Category Archives: Uniquely Indian – Inter Faith (wef. February 08th, 2023)

Shivaji’s army had 60K Muslim soldiers; calling him a Hindu ruler is distortion of his image

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INDIA:

Chhatarpati Shivaji Maharaj

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s name is taken with great pride and respect in Maharashtra. Every year on February 19, Shivaji Jayanti is celebrated with great pomp across the state. The coronation day of Shivaji Maharaj is also celebrated on June 6, 1674. About 350 years ago, Shivaji Maharaj was coronated at Raigad Fort in the presence of thousands of people.

There have been many kings but people remember only those who worked for the good of the people. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is one of them as he established Swaraj based on the values of equality, brotherhood, and justice. During his rule, he worked for public welfare without any discrimination. 

These days, Shivaji Maharaj is portrayed as a Hindu ruler by vested interests like political parties and organizations. Is it fair to see a great personality like Shivaji Maharaj only in the frame of religion? To see Shivaji Maharaj only as a protector of religion amounts to diminishing his stature. Shivaji’s life was spent following high ideals.

He respected Saints, Peer Auliyas, and all religions. For this reason, when he established Swaraj, along with the local Marathas, a large number of Muslims also supported him. At that time the Marathas who were in his army were called Mawle of Shivaji. Thousands of Muslims participated in the battles he fought; his administration also had Mawle. That is why even today Muslims of Kolhapur, Satara take part in Shivaji Jayanti processions with great fanfare. 

During the rule of Shivaji Maharaj, public welfare, justice, and brotherhood were given priority. That’s why he and his regime are remembered even today.

Shivaji Maharaj’s family respected Sufi saints a lot. His grandfather had named his two sons Shahji and Sharifji after the Muslim Pir Baba Shah Sharif. Shivaji Maharaj had great respect for Sufi Saint Baba Yakut. Before leaving for the war front he visited Baba to seek his blessings. He also had oil lamps lit on various dargahs, the resting place of the Sufis.

Women were respected during Shivaji’s reign. Even during the war touching a woman was prohibited. It seems that after the governor of Kalyan was defeated at the hands of Shivaji’s forces, his beautiful daughter-in-law was presented to Shivaji. He was ashamed of his General’s act of using a woman as a booty. He apologized to the Muslim woman and told her she is like his mother and returned her to her homeland with full state honour.

Shivaji Maharaj had unwavering faith in his Muslim soldiers. There were more than 60 thousand Muslim soldiers in his army. He had also established a strong Navy and its command was in the hands of Muslim soldiers. Even the management of sea forts was entrusted to experienced Muslim governors like Darya Sarang, Daulat Khan, Ibrahim Khan, Siddi Mistry. Many Muslim warlords like Rustamozman, Hussain Khan, Qasim Khan left the princely state of Bijapur and joined the army of Shivaji Maharaj along with 700 Pathan soldiers. Siddi Hilal was one of the closest Sardars of Shivaji Maharaj. His acts of bravery in the war are famous.

https://www.hindi.awazthevoice.in/upload/news/167671485301_Shivaji_Maharaj_and_Muslim_Society_7.jpg

Most of the cannons used in Shivaji’s army were manned by Muslim soldiers. Ibrahim Khan was the chief gunner; Shama Khan and Ibrahim Khan were the head of the Cavalry squad. Siddi Ibrahim was one of Shivaji’s bodyguards. In the encounter with Afzal Khan, Siddi Ibrahim saved Shivaji Maharaj by risking his life. Later, Shivaji Maharaj appointed him as the head of the Fonda fort. All the facts bear testimony to a close bond between Shivaji and his Muslim associates.

When Shivaji was under arrest in Agra Fort, a Muslim man named Madari Mehtar played the most important role in his escape. While Shivaji escaped from the fort, Mehtar masqueraded as him.

With his secular ways, Shivaji Maharaj won the hearts of his colleagues and they were ever ready to make sacrifices for their king.

Qazi Haider, a scholar of the Persian language was Shivaji’s Chief Law officer. He had a major role in the administration’s correspondence and agreements and secret plans. Once a Hindu Sardar expressed doubts about Qazi Haider and advised Shivaji against trusting him. Shivaji told him rather curtly: “Honesty is not tested by looking at someone’s caste (religion), it depends on that person’s deeds”.

