How to Travel to Lahore via Amritsar, What Does Rafale Have to Do With a President's Girlfriend, Fariduddin Ayaz's Kabir, Jai Bhim and Asuran
“No more terrible disaster could befall your people than for them to fall into the hands of a Hero.”
That’s from the Dune movie which, and I don’t say this often, you must see on the big screen. It’s made for that kind of immersive viewing. And that Hans Zimmer score, god oh god!
Speaking of movies…
I finally saw this gem of a Dhanush movie. Asuran, Vetri Maaran’s fourth film with Dhanush, is also the fastest he has ever worked on a project. While Dhanush is fabulous in the movie and in both versions which are mirror-opposite in their attitude and behaviour, all other cast members have done justly too. But like Dune, Asuran’s music, by GV Prakash Kumar, truly stands out and is easily an important part of this Tamil feast. Highly recommend this in Tamil with rich English subtitles.
Oh, not to forget, the movie has one of the best pre-interval scenes. Anyone would kill to have that scene for themselves but one needs a lot of brilliant acting in them to play it and Dhanush has that in plenty. And it shows.
This one’s quite new. And well, just make sure you watch it. Absolutely make sure. And as you watch, with each scene, remember this is a true story, the one’s getting tortured, the ones that are torturing, ones that are fighting, everyone, it happened to someone and also to many.
I truly liked the scene where Suriya gets introduced; there are portraits of Karl Marx, Ambedkar and Periyar on his wall. We are taken to the same wall in a heartwarming scene during the climax.
That’s all about movies. Do reply in comments about good movies that you watched.
Weeks ago I was in Amritsar, a city I have long wanted to be in. Weeks ago I also happen to pick a book by a Pakistani author. I still don’t remember how I found about this book but anyways, both had some connection.
Amritsar was born in Lahore. It was born inside the walled city, in a small house in its narrow and winding streets. It was the month of Assu, corresponding to the months of September and October in the Gregorian calendar. It was a month when the monsoon rains, having unleashed their fury, had finally taken mercy and receded. The demons of the summer had been defeated, while the tyrant winter was still imprisoned. It was that time of the year when there was perfect harmony, when nights were balanced by day, heat by cold. It was the time of the year so uncharacteristic of the extremities of Punjab that it seemed out of sync, an anomaly, to its vagaries.
Amritsar was born in the family of Sodhi Khatri, a family of ancient kings, a family that was destined to rule not just the kingdom of this world, but also the higher realm, miri and piri, as articulated by the sixth Sikh Guru, Guru Hargobind. These kings were not destined to be ordinary rulers, but true rulers, Sacha Padshah, whose reign would overshadow the reign of the mighty Mughal Empire. This new kingdom that was their destiny was born, along with Amritsar, in Lahore in the year 1534.
Amritsar lived in Lahore till it was seven years old, till the time its parents, Hari Das and Mata Daya, were alive. They died in the same year, leaving their child orphaned. The child, initially named Jetha, was raised by his grandmother in a small village, where the child first interacted with Guru Amar Das, the third Sikh Guru, and became his lifelong devotee. Bhai Jetha eventually became a part of the Guru’s family, marrying his daughter Bibi Bhani. Such was his devotion to the Guru that he was chosen as his successor. Bhai Jetha became Guru Ram Das, the founder of Ramdaspur, the name by which Amritsar was once known.
The above excerpt about Amritsar’s birth in Lahore is from Haroon Khalid’s article in Scroll.in. He later writes,
Inside the walled city of Lahore, in an area known as Chuna Mandi, close to Kashmiri Gate, there is a gurdwara that marks the spot where Guru Ram Das was born. It was lying in a shambles till a few years ago, much like several other gurdwaras across the country, before it was renovated, along with a number of gurdwaras, by the Pakistani state and opened for Sikh pilgrims.
