THE SECOND VISIT OF M. A. RAHMAN CHUGHTAI TO EUROPE;
ACCOMPANIED BY SISTER-IN- LAW, MRS MAHMOODA CHUGHTAI.

The best way to trace the travel of a person is the passport. Although a passport was issued to him on 14th April, 1924, for the Wembley exhibition, but he was  not able to avail it for lack of funds. A new passport was issued by Home Secretary Punjab on 10th February 1932, for a period of 5 years. It was renewed on 10th February 1937. The date of his first visit is easily recorded by even the ticket of the Ship he travelled on. As far as Germany is concerned we have a visa stamp on 24th June 1937. A poem in his praise by a German poetess on 27th June 1937. Another date is 3rd July 1937 departure from Germany. He landed back in Bombay on 15th July, 1937. We are able to access his second visit.

In 1932 in his first visit to Europe, he had befriended a German girl, by name of Elza Huiffner. They remained in touch even after he came back to Indo Pakistani region. His second visit apparently boiled down to February/March 1937 to July 1937. He landed back on 15th July, 1937, in Bombay. But this time he was not travelling alone. His brother in law Gulzar Chughtai had requested that he accost his wife Ms Mahmooda, to London. So on ship they were travelling together. The Huiffner sisters knew of his travel plans, and were there at Marseilles port to receive him. They did not know that his sister in law Ms Mahmooda was with him. He introduced her to them as Mrs Chughtai. The Huifner sisters were shocked at the idea that he was now married and disappeared from port. This interesting episode was narrated to me by Mamee Mooda herself in a sitting in Lahore. This event was not in my record, so I thought it best to put it in historical perspective. Why this happened? No one really knows.

Elza Huiffner was contemplating a very serious relation with the artist. Chughtai Sahib was not in a position to make that commitment. He thought it best to evolve this situation in the best interest of all. In short he was not ready to desert Lahore for an easy life in London, or in Berlin. The commitment to National resurgence was ever strong in him. There are people who are averse to Nationalism, but this was not parochial nationalism. This was in the belief that Pakistan was the first step towards the Islamic resurgence of the Iqballian dream. In fact the next year 1938, we see the loss of his guide and friend Dr Allama Iqbal’s death. Serious financial problems were mounting with him, and he was ready to print the first edition of  “Chughtai Paintings”. The rest is history. In 1936 at the house of Begum Shahnawaz a small show had been organized, and Razia Sirajuddin wrote its introduction. Now revised, it led to the first edition of his famous book. As she said:

“His paintings are in truth the geometry of beauty. He knows art begins at the point where the thousandth of an inch makes all the difference.”