Satya P. Gautam

FIRST of all, please forgive me for my inability to be joining you in this great celebration to experience the spiritual vision of Kabir. He is one of those great bhagats, seers, a poet par excellence, who have made a deep impact, howsoever implicit or indirect, on our thinking and living as one of the fifteen Bhagats whose poetry was compiled and included in the Adi Granth, which we now venerate as Sri Guru Granth Sahib. We recite and chant his verses every day, morning and evening as a part of our daily prayers.

If I was talking while being present amongst you, I would have loved to share my thoughts and feelings with you in Punjabi or Hindustani. However, I have to send this note in English since it is not possible for me to type the text in Devanagari script for providing a brief outline of my presentation. I hope this will be accepted.

My first acquaintance with Kabir's spiritualist verses, as it would be the case with many other children growing up in rural Punjab, was in the village Gurudwaras, mainly in my paternal and maternal villages. We, children, would go there, some times with the elders and often on our own, mainly to enjoy the sweet Prasad distributed after the recitation of Gurubani. We had to be there well in time to not to miss what was our main objective. But in doing so, we were participating in the spiritual practice, and thus, also had the good fortune of listening to the melodious singing of verses from Gurubani. It is difficult for me to exactly recall today as to which of the Kabir verses I must have heard as a child.

My first direct engagement with Kabir started when I was preparing myself for the Prabhakar (Honours in Hindi Literature) examination of Panjab University during early 1968. That was the year when the young people in many parts of the world, it seemed then as if all over the world, were imagining, dreaming, searching and struggling for a world free of inequalities, injustices, oppression, exploitation, conflicts, wars based on artificially created social divisions such as race, gender, class, caste, nations and regions. It was in such a charged milieu that, as a young teenager, sixteen going on seventeen to be exact, I found in Kabir's poetry a loud and clear voice that questioned all such religious rituals, metaphysical beliefs and social practices which support and promote exclusions among human beings by deepening divisive/conflicting identities. Through his lucid and poignant images, picked up from our everyday mundane lives, Kabir was both challenging and encouraging each one of us, his listeners and readers, to engage in self- interrogation for finding our authentic identity as true human beings. Through his verses, Kabir inspired us to transcend, go beyond, and rise above our socially constricted narrow selves, by acknowledging, comprehending and relinquishing our devious dishonest urges and wicked tendencies which are manifest in our acrimonious assertions of our gender or denominational identities.

To illustrate Kabir's message through his own verses, let me quote some of his Dohaas:
"Bura Jo Dekhan Mai Chala, Bura Naa Milyaa Koye,
Jo Man Khoja Aapnaa, Mujhse Buraa Naa koye
Aisi Vani Boliye, Man Kaa Aapaa Khoye,
Apnaa Tan Sheetal Karay, Auron Ko Sukh Hoye.
Bada Huaa to Kya Huaa, Jaise Ped Khajoor,
Panthi Ko Chaayaa Nahin, Phal Lage Atidoor."

Kabir not only questioned the hierarchies of caste and creed but also emphasised the significance of the direct experience of the Supreme Reality by following the path of Sahaj Samadhi:
"Nahin Tahan Gyan Dhyan,
Nahin Jap Tap,
Ved Kiteb Na Bani,
Karani Dharani
Rahni Gahni,
Yeh Sab Jahan Hi Rahni.

Ghar Nahin Aghar Na Bahar Bhitar,
Pind Brahamand Kachu Nahi,
Panch Tatve Gun Tin Nahin Tahan,
Sakhi Shabad Na Tahin.
Mul Na Phul Beli Nahi Bija,
Bina Braksh Phal Sohhe,
Oham Soham Ardh Urdh Nahi,
Swasa Lekha Kou Hai,
Jahan Purush Tahan Kachu Nahin,
Kahe Kabir Hum Jana,
Humri Sain Lakhe Jo Koi,
Pawe Pad Nirvana.

Kabir's message is relevant for all of us for all the times as it reminds us "not to shut our eyes, not to close our ears, not to humiliate our body, to see with eyes open and smile, and behold the beauty of our being human, His Creation, everywhere." Kabir's poetry and life inspires us to celebrate our worldly human condition by discovering and respecting its spiritual foundations -- the quest for meaning, harmony and peace.

