Lahore Diaries V: Twilight in Lahore

Sine the talk is so focused on kite flying:

The Pakistani courts have also seen the odd writ petition or two trying to stop ``Basant festivites``. I forget the names of the cases, but if anyone wants to know, just post a letter here and I`ll look them up.

Anyway, the learned judge said something interesting. He said he was in no position to ban Basant as ``it was wedded to the soil`` of Lahore.

`nuff said.

Rafay

mohajir,

that was a wonderful aricle...i went to the tft site and looked it up and they have these great pictures of tamancha jaan up...that piece fits in really well with rehans piece here..

thanks :)

rizvi

Tamancha Jan- by Pran Nevile, The Friday Times



Meeting Tamancha Jan after nearly 52 years was a moving and memorable experience during my recent visit to Lahore.



Who is Tamancha Jan? A singer nonpareil, now forgotten, she was the reigning queen of song during the 40s in Hira Mandi, the entertainment quarter of Lahore.



Named after a nobleman who was fond of wine, women and song, the area was first renowned as Hira Mandi. It became Tibbi in common parlance, and is now also called Bazar-e-Husn. This place had blossomed over the years as the abode of performing artistes. It had become a music lovers` paradise. I choose to call them ``performing artistes`` though they have been addressed as ganikas, devadasis, nartakis kanchanis and tawaifs at different periods of history.

The art of music had been confined to the families of Hira Mandi for generations. They had produced some of the most famous singers of the subcontinent, thanks to the generous patronage of the Punjab. Theatrical companies in the 1920s and film studios in the 30s and 40s scouted for talent in these quarters. Later, many of the artistes grew up to be leading stars. At the same time, for the artistes, Lahore provided the most appreciative audience. It was said that Miss Dulari, one of the foremost singers of the country had got an unforgettable reception when she came to perform at Lahore in 1931.



Tamancha Jan hailed from a family of performing artistes. Daughter of Sardar Begum, an accomplished performer of her time, her original name was Gulzar. Tutored by Ustad Fida Hussain, from the age of seven, Gulzar emerged as Tamancha Jan after several years of intensive training in music. Even after making her debut in her salon in Hira Mandi, she continued with her lessons and riaz.



Tamancha Jan finds mention in my book, ``Lahore - A sentimental Journey``, where I describe the splendours of Hira Mandi. It was in the early 40s that I heard her for the first time, when she sang at a gathering of a marriage reception of my friend`s brother at their palatial mansion on the Race Course Road. By then, she had achieved name and fame and was an eminent radio singer as well. Among her contemporary radio artistes, popular in those days, mention may be made of Umra Zia Begum who overnight became famous with her naghma ``Mera salaam le ja, taqdir ke jahan taq`` and letter married the renowned music director Ghulam Haider. Then there was Shamshad Begum who later became well known as a leading playback singer in Bombay. I recall how Lahore Radio used to receive requests from listeners for repeating Shamshad`s enchanting popular melody, ``Ik bar phir kaho zara, ke meri sari kaynat``. Zeenat Begum, Vidya Nath Seth and Surinder Kaur were other radio artistes well-known in those days.

After our graduation from the Punjab University, we considered ourselves mature enough to visit the kothas in Hira-Mandi and cultivate our taste for music. I recall visiting with my friend Saeed Ahmad, the salons of Inayat Bai, Khursheed Pondawali, Anwari Sialkotan, Inayati Suniari and Shamshad Alipurwali. These visits enabled us to understand and enjoy ghazals, thumris and dadras. It also gave us an opportunity to gratify our instinctive desire to converse and interact with young and beautiful women.

The popular songs in those days were: ``Maston ke jo asul hain unko nibha kebi``, ``Na tum mere, na dil mera, na jane natwan meri``, ``Jiya mora lehrai hai, chha rahi kali ghata``, and ``Koyli mat kar pukar, karejwa lage katar``.



