LIMITED EDITION MURRAQQA CHUGHTAI DEDICATED TO NIZAM HYDERABAD;
BUT WORKS PURCHASED BY PRINCESS DURRE SHAHWAR DAUGHTER-IN-LAW.

The legendary work Murraqqa e Chughtai had evoked hopes for the artist M.A. Rahman Chughtai, that the dedication to the Nizam of Hyderabad, would bring financial recompense for the artist. He sent his younger brother Abdullah Chaghatai to Hyderabad to present the same to the Nizam. The holidays were running out, and Abdullah obsessed with his naukri, accosted the Nizam in the Jamia Masjid and handed over same. Sir Akbar Hyderi, Prime Minister complained to the artist that if the presentation had been made in Court, the Nizam would have granted a great financial reward for same. The  bubble of possible hope bursted there and then.

Although in the end the limited edition of 210 copies all got sold, but much of the payment did not reach the artist. Frustration was at its height. So much work and energy not getting the rewards it deserved. The fifteen paintings which were to be given to the Maharani of Cooch Bihar perhaps held in limbo. The file lost due to negligence of a family member. Research on but gaps are there. Somehow in the end the famous Princess of Hyderabad, daughter in law of the Nizam, decided to buy them all. This is confirmed from the own writing of the artist. The result all the works were hung in the Nizams Palace in New Delhi. After conversion into the President’s House, it is unknown where the paintings went after that. In India, Australia, or elsewhere. No one would destroy them. Perhaps in the treasury house of the Government of India. Stray pieces have appeared here and there. Even in Karachi someone brought two of them. Waiting discovery sooner or later. But even the 210 copies of the book extremely rare. We do have a few copies but none traceable in what is now Pakistan. Probably more in Indian region or abroad in famous collections. Even Dr Allama Iqbal presented his copy to a young girl student. Tracing takes long time!

In the last year of Independent Hyderabad, a show got planned and inaugurated by the Vice Premier of Hyderabad State. All that on record. A write up by Hassan Yar Jang exists when he migrated to Karachi. An Arts exhibition held in Hyderabad Deccan in  1948, husband of Princess Durre Shawar did attend the show, and perhaps even bought some paintings. Prince Azam Jah of Berar is seen in photographs admiring the Chughtai paintings in Hyderabad. Art moves and knits past, present and future in different ways. Chughtai Art indeed forever!

A FUTILE ATTEMPT TO BELITTLE DR ALLAMA IQBAL;
FLOCK OF NEGATIVE PEOPLE WASTING THEIR TIME.

A long standing friend revealed his low IQ after a long time. He simply said ‘What was Iqbal?’ in a demeaning way. ‘Certainly not a philosopher, perhaps, yes merely a children poet’. It was a stunning revelation, and he went out blurting his father’s statement, that Iqbal used to write obnoxious verses on his favorite prostitutes of Lahore. Most Mullahs generate an alcoholic impression of Iqbal, and a relative came back from the USA with the knowledge that Iqbal was a murderer too. The Hindu lobby was projecting on their blogs that he was even a murderer of a prostitute of Hira Mandi Lahore. A so called ‘hamdard’ of Iqbal was projecting that when Iqbal said salam to a citizen of Lahore, the man to spite him, uncovered himself by throwing down his dhoti. A famous Pakistani lesbian termed both Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal as homosexuals and then retracted her statement after she lit anxiety in many quarters, and she could not handle the fall out, for in certain quarters abroad, it was a positive thing. Add more and more juicy things. Belittle the message of Dr Allama Iqbal, the founder of the idea of Pakistan. The Iqballian thinking dangerous for the enemies of Pakistan.