The book I mentioned earlier was also from Haroon Khalid, his latest. Walking With Nanak is a mix of fiction, folklore and real history about Guru Nanak’s travels. Guru Nanak first travelled east, going all the way to Bengal. He then travelled south, going to the island of Sri Lanka. Back at home in Taiwindi, he then headed north, Kashmir, Nepal and Tibet. Upon his return he decided to go west to Mecca and returned to settle at Kartarpur. Nanak covered all most of this on foot. Khalid mostly travelled through Pakistan retracing the path that Nanak and his companion Bhai Mardana took here to discover the many gurudwaras built-in memory of saint’s visits. Sadly, he found some of them lying in dilapidated condition. The good part is, his work and previously his mentor and friend Iqbal Qaiser’s work on Gurudwaras, their importance to Sikhs (one of Pakistan’s minority population) and their present condition forced the state of Pakistan to renovate many of these Gurudwaras back to their splendid life. Pakistan today has some beautiful and magnificent (especially that Panja Sahib and Nankana Sahib) Gurudwaras. The book talks about that and also how Sikh religion developed to its present form as Gurus after Nanak added their own interpretation and needs of those times to it. Would highly recommend this book. I was sad to note my surprise about a Pakistani Muslim’s writing in such awe and reverence about a saint and poet from a minority religion of his country. It shouldn’t have been surprising, to begin with. Nanak was a great man after all, if not that then a great poet no doubt, which Khalid stresses in his book. Years of propaganda have made us Indians (and likely Pakistanis in their country) to look at our neighbours with lenses of gravy suspicions. We think of them as fundamentalists and beasts only capable of hate and violence when that isn’t true of ordinary people. That two Pakistani Muslims would travel at personal cost to length and breadth of their vast country, discover the lost Gurudwaras, chronicle their condition, their historicity, importance, write about them and pressurise Muslim government of Pakistan and get them repaired is a wonderful achievement and story to be told, retold and appreciated.
Returning to Khalid’s article in scroll.in. He further writes, now about Lahore.
Lahore was born in Amristar. Actually, about 11 kilometres west of the city. It was one of a pair of twins, its fate permanently sealed with the city of Kasur that was born with it. It is not possible to pinpoint the exact day, the season or even the year of Lahore’s birth. It first came to existence at a time when time did not exist. There was no history or chronology, only the circular trajectory of mythology. This wasn’t the time of people, but rather of characters, caricatures and archetypes. This was the time of the perfect man, the just king, his perfectly devoted wife, and his perfectly loyal brother. This was the time of the greatest villain, a character so powerful that it was as strong as the power of ten. This was a time when gods and demons lived as men and women, a time when there was either good or evil, nothing in the middle.
And this love affair with cities continues.
I have never been to Lahore, I wish to someday. But like I mentioned, I have recently been to Amritsar. Although my aim initially was to just visit the Darbar Sahib or Golden temple, I ended up travelling the narrow lanes of the old city and the houses and people and the dilapidated buildings and everything that resembled that of Lahore (from the pictures that I have seen on the internet). Once I even wondered if I have ended up on the other side of the border since it’s really close to Amritsar. I wasn’t. The line that separates two Punjabs today lying along the border in two separate nations hasn’t separated people and their roots. They have grown separately and similarly. Most Pakistanis in fact speak Punjabi. So if borders became non-existent tomorrow then Punjabis won’t find themselves in alien lands in Pakistan or Pakistanis from the border won’t feel like they have entered an alien land. Both would feel like they have travelled an extra mile into their own land. Buildings, soil, food and not even people change when one crosses these imaginary lines. But surely and certainly, that is how it is made for us to be. Our televisions, media and successive governments have created a demon out of our neighbour as if just after that imaginary line of the border is a piece of land close to hell.
That reminds me of this old gem that had rightfully gone viral then.
Back to Amritsar. Inside Harmandar Sahib complex is a Central Sikh Museum that chronicles the vast history of Punjab, of both sides and also the Sikh religion.
