Gujarat - A state of unrest
by Aakar Patel
Mid
Day, November 2, 2003
original
Dar Firaaq-e-Gujarat
(On Separation From Gujarat)
~ Wali Muhammad Wali
Parting from Gujarat leaves thorns in my chest
My heart - on fire! - pounds impatiently in my breast
What cure can heal the wound of living apart?
The scimitar of exile has cut deep into my heart
My feet were bound, and in sorrow I did tire
My heart singed rapidly, like a hair over fire
At first, this heady stroll left my mind fertile with
rumination
In the end, this separation pulled my heart into intoxication
Gaze into my heart and see th! e garden of the lover
Where the flowers of winter riot in my blood's colour
It is with regret that in the end I see my friends depart
So rise from the empty tavern and steady yourself, my heart
And thank God's mercy, O Wali! He let that passion remain
The heart's still anxious to catch a glimpse of my Gujarat
again
Wali Muhammad Wali (1667-1707) had no problems with his
identity: he
saw himself as a Gujarati. Apart from this ghazal, he wrote
a masnavi
on Surat (Dar Taarif-e-Shehr Surat) in which he describes
his passion
for the city with chest-thumping patriotism.
He is referred to as Wali Gujarati by the state's Muslims
and by
others as Wali Daccani. He is thought to have been born
in Aurangabad
before moving to Ahmedabad, where he was buried in the
reign of the
emperor Aurangzeb.
Gujaratis do not consider him part of their cultural identity.
Wali's tomb in Shahi Baug, on the road outside the city
police
headquarters, was torn down on the afternoon of February
28 last year
by a mob.
An idol of 'Hulladio Hanuman' (Riotous Hanuman) was put
on his grave
and the same night the ruins of the tomb were levelled
and the road
was tarred over it.
"Wali was a national treasure," says
Waris Hussain Alvi, retired
professor of English at Ahmedabad's St Xavier's college.
Alvi is a
descendant of Shah Wajihuddin Alvi, an important Gujarati
sufi of the
Qadiriyya order who lived in the time of the emperor Jehangir,
and
whose family claims links with Wali.
Wali
is the first poet of the Urdu language. "He
represents the
beginning of the Urdu shairi tradition," Prof Alvi
says.
"Wali was young, handsome and a lover of things:
Ashiq mijazi," Prof
Alvi says with delight. He was happy-go-lucky and went
with his
friend Syed Abul Mu'ali to Delhi to seek his future and
recite his
poetry.
Before
him, verse was written only in Persian, the language
of the
court. Urdu, known then as Hindvi, Hindustani or Dehlvi,
was used in
conversation but no book and no poetry was written in it.
"When
scholars and poets in Delhi read Wali, they were astonished
at
the beauty of his language," Prof Alvi says. "They
realised that the
language they used for everyday purposes was the language
of poetry!
'Why
are we writing in Persian?' they asked."
Wali's prolific work - he wrote in every form: rubayi,
qasidah,
masnavi and ghazal - became the rage with qawwals, tawaifs
and
musicians.
With Wali language began to change, says Prof Alvi. The
more local
Hindvi/Hindustani/Gujari began to acquire a Persian vocabulary
because of Wali's poetry.
Prof
KC Kanda writes that Wali may "thus be called
the architect of
the modern poetic language, which is a skilful blend of
Hindi and
Persian vocabulary".
Prof Kanda adds that Wali was the first poet to ! write
as a man - the
Persian tradition being to write of love from the woman's
perspective, and that "his tone was of cheerful affirmation
and
acceptance, rather than of melancholy grumbling".
Wali began a poetic revolution from which immediately
sprang three
great poets a few years after his death: Mir, Dard and
Asar.
Mir Taqi Mir acknowledges his debt to Wali in a couplet:
Khugar nahin kuchch yoon hi hum 'Rikhta' goi kay
Mashooq jo apna tha bashindah-e-Deccan tha
I haven't casually been possessed by Rikhta (Urdu)
He who was my love was a native of the Deccan
Other than his language, both Prof Alvi and Prof Kanda
are agreed,
Wali was able to fuse the two elements of secular or temporal
love
with love of the divine: Ishq-e-Mijazi aur Ishq-e-Haqiqi,
the
tradition of sufistic poetry which came to India from Persia.
