A Land of Legends

Padmashri Ghaus Mohammad Khan

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi, Azad Academy Journal, XXI, 8

Majestic Malihabad (one of the three tehsils of Lucknow district, UP), known all over the world for the marvellous mangoes it produces and for the great Urdu poet Padmabhushan Josh Malihabadi (ne Shabbeer Hasan Khan Afridi)(1898-1982) it gave birth to, is a land of legends, both of yore as well as living. Apart from Josh, who became a living legend in his own life, Malihabad produced the first Indian to reach Wimbledon’s quarter-finals in 1939, Padmashri Ghaus Muhammad Khan Afridi (1915-1982). Another illustrious son of Malihabad was Wali Kamaal Khan Afridi ‘Aarif Adeeb’ (1916-2003), a genius par excellence. The life of this great philosopher, who was a reservoir of wisdom and knowledge, was a unique spiritual journey in search of the ultimate truth. The saga of this sage seems fictional rather than real. Sunni Hanfi Muslim, Communist, Radha-Soami ascetic, Bahai proselytizer, Christian missionary, Sufi – he was each of these at different stages of his life. Reverentially called “Maulana”, this erudite guru made Malihabad, known for its great literary traditions and vibrant mango economy, a spiritual place, of which he was the epicentre. The spiritual vibrations sent by him were felt far and wide. A great horticulturalist Malihabad produced was Khan Saheb Abdul Bari Khan Afridi (1886-1940) (father of Wali Kamaal Khan Afridi ‘Aarif Adeeb’), who was one of the founders of Uttar Pradesh Fruit Development Board and Sikandar Bagh Botanical GardensLucknow. In 1937, the British bestowed upon him the prestigious title of Khan Saheb for his great contribution to the development of horticulture in Malihabad. The legendary tradition continues and Malihabad still has a number of living legends to boast of, like the world famous Haji Kaleemullah Khan, who has managed to graft three hundred and fifteen varieties of mangoes on just one tree and over two hundred varieties on another. Then there is the ‘Walking Veda’ – Pandit Saiyad Husain Shastri, a Vedic theologian and a great Sanskritist, who received innumerable offers from all over the world, including America and Germany, in recognition of his immense erudition, but declined to leave Malihabad. Yet another living legend is Anwar Nadeem (ne Anwar Kamal Khan Aafreedi) (b.1937) (Khan Saheb Abdul Bari Khan’s youngest son), who holds the world record for having written the maximum number of reportages of mushairas (Urdu poetic symposiums). His award winning collection of reportages, Jalte Tave ki Muskurahat (“Smile of the Burning Pan”) is a rich repository of contemporary poetic traditions and styles. It is priceless for its timeless worth. He is an acclaimed Urdu poet, satirist, humorist, critic, dramatist, theatre and film actor, short-story writer and feature-film/television drama serial screenplay writer – all rolled into one. Anwar Nadeem has written more than thirteen books, which have won rave reviews along with a number of prestigious awards like Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy Award, Bihar Urdu Academy Award, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad Memorial Committee Award, etc. His poems have been included in some of the greatest poetic anthologies ever compiled in Urdu, and his writings have appeared in some of the most prestigious literary journals like Insha, Shair, Imkan, Laraib, etc. English translations of his poems have appeared in the Sahitya Akademi’s (India’s national academy for literature) bi-monthly Indian Literature as well as in the Azad Academy Journal. 

It is the presence of Afridi Pathans in Malihabad that lends the land its identity and grants an aura of mystery to it. It is believed by many that hundreds of years ago ancestors of Malihabad’s Afridis were uprooted from their place of birth, thousands of kilometres away in Israel, and curbing the tyranny of distance and difficulty of terrain, they finally landed up here in India.

It is just a sprinkling of Afridi Pathans here in Malihabad; the rest of them form part of the world’s largest tribal confederacy in the hill country from the eastern spurs of the Safed Koh (Afghanistan) to the borders of the Peshawar district (Pakistan). The Afridis in Malihabad are largely ignorant of their putative Israelite descent in sharp contrast to the Afridis in Afghanistan Pakistan. It is not difficult to find an explanation for their ignorance. Most probably when the Afridis settled in India, in Malihabad (district Lucknow) and Qaimganj (district Farrukhabad), among non-Afridi Muslims, who were greatly prejudiced against Jews, they hid their Israelite descent, which if disclosed, would have rendered them most unpopular in the non-Pathan Muslim society. As a result, the knowledge of their Israelite origin could not be passed on to the next generation; and subsequently the succeeding generations were left absolutely ignorant of it. This theory about the Afridi ignorance of their Jewish past is substantiated by the fact that with the march of time, they gradually lost all their tribal characteristics; their dance and music traditions. So it is not improbable that they also lost their knowledge of any traditions of their Israelite past.