The picture above is from the museum itself. The plaque reads, ‘Hazarat Saint Mian Mir Ji was a friend of Guru Arjan Sahib Ji. He was a Muslim Sufi saint. He laid the foundation stone of Sri Harmandir Sahib, Amritsar. The Sikh Nation has deep respect and affection for this personality.’ Guru Granth Sahib, the sacred Sikh text which contains poetry of Guru Nanak and other Sikh gurus along with the poetry of Kabir, Bhagat Ravidas and Hindu poets/saints like Namdev as well as Muslim poet/saints like Sheikh Farid, is considered the final Guru and living entity in Sikh religion. This was as per the instructions of the tenth and last human Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh who ordained the text as his successor.
Every day, shouting matches on tv decide and tell us who is good and who is bad, who we must venerate and who we must hate, who is a terrorist and who is a saint. And most of us quickly mould our understanding as per these farmans like well-trained dogs or well-keyed dolls. At the height of farmers protest, protesting farmers were called terrorists, khalistanis and, commentators on tv who defended the protests were made to (completely unrelated to protests) comment on Bhindranwale. Popular imagination or must I say, Delhi based journalists and people who read, follow and frame their understanding via these sources, consider Bhindranwale as a terrorist but most Punjabis don’t. And this disagreement coexists and has for decades openly coexisted. For instance in the Central Sikh Museum exists this portrait of Bhindranwale with caption - An immortal martyr saint Jarnail Singh JI Khalsa Bhindranwale. The great Sikh General of the 20th century, the 14th chief of the Damdami Taksal Sant Giani Jarnail Singh Ji Khalsa Bhindranwale who along with numerous valiant Sikhs attained martyrdom on Wednesday, the 6th June 1984, fighting against Indian armed forces for honour and prestige of Sri Harmandar Sahib and Sri Akal Takht Sahib. Notice how `Indian armed forces` is written as if they were the adversary, the enemy? Now you might say, yes, if Bhindranwale is the hero and venerated then the Indian army will naturally become the villain. Perhaps not. Because there are other plaques around Harmandar Sahib that venerate the Indian state. Maybe both can be venerated, depending upon which story you’re listening to at that time. We are sum total of good and bad things, and that is the right way to accept anyone and anything.
All people, almost all communities have a history of violence, of immense oppression - at receiving end or otherwise - but how do you frame your outlook today, how do you want to be identified with as today matters the most. Sikhs have suffered a lot at the hands of Muslim rulers like Aurangzeb but have also been treated well under Akbar and other Mughal rulers. The Sikh museum mentions both ends of their life and as you come out of the museum and observe the sacred Sarovar and Harmandar Sahib (golden temple), you are filled with the sight of so many Sikhs and others, all mingling and helping each other. These are people capable of so many things but they have chosen to be kind, chosen to be messengers of love and compassion. Their langars in many Indian cities feed hundreds and thousands every week without any distinction, they were at the forefront of helping people during the second wave of Covid. Recently they even built an entire hospital in Delhi that has no billing counter - it is truly free service.
On a side note: Amritsar has few of the most aesthetically pleasing city centres and monuments that I have seen. It is so unlike the shabby, ill-maintained, yoyally-ignored and sore to eyes statues and things I have seen elsewhere. Check this one for instance. How majestic and intricate!
That’s all about Amritsar.
French President’s partner Julie Gayet, Anil Ambani and Rafale!
The deluge of revelations in France about suspected corruption in the Rafale deal began in 2018 with a seemingly unlikely protagonist—Julie Gayet, an actor and the partner of the former French president François Hollande. Word got out that, some two and a half years earlier, the Indian businessman Anil Ambani had stepped in as a patron for one of Gayet’s films. Just days after Ambani's generous gesture, Hollande, on a state visit to India, signed a memorandum of understanding for the delivery of 36 Rafale fighter jets, built by the French defence manufacturer Dassault Aviation. As part of the deal, worth a reported €7.87 billion, half of the purchase value was to be re-invested in India. Ambani’s debt-ridden Reliance Group, which had only the barest experience in defence manufacturing and none at all in aviation, emerged as the main beneficiary of this “offset.”