However, he may have been born in the wrong period.
The
Mughal court under Aurangzeb was Spartan and puritanical.
The
kingdoms that encouraged poetry - the Shia Adilshahi and
Qutubshahi
dynasties of Bijapur and Golconda - were under attack from
the
emperor, who considered Shias heretics.
It is unlikely that poets would be encouraged in such
an atmosphere.
Not much else is known about Wali. His tomb in the Shahi
Baug area
was known as 'Cheeni Pir ka Mazar' - the tomb made of china.
It was renovated by Mehdi Nawaz Jung, first Governor of
Gujarat in
the early '60s and then Wali Day was celebrated in the
state, led by
people such as the Gujarati poet Jayanti Dalal. Every year
people
would gather to pay homage, including Gujarati Hindus.
So important is the legacy of Wali that a fight has continued
between
the Daccanis, represented by Hyderabad funded by the Nawabs,
and the
Ahmedabadis over where Wali was from.
The first book on Urdu poetry, written in 1751, mentions
Wali as
being Ahmedabadi, while a second book, a decade later,
says he was
from Aurangabad.
Prof Alvi's father, a collector of manuscripts, had a
document with
the seal of Wali on it and the Alvi family at least is
convinced, and
takes great pride in the fact, that Wali was Gujarati.
Here was a Muslim who professed his deep and undying love
for
Gujarat. The state of Gujarat (see interview with Modi)
however makes
no claim on him.
The
charisma of Modi: Why Gujaratis love their chief
minister
Chief
Minister Narendra Modi offers a vision for his
state's identity
that connects strongly and instinctively with the Gujarati.
He
projects a clean, businesslike image and a charisma
lacking in any
other Gujarati leader including those within his own party. He also
has a strong, almost messianic, self-belief.
His
vision comprises of a Gujarat whose entrepreneurial
abilities and
spiritual heritage must not only recognised but admired by the world;
of a state that understands the problems it faces and has put up the
solutions. A state that wants to strongly embrace modernity but
without letting go of its culture.
Modi's
greatest strength is his tough and uncompromising
posture
against Muslims, which is much appreciated by Gujaratis.
The
decision of the state to meddle in the riot cases,
which the
Supreme Court believes have been shoddily investigated and
prosecuted, is accepted and approved of by Gujaratis who prefer to
move on from the violence by ignoring it.
They
had already agreed, through their voting of Modi,
that the
violence was necessary to 'set the Muslims right'.
In
an interview, Modi spoke of his vision, especially
the Panchamrit
Yojna, his five-pronged plan to propel Gujarat to the frontline of
economic progress in India.
The
Planning Commission "expects Gujarat to deliver
10.2 per cent
growth" in the current five year plan in order that India touch 8.2 per
cent, Modi said, adding that this will be achieved through the
Panchamrit Yojna. Last year, the state was at
just over 3 per cent.
The
plan's five parts address Knowledge, Security,
Water, Power and People.
Modi
wants to introduce centres for excellence that
will prepare
Gujaratis for the IT era in which "mobile phone manufacturers will
make less money than a mobile phone's designer" and "manufacturers
of Ford cars will make less money than designers of modern accessories fitted
in these cars".
He
wants Gujaratis to learn Maths and Science in English
and every
other subject in Gujarati so that they can "face up to international
competition" and asks why Gujaratis are not exporting nurses ("the
US
needs 10 million") and teachers to Europe.
He
also says Gujarat has become the "Petrocapital
of India", that
India has no need for gas pipelines from Pakistan when Gujarat itself
has an excess of gas.
On
the whole he prefers to deal with economic issues
and is not very
keen on talking about cultural matters or of the violence.
He
says that the subject of violence is never brought
up with him
when he travels abroad, but only by the English media in India.
Some of his own people are not as sanguine.
One
senior figure said that the Rs 66,000 crore that
Modi claims was
mopped up during the Vibrant Gujarat programme was just recycled old projects.
Several
people said that foreign investors who were talking
to the
state before the riots fled horrified as the carnage started and
projects collapsed because of the complicity of the state in the
violence.
