fit into global workers’ movements beyond the borders of Mumbai and the newly created nation-state of India.

The letter was aimed in part at members of the Progressive Writers’ Movement in India, seeking to ensure continued exchange between the two wings of the movement, now divided by a border. But it also reflected Qasmi’s hopes for “lovers of progress” and leftist movements across the subcontinent, including workers’ movements. He admonished his readers not to forget the shared “yoke of colonialism” that had oppressed the subcontinent. Indeed, he argued that imperial influence, in the form of European capitalism, continued to contribute to the “suffering of all of our pride, our honour, our freedom.” Even across the border, he suggested, the struggle for progress could continue to unite the residents of the two new nations.

Texts like the Nayā Parcham provided working-class Muslim readers in Mumbai – who engaged with these writings throughout the 1950s and even later – connection to larger communities and struggles. They suggested that fights for progress and the rights of workers were not divided by borders within Southasia or beyond it or limited to specific urban localities. By collecting and making these texts accessible, the Awami Idara encouraged readers in Mominpura to participate in workers’ movements that would contribute not only to their own uplift, but also to shared Southasian and global progress.

Plural interests

Not all the materials held in the Awami Idara offer an explicitly leftist point of view or focus primarily on the experiences and political aims of the working class. On the contrary, the library’s early collections suggest that mid-twentieth century Muslim mill workers possessed many interests. In addition to finding magazines, books and newspapers that situated them within global working-class struggles, mill workers also used the library to read everything from novels to travelogues, religious treatises to poetry collections. While the founders and supporters of the library aimed to educate mill workers through leftist publications, they also recognised the demand for a wide range of literature among Mumbai’s working-class Muslim readers.

Published in the wake of Partition, Nayā Parcham especially focused on uniting the left across the newly created border.

Other materials also focused on the needs and interests of labourers, but from a technological perspective rather than an economic-political perspective. Indeed, I was first drawn to the library through my efforts to trace the development of Urdu-language technical manuals and treatises, in trades ranging from papermaking to metal plating. The library boasts several such manuals, reflecting the efforts of workers to expand their knowledge of their trades and perhaps move up in factory or workshop hierarchies. Whether or not texts were aimed primarily at workers, throughout the second half of the twentieth century the library collected printed Urdu materials from across India and Pakistan. In doing so, it built an eclectic collection that also tied its Mumbai neighbourhood to trans-Southasian worlds of Urdu literature and writing.

The Awami Idara and its collections offer an important reminder that people – including working-class people – hold multiple political, social and religious identities simultaneously. The books and journals held at the library demonstrate that Muslim labourers in Mumbai were aware of Southasian and broader global political currents, and sought to understand their place within them. While rooted in a highly local space – a unique library and its walls of bound volumes in Mominpura – the Awami Idara provided a space for Mumbai’s Muslim labourers to consider their connections and commitments to political movements and events across Mumbai, Southasia and beyond.

source: http://www.himalmag.com / Himal, South Asian / Home> Culture> Essay> India / by Amanda Lanzillo / January 09th, 2023

Film on siblings Shehzad and Saud who rescue kites on Oscar nomination list

NEW DELHI:

 Nadeem Shehzad and Mohammad Saud

New Delhi :

‘All That Breathes’ a  Documentary feature film based on the lives of two brothers Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad of Delhi, who work out of their derelict basement in Delhi’s Wazirabad, to rescue and treat injured birds, especially the black kites, has made it to the Oscar nominations list.

‘All That Breathes’ made by Shaunak Sen has been nominated in the ‘Documentary Feature Film’ category against ‘All the Beauty and the Bloodshed’, ‘Fire Of Love,’ ‘A House made of Splinters,’ and ‘Navalny’.

Besides, the most- predicted and the much-celebrated music of ‘RRR’ also made it to the Oscars race. The magnum opus film’s energy-packed track ‘Naatu Naatu’ made it to the nominations this year in the ‘Original Song’ category.

After the Oscar nominations were announced, every Indian’s heart was pumped with pride and joy as we secured three nominations this year.

This lyrical composition of ‘Naatu Naatu’ by MM Keeravani, high energy rendition by singers Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava, unique choreography by Prem Rakshith, and lyrics by Chandrabose are all the elements that make this ‘RRR’ mass anthem a perfect dance craze.