[The writer is Vice Chancellor of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Rohilkhand University, Bareilly]

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Mohammad Rafi’s meteoric rise after initial hick-ups in Bombay-3

Harjap Singh Aujla

MOHAMMAD RAFI was not a part of Master Ghulam Haider’s contingent, when he moved from Lahore to Bombay in the end of 1943. But after receiving several calls from Bombay, Mohammad Rafi finally decided to leave Lahore for Bombay in 1945. While boarding the train in Lahore, he was seen off by hordes of hugging and emotionally charged friends and relatives, but in Bombay there was no such scene. Hardly anyone turned up to receive him. This was a big cultural shock, but Mohammad Rafi was too cool to be agitated by such incidents. He had come to Bombay with a promise, which he had to fulfill at any cost.

Mohammad Rafi sang a couple of film songs in 1945 in Bombay, but due to poor name recognition, these songs did not help him much. However he was paid a lot better. All India Radio gave him rupees twenty five for a whole day of singing in Lahore, but in Bombay he was paid, during those days a whopping sum of rupees three hundred per film song. In order to make both ends meet, he sang privately too in “Mehfils”, among the Punjabi community of Bombay.

Mohammad Rafi’s first big break came late in 1946. Shooting for a Dilip Kumar Noorjehan starrer block-buster film “Jugnu” was started in 1946. This film was directed by Sayyed Showqat Hussain Rizvi and its soul stirring music was composed by Feroze Nizami on the lyrics contributed by Tanvir Naqvi. All at one or the other time had moved from Lahore and other parts of Punjab to Bombay. By this time Noorjehan had already established herself as the leading female film singer. Her competitor was another actress singer Suraiya. Both hailed from Lahore district. Mohammad Rafi was from the neighboring district of Amritsar.

Noorjehan was extremely jovial and witty. She was known to give tough time to her competitors and co-singers. Strongly built, but petite in height, Noorjehan was already in the sound recording studio for the recording of a duet. She was expecting G.M. Durrani to be the other singer. But Feroze Nizami had a better option. Feroze asked Mohammad Rafi to come for rehearsal. When short simply dressed Mohammad Rafi arrived in the studion, Noorjehan erupted into a loud laughter. Being still new in Bombay and pitted opposite a star singer Noorjehan, Mohammad Rafi got nervous.

Noorjehan smilingly asked Mohammad Rafi “So little chap you have finally come to Bombay, welcome, welcome, how were things in Lahore?”. A nervous Mohammad Rafi remarked “Things are not bad in Lahore, every one over there was missing their baby Noorjehan. On hearing this instant reply from otherwise a quiet man, everyone in the studio erupted into a loud laughter. Most of the members of the orchestra were of course Punjabis. Mohammad Rafi tried his best in rehearsals, but he was under a complex that he was singing opposite a star. When the recording of the duet song “Yahan badla wafa ka be wafayi ke siwa kya hai” was completed, Mohammad Rafi had doubts about his performance. He wanted a retake, but the music director said it is fine.

When the film was released in 1947, this very duet became the best selling song. This gave the necessary break to Mohammad Rafi and from then on he never looked back and went from strength to strength. Mohammad Rafi’s price tag per song recording jumped to rupees five hundred, the same as Noorjehan’s.

After the release of film “Jugnu”, Mohammad Rafi became a much sought after playback singer. Ghulam Haider was composing music for another block-buster film “Shaheed”. Surinder Kaur was its leading female singer, but one song sung by Mohammad Rafi “Watan ki raah main watan ken au jawan shaheed ho” became so popular that Mohammad Rafi became a household name. This song was recorded in 1948 and released during the same year.

Born on April 11, 1904 the reigning male singing star K.L. Saigal died on January 18, 1947 at the age of forty two. Like a “Banyan” tree K.L. Saigal was larger than life, no other singer could grow to potential under his shadow. Being trained in Calcutta, K.L. Saigal’s style of singing had the tinge of semi-classical musician with a Bengali finesse. But Mohammad Rafi’s style was a lot more flexible and suitable for every actor. G.M. Durrani was another Punjabi singer, who in years was senior to Mohammad Rafi. The top slot left open by K.L. Saigal’s demise took some time to be filled.

