The Taliban has destroyed the Dargah of Rehman Baba on the grounds that women visit it and offer their prayers there. Closer home an ignoramus called Mutalik dictates to all Hindus what Hinduism should be. This Hinduism, it would seem, includes beating up women in the name of "our culture". How long are we to continue to suffer the destruction of the culture and traditions of south Asia's two most prominent religions?
OF LIFE, LETTERS AND POLITICSapril 4, 2009 vol xliv no 14 EPW Economic & Political Weekly8G P Deshpande (govind.desh@gmail.com)is a well-known commentator on literary and political affairs.The Dargah of Rehman BabaGPDThe Taliban has destroyed the Dargah of Rehman Baba on the grounds that women visit it and offer their prayers there. Closer home an ignoramus called Mutalik dictates to all Hindus what Hinduism should be. This Hinduism, it would seem, includes beating up women in the name of “our culture”. How long are we to continue to suffer the destruction of the culture and traditions of south Asia’s two most prominent religions? In the name of God shall I singThe One whose name higher than any otherHe is the master of all mastersHe is the King of all kings...These lines belong to Rehman Baba. Annemarie Schimmel was a German scholar of south Asian Islam and its literatures who published (in 1996) a wonderful book,Glorious Poems from India and Pakistan: Islamic Lyrics of a Thousand Years (as translated from the original German text). The very last lyric there is a rather long poem translated by her from Pashto. What I have cited above are the opening lines of the lyric. They could well belong to Namdev or Meera, but let that be. What you see above is a working translation by me just to give you a feel of Rehman Baba’s attitude. I hope some of Rehman Baba’s confidence comes across in spite of my admittedly inadequate rendering of the late Schimmel’s German rendering of the Pashto text. “If I sing in the lord’s name, my master, in fact the only master in the world, nobody can stop me for I do His wish” is what he is saying.Rehman Baba’s full name was Abdur-rahman Mohmand (sic). He was born in 1653 south of Peshawar and died not far from his birthplace in 1711. His kabr became a pilgrimage centre in a manner of speaking. It is visited by thousands even now. Or was, shall we say? The Taliban has now destroyed the Dargah on the grounds that women visit it and offer their prayers there. Talking about the poem immediately preceding Baba’s poem Schimmel speaks of the two line verses employed there as a popular form not infrequently composed by women. The Taliban thinks that all this is non-Islamic. What they certifyasnon-Islamic is naturally also anti-Islamic. This form, called Tappas, described by Schimmel as the most- loved folk form in Pashto, was always musical. She has translated the Tappas of Khushal Khan Khatak. Almost all folk forms of poetry are women-oriented in south Asia. So are they in the land of the Pakhtoons. Now these forms are threatened. Annemarie Schimmel is dead. Otherwise one wonders how she would have suffered the destruction of the culture and traditions of south Asian Islam. She was so fond of the area and its culture. There is a huge necropolis in a place called Thatta in Sind. Her admirer once told me in Karachi that she had on one occasion said, perhaps semi-seriously, that she would like to be buried in that necropolis. Now, as I remember it, I feel that it is just as well that if true her wish was not fulfilled. For all one knows, the Taliban would have made it out of bounds for her.Callous to Tradition It is extraordinary that south Asian Islam should have been so insensitive to its own cultural traditions. I suppose that this area has generally been so unmind-ful of its political and religious culture. A poet’s grave was destroyed in Gujarat. That was no Taliban’s doing. Then some Sree Ram Sene, as we talked about in this column last time, decided to announce that the Hindu culture was under threat. The how and why of it remained mysteri-ously under wrap. The Sene activists went berserk and Mangalore women were beaten up. All that is a familiar story. The Bamian Buddhas went down to the Butshikans (iconoclasts) at Bamian in Afghanistan. It was always a mystery when and how the south Asians lost their sense of history. There are perhaps no other people who are so callous to their own history. As if it was not bad enough they are now proclaiming a new version of history. A fellow called Mutalik is now telling me what Hindu culture is. Not just me, he is proclaiming it to all Hindus. He is an ignoramus. That would not have been a problem in itself. It is one because he has designed a pop Hinduism that seems to take Mutalik to be a mod-ern day Sankaracharya. He lays down what Hinduism is or rather should be. This Hinduism, it would seem, includes APPLICATION DEADLINE: MAY 28, 2009
