Meeting with two founding members of Delhi Youth Welfare Association

Almost twenty-eight years ago few residents of the walled city started an organization “Delhi Youth Welfare Association”. It was Mr. Muhammad Naeem and his friends who initiated a social movement with an objective of promoting education & providing social remedies to the needy beneficiaries of Old Delhi. Their team also distributes the syllabus to the needy beneficiaries of the surrounding locality. Activities were also arranged to boost the motivation of the children towards the modern education. Scholarships were also distributed to fund the education of the meritorious students among the needy cohort. Each year special sessions were arranged for the career counseling of senior secondary students. On 21 March 1994, a small room of a size of thirty-five square yards located at Pahari Imli was chosen as the site for the community library. This room belonged to the personal property of the founding member & president of DYWA, Mr. Muhammad Naeem.

Sikander Mirza Changezi & other founding members rendered their support for the collection of the valuable manuscripts. It was named after the great Islamic scholar of 18^th Century Shah Waliullah Dehalvi. Sikander Mirza Changezi, the librarian & one of the foremost founding members told me that library has a collection of diverse rare manuscripts in five languages i.e., English, Arabic, Sanskrit, Persian & Hindi.

Abu Sufiyan, a young member of the DYWA (an Engineer, history enthusiast & founder of Purani Dilli Walo Ki Baatein) took me to the tour of the wonderful library on 28th June 2018. We reached the place around 8.30 pm after ten minutes of the walk from the main gate of Jama Masjid by passing through the narrow lanes of Matia Mahal. Sikander Mirza Changezi Sahab greeted both of us. During the conversation, I came to know that he is the eldest son of late Naseem Mirza Changezi from his two sons & seven daughters. Born as a fourth child of Naseem Changezi Sahab in 1956, he imbibed the cultural values & love for history from his legendary father. With a fine & eloquent Urdu accent, he sounds like a perfect old Delhi Walla. His father, a great history enthusiast & freedom fighter passed away last year at age of one hundred six.  From the family tree, the late Mirza Naseem Sahab was the twenty-third descendant of great Mongol warrior Chengez (Genghis) Khan. It was from this great patriarch, the family carries a surname of Changezi from centuries.

On my request, he gave an overview of all the rare manuscript of Shah Waliullah library. With more than twenty thousand books, the library has a rare collection of centuries-old manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, and Urdu. Almost two thousand books were brought here from the ancestral collection of Mirza Naseem Changezi. My pupils were dilated with the inflow of adrenaline as I passed through the treasure of Shah Waliullah library. Abu Sufiyan & Mirza Sikander Changezi Sahab was answering queries in a sequential manner.  First came in more than six centuries old, a handwritten piece on the “Mantiq/logic” by an Arab scholar from Baghdad, Allama Najmuddin AlKatibi. The manuscript was titled as “Kitab Baidul Mizan”.

The second one was “Sharae Fattah“, a text in Arabic published from Awadh with original seal of Nawab Oudh. Then one of the rarest pieces was more than a century old “Ramayan” in the Persian language printed from Iran. An Urdu translation of “Bhagvat Gita” printed by Naval Kishore press was brought in by Changezi Sahab from one of the overloaded shelves. Qazi Syed Ali legendary manuscript titled “Sair Ul Akhtab” that was written in Persian more than two centuries before was also present in one of the corners of this library.

One of the rare copies of the “Diwan” written by the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar printed from the royal press in 1855 also add enrich this thirty-five square yards library managed by Mr. Mohammad Naeem, Sikander Mirza & other team members. It’s a four pages account of poetic verses with the front page depicting the name of the poet-king in a circle Badshah Abu Zafar Muhammad Siraj Uddin. A Gregorian & Hijri date has been inscribed on it. One of the Punjabi poetry of Ghalib was also included in it. The first page of his Diwan was started with “Bismillahirrahmanirrahim” and the poetry was written in the love of God & Prophet (Peace be upon him). In traditional terms, it is known as Hamd (Praise of God) & Naat (Praise of Prophet).