A lot of music directors came forward to groom and polish the singing skills of Mohammad Rafi. Among the foremost were Shyam Sunder (an import from Lahore), Pandit Husnalal Bhagatram (another import from lahore), famous drummer Ustad Allah Rakha (originally of Gurdaspur district) Naushad Ali from U.P. and Sajjad Hussain. In fact once Sajjad Hussain asked Mohammad Rafi to sing “Heer Waris Shah” for him. Mohammad Rafi sang it with typical Amritsari slang. Sajjad composed its tune in his own inimitable style. With a lot of effort Mohammad Rafi mastered the new tune, but the end product was great.

Pandit Husnalal offered to train Mohammad Rafi into a top notch film singer. When Husnalal Bhagatram started their career as a duo of music directors in 1944, they depended thoroughly on the seasoned voice of Zeenat Begum a discovery of their elder brother Pandit Amar Nath. But during the late forties much shriller female voices started dominating the film scene. Amongst men Mohammad Rafi was senior in years to Mukesh and Manna Dey. Talat Mahmood had started earier than Mohammad Rafi in 1941 in Calcutta. But in Bombay Talat Mahmood came a couple of years later than Mohammad Rafi.

When the opportunities came Mohammad Rafi pounced on them. Then came August 15, 1947. What Mohamad Rafi observed will be covered in the next issue?.

[harjapaujla@gmail.com]

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Mina Sodhi rediscovered

Jagpal Singh Tiwana

PRITAM SINGH and Joginder Singh Ahluwalia, Sikhan Da Chhota Mel, Ithas te Sarvekhan, San Leandro: Punjabi Educational and Cultural Foundation, 2009. Rs. 280. Distributed by Singh Brothers, Amritsar. Sikhan da Chhota Mel by Prof. Pritam Singh and Dr. Joginder Singh Ahluwalia is a very well researched and much needed work. Both the authors are fully qualified to do the job. They have long experience and expertise in the field of research.

Prof. Pritam Singh could walk miles on foot in search for a historic document and thus had built a very large collection of such rare documents in his personal library. In this endeavor he was joined by Dr. Joginder Singh Ahluwalia* with his car, lap top, internet skills, camera and burning desire to acquire old pothis. His personal library contains copies of all major early Sikh manuscripts.

The combination of the two stalwarts in the field has given birth to a series, Sikhan de Chhote Mel da Sahit which will have ten volumes on the subject .

Sikhan da Chhota Mel, the first book in the series, is about the descendants of Prithi Chand, the eldest son of Guru Ram Das. They are called 'Minas' in the Sikh literature ever since Bhai Gurdas put it so in his verses. Our authors use a more deserving title "Chhota Mel" whereas "Vadda Mel" is meant for Dhir Mal's family. They justify their non-biasd and sympathetic approach to the subject as they did not find any thing negative against Sikh Gurus in the entire Chhota Mel literature. Moreover Guru Gobind Singh had forgiven them and also administered Amrit to some of their chiefs. Authors also question the story that doors of Harimander were closed to the ninth Guru when he came to Amritsar. Here they rely on the account in the Bhatt Vahis which record that when Guru Tegh Bahadur went to visit Harimander Sahib, he was welcome by Harji, grand son of Prithi Chand.

Now Minas are all absorbed back in the mainstream and it is hardly possible to find a Mina Sodhi who is hated or avoided. Guru Har Sahai (Ferozepur Distt.)has returned, Rana Gurmeet Singh of the Mina clan, to the Punjab Vidhan Sabha couple of times.

The book covers all aspects of the Mina tradition- its origin, differences with Guru ghar, Prithi Chand's revolt against Guru Arjan and conspiring with Sulah Khan, a mughal official, to harm the fifth Guru and reaction of the Sikhs against Prithi Chand's nefarious designs. Prithi Chand had established a parallel gaddi (seat) against Guru Hargobind and declared himself as the 6th Guru. He continued in this position for 13 years. This is how the Mina tradition came into being. After Prithi Chand his son Meharban and then Meharban's son Harji continued the line.