OF LIFE, LETTERS AND POLITICSapril 4, 2009 vol xliv no 14 EPW Economic & Political Weekly8G P Deshpande (govind.desh@gmail.com)is a well-known commentator on literary and political affairs.The Dargah of Rehman BabaGPDThe Taliban has destroyed the Dargah of Rehman Baba on the grounds that women visit it and offer their prayers there. Closer home an ignoramus called Mutalik dictates to all Hindus what Hinduism should be. This Hinduism, it would seem, includes beating up women in the name of “our culture”. How long are we to continue to suffer the destruction of the culture and traditions of south Asia’s two most prominent religions? In the name of God shall I singThe One whose name higher than any otherHe is the master of all mastersHe is the King of all kings...These lines belong to Rehman Baba. Annemarie Schimmel was a German scholar of south Asian Islam and its literatures who published (in 1996) a wonderful book,Glorious Poems from India and Pakistan: Islamic Lyrics of a Thousand Years (as translated from the original German text). The very last lyric there is a rather long poem translated by her from Pashto. What I have cited above are the opening lines of the lyric. They could well belong to Namdev or Meera, but let that be. What you see above is a working translation by me just to give you a feel of Rehman Baba’s attitude. I hope some of Rehman Baba’s confidence comes across in spite of my admittedly inadequate rendering of the late Schimmel’s German rendering of the Pashto text. “If I sing in the lord’s name, my master, in fact the only master in the world, nobody can stop me for I do His wish” is what he is saying.Rehman Baba’s full name was Abdur-rahman Mohmand (sic). He was born in 1653 south of Peshawar and died not far from his birthplace in 1711. His kabr became a pilgrimage centre in a manner of speaking. It is visited by thousands even now. Or was, shall we say? The Taliban has now destroyed the Dargah on the grounds that women visit it and offer their prayers there. Talking about the poem immediately preceding Baba’s poem Schimmel speaks of the two line verses employed there as a popular form not infrequently composed by women. The Taliban thinks that all this is non-Islamic. What they certifyasnon-Islamic is naturally also anti-Islamic. This form, called Tappas, described by Schimmel as the most- loved folk form in Pashto, was always musical. She has translated the Tappas of Khushal Khan Khatak. Almost all folk forms of poetry are women-oriented in south Asia. So are they in the land of the Pakhtoons. Now these forms are threatened. Annemarie Schimmel is dead. Otherwise one wonders how she would have suffered the destruction of the culture and traditions of south Asian Islam. She was so fond of the area and its culture. There is a huge necropolis in a place called Thatta in Sind. Her admirer once told me in Karachi that she had on one occasion said, perhaps semi-seriously, that she would like to be buried in that necropolis. Now, as I remember it, I feel that it is just as well that if true her wish was not fulfilled. For all one knows, the Taliban would have made it out of bounds for her.Callous to Tradition It is extraordinary that south Asian Islam should have been so insensitive to its own cultural traditions. I suppose that this area has generally been so unmind-ful of its political and religious culture. A poet’s grave was destroyed in Gujarat. That was no Taliban’s doing. Then some Sree Ram Sene, as we talked about in this column last time, decided to announce that the Hindu culture was under threat. The how and why of it remained mysteri-ously under wrap. The Sene activists went berserk and Mangalore women were beaten up. All that is a familiar story. The Bamian Buddhas went down to the Butshikans (iconoclasts) at Bamian in Afghanistan. It was always a mystery when and how the south Asians lost their sense of history. There are perhaps no other people who are so callous to their own history. As if it was not bad enough they are now proclaiming a new version of history. A fellow called Mutalik is now telling me what Hindu culture is. Not just me, he is proclaiming it to all Hindus. He is an ignoramus. That would not have been a problem in itself. It is one because he has designed a pop Hinduism that seems to take Mutalik to be a mod-ern day Sankaracharya. He lays down what Hinduism is or rather should be. This Hinduism, it would seem, includes
APPLICATION DEADLINE: MAY 28, 2009