According to the legend, the Afridi is actually the lost Israelite tribe of Ephraim, which was forced into exile and thus into oblivion in 721 BC by the Assyrians. The Israelite past of Afridi Pathans is mentioned in a number of medieval Persian texts, viz :

· Muhammad Hayat Khan’s Hayat-e-Afghani

· Abul Fazl’s Akbarnama

· Sulayman Maku’s Tadhkirat al Awliya (13^th century)

· Qutb Khan, Sarmast Khan Abdali, Hamza Khan, Umar Khan Kakarr and Zarif Khan’s Mirat al-Afghani

· Hafiz Rahmat Khan’s Khulasaat-ul-Ansab

· Nimatullah’s Tarikh-e-Khan-e-Jahani

· Akhund Darwiza’s Tadhkirat al-Abrar (AD 1611)

· Hamidullah Mustawfi’s Tarikh-e-Guzeeda (12^th century)

· Minhaj-e-Siraj’s Tabaqat-e-Nasiri

· Abu Sulayman Daud’s Rauza-ul-Bab Twarikh-ul-Akbar-wal-Ansab (AD 1310)

· Hamidullah Mustawfi’s Majma-ul-Ansab

· Bukhtawar Khan’s Mirat-ul-Alam
Amishav (a Jerusalem based organisation, solely dedicated to the task of finding the ‘Lost Tribes of Israel’) wants the Afridis to migrate to Israel. Another Israeli organisation, Beit Zur, too, has welcomed them.

In November 2002, an international research team comprising Professor Tudor Parfitt (Chairman of the Centre of Near & Middle East and Director of the Centre of Jewish Studies, SOAS, London University), Dr Yulia Egorova (a historian and linguist from Russia) and the present author embarked on an expedition to Malihabad and collected DNA samples of fifty paternally unrelated Afridi males to confirm their supposed Israelite descent with the help of genetic research. Now, modern science is providing tantalising clues to this ancient legend.

The Pathan settlement in Malihabad dates back to AD 1202, when the village of Bakhtiarnagar was founded by the invading Muhammad Bakhtiar Khalji. But most of the Pathan population came in about the middle of the seventeenth century, and each migrant Pathan clan secured possession of ten to twelve villages around Malihabad. The latest and the greatest wave of migrant Pathans, comprising mainly Afridis, who fought the Marathas in the Third Battle of Panipat for the Afghan invader Ahmad Shah Abdali, arrived in Malihabad in AD 1761, and made Mirzaganj their base over there. Mirzaganj owes its foundation to a Mughal called Mirza Hasan Beg (also known as Mirza Hassu Beg). There are Pathans of other tribes also in Malihabad, viz., Ghilzai (popularly known as Qandhari), Bazad Khail, Amanzai and Bangash.

Ghilzai (Qandhari) settlement in Malihabad dates back to AD 1753, when a Ghilzai Pathan adventurer, Yusuf Khan, settled in Khairabad, a village of Malihabad.

The Bazad Khail settlement in Bari Garhi in Malihabad was founded by one Sheikh Ibrahim, who was a Mansabdar (a noble with high rank) in the Mughal emperor’s service. They first settled in the Ahma village of Habibpur Nasimabad and are said to have bought their remaining villages from the Sheikhs of Kasmandi-kalan and Sahlamau. A Bazad Khail Pathan, Alaawal Khan, received eight bighas muafi in Badaura, one of the villages of tappa Kathauli Rao, where he built a fort. Subsequently this Pathan family clashed with Abul Nabi Khan, an Amanzai Pathan, and the latter defeated them with the help of the old Janwaar proprietors of the tappa. But they could not stop the Bazad Khail Pathans from capturing most of the Janwaar villages.

The Amanzai Pathans settled in Garhi Sanjar Khan and Bakhtiarnagar in Malihabad under the auspices of Nawab Diler Khan, a Subadar of Oudh, in AH 1076/AD 1656. Nawab Diler Khan was the son of that Daria Khan who was a compatriot of Khan Jahan Lodi when he rebelled against Shah Jahan. As the legend goes, Daria Khan, embittered and sad at the ruin that had fallen on himself and family after the rebellion, asked his two sons to take his head after his death to the emperor and save themselves. Then he placed his seal within his mouth and slew himself. His sons complied with his orders, but as they were bearing the head before the emperor, one of the courtiers claimed the merit of having slain the Pathan rebel. Thereupon they pointed to the seal within the deceased’s mouth, and their mendacious opponent was silenced.