Tamancha Jan`s salon at Hira Mandi was attracted many connoisseurs of music. My maiden visit to her salon, sometime in 1945, along with my friend, Saeed Ahmad was a real treat. She sang exquisitely the melodies with exotic themes, which aroused romantic feelings and amorous desires in our young minds. Her visual display of human emotions through the rolling of eyes, facial gestures and motions of hands served to enhance the appeal of her singing. I recall how sheepishly I requested her to sing ``Diwana banana hai to diwana bana de``. In fact, I wanted to impress her with my knowledge of non-film music. She sang it with her heart and soul, playing with words in a singular manner and interpreting the meaning of every syllable. She followed it up with ``Muft huai badnam sanwaria tere liye`` which was simply marvellous.

Later, sometime in 1946 when I had moved to Delhi, I received a telegram from my friend Saeed, informing me that Tamancha Jan was about to visit Delhi. She had been invited by All-India Radio to give a performance. I remember receiving her with her companions at the railway station as she alighted from the Frontier Mail compartment. From there, I took them in a tonga to Connaught Place and lodged them at Prabhat Hotel, then located near Odean Cinema. They stayed there for three to four days and I accompanied them on a sight-seeing tour of the city. Tamancha Jan was greatly pleased with her visit and on her return to Lahore, she made my friend write a letter of thanks to me on her behalf.

For more than fifty years after that, I never heard anything about Tamancha Jan. Recently when I was in Lahore, the conversation with my friend and host, Saeed Ahmad, released a flood of memories of our younger days and the subject of Tamancha Jan came up. I told him that our common friend Mohini in Delhi still remembered Tamancha Jan`s visit to Simla in July 1947 when she was staying with her friends at Cecil Hotel. I was delighted to learn that she was still around and the next day, Saeed took me to her place, a tiny tenement near the Model Town area of Lahore.

I had preserved the image of Tamancha Jan`s youth and was somewhat shocked to see her ailing shrunken frame. But as we began talking of the good old times, there was a glitter in her eyes and she began narrating the happenings of those days when she was a famous artiste in Lahore and an object of envy. At first, she could not recognise me but when Saeed pointed out that she should recall her visit to Delhi in 1946, she gazed at me from close quarters, and burst out ``Oh yes, it is Pran, who looked after us when I went to Delhi for a performance at All-India Radio. That was ages ago``.



Tamancha Jan recalled the Lahore of pre-partition days. She recounted how one of our acquaintances visited her salon and after the performance, gave her a cheque for one hundred rupees which bounced. As if that were not enough, he had also taken five rupees off Tamancha to pay his tonga! Then she related another incident when she had declined to sing because she was indisposed. She laughed and recounted how she had to yield to the request of one Biharilal who threatened to commit suicide if she did not sing. She cheered up as she told us that one of her admirers who had moved to in England, after the partition, visited Lahore sometime in the 70s and came especially to meet her with his grown up daughter from an English wife.



In the end, Tamancha Jan said in a disconsolate voice, ``practically all my patrons left Lahore after the partition and so I stopped singing and shut down my salon``. Her educated daughter, who had in the meanwhile dropped in with her husband, confirmed this and praised her mother. She empahsised that not only was she proud of her mother for all she had done to bring up her children, but that unlike others of her calling, she had absolutely no hesitation in acknowledging her antecedents.



I was pleasantly surprised and mightily pleased by the young lady`s courageous and fearless statement. Tamancha Jan was visibly moved and gave a broad smile before bidding us farewell. ``Khuda Hafiz`` she said and asked me to come and see her again on my next visit to Lahore.

Rehan:

Do something. (oblique reference to the masthead of your columns.)

Enjoyed the snippets.

You say “.. twilight years of Lahori cultural life.” You mean ..........., really?

And, “... the fear of an ever tightening definition of Islamist identity.” If that comes to pass I can imagine an ageless Zia Mohyuddin can then mimic Farid & Maqbool Sabri’s rendition of “HooraiN naacheeN, chum chummaa chumm...” describing the birth of ibn Abdullah.

And the third quote, I would be loathe to even reprint here --shrug-- you and SR do get away with murder sometimes. In her prime she would have squeezed the last drop of your .........

rgds

t

Bhaii, hum iss roushniouN kaiy shehr say kya niklay, iss shehr ko tareekiouN nay chaat liya!