The preparations for the coronation of Shivaji Maharaj had started long back. New buildings including temples were being constructed when Shivaji Maharaj reached Raigad to review the work. On his return to his palace, he asked his Sardars while they have built magnificent temples why no mosque for Muslim subjects has been built. Immediately, a mosque was built right in front of the palace and it stands there even today.

Today the rivalry between Shivaji and Afzal Khan is presented as a story of Hindu-Muslim tension. The truth is after Afzal Khan died, Shivaji Maharaj ordered that his body be buried with Islamic rites. A concrete grave was built for Afzal Khan; his sons were pardoned. 

Such behaviour of a ruler against his enemy is rarely found in history.

All these incidents of history prove that the war between Shivaji Maharaj and the Mughals was of mutual conflicts between the kings for political interests and not for religious supremacy.

source: http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home> Story / by Mukhtar Khan, ATV / posted by Aasha Khosa / February 22nd, 2023

Battle of Malegaon: The Maratha army’s Muslim Heroes

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Malegaon (Nashik District) , MAHARASHTRA:

At the Battle of Malegaon, Muslim soldiers in the Maratha army defied the British army for a full month when they had no hope of victory as the Chhatrapati and Peshwa had already surrendered.


These battles, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd), are in contrast to the colonial mindset driven narrative of Muslim separatism.


The current politics of both communities ensures that the heroes of Malegaon — or for that matter personalities like Ibrahim Khan, who led the Maratha artillery at the battle of Panipat in 1761 — are forgotten.

IMAGE: The Malegaon fort. Kind courtesy: Wikipedia

On January 1, 2018, the bicentenary of the defence of Koregaon by a small British force — that had a number of Mahar troops — was observed with great fanfare.

The British — the victors in the third Anglo-Maratha war — erected a pillar to commemorate the event.

During the same war, Muslim troops of the Marathas defied British forces for a full month from May 15, 1818 to June 13, 1818.

Since the Marathas were on the losing side, this saga of bravery was obliterated from history by the British.

As we approach the bicentenary of that event it is time to remember the brave soldiers of the Maratha army who continued to fight even when they had no hope since the Chhatrapati had already been captured by the British and Poona and Satara were under British occupation.

The loyalty to the Maratha flag by its Muslim soldiers even in a hopeless situation deserves to be remembered.

My own research in 1990 began with a question posed by the late Major General D K Palit, a military history scholar of repute.

The question he posed was this: How is it that the Marathas — who spiritedly fought a 22 year-long guerilla war against the mighty Mughal empire — succumbed to the British without a fight?

It is this quest for truth that led me to research the story of the Anglo-Maratha struggles of the 18th and 19th century.

The Battle of Malegaon fought in May-June 1818 was the last major attempt at resistance by the Marathas.

On May 15, 1818, a brigade strength force under Lieutenant Colonel A MacDowell reached the vicinity of Malegaon fort.

The British expected that this show of force would be sufficient to overawe the defenders of the Malegaon fort.

The British were in for a nasty surprise.

In response to summons to surrender, the defenders fired on the British camp leading to panic.

The quadrangular fort of Malegaon is located near the bend in the Musam river so as to cover two side of the fort, Malegaon town being on the other sides.

The fort had two lines of defence built of masonry surrounded by a seven feet wall and a 25 feet deep 16 feet wide ditch.

The outer wall had watch towers built of mud and stone. The inner fort or the citadel was 60 feet high with 16 feet wide ramparts.

On May 16, Colonel MacDowell reached the west bank of the river and began work to erect barriers of breastwork to deploy guns for the final assault.

At 8 am the British began bombardment of the fort with 20 guns, an assortment of 12 pounders (the biggest calibre gun then in India), 8 pounders and mortars.

The defending soldiers sortied out of the fort, destroyed the batteries and killed two British officers and several soldiers.

At the same time 7 guns from the fort opened devastating fire on the British lines on the west bank of the river.

The ding dong battle continued for six days.

On May 22, after particularly heavy shelling from the fort, the British were forced to abandon the breastwork for the guns and retreated.

On May 26, the British — through constant bombardment — succeeded in creating a breach in the inner wall of the fort.