The sons were after this received into favour. Bahadur Khan was appointed to Kabul, and Diler Khan, otherwise Jalal Khan, received Oudh (Awadh). But before separating, the brothers founded Shahjahanpur in Rohilkhand, and Diler Khan moving on to his province first founded Shahabad in Hardoi, and finally fixed his headquarters at Malihabad, attracted to this place, perhaps, by his fellow Pathans already resident there. All this time Diler Khan had been followed by two Amanzai brothers – Kamaal Khan and Bahadur Khan (his brother’s namesake), whose father, Diwan Muhammad Khan, had been invited from Banair near Peshawar by the Daria Khan mentioned above. They first settled in Hasanpur-bari in AH 1015/AD 1656, when they shifted to Ahma, a village of Bulaqinagar in Malihabad.

In AH 1105/AD 1693, Sarmast Khan, son of Bahadur Khan, separated, and shifted to Bakhtiarnagar in Malihabad. Sanjar Khan, the son of Kamaal Khan, remained in Bulaqinagar, and changed its name to that of Garhi Sanjar Khan. But the hero of the family was Dilawar Khan’s son Sarmast Khan, who raised it to its greatest prosperity. He took service under the Mughal emperor, and rose to the rank of Mansabdar under Farrukhsiyar, and by his many legendary acts of valour, won himself the title of Nawab Shamsher Khan. An instance of his bravery is cherished. It is said that as he was marching with the Saiyyads of Baraha to raise Farrukhsiyar to the throne, the future emperor remarked – “It is all very well when I conquer, but is there any one now that dare use my land measure and money ?” Dilawar Khan stepped forward, and said that he dared, and he went into Oudh (Awadh) and used Farrukhsiyar’s land measure and money coined in his name. He annexed an estate of more than a hundred villages and secured a jagir of three lakh rupees, which he shared with another general, Nasim Khan.

But during the reign of Safdar Jang, this family fell into disgrace. While the Nawab Wazir was in Delhi, Ahmad Khan Bangash of Farrukhabad attacked his dominions, and encamped on the Kanpur side of the river Ganga. The Nawab’s lieutenant went to meet him, and Makarim Khan, a son of Shamsher Khan, dutifully attended with his contingent, but his nephew Dilawar Khan had quarelled with him, and had joined the enemy. The Nawab’s troops finally fell back and retreated to Faizabad, but for some reason or other – probably from distrust of his Pathan contingent – left Makarim Khan on the banks of the Ganga to watch the troops of Ahmad Khan Bangash. Makarim Khan seeing that he was likely to come to no good between these two parties fled to Rohilkhand, and his jagir was confiscated. A few villages were afterwards restored to him through the intervention of Hafiz Rahmat Khan, the Ruhela chief, who at that time lived on terms of amity with Shuja-ud-daula. Amongst them was Bakhtiarnagar, which he received in jagir for the pay of his regiment of Pathan horse, that he was sent to command at Gorakhpur. It was at about this time that the Amanzai Pathan Makarim Khan granted the village of Kenwalhar to Faqeer Muhammad Khan (circa 1780-1847), an Afridi Pathan.

Faqeer Muhammad Khan’s grandfather, Muhammad Yar Beg Khan Afridi, came to India at Delhi, to serve under the second Nawab of Oudh (Awadh), Safdarjang, who was there as the prime minister of the Mughal kingdom. He also accompanied him to Faizabad. He was an army commander of five companies, comprising soldiers from his own tribe, the Afridi. Faqeer Muhammad Khan arrived in Malihabad during the reign of Nawab Shuja-ud-daula (1754-1775). He then took service in the Qandhari horse, a regiment of the Nawab’s that was commanded by Abdur Rahman Khan of Khalispur. He soon left the regiment to join the service of Nawab Ameer Khan at his state at Tonk in Rajasthan. Impressed by him, Nawab Ameer Khan sent him as his envoy to the Nawab of Oudh (Awadh), Sa’adat Ali Khan, with an elephant and rupees six thousand for his road expenses, Enroute to Lucknow, at Kanpur, Faqeer Muhammad Khan learnt of the death of Nawab Sa’adat Ali Khan (on July 11, 1814), and changed his route for his old home in Malihabad. He then got an introduction to Agha Mir, Minister of Ghaziuddin Haidar, and got a place about the court on the pay of Rupees One Hundred and Fifty per month; and eleven horse riders were put under him. He soon rose to become the commander of a cavalry of twenty-five thousand. This became the nucleus of a regiment, which he recruited from his countrymen in Malihabad. In AD 1827 he was granted the lease of the Malihabad pargana by the Amils, Gobardhan Das and Param Dhan. And he held the pargana in different occassions from them till AD 1843, pitching up several villages whose owners had defaulted. He got a lieu on others, and in this way founded an estate, which came to be called Tharri Fatehnagar. Later, he was also the governor of Khairabad. Prestigious titles of Nawab Tahavur Jang and Hasaam-ud-daula were bestowed upon him by the Nawab of Oudh (Awadh). In AD 1850 he died, and his sons, Nawab Muhammad Ahmad Khan (circa 1828-1903) and Nawab Muhammad Naseem Khan, succeeded to the estate, which they divided. Nawab Muhammad Ahmad Khan’s was called Kasmandi Khurd, while that of Nawab Muhammad Naseem Khan’s was Sahlamau.