Authors discuss in detail the lives, character and compositions of all the Mina Gurus, Prithvi Chand and his descendants- Meharban, Harji, Kesho Das, Kushal Das, Bhai Darbari, Dewane, Baba Ram Das and others. They attach great importance to the works of Mina Gurus as they contain material of great spiritual and historic value. It is helpful to study them with open mind to see what their ideas are and how they relate to Gurbani of Guru Granth Sahib.

Authors also discuss the martyrdom of Guru Arjan and reject the unfounded tradition that Chandu Shah or Prithi Chand were responsible for putting Guru ji to death. They accept more reliable versions of historians, Ganda Singh, Gopal Singh, Bhagat Singh, Pashaura Singh and AC Bannerjee that it was the Mughal emperor Jahangir who was after Guru ji. This is quite evident from Jahangir's own account in Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, the Memoirs of Jahangir.

The striking feature of the book is the number of original documents listed and examined. The authors claim that they were able to locate all the documents of historic value on the subject. And their analyses appears to be pretty fair, unbiased and academic. The previous works on the subject have not been satisfactory. Authors do not have good opinion on the kind of research at present going on in universities in Punjab. They [new scholars] are just regurgitating the old partly treated stuff. That does not, however, mean they do not value the work of some other well known scholars and their colleagues in the field. They have high regard for the research done by Sikh scholars, Shamsher Singh Ashok, Kirpal Singh, Piara Singh Padam and refer to the works of Ganda Singh, McLeod, Irfan Habib, Pashaura singh, Gurinder Mann, Dabistan-e Mazhabi, Bhatt Vahis where needed.

There are, however, couple of things which need further clarity and discussion.
If Prithvi Chand was against the fifth Guru and established his own gaddi (seat of gurudom), why did he declare himself as the 6th Guru, why not the 5th Guru. Who was the fifth Guru in his opinion ?

When Guru Hargobind left Amritsar for Kartarpur, it is believed he took the pothi compiled by his father with him. Which pothi was installed at Harimander in the absence of the original Bir ? Was a copy available ? Or he did not take the pothi with him . When did the pothi find its passage to Kartarpur ?

The book though neatly bound yet needed more care and attention in proof reading. Though publisher has inserted an extra slip in the book indicating a few errors and corrections, yet a few entries in the Index -Irfan Habib, Hew McLeod, Kahn Singh Nabha - do not have the corresponding reference in the text. Some people settled abroad who are leaving touch with Punjabi language may find reading a bit difficult especially in case of some abbreviations used. You need a dictionary to know what is Zameema. But then the book is not meant for the ordinary; it has tremendous appeal to the Punjabi scholars looking for new ideas.

These are minor points as compared to the wealth of information on the topic in the book.
There are six Zameemas [addenda] in the second part of the book covering some 30 pages of valuable information on various aspects of the subject. There is a list of suggested books which can be very helpful for further study on the subject.

The authors did a yeoman service to the Sikh community by bringing to light such a valuable literature on the Chhota Mel tradition which was lying hidden, ignored and neglected for a long time. It is a horrendous task to collect such historic material and then analyze it objectively.
Luckily some documents were in the personal library of Prof. Pritam Singh and he was able to put them to proper use in his life time. The illustrious scholar breathed his last on October 25, 2008, one day after he finished working on the END, the last chapter of the book. Now the entire work on publishing other books in the series has fallen on the shoulders of Dr. Joginder Singh Ahluwalia. We wish him all the luck. We also expect more books from him on the compilation of Adi Granth and Dasam Granth, an area he can cover and write with confidence.

The book is a model for how to use early Sikh sources to clarify and understand Sikh history.

Dr. Joginder Singh Ahluwalia did Ing eur-Docteur (Doctor of Engineering) in Petroleum technology from Sorbonne University, France.

 [The writer lives in Dartmouth, Canada]

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Poem: The Flour Deaths

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