Lahore Diaries III

I went to see Lala Lajpat Rai's house in Civil Lines. The address is One Court Street. Just behind Islamia College,
which used to be DVS College. It’s a modest property by Civil Lines standards. In the garden of the property there
is an ugly structure for the Auqaf, some kind of trust that deals with evacuee property. In the Lahore Gymkhana
card room I asked people if they knew who Lala Lajpat Rai was. One man, who dribbled spit as he spoke, said Lala
Lajpat Rai was a bigger man than Gandhi and Nehru. And that he was killed by a lathi while leading a procession at
Bhatey Gate.



In Delhi I often get asked to name Pakistani ghazals. I never fail to be surprised when no one knows "Insha ji utho,
ab kooch karo, is shehr main ji ka lagaana kiya…" It is has been very famous in Pakistan since it was sung by Ustad
Amanat Ali Khan on PTV in the 70s. But very few people in Pakistan remember anymore that the poet Sher
Mohammad Khan (Insha was his pen name, he was born in Ludhiana in 1927 and died in 1978), was also a satirist.
His book, Urdu, The Final Book, a translation and compilation of his satirical journalistic writings, has been published
by Harper Collins in India. The book sticks its tongue out at the kind of history book still used in Pakistani schools.
These books have lessons titled, for example, "A Prayer;" "Our Land;" and "From the Ghaznavid to the Lodhi
Dynasty." The following is an excerpt from the lesson called, "Our Land," from Insha's book:




"Who lives in Iran?

In Iran lives the Iranian nation.

Who lives in England?

In England lives the English Nation.



Which country is this?

This is Pakistan.



Surely in this land lives the Pakistani nation.



No. The Pakistani nation does live here.

Here lives the Sindhi nation.

Here lives the Punjabi nation.

Here lives the Bengali nation.

Here lives this nation.

Here lives that nation.



But surely the Punjabis also live in India.

The Sindhis also live in India.

The Bengalis also live in India.

So why was this county divided?



That was a mistake. Sorry. It won't happen again.



(24th December 1969)





The following is an excerpt from the lesson called "India," from Insha's book:


"Famous among the kings of India are the Buddhist Raja Ashoka and Raja Nehru.



Ashoka's greatest memorials are his inscribed pillars and the Hotel Ashoka in Delhi. Nehru's greatest memorial is the
Kashmir problem, which seems to be firmer and more lasting than the memorials of Ashoka."



(February 1970)







"Inteha," an Urdu feature film had a couple of khirki tor haftas (a more apt term than "box office smash" if you had
to queue for tickets at any cinema around Lakshmi Chowk) earlier this year. It was re-released after having been
banned by the censor board.

The film has the familiar retrogressive elements of the formula film.
The femme fatale gets killed (i.e the only female in the film who is having premarital sex with multiple partners). In
the end the heroine does not kill the villain, a man who has been raping her, though she holds the gun. It takes a hero
to take the gun from the heroine and kill the villain.

The film was banned for an explicit sex scene. You would not call the scene explicit if you were to compare it to the
normal fare offered by Punjabi and Pushto films. It could only be because the sex was marital rape.

Sameena Peerzada, the filmmaker, has learnt her filmmaking from the local industry and "Inteha" is her first film in
which she stands alone (she is the director and producer). The film has a good-looking, upper-class Lahori man,
obsessive and vengeful, who rapes his wife. One time in the bedroom she is "merely" reluctant, and in the next
couple of encounters her "no" becomes distinct. The film also shows how this man comes from a history of violence,
his father was the same way with his wife. Nadeem plays the father, an otherwise competent, successful man, mild
mannered, plays golf. But in his quiet there is violence. Sameena Peerzada, herself, plays the wife.

The Lahori middle-class audience came out in droves to watch the film before and after the ban.