The next day the British launched a three pronged attack after a bombardment lasting nearly two hours.

One column was led by Major Greenhill and consisted of a native battalion of 1,000 soldiers with 100 Europeans to directly go into the fort through the breach.

Another column of 800 sepoys under Lieutenant Colonel Stewart crossed the river downstream to outflank the fort from the west.

The third column consisting of 300 sepoys and 50 Europeans under Major Macbean went towards the river gate.

Each column had pioneers with tools, mines and ladders to tackle the fortification.

But the defenders of the Malegaon fort proved equal to the challenge.

The attacking British were met with a hail of bullets and gunfire. The attempt to scale the inner wall failed. Many of the engineer officers leading the attack suffered injuries.

Both the columns led by Majors Greenhill and Macbean were ordered to withdraw.

Only Lieutenant Colonel; Stewart’s column met with some success and he occupied part of the town.

The stalemate continued till June 4.

On that day another column under Major Watson arrived from Ahmednagar with a battalion of native infantry and a large number of siege guns.

For nine days, till June 13, the fort was subjected to heavy bombardment by the British guns.

On June 13, at 3 pm, the fort garrison accepted surrender and the Union Jack was hoisted in place of the Maratha saffron jari patka flag.

The next morning the garrison of 300 men marched out of the fort and surrendered their arms.

The British strength at Malegaon numbered over 2,000 troops. During the battle the British casualties numbered 11 officers and 220 soldiers (killed or wounded).

Thirty Maratha defenders died while 60 Maratha soldiers were wounded.

The British record states that in the end they used 36 guns, fired over 8,000 shells and used 35,500 pounds of gunpowder.

The British were so impressed with the valour and chivalry of the defenders that they permitted the surrendered soldiers to keep their daggers.

Historian N C Kelkar notes in his Marathi book Marathe ani Ingraj that at one stage the desperate British sent a message to the Muslim soldiers of the Maratha army that since the Chhatrapati had already surrendered, they should do likewise.

The doughty defenders replied that they were indeed aware that their king was in British captivity, but they were yet to receive instructions from him to surrender and therefore would keep fighting.

The devotion to duty and loyalty to their king was of the kind seen later only during World War II when many Japanese soldiers continued to fight even after Japan surrendered.

There is neither any victory pillar nor are the names of these brave soldiers engraved anywhere.

Even two hundred years after the event and the departure of British 70 years ago, the Muslim heroes of battle of Malegaon remain unknown, forgotten and unsung.

Two hundred years ago, the third Anglo-Maratha war fought in 1817 and 1818 ended in the Maratha Chhatrapati and Peshwa (prime minister) surrendering to the English.

After having defeated the Holkars and Shindias in early 1817, the British turned to the conquest of Maharashtra proper.

The full story of the Maratha struggle with the British has for long been swept under the carpet. In its place a modern myth of the British having directly taken over India from the Mughals or accidently acquired an empire has gained currency.

Ignoring the Marathas and their role in ruling most of north and central India was part of the grand colonial project of disinformation that sought to then play up Mughal-Rajput rule.

I recall an interesting news report some years ago, datelined Aligarh, where an Aligarh Muslim university ‘scholar’ had discovered that a major battle between the Marathas and the English had indeed taken place in Aligarh in 1803!

The worthy had, of course, never heard of the second Anglo-Maratha war that took place in 1803-1804 with battles at Delhi, Lassawari near Agra, Aligarh, Shekohabad etc.

The British had sound reasons to whitewash the Maratha period of our history.

Since the Marathas formed a formidable alliance with the Muslims, Jats and Sikhs in resisting the British, they posed a potential threat.

The distortions continued post-Independence as writing and teaching history was hijacked by the left-leaning Delhi elite. But those who ignore the Maratha or Sikh epoch fail to answer a simple question.

The Marathas fought three wars with the British, so did the Sikhs, the Gorkhas and Tipu Sultan in the south. Is there any mention of the Anglo-Mughal wars, even in the doctored historical narrative?

Note: The information about the Battle of Malegaon is based on a British Indian Army General Staff Publication (Simla 1910), Maratha and the Pindari War pages 89-91.

Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) is a military historian. This article is based on extracts from his forthcoming book, The Story of the Mighty Marathas and their Empire.

source: http://www.rediff.com / rediff.com / Home> News / by Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) / April 10th, 2018

Waris Shah at 300: Unremembered, uncelebrated

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Uniquely Indian - Inter Faith (wef. February 08th, 2023), World Opinion, , ,

PUNJAB (BRITISH INDIA):

Waris Shah’s 300th birth anniversary on January 23 may have gone unnoticed, but the Sufi poet’s magnum opus — a narrative of threatened love in a space governed by unbending socio-religious norms — still finds huge resonance. He remains, by far, the most important Punjabi qissakaar.

A sketch by Imroz.

I FIRST heard the name literally in my infancy. In the semi-refugee colony where I grew up in Delhi, I recall faint invocations of this name, Waris Shah. It must have been in the late 1950s.

The streets of Naiwalan were now full of people who had been displaced from the multiple regions of Punjab during the Partition of 1947. They spoke different dialects and were not always comfortable conversing with people from other regions.

Waris Shah’s tomb at Jandiala Sher Khan in West Punjab, Pakistan. Courtesy: Saif Tahir

There were a few culturally uniting features though. For the young, the great unifier was the Indian film music and All India Radio. For the rest, there were the gurdwaras and the unbroken chain of Gurbani recitation, and singing on the one hand and the rare but energising jagrata gatherings on the other. The Muslim presence had nearly been wiped out from the cultural imagination of the Punjabis, who had been thrown into alien lands full of unfriendly sounds. However, the feminine work culture had retained an inherent link to a past. Early morning, my mother and foster grandmother would recite verses from Guru Granth Sahib under their breath even as they went about setting up the house for the day ahead. Most prominently, we would overhear Baba Farid being mentioned — from whom the Sufis had drawn much of their local identity. That was one side of the story. The other was Farid’s formidable presence within the field of language from where all Punjabis drew their ethical core. The very grain of their existence would wake up to his ‘dar derveshi’.

The hujra(small room) at a mosque in Malka Hans, (erstwhile Punjab now in Pakpattan, Pakistan), where Waris Shah composed ‘Heer’. The wall shows the opening couplet (translation above) of the Sufi poet’s epic work. Photo courtesy: Muhammad Imran Saeed

Outside of this religio-cultural space, there were two Muslim poets that, as children, we heard on almost a daily basis: Baba Bulleh Shah and Waris Shah, who could well have been near contemporaries, separated as they were by nearly 40 years of age difference. I wonder if the two ever met, especially as both shared a fiercely transgressive spirit.

Waris Shah’s 300th birth anniversary, which fell on January 23, went unnoticed on both sides of Punjab. That the State is past caring is a no-brainer, but how could the community of litterateurs forget the day?

Waris Shah was born in Jandiala Sher Khan of Sheikhupura (now in Pakistan Punjab) at a time when the Mughal empire was showing early signs of disintegration. There was, hence, an abounding atmosphere of increased repression and latent rebellion all around. Waris grew up as an orphan. He is said to have been a keen observer of the ordinary life — a fact to which his magnum opus bears testimony. He remains, by far, the most important qissakaar of our language and among the finest across the globe.

People sing verses of ‘Heer’ near Bulleh Shah’s mazaar in Kasur, Pakistan. Amarjit Chandan 

There were a few editions of Waris Shah in Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi in our library, which I was unfortunately not able to read as I went to a Hindi medium school. However, there was one particular passage from ‘Heer’ — “Doli charhdeyaan maariyaan Heer cheekan” (Ascending the palanquin, Heer cried out bitterly, complaining) — which was repeatedly played on the radio and which initially seemed to catch everyone’s attention. The singer happened to be the iconic Asa Singh Mastana, who was more than an acquaintance of my father and had visited us a few times in the 1960s. His arrival was always greeted with excitement. Those were the days when I heard Waris Shah being mentioned in almost axiomatic two-liners that the wise and elderly would often use to clinch an argument…

It was much later in life that I heard Mastana singing a passage from ‘Heer’, where this newly married rebel of a girl named Heer pours her heart’s pain out to her father before being put into the palanquin and ceremoniously sent away to her husband’s home. This singing seemed as much about forced exclusion as the pain and suffering the refugees had experienced as part of the exodus from their homeland from which they had not quite recovered.