(So, it was not, then, a case of ``aap marrey, so j`g p`rlok!!)

well written pieces...you sure do know how to narrate incidents/events..although it was shocking to know of the abusive language used by someone we know as `Madam`..anyways..keep writing...

regards,

Taimur A Malik.

In is article, Rehan writes: ``Whichever way a nuclear exchange blew it would hurt me and mine.`` While I am glad that he includes both Indians and Pakistanis in ``mine``, I hope Rehan will not stop there and spare other people of the world from nukes as well.

Also, I cannot recall having met any Indian who has visited Pakistan and not been surprised by the warm hospitality with which they are greeted by total strangers. So what on earth is the problem???

Rehan, quite a selection of Lahoriyat here.
On Madam Noor Jehan, I`m sure she meant those
choice words in jest. Old habits die hard.
I don`t know about journalists but I`m sure
that Manto would have understood.The best song (in my opinion) ever sung in the Urdu language was by Madam (Mujh say Pehli si Mohabbat...).And some of Urdu`s best short stories are in Manto`s work.
That these two greats meet within such profanity in Lahore is our Sub-Continental legacy.

Enjoyed this writing.

Ras

re Zahra #47:

Intelligent societies realize that making laws to solve every problem is akin to having the only tool at hand being a hammer. Then every problem looks like a nail....

Intelligent societies are just like intelligent people-there are always too few around. Would I ventue as far as to name some? I don`t think so. Just like intelligent humans they have their imperfections too. Beauty of course lies in the eye of the beholder!!

re urstruly #78:

I concur.

re Latif Chappu #55:

Very insightful. You`ve managed to bring out the conflict that is eating away so many `Islamic` societies. I agree with your desire to have a ``secular,democratic and prosperous`` Paksitan with the caveat that maybe one or max two would do for now. Given a choice I`ll discard democracy. You may choose to disagee.

BTW, go easy on krashid. His heart is in the right place.

later

-sac

After earnestly reading Dr.Anees Ahmed`s view from THE NEWS (Mohajir post #16) all of you must be wondering whether or not to celebrate Basant, festival of lewd-obscenity corrupting Islamic values, product of `an alien culture`, imported from an enemy country ...

To celebrate or NOT to celebrate? That is the question ...

Inquiry: Do the Taleban (and their like minded obscurantist supporters in Pakistan)approve of Basant? No?

Then you have your answer ... even if Basant were the Devil`s own festival, one should celebrate it, as an expression of Human Freedom in opposition to the growing Talebanization of Pakistan. Make it a political statement. Fly kites, sing songs boisterously-drunkely, buy new clothes, listen to poetry, listen to stories of Hindu G-Ds, whatever makes the human spirit free, and affirms humankind`s right to be free from state sponsored religious oppression that is the root of the decay and stagnation of Muslim civilization for the past 500 plus years.

Our obsession with the trivial has reached epidemic proportions, and stifled the very human spirit itself, taking away from the innocous little joys of life itself.

FARANGI KUSH could easily by Dr. Anees Ahmed writing for The News ...

OMAR MIRZA

Basant is niether Hindu, nor Muslim--niether Pakistani nor Indian; it is a Desi festival to welcome the arrival of spring season using the symbolic colors of mustard flowers.

Every culture and civilization has some distinct markers and traditional festivals are one of those markers. When British coined the term Hinduism for people with traditional beliefs; Muslims gave away many of the traditional markers to Hinduism and some orthodox and conservative Muslims started even abhoring such traditions. Basant is much older than nineteenth century British terminology and fortunately many educated, enlightened and confident Pakistanis have started to celebrate it once again after a lull of about 100 years--as a continuous tradition rooted in their culture.

Many Pakistanis who oppose it are either ignorant of its background and mistakenly think it as a pure Hindu festival and/ or do not want to associate with anything Indian due to the Indian-Pakistani rivalry.

It will be wiser for people not to look every thing through the Indian-versus-Pakistani lens and instead look most non-political things through Indian-Pakistani lens; things like language, culture, festivals, Bollywood, Music, etc.