The Chughtai Artist house was a meeting place of the best and worst of Pakistan. The writers, the poets, the artists, the bureaucrats, you could see most of the bigger names at home all the time. Hafeez Jullundri would come with his British wife , laughing loud with the artist Chughtai. ‘Abhi to main jawan hoon’, surely. Faiz could emit cigar smoke from his mouth like a chimney gone awry. One could even see Hanif Ramay on his bicycle, coming to get some designs made for his magazine. Qudratullah Shahab spun his magic. Sufi Ghulam Tabbassum much loved. The list is endless and no time to list all of them. Dr Nazeer Ahmad and Dr Muhammed Din Taseer were particularly close. Colonel Majeed Malik could take the nomenclature of being Chughtai’s best friend. Pitras Bokhari also lived nearby, and was a close associate. Of course Agha Babar had his own episodes to trace. Ikram Sahib, federal secretary could talk of the book he wrote on Pakistan and took advantage of Chughtai all the time. Justice S. A Rahman was there too. When the Chief Justice got slapped by the daughter of a famous politician, at a function at Alhamra, it was not an ordinary affair, and S.A Rahman proved that he was a gentle lamb. You name it, we saw them at home. These were the people who promoted URDU as the language of Pakistan, and all of them were fanatics about the modern language of Islam.

A longer time back, after work was done, there was a habit in the house. The three Chughtai brothers, Abdur Rahman, Abdullah and Abdur Raheem would move with Dr M D Taseer and they would all go to the house of Dr Muhammed Iqbal and till late at night, chat their hearts out. The laughter of them would reverberate long distance away. Dr Iqbal would not mutter English, or Urdu, or Persian, but share jokes and pleasures in plain Punjabi. It went on for nearly twenty years. Even at the Round Table Conference in London in 1932, Abdur Rahman Chughtai was there with Dr Iqbal. That is why tears would come to the eyes of Chughtai when he would recount Iqbal. And again and again he could say ‘hazar sal nargis apni bay noori pay roti hai bari mushkal say hota hai chaman may deeda war paida.’

IQBAL WAS NOT A GREEK ARM CHAIR THINKER. He reached the people direct in Badshahi mosque, Sheranawala gate School or Islamia College or elsewhere. He addressed people and people wept at the plight of Muslims all over the world. Iqbal has channeled the NATIONHOOD of people, indeed he had reconstructed Islam as a religion in his sayings to people itself. People wept with him. And the environment of Lahore was anti-Mullah in all way. The Quranic revolution was going on here in the Chinay-wali masjid Lahore. It ended in Lahore hosting Ghulam Ahmad Pervaiz, the Adviser on Islamic Affairs to the Quaid-e-Azam himself.

To paint such a philosopher in lower light is the mind of wicked foxes and senile crows all over the world. Dr Iqbal was a man par excellence A true Mard-e-momin. His message was simple Islam had got Persianized with time and the Persian version was in vogue here. Iqbal stressed a back to original Islam position, back to the Arab foundation, back to the Quran itself. The people who had distorted Islam through the centuries fumed at the gall of the man trying to bring in renaissance, to undo centuries of Mullah’s mischievous conceptions.

The hypocrisy of promoting Iqbal in Pakistan is evident too. Lip service alone, not a reconsideration of ijjtehad in Islam. Except for permanent values given by Allah, everything else can be changed by common consent. Democracy very relevant here. Pakistan was the first step in telling the world the beauty of the Islamic system to live peacefully in co-existence with the world, without sacrificing an iota of self respect and equality of the nation as a whole. In the end we have to prevail, if not for ourselves, for our salat to Allah Al-Mighty.

DEVELOPMENT OUR CULTURES THROUGH INTERACTIONS;
GAINS, LOSSES NATURALLY AND THROUGH OBLITERATIONS.

I was born in Pakistan, in a house of Culture, and lived my life in the city of Lahore, a center of Culture. Pakistan had already inherited an admixture of East and West. Our leaders were of both types, Eastern as well as Western. But both were turned to progressive Islamic ideals. Our house was like that too. I was sent to an English Medium School and yes they taught us a lot of things, but they also tried to inculcate in us values which were foreign to us. We started the day with a biblical prayer of “Our father thou Art in Heaven”, while most of the Urdu medium schools started their day with a poem by Dr Allamaqbal “Lap pay aati hay dawa meri”. Our courses talked off tales suitable for the Western people, like claiming our iconic Tipu Sultan was a villain, by British standards. The silliest thing possible we were also meant to commemorate Guy Fawkes day, nothing to do with our own environment. Burning wood in memory of the saving of British Parliament centuries ago. I say this for the British left us with a lobby of people determined to save the day for them.