The last couplet of the first page of diwan is:

Kyun Naa Ho Alam pe Ahsan Ahmad E Mukhtar Ka

Wohi Malik Khaliq e Kaunen ki Sarkar ka

Why didn’t this universe owed favors of  Prophet

He is the only owner/ruler of the dominion of the creator

Almost three decades later, one of the 19^th century Islamic Scholar, Imam Ahmad Raza Khan who was also famous for writing Naat (Poetry) in Arabic, Urdu, Persian and Hindi wrote in the same line of Zafar showing respect to Prophet. His naat titled “Sarwar Kahoo ke Malik e Maula Kahoo Tujhe” ended with

Leykin Raza Nay Khatm-e-Sukhan Iss Pay Kar Dia

Khaaliq Ka Banda Khalq Ka Aaqa Kahoon Tujhay

But Raza has finished his poem on these lines

The beloved slave of the creator, the Master/Lord of the Universe

An interesting connection can be drawn from the verses of two poets coming from an entirely different context & background. This is the love for the Prophet & his family kindled in their hearts.  In contemporary days the neo puritan’s ideologies within the fold of Islam falsely accused these verses as blasphemy. After a lengthy discussion on Diwan of Ghalib, Abu Sufiyan brought from one of the shelves, a rare dictionary compiled by the Begum of Bhopal in 1870. It’s titled as “Khazanatul Lughaat” means the treasure of Dictionaries. It includes five languages Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit & Turkish.

For a few minutes, I got the chance to discuss regarding the ancestors of Mirza Sikander Sahab. He told his interesting connection with the family of legendary Poet Mirza Ghalib. The second marriage of Mirza Ghalib daughter in law Khursheed Begum (AKA Husn Jahan Begum) took place with his great-grandfather, Mirza Sohrab Changezi. I & Abu Sufiyan were relishing an interesting conversation of Naseem Sahab. By that time, Mr. Muhammad Naeem came in after closing his shop located in Old Delhi. He gave a detailed background of DWYA association and its efforts for promoting education among the needy. He also showed a complete section lodging the books written by first education minister of India, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. His great ancestors also belonged to the Shahjanabad & his resting place is also located close to Jama Masjid. In between, he ordered a cup of tea & asked someone one on phone to serve four ek bata do tea. Answering to the curiosity for “Ek Bata Do”, he told this is used for the half cup of tea in the walled city. The library is open for public in morning from 9.30 am to 11.30 am & in the night from 9.30 pm to 11.30 pm. One can come here for reading. Initially, they also lend the books for home reading but more than two hundred fifty books were lost.

The time was flying while listening to Mr. Naeem & Naseem Changezi Sahab. They told that many of the scholars came here to find the rare manuscripts. Recently an American researcher came here to find a rare work of “Shah Waliullah Dehalvi”. I received a valuable gift from Mr. Naeem, a more than two centuries old biographical account of Shah Waliullah Dehalvi that was republished by their trust without any changes. While I was leaving at 10.30 am, a research scholar steps in to search some rare manuscript.

 

 

A great effort in a direction to preserve & document culture, history, dialect & cuisine of Shahjahanabad

Text by Rehan Asad

hamīñ haiñ maujib-e-bāb-e-fasāhat hazrat-e-‘shā.ir’

zamāna sīkhtā hai ham se ham vo dillī vaale haiñ

Agha Shayar Qazalbash, a disciple of Daagh Dehalvi was one of the Urdu poets from twentieth-century Delhi. In the following verse, he said:

“we are the gateway to the eloquence of the respected Urdu verses. The world learns from us we are such residents of Delhi“. Shahjahanabad survived after many vicissitudes of time especially in eighteen century when it was invaded by Persian & Afghans. The 1857 mutiny was the final blow on the cultural capital of Hindustan. The partition of India and later on urban expansion also made major ethic & cultural changes in the city of Old Delhi. The noted & historian Swapna Liddle wrote in Chandni Chowk, the Mughal City of Delhi in a context of the vibrant culture present in the narrow bylanes of Shahjahanabad. “More recently, the attractions of Shahjahanabad has been recognized, the history that still lives in its narrow streets, and the way of life that is represented by its courtyard homes (Liddle, 2016)”. 