_______________

Kehi Heer di tareef kare shayar:
Matthe chamakda husn maahtab da ji…

How does the poet praise Heer:

Her crown shimmers like the beauteous moon…

A Couplet from Heer

Begin by remembering the Cosmic Self

Who created the world in the image of love

He began first by Himself falling in love

The Prophet Nabi Rasool is His beloved

Opening Couplet from Heer

Aashiq, bhaur, faqeer te naag kaale/bhaajh mantron mool na keeliye ni

Lovers, bumblebees, faqirs and king cobras cannot be tamed without special spells

A Couplet from Heer

__________________

The song was unlike any other I had heard as a child. The melody unfolded in a slow, languorous narration. It had a feel of haunting simplicity that encouraged many of us to try it out in the seclusion of our houses. However, things became a little complex when within the same slow rendition, there arose a sudden burst of fast, quivering, high notes around a single word, or even a lone vowel sound. It was like an unexpected gush of turbulence in the otherwise gently flowing waters. This melodic surge returned equally suddenly to its sedate narrative core, but by now the maelstrom of emotions that had been stirred moved the young and old to look deeply into what had hit them.

Women often cried as the poetic narration took off in musical notes. Men, too, were visibly moved even if they soon recovered their wits to make parodies of these verses to restore their somewhat damaged masculine ego back to health. Many years down the line, when I became a little known as a singer, the impassioned audiences would still persist with requests to sing Heer’s heartbreaking send-off, even if that passage had by then been declared as an unacceptable interpolation.

‘Heer Waris’ stood out as an emotive link to our erased folk memory. The poetic thread ran through an incredibly detailed landscape of a people’s life — their mornings, evenings and nights; their work cultures; their rites of passage; their undying bonds, desires and envies; their transgressions of the social, religious and gender codes; their masquerades. No other poet had been able to embark upon such a vast cultural map with a comparable poetic intensity and masterly conviction. Through his qissa, one could enter the playful piety of playful hamds (Odes to the Almighty) and manqabats (Odes to the Dervishes) of the Punjabi Sufis; the spaces of longing through the lived carnivals and heartbreaks of the ordinary lives; thus, the Punjabi qissakari tradition would come alive spontaneously and with unmistakable signs deep of yearning, despite the unexpunged ghosts of Partition. Thanks to Waris Shah, we were still the people that we once were… Heer-Ranjha’s tale of almost willed displacement in languorous pursuit of love, as against the forced exodus of the people, had its lasting lure. There was still hope for a creative resurgence of a community of people who had walked through the inferno of 1947 and lost the rhythmic beat of celebration and had fallen into a litany of pain…

I walked across the other part of Punjab primarily through how ‘Heer’ was rendered by a range of iconic singers and how it had been received by both the ordinary folks and the cognoscenti. The sheer experience of being exposed to such an incredible range of styles and diverse grain of voices was a heady experience. To begin with, I was introduced to Tufail Niazi Saab’s rendition by a non-Punjabi and my dearest friend, the late Safdar Hashmi. Tufail Saab is, in fact, the reason why I took to singing beyond the anonymity of my house. Listening to his singing, I understood why ‘Heer’ demanded a melodic narration without the support of percussions. Both he and Inayat Bhatti Saab would interrupt their singing with ready dialogic wit and commentary. I heard the distinct flavours of their dialects from Doab and Gujarat interacting with the poetic registers of Waris Shah’s Majhaili. This was quite unlike the ‘Heer’ I had heard in our part of Punjab. This also became a way of recovering a lost cultural selfhood that the unfortunate Partition had buried so insensitively. Through ‘Heer Waris’, I was able to significantly break down the uneasy gap that had created a tangible ‘other’.