Interestingly, Nawab Faqeer Muhammad Khan was also a notable poet of his time, who assumed the takhallus (pseudonym) of ‘Goya’. His collection of poems, titled Diwan-e-Goya, consists of different styles of Urdu verse – ghazal, nazm, qaseeda (ode), naat (poem in praise of the prophet Muhammad), noha (elegy), salaam, etc. He translated the Persian masterpiece Anwaar-e-Suheli into Urdu. The translated version became popular as Bustaan-e-Hikmat, several editions of which have been published till now. The subject of more than thirty books, Goya is considered one of the greatest classical Urdu poets.

His son Nawab Muhammad Ahmad Khan ‘Ahmad’ (1828-1903), grandfather of Josh, was a prominent poet of his age, who published a diwan (collection of poems) of six hundred and eighty-six pages. His collection of poems, titled Makhzan-e-Aalam, was published in 1860 at Naami Press, Lucknow. It comprised of ghazals, qaseedas, marsiyas, salaams, sehras, etc.

A son of Nawab Muhammad Ahmad Khan ‘Ahmad’ rose like a meteor on the poetic horizon, but died at the young age of twenty-eight, leaving behind a collection of poems which was published in 1890. It contained naats and ghazals. His name was Ameer Ahmad Khan ‘Ameer’ (1858-1886).

Another son of Nawab Muhammad Ahmad Khan ‘Ahmad’ – Basheer Ahmad Khan ‘Basheer’Diwan-e-Basheer, was also published (1874-1916), Josh’s father, earned great repute for his poetic genius. His collection of poems,

Malihabad’s Afridi Pathans have a penchant for poetry. It would not be an exaggeration to say that every Afridi is born with a poetic potential, but only some of them use it.

It is impossible not to mention the great poet Muhammad Murtuza Khan ‘Wasl Malihabadi’ (1820-1903),Anwar Nadeem’s great-grandfather, when talking about the tradition of poetry among the Afridi Pathans of Malihabad. His diwan (collection of poems) titled Gulshan-e-Wasl was published in 1896. His absorbing poetry is distinguished by an unusual choice of words and a specific style.

His son Abdul Rauf Khan ‘Lutf Malihabadi’, Anwar Nadeem’s grandfather, was the author of the famous work Naerang-e-Khayaal. He also translated the Persian classics Guldast-e-Najaat and Maulana Rum’s Munajaat into Urdu. His language and diction is still admired for its lucidity, its transparent structure and unparalleled precision. The translations done by him have been considered splendid mixtures of clarity, precision, grace, sophistication and wit.

The Afridi Pathans of Malihabad took active part in India’s First War of Independence in 1857. Nawab Muhammad Ahmad Khan and Muhammad Naseem Khan, the Afridi taluqdars (feudal lords) of Malihabad, fought the British at Kanpur and Lucknow. The arrest orders issued for them were revoked only after Mirza Hasan Beg (a ziladar of their father) who had immense political clout, intervened. Malihabad was among those first places where the first seeds of revolt against the British rule germinated.

The corresspondence between the then Chief Commissioner of Oudh (Awadh) and the then senior British officials shows that the Afridi Pathans of Malihabad loved freedom and fought for it since 1857.

A son of Nawab Muhammad Ahmad Khan, Khwaja Ahmad Khan, emerged as a prominent Congress leader of the time of freedom struggle।

An Afridi zamindar of Malihabad and famous horticulturalist, Khan Saheb Abdul Bari Khan(1886-1940), father of Anwar Nadeem, attended the Surat session of the Indian National Congress in 1907, and is still remembered for a revolutionary Urdu weekly,Falaahat, he published against the imperialist rule, from 1919 until it was banned by the British government in 1923. A senior to Josh Malihabadi, he was Josh's local guardian when he was a student in Sitapur.