All this talk about whether to celebrate Basant or fly kites reminds me of that old saw about the Puritans. A Puritan is one who has the vague uncomfortable feeling that somewhere, somebody might be having fun.

For once, i am in agreement with Ylh, regarding the veiling of the prophet`s (Pbuh) wives, this was a SPECIAL EXCEPTION BECAUSE they were his wives, the rules for them were different and not applicable to everyone else, similarly he was allowed 9 wives, because he was allowed to by G-D,

and furthermore SOLITUDE, if you or anyone else calls him by any name which someone marrying a 9 yr old girl would be called today in response ...

i shall just scream!

Kindly understand that just because the prophet (pbuh) did something special ... does not mean that THAT SOMETHING is an example for the rest of us to follow ... no, he was Allah`s prophet (pbuh) ... there is a distinction between every THIS something that he did, and THAT something that he did, but the THAT something for which there was a special rule just for him, is NOT SOMETHING for you & I to follow.



Any questions? Is THAT Clear?

This is your brain ...



This your brain after being subjected to the 6 books which have overshadowed the Quran, in the hands of obscurantists for centuries, and distorted Islam`s progressive Spirit through a reactionary, feudal, clerical manipulation of the religion and sustituted form over substance, and reduced the religion to a lifeless set of

ablutions, devotions & ritualisms.

Omar Mirza

Ban the basant festival- The News, Pakistan

Prof Dr Anis Ahmad

Festivals and celebrations, at a popular level, reflect the culture and values of a people. The Chinese New Year, Christmas celebrations and Holi represent concept of space and time in three distinct religious and cultural traditions. At an academic level, festivals and celebrations, initiation rites, marriage and burial ceremonies and seasonal festivals are studied, compared and analysed by sociologists, cultural anthropologists and scientists of religion from their respective vantage points. For some these festivals, ceremonies and celebrations speak for opening up of soul, spiritual elevation, interaction between the part and the whole. For others they provide ground for re-entering the mythical sacred time and space. These may also provide people with a sense of belonging, identity and self-understanding.

Festivals also help in communication of the culture of values of a people. The Islamic values of shukr(thankfulness), infaq (contributing to the welfare of others) and glorification of the Creator of man and the universe, Allah subhanahu wa ta`ala, through takbirat are, for example, are reflected in the festival of Eidul Fitr.

During the past ten years, some aristocrats of Lahore have introduced basant as a local popular festival. Without going into the historical roots of this celebration, which essentially is alien to our own culture and traditions, we want to understand the logic, justification, and philosophy of this alien festival as seen by its advocates.

One `benefit` of observing basant, according to its proponents, is that it helps in diluting pride in our own Islamic cultural tradition. It brings us closer to the Hindu mainstream culture of Hindutva. The use of sacred yellow colour in basant reminds us of the Indian way of celebrating festivals. We confirm, when we partake in it, we are Indians who also happen to be Muslims. This precisely was the argument of the Indian National Congress against the creation of Pakistan. They claimed that the Muslims were part of a mainstream Indian Hindutva culture though Islam was their ``religion``. Muslims consequently, according to one-nation theory, were expected to pray in their mosques like the Christians go to their Churches, however, after having prayed they were expected to share in a common culture.

The great contribution of the Father of the Nation was his firm stand on separate cultural identity of the Muslims. It was their difference in culture, values, vision of life, concept of space and time, art and literature which made them two nations.

The second advantage we are told by the champions of basant, is that we can help and offer economic benefits to the Hindutva-secularist rulers, across the borders, by importing (often illegally) the material used for making the thread used in flying kites. The Indian and secular lobbyists have a strong argument when they say we are anyhow a consumer economy and we import even products made by some Jewish multinationals, what is wrong in importing material for flying kites from a Hindutva neighbour? This logic is interesting, it simply means if a person has an infection in chest there is nothing wrong in going ahead and inviting infection in foot or eyes. Perhaps positive and healthy thinking is tabooed in our country! We do not mind wasting millions of rupees on unproductive activities like fireworks or flying kites even when it gives all economic benefits, in cash, to people across the border.