So natural interaction would result in winning of our own cultural legacy. So it had to be obliterated. One day sitting in the LDA office, senior LDA official was telling me, that if we destroy all old buildings (even Mughal ones) and nobody cared, but when we touched a British period work, a great hullabaloo was created and we were always forced to stop. Similarly the great effort by our intellectuals to promote the Urdu language was attacked and barriers in full creation. A controversy between Urdu and Bengali language was created in same way.The National Anthem was always attacked, and is under attack even today. The Bhutto Administration was after replacing same with Sohni Dharti, to undermine our Islamic content. The great Punjabi debate goes all the time. Arabic unites us as Muslims. Culture unites us too. 

Dr Allama Iqbal has been under attack all the time. By literal morons and agents of foreign lobbies. So has been the Quaid e Azam. A person who affirmed that he was a Muslim is attacked all the time at parochialism. So it was natural that the National Artist of Pakistan M.A. Rahman Chughtai would  be attacked all the time. The attack was against the aesthetics of Pakistan.  It was not clear right in the beginning but the 1952 exhibition show in Karachi was a threat to others. On record ten thousand people attended the same for 13 days, but the Governor General Ghulam Muhammed without looking at the works talked of stopping at looking in the past and moving in the future. Told to me by Information Department S. Amjad Ali Sahib. In a newspaper write up, Jalaluddin Ahmad highlighted the same feelings, along with the positive feelings that he could not undermine. He simply said:

“Naturally enough, not all of them were equally appreciative. Divergent and vastly different views were expressed, ranging from rapturous enthusiasm to downright criticism of the art form, subject matter  and technique. But they were all impressed by the tremendous impact of Chughtais rich and powerful imagination, his superb draughtsmanship, and his exquisite colour-work.”

He repeats on a conservative estimate 10,000 men and women, including young students of art as well as veteran artists and art critics spent one evening or more at the Y.W.C.A. So who were those unhappy of these more than ten thousand people.

Some lobbies really unhappy with art developments in Pakistan.  All of a sudden forcible campaigns to put Pakistan on the bandwagon of the West.  Artists like Lester F. Pross came to the University of the Punjab. M.R. Sponenburg came to Mayo School of Arts now National College of Arts. It was forbidden to talk of the presence of any Pakistani Art. And suddenly new artists coming from all over the world. Some from India. Some from Paris. Some from England. Now exhibitions were being held in Murree far away from cultural capitals. The inspirations had changed. Pablo Picasso was the main hero of these Pakistani uprising stars, but there were others. With time it became Jasper Johns, and still even monkeys were the inspiration. Can you imagine on actual stage art is being made by artists with their MALE GENITALS. There is consciousness for the West with these inspirations, but what about us?  Art is not Art for Art sake, but politically motivated to give Islamic values the fun and go thing. I have seen a work being seen through the small gauze of an old burqa woman of a pornographic display. An old lady enjoying sexual episodes. Humiliation of the concepts of Islam. It is okay to criticize wrongs of any society but to put a question mark on values is against the principles of humanity itself.

If I get on the roof of my house and I look around. I see not proportional architecture, but minars and shapeless gumbands. A civilization that created the greatest feats of art and architecture is reduced to shopping for second hand joggers and clothes from rehri walas. The Art of calligraphy is in ruins. Copyists copying the past with no abilities. The West left us in a lurch but never left us. Our Culture is an object of shame and by repeating the past, we think we can save ourselves. Each generation of Muslims took culture forward, a blend of past and present as a beacon for the future. The World culture is good to emulate for its world values. Let us stop differentiating between East and West. Rudyard Kipling was a racist. The Quran was for all, not for a segment of the society. Cultural progress can be achieved without sacrifice. Let us talk of positive values and negative values. From wherever we get positive vibes. Welcome to same! To close we quote Dr Allama Iqbal once again:

“WHAT IS ART WITHOUT THE STRIKING POWER OF THE MOSES STAFF!”