Asked
if there was a consensus among Gujarati Hindus
on the issue of
Muslims, given the last 15 years and what has happened in Kashmir,
Gujarat, Delhi and the events of September 11, Modi said that this
could not be the subject of a newspaper interview.
"Six
or seven hundred years of history is associated
with this and
till you go to the roots of the matter you cannot properly understand
this."
Asked
if the Gujarat government would restore the tomb
of Wali
Muhammad Wali, Modi said that there was contradictory evidence on
whether the tomb really was his and that he had instructed his
government to see if a memorial could be built. |
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A
war of identity
Former
prime minister Inder Gujral said in an interview
last week
that there was no conflict between Hindus and Muslims in India.
Even
in Gujarat he indicated, there was no primary conflict
- social,
political or economic - which could be described as a faultline.
What
then is responsible for the anger and violence
in Gujarat?
The social scientist Achyut Yagnik describes it as the outcome of a
struggle for identity.
The
immediate causes for the violence may be ascribed
to several
factors, Yagnik believes, but the friction is produced through the
churning of a people defining themselves in terms that exclude
groups, specifically Muslims.
In
the last six decades, the state has transformed
rapidly and old
social ties have eroded at the village and town level with nothing to
replace them.
The
middle classes have acquired modernity but have
retained
traditional values which may be in conflict. One of the most obvious
is the bias against girls.
Yagnik
points to the appalling female infanticide and
foeticide in
the state. Gujaratis are joined only by Punjabis as being the most
bigoted Indians against female children. In parts of the state, the
census shows, there are only three females for every four males.
The
absence of a culture that can accommodate modernity
has led
Gujaratis, Yagnik believes, towards cultural nationalism, which
offers them an identity they can take pride in.
This
process has included Gujaratis abroad who are at
the vanguard of funding Hindu activities from the
various spiritual sects to the
Sangh and its associates.
This
has coincided with a decline in the Congress, whose
values such
as Gandhian attitudes to Muslims and Dalits as been replaced by a
more sharply defined dialogue. The corruption of the Congress and the
projection of the BJP as clean has accelerated this decline.
At
the village level, the decline of the Congress
has opened up space
for the Sangh. With the assistance of the state, now controlled by
the BJP, the Sangh has set up institutions that offer aid and
identity to the tribal and Dalit populations that were excluded
entirely from the social and economic structure.
The
VHP's ekal vidyalaya (one-teacher school) gram
shikshan mandir
project for tribals is operational in 59 villages in Dang, 127 villages in
Surendranagar, 69 villages in Narmada and 30 villages in Panchmahals.
In
these schools, students are taught how to read
and write and to
sing devotional and nationalistic songs by a VHP volunteer, the
general secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Jaideep Patel said.
The
project is funded through the Sangh's Bharatiya
Janseva Sansthan
and the IDRF, in the news last year after being attacked in the US
for its policies.
The
process of tribal assimilation into the greater
Hindu fold,
Yagnik believes, is aided in the second stage by the activities of
the Gujarati spiritual sects, the Swaminarayan fold and the Swadhyaya movements
in particular which teach Hindu practices such as vegetarianism and spiritualism.
Incidentally,
neither of these sects condemned the violence last
year.
The
Sangh's inclusiveness has attracted Dalits as well
and last
year's riots were noted for the fact that Dalit and tribal youth were
often at the forefront of anti-Muslim violence.
The
Sangh however, remains Sanatani at its core and
does not reject
caste. The inclusion of dalits and tribals is on the assumption that
they occupy a peripheral role in the caste system.
Jaideep
Patel yearns for his days in the village when the
barter
system kept things stable and says he is disturbed by modernity.
The
social scientist MN Srinivas in his last article
wrote of how it
was in fact barter that kept caste in place in the villages and it
was the advent of hard currency and commerce that was breaking it.
In
the absence of any alternative from the Congress,
or any other
party, the process of inclusion of the disinherited communities of
the state into the Hindutva fold is likely to accelerate apace and
their division with people whose practices are projected as un-Hindu
and therefore un-Indian will deepen in Gujarat. |
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