The song is competing against ‘Applause’ from the film ‘Tell It Like A Woman,’ ‘Hold My Hand’ from the movie ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ ‘Lift me Up’ from ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,’ and ‘This Is Life,’ from ‘Everything, Everywhere All At Once’.

Adding to the Indian list of nominations for Oscars 2023 is Kartiki Gonsalves’ ‘The Elephant Whisperers.”  

 ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ has been nominated in the ‘Documentary Short Film Category’ against ‘Haul Out,’ ‘How Do You Measure A Year?’ ‘The Martha Mitchell Effect,’ and ‘Stranger At The Gate’.

The film’s plot revolves around a family who adopts two orphan baby elephants in Tamil Nadu’s Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.

The Oscars are going to be held on March 13 and while the wait is going to be quite a long one from now, the nominations have sure lifted the spirits of not just the crew and cast of the films mentioned above, but also of everyone who hopes to see an Indian movie bagging the prestigious award. 

source: http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home / posted by Aasha Khosa, ATV / January 25th, 2023                 

Celebrating Ajit’s birth centenary: Saara sheher mujhe lion ke naam se jaanta hai

Hyderabad, TELANGANA / Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA:

Hyderabad: 

Saara sheher mujhe loin ke naam se jaanta hai.

Does it ring a bell? Yes. Film buffs couldn’t forget this line from Kalicharan. Spoken in a cool and collected manner some four decades ago, it still has a chilling effect.

How about this one:
Kutta jab pagal ho jaata hai toh use goli mar dete hain.
Apni umar se badkhar baatein nahi karte.
Shakaal jab baazi khelta hai .. toh jitne patte uske haath mein hote hain utne hi uki aasteen mein.

The soft-spoken villain, Ajit Khan, who delivered these memorable lines, turns 101 today. To mark his birth centenary celebrations, his family is launching his biography in Urdu and Hindi languages on Friday evening. The book, authored by Iqbal Rizi, is appropriately titled – Ajit the lion.

Born Hamid Ali Khan, he took the screen name, Ajit Khan, when he ran away from his house in Hyderabad and landed in Mumbai. Though he acted in over 200 films, he came into the limelight when he turned a baddie. The polished suited booted look he sported coupled with his unique dialogue delivery, deadpan expression and mannerism made him a superstar in his own way.

Ajit did support roles in scores of films like Shah-e-Misr, Hatimtai, Sone ki Chidiya but mostly went unnoticed. However, when he chose to do an image makeover and turned baddy cine-goersoers started taking note of him. Ajit brought a rare freshness to the portrayal of negative roles with his suave looks, tuxedo white suites, polka-dotted ties and brylecreemed hair. Gone was the savage loud-mouthed villain of Bollywood. In his new avatar Ajit, as an underworld don, is seen in most of the films reclining on a chaise lounge with a buxom babe tucked into one arm. In the movie, Zanjeer, when a blood-dripping Amitabh Bachchan confronts him after getting out of prison, the don, Teja, reacts very casually sipping his drink. Unfazed he drawls “Hayllo”.

That was Ajit at his suavest best. His career skyrocketed in 70s and 80s with blockbusters like Zanjeer, Yaadon ki Barat, Kalicharan, Jugnu, Patthar aur Paayal. His typical one-liners like Mona Darling, Lilly don’t be silly, and Loin are a rage even now.

More than his dialogue the ‘Ajit jokes’ have added to the legend. Names such as Mona, Peter, Michael and Raabert (Robert) came into common parlance. Some of the famous jokes are:
Robert: Boss, Tony to bhaag gaya hai Mona ke saath.
Ajit smirks: Raabert, my bway, Mona kaise bhaag sakti hai. Uske kapde to mere pass haiN.
Ajit: Raabert iss ko liquid oxygen mein daal do, Liquid isse jeeney nahi deygi aur oxygen isse marne nahin degi.

Interestingly, Ajit himself was unaware about these jokes. He didn’t know who invented them. But they gained currency and spread like wildfire since they have a sharp wit. From a C-grade hero to a polished villain, Ajit’s career turned a full circle when he sported a suave and westernised image. People liked this suited and booted baddie who never loses his cool even in most trying times.