“Purni Dilli Walo Ki Baatein” is a Non-Government organization that includes a wide range of activities on the vibrant culture of Shahjahanabad. It brings out the living culture from the narrow bylanes with the help of its walks, blog writing, videos & social media post. A blog unique in its kind that covers the history, culture, art, traditions & cuisine specifically of Shahjahanabad. It was started by Abu Sufiyan on 07th June 2013 as the Facebook page to document the vanishing dialect of the Old Delhi.  He was born on 08 January 1991, the youngest one among the five children of Mr. Mukhtar Ahmad and Mrs. Farhat Jahan. His great-grandfather Ibrahim Sahab, a Mughal/Turk was resident of Kashmiri Gate, Shahjahanabad in the late nineteenth century. Mughlani Begum, the great-grandmother of  Abu Sufiyan also belonged to old Turk/Mughal family whose ancestors from Central Asia made Shahjahanabad their home centuries ago when the city was built by great Mughal. The elder siblings still had memories of Mughlani dadi who passed away in year 1985 at age of ninty. The grandfather Nazar Mohammad shifted from the ancestral haveli near Kashmiri Gate to the Suiwalan during 1947. During partition, the area around Kashmiri gate faced more heat & violence in the backdrop of riots at Delhi. Abu Sufiyan told that his grandfather got a spacious twenty rooms haveli in fifty-eight Rupees during those days. Mr. Mukhtar Ahmad completed his graduation from Anglo Arabic College (Historic Madarsa Ghaziuddin Haider) in 1975 & then completed his diploma engineering in electronics from Karnal University. After teaching for some time at an electronic Institute to the retired army officers, he switched to the business in 1980. Presently he owns & manages two electronics shop at Tiraha Bairam Khan, Old Delhi. The mother, Farhat Jahan, a graduate in arts is a social worker from her background. His maternal great-grandfather & great-grandmother has roots from Agra. They worked as maintenance officers of Red Fort at Delhi during British days.

Brought up in a family having a long association with Shahjahanabad, he developed an escapism from the messy environment of the walled city during his senior secondary days. In 2011, he got an admission in Btech at Punjab Technical University. It was during the third year of his undergraduate engineering programme, he started to miss the essence of Shahjahanabad. Far away from home at boarding, he used to record the calls of his mother who spoke the Urdu dialect that is known as “Begmati Zaban/Langauge“. From here the idea crept in to share the fading dialect on the facebook. On 07th June 2013, the Facebook page of  “Purni Dilli Walo ki Baatein” was created. Initially, Abu Sufiyan started to share the post with a character “Tumhari Baji”. Within the few months, the post got the substantial engagement as likings & feedback. By 2014, two more characters appeared as “Khala Khabti” & “Phupoo“. Sadia Sayed started to play the role of  “Winky Phuppo”. She brings out the role of “Phuppo/ Father’s Sister” in the typical dialect of Old Delhi. Recently, a newspaper article cited the number of the followers were fifty-nine thousand for “Winky Phuppo”. By the time, it also appeared as a tool to depict the social issues of walled city integrated with humor.

From the lanes of Shahjahanabad, the vanishing traditions & dialect spread out to the external world through the help of social media. At the same time, he got engaged with Shah Waliullah library that was started by the efforts of Mohammad Naeem, Mirza Sikander Changezi & team members in the nineties. The journey from a simple Facebook page now broaden its horizons to the blog writing, social work, heritage walks, talking on food & culture.

In collaboration with “Marham“, an organization of Irtiza Qureshi, & Delhi Youth welfare association, he engaged with the social issues of the local community such as raising awareness for girl education, providing books to the needy & many other tasks. In February 2017 with the group of friends, the first historical walk was conducted at Feroz Shah Kotla. For more than a year, the team of Purani Dilli Walo ki Baatein is conducting heritage walk. Radio Jockey & Urdu Poet Anas Faizi, lead the literary walks, especially at Ghalib Ki Haveli. Farhan Baig, a history enthusiast & teacher at Government School lead the historical walks. Abu Sufiyan himself lead the walks for foreigners at Shahjahanabad. The walks of “Purani Dilli walo ki Baatien” usually started with Jama Masjid & then moving to the lesser known monuments, glimpses of vibrant culture, tradition such as Kabutar Bazi, arts like Naqqashi & Calligraphy. Dr. Sagheer Akhtar, an Urdu doctorate rendered his support by providing guidance for activities & research needed by the PDWKB team members.