The newspaper Le Monde has reported that, just as India and France were negotiating the Rafale sale, France settled a tax dispute with a French company controlled by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications following a meeting between Macron and the Indian businessman, with dues of more than €140 million waived.. Mediapart has reported that French negotiators twice removed from the draft agreement an anti-corruption clause required under India’s defence procurement procedures that provided for “penalty for use of undue influence,” arguing that it was “not applicable” until the Indian side “gave in.”
Read more on Caravan Magazine here1.
Demonetisation!
On 8 November 2016, the Government of India announced the demonetisation of all ₹500 and ₹1,000 banknotes of the Mahatma Gandhi Series. It also announced the issuance of new ₹500 and ₹2,000 banknotes in exchange for the demonetised banknotes.
Five years after, the RBI reports an unprecedented rise in currency held by the public. It has grown a whopping 57% , from Rs 17.5 trillion on Nov 4, 2016 to Rs 28 trillion on Oct 8, 2021. The ash to GDP ratio is now at 14.5%, the highest since independence, and easily one of the highest among major economies. A stated objective of demonetising 86% of all currency on Nov 8, 2016, was to reduce the cash component in the economy and boost digital payments.
Urdu and Hindi
The last newsletter touched upon Urdu and Hindi in some detail, please read if you haven’t already. The Hindu recently touched upon this Hindi-Urdu debate in which it wrote,
Even till the late 19th century, Hindi and Urdu were one language, differentiated only by their scripts. Till the late 19th century, people were hardly aware of Urdu and Hindi as being two distinct languages. The standardised urban language was increasingly being referred to as Urdu and written in the Arabic script, while North India spoke other dialects such as Awadhi, Braj, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Bundeli, and so on.
The divide into modern Hindi and Urdu may be said to begin at Fort William College, the institute of Oriental studies in Calcutta, set up by the British to undertake translations from classical Indian languages into modern Indian tongues and English. They prepared separate language primers and translated Persian and Sanskrit texts into Urdu and Hindi, differentiated primarily by the script. This sowed the seeds of division, as Urdu and Hindi gradually came to be attached to two religions.
So if you find yourself tagging Hindi as Hindu and Urdu as Muslim (or Pakistani), you are continuing to water and nurture the plants of division sowed by the British.
We have almost reached end of this one now. Let’s dive into some soulful music, shall we?
This is one of my favourite Qawwali pieces. How lovely to hear a song to Krishna in the qawwali form by artists from Pakistan performing in India! It seems doubly poignant when they sing, ‘O Krishna, do you remember us at all?’, seeming to say that we are also yours, and you are also ours. Boundaries of nation, or categories of religion, seem artificial and superficial in such a moment.
Fariduddin Ayaz & Abu Muhammad are acclaimed qawwals from Karachi, Pakistan and belong to the 700-year-old 'Qawwal Bachchon Ka Gharana' of Delhi. They sing in Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi, Pushto, Hindi, Poorbi, Persian, Arabic and Turkish, intermingling with aplomb the voice of Kabir with a range of Sufi poets including Jalaluddin Rumi, Sachal Sarmast, Zaheen Shah and others.
Here, feast yourself on Fariduddin Ayaz speaking about Kabir Das. I love this one.
Switch on subtitles for both videos.
Finally, Narendra Modi recently came on TV and announced that he will repeal the controversial farm (or corporate) laws. In following Tippani, Atul from Newslaundry breaks down his address along with all the key moments from farm protests including the meltdown of news anchors. Please watch.
That’s it for this one. Do share your views if newsletters so far have been of any interest to you. Do comment, and please please share with your network. Thanks a lot for reading so far.
I would nudge you to subscribe to Caravan Magazine but for some reason, you can’t and still wish to read it then you can download a PDF version of the article here. This is only for your reading pleasure.