The 221-page biography traces the early days of Ajit in Golconda, Hyderabad, his school life and his struggles in the film industry when he landed in Mumbai and little-known things about his real life. The book makes an interesting read, especially for the ‘lion’ fans. The book priced Rs. 230 is scheduled to be released in the Western Block of Salar Jung Museum at 4.30 pm on Friday. Siasat Managing Editor, Zaheeruddin Ali Khan, MANUU Vice-Chancellor, Syed Ainul Hasan, Nawab Ehteram Ali Khan, Board Member, Dr. A. Nagender Reddy, Director, Salar Jung Museum, and Ajit family members will grace the occasion.

source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> Featured News / by J S Ifthekhar / January 26th, 2023

Padmashri Award for Bidri craftsperson

Bidar, KARNATAKA:

Shah Rashid Ahmed Khadri, a 67-year-old Bidri craftsperson from Bidar, is among the Padmashri Award winners this year.

He gained instant popularity when he sat working with his tools on the Karnataka Tableau at the Republic Day parade in 2011.

He has spent nearly five decades in the art that he learnt from his father Shah Mustafa Khadri, a master craftsman who was honoured by the Nizam of Hyderabad.

The Khadris were a family of limited means and Rashid could study only up to PU. His father, however, did not want him to be a Bidri craftsman as he felt they did not earn enough. He enrolled Rashid into English typewriting course. However, he began assisting his father who began losing eyesight due to old age.

He is a winner of Shilpa Guru Award, Rajyotsava Award and national award for handicrafts. He is a regular invitee to the Suraj Kund Mela, Dilli Haat and other exhibitions in India.

He has also served as a procurer for the Cauvery handicrafts museum in Bengaluru and a master trainee for various various craftsman training programmes of the Central and State governments.

His creations have been exhibited in the U.S., Europe, West Asia and Singapore.

He said that he had never expected this honour. “I miss my father today. I am sure he would have been happier than I am,” he said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> India> Karnataka / by The Hindu Bureau / January 25th, 2023

People and Homes of Aligarh

Aligarh, UTTAR PRADESH:

“Material culture is the history and philosophy of objects and the myriad relationships between people and things.” Bernard Herman, material culture scholar.

I have always had a fascination with old homes. I grew up in one – Abid Manzil in Aligarh, built in 1935. Well-known as the home of Aligarh Muslim University, the town in western Uttar Pradesh saw many Indian Muslims migrate there in the early 1900s from different parts of the erstwhile United Provinces. This included the Muslim zamindar elites who came from neighbouring principalities as well as working-class and middle-class families from eastern Uttar Pradesh. Many wanted to give their children the chance of a good education at the university. These people brought their cultures and histories with them, blending with the Islamic yet liberal intellectual philosophy propagated by AMU and spearheaded by its founder, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. The homes of these people, mostly built in the 1930s, are evidence of this syncretic tradition.

On my most recent visit to Aligarh I realised that these pre-Partition houses were gradually disappearing. I met with some of the remaining families, who wanted to talk about the rich history of their homes, the culture and ways of life they embodied, and the measures they were currently taking to secure a future for their homes and themselves. This photo essay tells the story of these homes and the people who live in them.

Ibne Sahab was born in 1923. He lost his mother when he was just a month old and was raised by his father. Ibne Sahab’s childhood was spent in Chattari and he moved to Aligarh to pursue his formal education when he was 15 years old. He studied Persian and Psychology at Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College.

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, the founder of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) was Scheherazade Alim’s paternal great, great-grandfather. She spent her childhood in Aftab Manzil, named after her maternal great-grandfather Aftab Ahmed Khan, who built the house in 1904. Scheherazade Begum studied law at Oxford and became a barrister and has taught law at AMU. After two decades of living and working in Dubai, Scheherazade Begum and her husband Abdul Alim Khan returned to Aligarh and to Aftab Manzil in 1997, and have lived there since.

Aftab Manzil saw the comings and goings of influential men and women. One of them was E M Forster. Scheherazade Alim’s grandfather Sir Ross Masood was a close friend of the writer, who dedicated A Passage to India to him. Masood became the Vice Chancellor of AMU in 1929, a position he held for three years. The photograph on the right was taken in Italy in 1911. The photograph on the left shows Scheherazade Begum with Forster. It was taken in England in 1962. She herself cultivated a deep bond with the writer, calling him “Forster Chacha”.