In between Shah Waliullah library & Late Mirza Naseem Changezi Sahab, archival collections were also shown to the participants at Pahari Imli. The most unique aspect of their walks is “Dastarkhwan” bringing the food specifically from the cuisine of Shahjahanabad such as Lal roti/Bakarkhani with Kheer served at the endpoint.

Recently in 2018, Purnai Dilli Walo ki Baatien started creating & managing cultural events. The first one was “Topi Ki Daastan”, a play based on Rahi Masoom Raza novel “Topi Shukla” was conducted at Anglo Arabic College on 25th March 2018. The ninety minute’s play was directed by Tarique Hameed.

They also provided online partnership to Delhi Gharana for the event “Ghalib Begum Umrao ki Nazar Se”& “ٌRudad e Shireen”, a composition of Hazrat Amir Khusro.

A stall was arranged by the team of “Purani Dilli Walon Ki Baatien” at five days Urdu Heritage Festival organized by Delhi Government at Central Park, Connaught Place. Its main objective was to bring the culture of Purani Dill with the help of archival pictures, calligraphy, books, dairies, badges & bags. It was a sort of awareness campaign.

Till now more than twelve thousand posts have been shared by the Purani Dilli Walo ki Baatein in the form of the article, videos, & pictures articulating on the microhistory & the culture of vibrant Shahjahanabad. Abu Sufyan also offers help to the media groups such as HT & Indian express for collecting information & raw data for the videos on the monuments, culture, food & bygone days tradition.

Now Abu Sufiyan & his team members are looking forward to finding the ways for digitalizing the history of Shahjahanabad. Hopefully, when commence, it will be one of the grand projects in a direction to preserve the history & the culture of Old Delhi. The journey of a young technocrat is an example of teamwork, & engaging local community members to preserve the living history of the walled city. With his hectic working schedule at Google as an IT expert, he dedicated all his spare time to preserving & promoting the culture of Shahjahanabad. As a friend & history enthusiast, I wish all the best for his endeavor in the direction of preserving the rich heritage of the Mughal city. This is how a voice notes of a mother appeared as a stimulus for a twenty-two-year-old engineering hostel student to walk on the mission for preserving the heritage of “Shahjahanabad”.

Acknowledgments: Many thanks to Abu Sufiyan to provide me chance to write & for the valuable inputs.

References:

Swapna Liddle (2017), Chandni Chowk, the Mughal City of Old Delhi, Speaking Tiger Publishing private limited.

Embedded Tweets & Facebook links are taken from “Purani Dilli Walo ki Baatein” page

 

 

Text and pictures by Rehan Asad

Dr. Rakhshanda Jalil, the Delhi based author, and literary historian is a well-known face among the literary circles for her academic contributions towards Urdu literature and history.  Her columns touched on feminism, syncretic North Indian culture and other major social issues of Muslim society. With more than fifty research articles and twenty books, she has been acknowledged with many national and international literary and academic awards. On her illustrious ancestors, the blogger and an acclaimed author Mayank Austen Soofi wrote on her mother ancestral legacy from Maulvi Sattar Buksh Qadri, one of the noble resident of the historic city of United Provinces, 19th-century Badayun. Maulvi Sattar Buksh belonged to the family of first Caliph widely known as Siddiqui who were the forebearers of oriental scholarship from the time of early Muslim rulers in India. The small city, Pilibhit is located one hundred two kilometers North East of Badayun in Western Uttar Pradesh has the dual connection with the literary historian. Her late maternal grandfather, Ale Ahmad Suroor, a great Urdu poet and literary authority spends his childhood years at Pilibhit when his father Maulvi Karam Ahmad was deputed as the Postmaster in British India. Around hundred meters west of the southern historic gate (Bareilly Darwaza) of the city build by British Magistrate R. Drummond located a house that once belonged to Shiekh Abdul Lateef, a Punjabi Muslim.

The locality where the house is located was documented in District Gazette (1909) as Pakaria Mohalla and still identified with the same name.