The great Urdu poet Padmabhushan Josh Malihabadi (ne Shabbeer Hasan Khan Afridi) was exiled from the state of Hyderabad in circa 1925 for writing a poem against the Nizam’s being a feudatory of the British. He then shifted to Delhi and started publishing a literary journal Kaleem, in which he openly wrote articles in favour of freedom from the British rule. His Delhi sojourn brought him close to Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, which led to his joining the freedom struggle. Now, he would mostly write about patriotism. His endorsement of the Progressive Writers’ Movement also altered his ideas about poetry. Instead of ghazals (romantic poems), he started writing inquilaabi nazmein (revolutionary poems).

My mission is change

My name is youth

My slogan is revolution

Revolution and revolution !!

The revolutionary nature of his poetry won him the title of Sha’ir-e-Inquilaab (“the Poet of Revolution”). The belief that one moment of freedom is far better than years of existence under bondage formed the core of his philosophy.

Listen

Oh, dwellers of the planet Earth

The thundering sound which is coming from the heavens

One solitary moment of life in freedom is better than eternal life of slavery !!

The feeling that Josh’s poetry creates in its readers is nothing short of revolution. A number of his poems were banned by the British government. In recognition of his valuable contribution to India’s struggle for freedom, the prestigious Padmabhushan award was conferred upon him by the grateful nation.

“Rosy and fair to the eye are the daughters of the Afridis,” wrote the seventeenth century Pathan warrior-poet Khushal Khan Khattak. Afridi women are celebrated for their beauty. No wonder it is an Afridi damsel from Malihabad, Raushanara, resident in Kuwait, who was adjudged the most beautiful girl there for the year 2005.

The Afridi Pathans of Malihabad have always been a law unto themselves, and even today they remain as unconquered as ever. During the later Mughal age it became virtually impossible to circulate the Mughal currency in the region – let alone – realise tax from the locals.

The Pathans, including the Afridi, are a people who have built up an ethical code – Pathanwali/Pakhtunwali/Pashtunwali, the essence of which is honour. “I despise the man who does not guide his life by honour,” wrote the great Pathan poet Khushal Khan Khattak. “The very word ‘honour’ drives me mad.” Although it is nowhere written down or formalised, yet every Pathan knows what is required of him.


There are three main canons of Pathanwali/Pakhtunwali/Pashtunwali :-

· Badal (revenge)

· Nanawatai (assylum), and

· Maelmastya (hospitality).

The workings of Badal have led to innumerable feuds and brought Malihabad as much notoriety as its mangoes have brought fame. The obligation of Badal is nicely summed up in a Pathan proverb : “He is not a Pathan who does not give a blow for a pinch.”

Nanawatai requires a Pathan to offer protection to anyone who asks it of him. Its biggest manifestation was seen when Begum Hazrat Mahal took refuge with the Afridi Pathans at Mawai Basantpur in Malihabad. When about three hundred British soldiers reached Malihabad in her pursuit, they were massacred by the men of Nawab Muhammad Ahmad Khan ‘Ahmad’, taluqdar of Malihabad. The site of this incident came to be known as ‘Gumsena’.

Maelmastya is best reflected in the Malihabadi Pathan practice of feeding mangoes to everyone with the same munificence, from the ordinary villager to the President of the country, from fakirs to aristocrats. Even the richest and proudest Pathan personally serves tea and biscuits, or sometimes a full-scale meal to his guests. Their hospitality has few parallels, but it does not take long for the violent streak in their nature to manifest itself at the slightest provocation. Lieutenant Governor Havelock, at one time considered an honoured guest by Nawab Muhammad Is’haaq Khan, taluqdar of Qamandi Khurd and Thari in Malihabad, had to flee for his life from Malihabad, when he made the near fatal slip of the tongue by telling his Afridi host that the area was a stronghold of wicked scoundrels. For the proud Afridi Pathans, for whom bravery, strength, and courage are highly valued qualities, there could not have been any insult greater than this.

Legends abound in Malihabad, and the anecdotes of Nabi Sher Khan are still recounted with characteristic laconism by locals. As to how the hotheaded Nabi Sher Khan smashed an eye of his out of existence, just to get rid of a fly that kept sitting on it. “Na rahegi aankh, na uspe baithegi makkhi”, was the unassailable logic that prompted him to such drastic action. When hospitalised for medical treatment, he proceeded to chew up the thermometer, which the nurse kept inserting into his mouth to his great annoyance. That he survived despite all this speaks volumes for his hardiness. But then, Malihabad is a land of legends, synonymous with unimaginable things.