Aftab Manzil was built using bricks manufactured by Ford and MacDonald, the company responsible for supplying red bricks for the building of AMU. Other homes such as Habibullah Manzil were also constructed using surplus material from AMU. Courtyards like this, at Habibullah Manzil, are typical features in old homes. They are public spaces that allow family members to socialise, yet at the same time are private and separated from the outside world.

Professor Tariq Gilani, who lives in Habibullah Manzil, says that it is difficult to secure an old house, especially since there is no one, single uninterrupted wall, each room having several doors. David Lelyveld, in Aligarh’s First Generation, explains that this was the case “so that different sorts of people might come and go without crossing paths.” The architecture, therefore, reflected the norms of social interaction in the early 20th century.

These norms dictated that spaces within a household be separated on the basis of gender. Purdah was adhered to, especially among the elite. To enter the ladies’ quarter, or zenanah, male servants and visitors had to announce themselves first. In the case of Rahat Manzil’s haveli, non-related males would have entered through a zigzag corridor, preventing them from directly viewing the zenanah.

Farrukh Said Khan with his wife Faizana Said Khan in their formal living room in Rahat Manzil. Faizana Said Khan is the great, great-granddaughter of the Nawab of Jaipalguri. The swing is about ninety years old. The photograph of Ahmed Said Khan on the wall is from when he received an honorary doctorate from AMU. Farrukh Sahab recounts that his grandfather, Ahmed Said, was born in 1889. He was an orphan. His parents died in Saudi Arabia in the early 1890s. After the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, Mahmud Ali was unwilling to stay under British rule. But when his son (Ahmed Said’s father) and daughter-in-law died, he had to return to take care of his grandson. Ahmed Said was eight years old when his grandfather passed away. He was sent to English House (AMU’s old guest house) by the British, who had taken control of Chhatari – Ahmed Said’s ancestral zamindari. When he turned 21, Ahmed Said was made the Nawab of Chhatari. He built Rahat Manzil in 1920 as a guesthouse to accommodate his family when they travelled to Aligarh from Chhatari.

Raja Masudul Hasan, also known as the Raja of Asgharabad, supervised the building of Hasan Manzil. He was a keen collector, and according to Zafar Sahab (his son and current owner of Hasan Manzil), he bought this copper ashtray from Chinese traders who frequented Aligarh in the 1930s. He moved to Aligarh in 1925 from Asgharabad, where he was a zamindar, and died in 1954.

Over the years, the landscape of Aligarh has undergone dramatic changes. Where there were once independent bungalows and havelis surrounded by orchards, now stand three or four storey apartment buildings. Many more people have migrated to Aligarh in search of education or employment. This changed landscape, although inevitable and positive in some ways, has imposed stress upon those who live in old homes in Aligarh. Some are uncertain about what will happen to their homes after they are gone. Will their children come back and take charge of things or will their homes, like many others, be broken down and apartment buildings erected in their place?

People have coped with these challenges in different ways. Ibne Said Khan has transformed Rahat Manzil’s formal dining room into a museum dedicated to the life and career of his father, statesman Ahmed Said Khan. He says that one winter evening, after his father’s death in 1982, he saw that his servant was bringing bundles of old paper to feed the angethi (brazier). He asked the servant where he was getting these papers and discovered stacks of old documents and photographs in the storage area. He rescued these and set to work, chronologically organising documents and photographs that captured the breadth of his father’s work. With more than a hundred photographs and documents mounted in the main dining area, Ibne Sahab says that there are still many photographs and documents to be sorted and incorporated into this museum.

The Sherwanis of Muzammil Manzil have renovated a section of their house and transformed it into a school, which they run. Blossoms started in 2001 in a rented house and later shifted to Muzammil Manzil. What was once an aangan (courtyard) is now a school playground. The school has over 800 students.

The Sherwanis also maintain a library in one section of their house named after Syed Sherwani’s grandfather and the original owner of Muzammil Manzil – Nawab Muzammil Ullah Khan. The library started with 500 books but Sherwani Sahab’s father, Rahmatullah Khan Sherwani, expanded it over four decades. It now holds 16,000 books and 2400 rare manuscripts.

This door was hand painted by Rashid Sahab’s nephews. Like Zafar Sahab, Rashid Sahab says that the family has inculcated a sense of responsibility in the next generation to take care of Saman Zaar. For the future, he adds, “We should try to come back to this place and live together (as a family).”