Much later, when I was gifted an audio tape of ‘Heer Waris’ rendered by the matchless Sharif Ghaznavi by Ajoka Theatre’s Shahid Nadeem, I felt nearly ready to take the narration of ‘Heer Waris’ on to public platforms. It was the time in the late ’70s and the entire following decade when nothing was making sense anymore. The State and the ideologues of a particular persuasion were engaged in a fiery exchange. For me, the singing of ‘Heer’ by Waris and the Kaafis of Baba Bulleh Shah sublimated into cri de coeur and eventually an act of faith. The melody, its projection and its interpretations on stage were beginning to change, especially as the real stakes of existence were getting increasingly intractable and no longer easily resolvable. Waris’ text was coming out of a limited cultural interiority to now address larger anxieties all across. This was approximately the time when I heard Rabbi Shergill’s angry outpouring to the so-called neutral letter writer about his grievously wounded love. As Bob Dylan would have put it, ‘The times they are a-changin’…

— The writer is a composer, musician

source: http://www.tribuneindia.com / The Tribune / Home> Features / by Madan Gopal Singh / February 27th, 2022

Begum of Malerkotla is honoured for willing Sikh Guru’s sword to SGPC

Amazing Feats, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Leaders, Royal Families, PreIndependence -Descendants (wef. Jan 02nd,2022), Uniquely Indian - Inter Faith (wef. February 08th, 2023), Women/Girls(since May26-2021), World Opinion, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Malerkotla, PUNJAB:

Tucked away on the Delhi-Ludhiana railway line, about 40 kilometres from Jalandhar is Malerkotla. It is a small town, famous for poets and palaces, some of which are more than a hundred years old.

In this muslim-majority district lies a 150-year-old palace that doubles up as the resident of Begum Munawwar ul Nisa, a descendant of the erstwhile ruler of Malerkotla, Nawab Sher Mohammad Khan.

Begum Munawar ul Nisa, known popularly as ‘Begum Sahiba’ lives alone in the twilight of her life in the dilapidated palace called ‘Mubarak Manzil’.

Very rarely does she get visitors. Sometimes officials from the Archaeological Survey of India knock at her door, and sometimes a journalist drops by to know her story. And sometimes, foreign tourists are brought here by local guides for a glimpse of pages from Muslim-Sikh harmony in Indian history.

Mohammed Mehmood, Begum Munawwar ul Nisa’s personal attendant

The old and frail Begum’s forefather, Sher Mohammed Khan had strongly opposed the sacrifice of the two sons of Guru Gobind Singh by the Subedar of Sirhind in 1705.

It is for this reason that Malerkotla holds a significant place in the history of Sikhs, specially the palace where the Begum lives today. Therefore, it was not surprising when on February 4 this year, the palace was abuzz with activity.

The Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee has declared February 4 as the day for honouring the last descendant of Nawab Sher Mohammed Khan for the role the family played in raising their voice against the atrocity committed by the Mughals on the sons of Guru Gobind Singh.

Mohammed Mehmood, the Begum’s attendant, who takes care of her minutest requirements in her old age at this palace, recalling the moment when officials came here to honour Begum Nisa says, “On February 4 afternoon, the SGPC secretary Simarjit Singh and the historic Gurudwara Fatehgarh Sahib Manager Bhagwant Singh and some other SGPC officials reached the ‘Mubarak Manzil’ and met Begum Munawwar ul Nisa. They met and honoured her duly offering that the supreme institution of the Sikhs and the entire Sikh community is indebted to her forefathers and therefore, she can reach out to them without any kind of hesitation and any kind of trouble.”

On this day, the SGPC officials came to the palace to request her to will the sword gifted to her family by Guru Gobind Singh to the Sikh community. The Begum informed the committee officials that the needful had already been done and also showed them the official papers of the same.

Advocate Harjinder Singh Dhami, head of the SGPC, said, “the entire Sikh community is indebted to Nawab Sher Mohammad Khan and his descendants. This is another hallmark in Muslim-Sikh relations. As long as Begum Munawwar ul Nisa remains safe, the SGPC will take care of her in every possible way and repair the ‘Mubarak Mazil’.”

A few years ago, Begum Munawwar ul Nisa at the age of 97 had willed her palace to the Amarinder Singh government in the state for preservation as her last wish. Unfortunately, due to red-tapism and government lethargy, the repair work to be undertaken has not taken off as expected.

‘Mubarak Manzil’

It is to be seen if the promise made by the SGPC will lead to the palace see better days.

Begum Munawwar ul Nisa is the third wife of Mohammed Iftikhar Ali Khan Bahadur, a descendant of Nawab Sher Mohammad Khan. The first two wives of the Nawab are no more.