According to the Late Prof. Iqbal Hussain, an expert of Ruhela history, this locality was established in the mid-eighteenth century when the city was built by Afghan ruler, Hafiz Rahmat Khan. During its heydays when the trade was flourished in this Afghan principality, the quarters of the city, Pakaria, and adjoining Punjabian were inhabited by Punjabi Musalmans ( Shamsi/Muslim Khatri) who were considered as traders of repute all over North Indian even in 18th century Shahjahanabad. The name of the locality was probably derived from the presence of Pakar (Ficus Venosa) trees. Shiekh Abdul Lateef owned zamindari rights of the Village Tondalpur that is located around twenty-five kilometers east of the city in Terai plains of Sharda river. The village remained in his possession up to 1952 till the abolition of zamindari rights in the district.  In addition, he also owned many shops in the commercial square of the city near the clock tower. Mr. Shahabuddin who is the grandson of Sheikh Abdul Lateef sister told that he had four sons and two daughters. The eldest among them was Mr. Abdul Jalil, the father of Dr. Rakhshanda. Sheikh Abdul Lateef, a traditional businessman, and zamindar was keen for the modern education of children. A small city of United Provinces with limited educational opportunities had two schools up to the level of matriculation in those days. The eldest son Mr. Abdul Jalil completed his matriculation from Drummonds high school in 1943 and send to Christian College, Lucknow for higher education.

After qualifying premedical exam, he secured admission at the prestigious medical center of United Provinces, King George Medical College in 1945. Mr. Abdul Jalil was the third one from the small city to study medicine after Dr. Sharma and Dr. Abdul Ghafoor who attained bachelors of medicine in 1921. Notable medical educationist & Ex-Head of the department, Anatomy, KGMC, Dr. A. Halim was one his early day’s friend and batchmate at Medical school. After completion of MD from KGMC, he also attained Masters from McGill. One of the earliest Indian who got training in  Acupuncture as an alternative therapy from  China & Japan. A small city boy with global exposure in the days of closed economy, Dr. Abdul Jalil was a secular and liberal face of Muslim community in Delhi. Two of his younger brothers pursued Engineering as a career and the youngest one Abdul Shakoor studied Medicine. Both of his sisters also completed  Masters in Arts from prestigious Aligarh Muslim University.

Mr. Shahab got emotive while explaining the heydays of this home when it was constructed by Shiekh Abdul Lateef during colonial days. With thick walls, high ceilings supported by timber and iron beams, arched verandas and extended wrought iron shades, the home has the total area of four thousand square feet. It was divided into two sections, Zenankhana and Baithak. The “Baithak” was a separate unit and most of the male guest lodged here for the overnight stay. He recalled the days when many high profile friends of Dr. Jalil stayed here. Most of the time, the visits were arranged for exploring the adventures and hunting expeditions in Terai forest.

During the lifetime of his parents, Dr. Abdul Jalil and his brothers frequently visited the ancestral home. Shiekh Abdul Lateef passed away in 1977 and buried in the closeby graveyard. Dr. Rakhshanda visited fathers hometown in 1986 on the sad demise of her grandmother. She told that her brother Jamil Urfi recent release titled as “Biswin Sadi Memoirs: Growing Up in Delhi During the 1960’s and 70’s” has many accounts from the memories of the third generation of Mr. Abdul Lateef visiting ancestral home during Eid and summer vacations. I am looking forward to reading Jamil Urfi memoirs. Among the four sons and two daughters of Shiekh Abdul Lateef, only Dr. Abdul Shakoor is alive and resides at Aligarh.

Acknowledgments: Many thanks to Dr. Rakhshanda Jalil and Mr. Shahab for providing me valuable inputs. 

References:

1. Husain, Iqbal. The Ruhela Chieftaincies: The Rise and Fall of Ruhela Power in India in the Eighteenth Century. Oxford University Press, USA, 1994.
2. The Delhi Walla. City Library, Rakhshanda Jalil’s Urdu books and her forthcoming festival, Central Delhi. Retrieved from: http://www.thedelhiwalla.com/2017/01/17/city-library-rakhshanda-jalils-urdu-books-her-forthcoming-urdu-festival-central-delhi/
3. Nevill. H.R. (1909), PILIBHIT:  A Gazetteer, VolXVIII of the District Gazetteers of United Provinces of Agra and Oudh.