The third `advantage` of observing basant, the pleaders of basant tell us, is that while advertisements on TV and print media have not brought much success in the so-called ``population welfare`` programmes, at least during basant festival we succeed in getting a few hundred youth and adults killed. If these boys and adults were allowed to survive they would be a `burden` on our country`s economy and on their families. During basant they die when their strings get entangled with electric poles. They also die when some of them fall down from roofs while absorbed in the sacred and holy ritual of kite-flying. Some of them also die when they run madly to capture kites and are overrun by rash drivers. All these accidents reduce the size of our population and thus help in achieving, in a sense of national agenda of ``population control``.

The fourth big `advantage` is that it helps in creating conditions where men and women can intermingle indiscriminately while flying kites, by shouting ``Bo Kataa`` and by singing suggestive songs, provoking sexual emotions among youth, and ultimately promoting a promiscuous society. The coverage of basant on TV, newspapers and radio, and the songs aired on TV and radio, as well as photographs published in newspapers, during the last few years, confirm this assertion. We know when a spade is called a spade it is bound to annoy some people. Nevertheless, truth deserves to be shared with others.

The fifth `advantage` of observing basant festival is that we can proudly tell people in our neighbouring country, and in the so-called developed world, that our boys and girls are as much ``advanced``, ``modern`` and bent on hedonism as they are. That we are good imitators in our dress style, in our ways of singing and in adopting pop music, with gestures and postures of alien cultural traditions is already an established fact. With observance of basant, we can easily make people of the world believe that we are just like them: a pleasure-seeking nation.

If some crazy people in Times Squares, New York, or downtown Sydney, can for one whole night dance, drink, shout, and mix, we too at least have a festival of basant in which we can compete with them, and show our talent of imitating ways of entertainment of others. More importantly, this will also take care of the misconceptions about us that we are very conservative, religious-minded, tradition-bound and perhaps ``fundamentalist`` people.

Such festivals can only be endorsed and supported by secular-minded liberal persons, who may believe in being ``religious`` once a week when they go for ``salatul jumu`ah``, they may also be ``religious`` when they make their five times daily prayer.

But like followers of other religions they draw a line between their religious and secular long as they pray once a week or five times a day, involvement in drug-culture, tax-evasion, misuse of political offices, oppression against women belongs to ``secular`` or worldly material life. It does not bother them to participate in basant and next day listen to a competition of Husn-e-Qir`at.

Frankly speaking, basant as such is not so significant an event as to call for a serious discourse. The majority of people in Pakistan have, during past several years, shown their disapproval of it. Nevertheless, a small minority of people, who search for their cultural roots in Hindutva-secular society, and who do not mind offering economic benefits and favours to a neighbour country, think they can make it a popular festival.

Leaving aside its cultural, ideological and alien aspects, its economic cost alone provides enough justification to disallow it in Pakistan.

Here are some other stories about Basant Panchami :

http://www.allindia.com/general/tidbits/basant.htm

The Basanti Dye

Courtesy Yousuf Saeed, February 24, 1998

The entire north India wakes up from the chilly winter. Its spring here again. The yellow of mustard flowers covers miles on end. It is now that the festival of Basant will be celebrated. There will be singing and dancing, and beautiful colours everywhere. But it may come as a surprise to many people that a large number of North Indian Muslims will celebrate Basant Panchmi, just like Hindus will.

How Basant came to be celebrated by the Muslims is an interesting story. Apart from the fact that those who had migrated from Central Asia must have brought with them colourful memories of Spring being celebrated with much fanfare in their original homelands, it was the Chishti Sufis who may have begun the celebration of Basant amongst Indian Muslims.

The legend goes that 12th Century Chishti Saint Nizamuddin Aulia of Delhi was once so grieved because of the passing away of his young nephew Taqiuddin Nooh, that he withdrew himself completely from the world for a couple of months either locked inside his room or sitting near his nephew`s grave. His close friend, disciple and famous court poet, Amir Khusro, who could not bear with his pir`s absence any longer, started thinking of ways to brighten him up.