Nawab Moahmmed Iftikhar Ali Khan Bahadur himself passed away in 1982. He had no children from any of his Begums.

The ‘Mubarak Manzil’, where the Begum lives presently is now a government heritage property. The palace and the Begum in particular is a beautiful symbol of harmony between the Muslims and Sikhs from history till the present times.

source: http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home> Story / by Amrik Singh, Jalandhar / posted by Nakul Shivani / February 07th, 2023

Story of Kerala Muslim woman Subaida who raised 3 Hindu kids is a film

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Uniquely Indian - Inter Faith (wef. February 08th, 2023), Women/Girls(since May26-2021), , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Kalikavu Village, Nilambur, (Malappuram District), KERALA:

A Still from the movie Ennu Swantham Sreedharan

A real-life story of a Muslim couple from Kalikavu village of Nilambur, Malappuram district of North Kerala, who raised three children of their deceased Hindu housemaid along with her own three, is now a feature film in Malayalam language being shown across theaters and the OTT platforms.

The film, Ennu Swantham Sreedharan (With Love, Sreedharan’), was premiered at Edapally on January 9. Made by renowned filmmaker Siddik Paravoor, the film is being talked about and appreciated for the extraordinary strength and courage of conviction of Subaida.

It’s named after Sreedharan, the youngest of the children of Chakki, who worked as a housemaid with Subaida some 50 years ago. It was Sreedharan’s post on the Facebook after Subaida’s death in 2019 where he addressed her as Umma, a Kerala Muslim way of calling a mother that generated curiosity about this relationship and eventually it became public knowledge that a practicing Muslim couple had raised three Hindu children along with their biological children and never converted them.

Sreedharan, who at the time of his mother Umma’s death was working in the Gulf and couldn’t arrive for burial due to Covid restrictions, had posted a heartfelt note on his grief. Netizens asked him how come a Hindu addressed his mother the way Muslims do.

A poster of the film Ennu Swantham Sreedharan

His explanation revealed the story of extraordinary humans boned in love and not through religion.

According to The News Minute, it was 50 years ago that Chakki, a housemaid separated from her husband, died, and her three little children – the youngest one Sreedharan a toddler – were picked and brought to her home by a tearful Subaida.

Three of them were ushered into the house where three children were growing, the eldest one Shanavas, was 7 and he was told by his mother that the Chakki;’s children will stay at their house. Subaida informed her husband Aziz Haji about Chkki’s passing away and that she had brought her three children home.

Shanavas remembers his mother’s return from Chakki’s house with her youngest, baby Sreedharan, in her arms, and two young girls Ramani and Leela with her. That day Shanavas welcomed three new siblings into his life. He remmembers their father Aziz Haji being informed by their mother about three children joining their family.

Subaida passed away due to a kidney ailment in July 2019, and her husband Aziz Haji followed two years later. The family’s heartwarming story has now been adapted to screen.

Sreedharan said that Umma and Uppa (father) had three biological children of their own, including Joshina, who was born a few years after he and his sisters were never made to feel like outsiders there.” That is the only home I have known. I have heard that umma used to breastfeed me and Jafer together,” Sreedharan told the New Minute.

A scene from the movie: Umma Subaida with her children

As netizens made uncharitable comments about the “Hindu son of a Muslim mother” in response to his post, Sreedharan responded:

“This post is to clear your doubts about who I am. When I shared the news of my umma’s passing, some of you had doubts. Even when I posted a picture of me wearing a taqiyah (a Muslim way of trying lungi), there were doubts if a Muslim man could be named Sreedharan. My mother died when I was about a year old. I have two sisters. I had a father too. The very day my mother died, this umma and Uppa brought us to their house. They educated us, just like they did for their children. When my sisters reached a marriageable age, it was Uppa and Umma who married them off. Having kids of their own did not stop them from taking us in. They had three kids. Even though they adopted us at a young age, they did not try to convert us to their religion. People say that an adoptive mother can never match up with one’s biological mother. But she was never an ‘adoptive mother’ to us, she was truly our mother.”

His post was followed by people calling him. He told the News Minute: “Suddenly we were getting calls from activists and media persons to ordinary people, all of them wanting to know more about the story behind that post,” he says. “In today’s political climate, where religions are constantly pitched against each other, the fact that this family took us in and raised us to believe in god, believe in our faith, seemed almost unbelievable for some.”