~ Meher Ali is a freelance journalist from Aligarh. She is currently based in Ahmedabad.

source: http://www.himalmag.com / Himalmag, South Asia / Home> Culture> Photo Essay / by Meher Ali / December 19th, 2013

Ali Bhojani embarks on a mission to tell all about Islam

Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA :

Ali Bhojani

Most Muslims feel disturbed over the growing misconceptions about their religion in the minds of their compatriots, but only a few feel the responsibility of addressing this issue. Ali Bhojani of Mumbai is among the Indians who took charge of the situation that he felt was mostly created by the acerbic debates on television shows and is addressing the myths about Islam.

When he and some of his close friends embarked on this project, met people of other religions, and spoke to them about Islam, he was in for a bigger shock.

“I met the friend of a friend, who was a Jain,” he told Awaz-the Voice on phone from Mumbai. The Jain friend insisted that they move to the bar for the conversation.

“After gulping down a drink or two he told me that needed to loosen up with a drink so that he could muster the courage to ask a few questions about Islam. He admitted that he had fears speaking about Islam,” Ali said. “This came as a big shock.”

The Jain friend told Ali that he had fears of “forced conversion” and being labeled as a Kaffir (nonbeliever in Arabic) in case he asked candid questions about Islam. “I was shocked. Why is it so difficult to speak about Islam? Even today, I have goosebumps thinking of it.”

A poster on a hadith (Twitter)

Ali, a chartered accountant by training who has taken to social work and also runs a travel company in Mumbai, says it was with the idea of “telling the world about our real Prophet and not the one shown by television channels” that a group of 15 Muslims from all walks of life including Dr. Zeba Malik, Principal, Anjuman-e-Islam institutions, joined hands to tell others about the real Islam.

To start with, 15-days before Prophet Muhammad’s birth anniversary (Eid-i-Milad un Nabi), the group organized interactions with different people – Municipality workers, officials, diplomats from consulates, business leaders, Maulanas, MLAs, etc to “clear the toxic air and bring in positivity.” The idea was to present the common messages of Prophet Muhammad called hadith to people of other religions.

“We wanted to publicize simple hadiths like the ones on neighbours, never wasting water, not hurting anyone, paying the labourers before the work is done, the killing of one person is killing the humanity, never harm anybody, etc.” The group organized quiz competitions in schools and colleges on Prophet’s messages. It ran a social media campaign #Prophet for all to generate awareness about the founder of Islam.

The group put up hoardings with simple messages of the Prophet on roadsides and positioned volunteers with placards with Hadith messages in the busy marketplaces for the passersby.

On the day of Eid-Milad un Nabi, the group took out a procession in which people of all faiths participated. “We deliberately didn’t invite a usual Priest-Maulvi-Pastor kind of people to give a message of inclusive celebrations but common people who want to bring about a positive change,” Ali said.

A posted on Hadith on Twitter

Its social media campaign elicited a huge response globally. The 30-second reels of Hadith messages on Instagram, posters on Facebook, and Twitter under the campaign #ProphetForAll were liked and shared by netizens all over the world.

The Prophet For All page on Twitter states its purpose: “To remove the growing misunderstandings about the message of Islam and bring about communal harmony in society.”

Inviting non-Muslims inside a mosque and taking them around was also part of the campaign for peace and communal harmony in the group.

The group members all over the country sent packets of dates and mithai to non-Muslim friends on the occasion. Each box had a small printed message of a hadith “Next year we plan to scale up the movement,” Ali said.

However, buoyed by the success of the group’s Eid campaign, Ali and his friends are planning to hold an all-faith Diwali Milan for the forthcoming festivals in all 227 Municipal wards of Mumbai. “Imagine we are going to touch the lives of two crore people,” Ali quips. “imagining the impact it will have.”

Ali says the idea of this campaign occurred to him when he realized he was scared of passing through a non-Muslim neighbourhood. “I feared for my life and then I realized the other also felt the same while passing through a Muslim neighbourhood.” 

He said this cannot go on like this and a dialogue between the two communities must be started. 

Ali and his friends didn’t have to raise funds for the campaign. “Social media was voluntary work, snacks and little refreshments were sponsored by people, and the prize money for the competition was pooled by us,” he said.   

Ali says there are similarities in all religions and we need to highlight these instead of the differences

source:http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home> Stories / by Aasha Kosha, New Delhi aasha@awazthevoice.in / January 23rd, 2023