One day Khusro met a few women on the road who were dressed up beautifully, singing and carrying colourful flowers. He asked them what they were up to. The women told him it is Basant Panchmi today, and they are taking the offering of Basant to their god. Khusro found this very fascinating, and smiling he said, ``well, my god needs an offering of Basant too``.

Immediately, he dressed himself up like those women, took some mustard flowers and singing the same songs, started walking towards the graveyard where his pir would be sitting alone. Nizamuddin Aulia noticed some women coming towards him - he could not recognize Khusro. On close inspection he realized what was going on, and smiled. That was it. They had all been waiting for him to smile for two months. The entire atmosphere went ecstatic. Other Sufis and disciples too started singing Persian couplets in praise of spring, and symbolically the mustard flowers were offered to the grave of Nooh.

Following are some of the Persian lines that they may have sung :

Ashk rez aamad ast abr-e-bahaar Saaqia gul barez-o-baada beyaar

Or Hindi couplets like :

Sakal bun phool rahi sarson Ambva borey, tesu phooley, koyal boley daar daar, Aur gori karat singhar, malania garhwa le aayin barson Sakal bun phool rahi sarson

The impact of this incident was such that the celebration of Basant became an annual affair in the Khaneqah (monastery) of Nizamuddin Aulia, and subsequently in other centres of Chishti order all over the country. The local Muslims affiliated to all those Dargahs and Khaneqahs automatically took to the tradition of celebrating Basant.

This tradition had probably evolved into a major public festival in the Mughal period. Maheshwar Dayal in his book Alam Mein Intekhab: Dilli (1987), describes one such Basant in Delhi at the time of Bahadurshah Zafar, in following words:

``...the chill was on the decline. The spring had arrived. Dilli wallahs were as usual setting up the fairs for Spring. Many were offering flowers and ittar on the Qadm Sharif (a sacred space in Jama Masjid). When people heard the announcement of Bahadur Shah Zafar s birthday they gushed forth with joy. It was Thursday. There was such a crowd that not a hair s breadth of space was empty either on the Red Fort maidan or the shore of Jamna. The curtains of houses, the Chadurs of women, the turbans of men, and the clothes of children, everything was dyed Basanti - even the candles hanging from the rampart were Basanti. It was as if mustard was growing in every nook and corner. Indoors and outdoors, people danced the whole night.

Thousands of giant balloons made of mustard coloured paper, with candles lit inside, were being flown in the air. By four o`clock in the morning the whole sky became Basanti. It seemed as if mustard was flowering in the eyes of the sky .``

Compared to the glitter of Basant in the past what we find today for instance in the Dargah of Nizamuddin at Delhi, seems more ritualistic, nevertheless festive. On Basant Panchmi some qawwals from Dargah go to a nearby Haryana village to collect mustard flowers. On the way back they offer them first on the tombs of many saints related to Nizamuddin Aulia`s order, including Naseeruddin Chiraghe-Dehli and others near Mehrauli. Back in Basti Nizamuddin, some interesting rituals take place dyeing of the clothes in the Basanti colour being the most exciting one. One can see hundreds of people wearing Basanti scarves, handkerchiefs, chadurs and caps, almost dancing to the tune of Basanti qawwalis. They offer the flowers and fateha on every little grave present here. The beautiful Hindi and Persian qawwalis sung here - mostly ascribed to Amir Khusro himself - praise the coming of spring and the disciple`s longing to meet his pir.

Sufis have a long tradition of adapting to the local culture and language of the places they traveled to spread their message. The Chishti sufis too, have not only tried to relate to the Indian culture and music, they even experimented and enriched the various cultural forms. Basant is a living example of that.

In today`s scenario while communities are being forced to get more and more polarized into their political molds, Muslims celebrating Basant or Hindus taking part in Eid may sound like a dream. In the past it was these Dargahs and Khaneqahs which served as a platform where the twine could meet. Don`t we need the spirit of the dargahs today?

Dear sac,

Reply 11

Book Of Histrical Fiction, By wasim Hijazi (His long lost brother) Chapter 12, Page 191, Paragraph 3, Line 4...there, how`s that.

(Actually, my mummy told me the story)

Take care

Omar Phoenix