Shanavas said all six siblings were surprised at the public reaction to their story. He says: “We grew up as brothers and sisters. We had never thought of our family as different from the others,” says Shanavas, the eldest of Subaida’s biological children.

“Of course, when umma first brought Ramani, Leela, and Sreedharan into our home, I had asked her what she was planning to do. She then told me that these children will now grow up in our house, and that was it. We never questioned it. Our father, who was in the Gulf at the time, was also equally supportive of Umma’s decision,” he says.

Sreedharan told the media that he once asked his Umma and Uppa why they didn’t convert them. “Their first response was a concern. They asked me if someone had said something bad to me. After I reassured them, they explained to me that we should not let religion define anyone. They said that all religions were essentially preaching the same thing — to love and help people and that it was human beings who were interpreting these teachings wrongly.”

Real Sreedharana with his Uppa Aziz Haji (Image courtesy: The New Minute)

He said his parents taught the children to have faith, no matter what the religion. “My sisters and I used to go to the temple, and walk around with sandal marks on our foreheads.”

He says their parents encouraged them to practice our religion. “All they expected from us was to ensure we don’t lie, steal, or hurt others. And we also took care to never do something that would hurt their reputation,” he told the News Minute.

Sreedharan says after he became the father of a son he realized the true depth of his parents’ love. He now appreciates all the more his parents’ efforts in bringing three of them. “I can only imagine how big of a task bringing up six children would have been.”

Director Siddik Paravoor, whose previous film Thahira had featured in the Indian Panorama Feature Film section of the 51st International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa, first heard of Subaida through a social worker and orator AP Ahamed.

“Presumably after Sreedharan’s Facebook post went viral, I read a note Ahamed master had written about Subaida and her life, which deeply affected me. I wanted to bring her story to more people’s attention. I wanted to let them know that there are people who live like this. People who put love and kindness over religion and prejudices,” he says.

When Siddik was researching for his project, he came across more stories of this extraordinary woman called Subaida from people in her village.

He told local media in interviews after the release of his film that everyone in the village Kalikavu loved Subaida. She is known to have spent all her ancestral money to help the poor. Subaida had donated all 12 acres of her land to the needy over the years. She even took loans to help others.

In Kalikavu after Subaida passed away, the nearby church rang the church bell, usually reserved only for the Christians, and held a prayer meeting for her.

Dancer Nirmala Kannan plays the role of Subaida, and journalist and writer Suresh Nellikode, also the producer of the film, plays her husband Aziz Haji. Actor Nilambur Ayisha and writer Shihabuddin Poythumkadavu also appear in prominent roles, alongside Sachin Roy, Vaibhav Amarnath, Harsha Arun, and Rajitha Santhosh.

Interestingly, the first shot of the movie was shot with the appearance of Aziz Haji in front of the camera. He died later due to the Covid-19. He and his children were all glad that more people would now come to know about their Subaida and the benevolent woman that she was.

The director says. “People are inherently good. But sometimes we need stories like these to remind them of that goodness. Subaida deserves to be remembered, and her story repeatedly told.”

The audience lapped up the movie.

Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor wrote about the movie on Twitter:

Ex-serviceman Col Reji Koduvath wrote from, Ontario, Canada: “Ennu Swantham Sreedharan (With Love, Sreedharan), is a must-watch movie in the present society where sectarian strife and conflict still exist.

It’s a great movie-watching experience – the best movie I watched in the past 12 months. While drawing the life of an unsung and unrecognised person or a family on screen, there is a tendency to go overboard and portray them as super-humans.

This movie effectively tackles that difficult task and brilliantly tells the story of a do-gooder – a true good neighbour – a great family. All are based on real-life, sincerely and honestly.

The story and situations in the movie brought back memories of my grandmother who too had a troop of oldies across castes, creeds, and religions. I used to enjoy them reminiscing about their good old days. When our grandmother came to live in our home which is about 12 km away from the ancestral one, these oldie troopers dropped in to spend time with her. What is depicted in the movie in the life of Amina Umma and Subaida is close to what I experienced in my childhood.”

source: http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home> Story / by Aasha Khosa / February 07th, 2023