Book Review: A valuable archive and an engaging collection of Urdu ‘Mahiye’

A valuable archive and an engaging collection of Urdu ‘Mahiye’

By Syed Afsar Sajid

 

2. ‘Officers of the Punjab Commission’ compiled and edited by Ch. Muhammad Ashraf
3. ‘Dhoop ki Cha’oN (Urdu Mahiye)’ by Anwar Jamal

Ch. Muhammad Ashraf is an eminent former bureaucrat and a man of letters at heart. Back in the year 1995, while in service, he compiled and edited an archival publication covering ‘images of day-to-day life of the district officers of the Raj as reflected in their private (as also official) correspondence’ spanning a period of 30 years from 1849 to 1879, entitled ‘Officers of the Punjab Commission’.

Anwar Jamal is a veteran poet, critic, and educationist from Multan. His latest book ‘Dhoop Ki Cha’oN’ (The Sun Shade), is a collection of his Urdu ‘Mahiye’.

‘Officers of the Punjab Comission’

The learned compiler and narrator of the book preambles it with this introduction: “When the British ‘annexed’ the Punjab they picked up the best administrators, both European and ‘native’, to run the affairs of the newly acquired territories”, and “All the officers thus engaged in the administration of the Punjab constituted the Punjab Commission.”

The inner flap of the book serves to explain its object and scope: “Contained in this small collection is a wealth of information, hitherto little known, about the lives and times of the early British Civilians in the Punjab. The image which emerges quite vividly from their own letters, is both exciting and melancholic ---- but never dull. Herein, the founders of the Raj are to be seen under a spot-light, which shows them aglow with all the colours of the rainbow, the dark spots notwithstanding.

This book should be of immense interest to the students of British Indian History, especially those interested in studying the historical dynamics and evolution of the colonial administration in the ‘Punjab and its dependencies’.

The endeavours of the young colonial administrators were to form the building-blocks of the future administrative set-up of British India. Its legacy was impossible to repudiate for the new sovereign states of India and Pakistan. Believe it or not, it is still with us and we don’t seem to do without it.”

Besides the introduction, the contents of the book relate to the working of the Board of Administration for the affairs of the Punjab, general correspondence on the daily official routine of the officers of the Commission such as leave, vacations, health, family matters, posting/transfer, pay and perks, departmental examinations, governance and empire building, situation reports, abuse of power, DC’s general ‘vade mecum’ (a guide book), internecine rivalries amongst different cadres of officers e.g. DC and Commissioner, and DC and SP.

Thus the book is a kind of compendium of a wide range of impressionistic information, as it were, on culture, creed, customs, economy, health, industry, business and commerce, crime and punishment, demeanour of civil servants in a purely British prototypal tradition, decision-making, contemporary moods and manners, inter-services jealousies et al, with specific reference to the territorial limits of the Punjab, during the time span of almost thirty years (1849-1879) of the Raj.

To quote the learned compiler, who is himself an erstwhile civil servant of remarkable knowledge, competence, efficiency and integrity, “The saga of British rule in India is a fascinating kaleidoscope of events, incidents, intrigues, treacheries and sacrifices. This was a panorama of alien men fired with idealism, heady with the romance and dreams of glory in a distant land, endeavouring to build a brave new world on the ruins of once mighty empires.” The archival significance of the letters therefore cannot be gainsaid.

They are written in a Victorian style with archaic spellings of some locales. The book itself is a prized archive now for the civil servants of today to seek guidance from the information that richly abounds in its pages albeit obsoletion of some material in terms of time and place. The writer’s ‘Introduction’ to the book is a classic piece of idiomatic prose --- lucid, racy, and syntactically coherent.

‘Dhoop Ki Cha’oN (Urdu Mahiye)’

Anwar Jamal is a talented writer, widely renowned for his versatility and literary craftsmanship. The book contains a collection of his ‘mahiye’ preceded by a detailed foreword aimed to explain the mechanics of the genre of ‘mahiya’ as for example, its raison d’etre, prosody, history, and tradition. The ‘Muqaddama’ (foreword) is itself a scholarly exercise exploring the aforementioned dimensions of ‘mahiya’ as a literary term being practised by a growing number of its enthusiasts, in both Punjabi and Urdu.

The common themes of these ‘mahiyas’ composed in a lyrical strain, relate to spirituality, pastoral romance and love, a passionate yearning for union and pain of separation, psycho-philosophical issues, marital and other festivities of sorts, and last but not least, the mirth and ‘masti’ of rural life. Today ‘mahiyas’ exist mostly in a tri-linear form (aba). Waris Shah, Khawaja Ghulam Farid, Bulhe Shah, Sultan Bahu, Shiv Kumar Batalvi, Amrita Pritam, Sharif Kunjahi, Charagh Hassan Hasrat, Himmat Rai Sharma, Abdul Majeed Bhatti, Roshan Lal Ahuja, Amin Khayal, Farigh Bukhari, Qamar Jalalvi, Sahir Ludhianvi, Haider Qureshi, and Anwar Jamal are some of the well-known ‘mahiya-nigar’ in Punjabi and Urdu.

Anwar Jamal has included as many as ninety of his ‘mahiyas’ in this book. They display  a unique lyrical felicity and contextual diversity ---- configuring themes like love,  uncertainties of life, disparity between dream and reality, nature in its primeval beauty, nostalgia, grief and gaiety etc. ---- which set their tone and tenor and carve them into a veritable mosaic of beauty.