The Lit for Life, My Way - Day 2

I caught a couple of buses and went over to the Lit fest on the morning of the second day.

I had planned to catch the talk that was a tribute to Kalaignar Karunanidhi, moderated by N
Ram, with Dr Ezhilan and Kanimozhi Karunanidhi as speakers. By the time I got on to the bus however, it was 9:15, and I figured I would give that a miss, as it was the opening talk that day, at 10. But being a Sunday, first the 99 to Adayar depot, then the 29C, that went the roundabout way through Mylapore, took me to Chetpet by 10. I reached the talk venue just five minutes late, (after having put my bag down at the MLS stall), and found that it hadn't started yet. It was at The Showplace, and  I settled down in a seat and waited.

The talk was focused on the Dravidian ideology, and was intended to be a homage to Kalaignar. Kanimozhi was extremely candid, talking about her personal experiences, and what he had meant to her, and about the Dravidian ideology. Dr Ezhilan was a close friend of Kalaignar, in the last few years, who had been known to have late-night conversations with him. Dr.Ezhilan very frequently ended up swerving into idealism, and instead of talking about Kalaignar would begin to promote the Dravidian movement. In fact at one point, when N Ram asked him what Kalaignars views, and not his, were, on a subject, he hesitated, before answering. The talk was extremely enlightening, overall, and I learnt about how he, Kalaignar, would sit up late every night, against medical advice, and be up by 5:30 every morning. How he would read even the most obscure newspapers, and how, apparently The Hindu was the first paper he read every morning. He was someone, they said, who was unable to hold a personal grudge, and if you came to meet him personally, he would engage in debate with you, but allow you to change his views.

From here it was back to the MLS stall.

Left column: Reciept book, collection box, and the book on the history of the MLS., with the 2019 calendar next to it.

Next column: A book that is the model for how the Madras Journal will look, (after reprinting), the box of MLS badges for volunteers, MLS bookmarks,and the Madras Journal of Literature and Science, 1880 edition. The printouts are of the library, and the letters in the library's collection; Annie Besant's and Bose's. The notebook on the right is for being added to the mailing list. 

I was at the MLS stall for a while, talking about it to visitors, wowing them with the letters, and the various items of interest. People were most interested in the letter from Bose. 

At 11:45am, the audio systems were turned on and so I walked over to the stage set up outside, and began recording it. I knew what was going to happen, as an announcement had been made at the talk. 

The singer/songwriter, Sofia Ashraf, was singing a song on saving trees, in Tamil, as part of a series for children, to make them environmentally conscious. The song was fun and had a good rhyme, and the audience was very interactive. Its a fun narration, where herr character walks around complaining how hot it is, and in this song, another person tells her of ways in which she can be cool, but she keeps linking it somehow to cutting trees, until the other character gets fed up and goes away. It seems that when the zero waste team, (that organised this), had gone to rural villages to perform, some child had actually sung this the next time someone in the area was chopping down a tree!

Just then people in the audience started throwing garbage onto the stage, and one piece knocked her ipad off its stand! However, I realised soon that these people were planted and that this was an introduction, for her to introduce a man who was key in bringing in the plastic ban and implementing it in Kanyakumari. He began answering questions anyone might have on plastics, and the recent ban. 

Sofia Ashraf at the outdoor stage

I decided to go back to the MLS stall at that point, and talked to quite a few people who came there, telling them about the library. 

At around this point my mother had also arrived, and she and I went for Rajmohan Gandhi's talk, Modern South India, based on his book. Sharp and poignant, it got everyone's attention when he began, more or less with the reason as to why he wrote the book "North India has needed to be educated about South India for a really long time". 

Over the course of the next 40 minutes, he outlined various aspects of what he covered in the book, how he covered them, and why he did. He explained that he had tried to stay as neutral as possible, gathering various sources from across the Southern states, talking about a few characters in it as well, like Yusuf Khan and Marthanda Varma, and how, when detailing the freedom struggle he wrote that segment as neutrally as he could, giving equal importance to all key players, like Periyar, Rajaji, Gandhi and the rest. 

After the talk, when I got my copy of the book signed, I got the impression that he seemed a little stressed.

From here, I rushed upstairs to listen to Ira Mukhoty and Audrey Trushke talk about "The Great Mughals", as the schedule called it, at the Hindu Showplace. It was meant to be moderated by Manu Pillai, author of 'The Ivory Throne', and 'Rebel Sultans', but surprisingly, he had been replaced. The room was packed, and there was no sitting place, so I stood by the side. I saw many familiar faces, but was not able to greet them as the talk was already underway/ I learnt many new things about the Mughals, and especially about their women, in this talk, Ira Mukhoty's area of specialisation. The chief woman of the harem was given the title Padsha Begum; the title was almost never the King's chief wife; the Zenana was orientalised by Europeans to be a site of sexual fantasy for the Emperor, when in reality it was just where the women lived. The number of women in the Zenana indicated the number of women the man could care for, the majority of whom were his blood relatives. 

Towards the end of the talk, I got a call from a friend who was to be volunteering with me at the MLS stall that afternoon. Having finished the talk, I came downstairs and found him there. The three of us, (my mother, him and me), went for lunch. I had a slice of pizza this time, which was also pretty good. 

My friend, (Jhubal), and I, then went to the MLS stall, and reported for duty. I then found out, that a few speakers had visited our stall that day, and I'd missed them! The first had come the previous day, when I was there, but I'd missed those who'd come that day. 

Volunteers at the MLS stall, relaxing at a lean time

We spent some more of the afternoon at the stall, and at 3;15, went off for a talk called the Battleground of Indian History, with both Ira Mukhoty and Audrey Trushke (from my previous session), with Rajmohan Gandhi and John Keay, moderated by Professor Mukherjee, who began with an impassioned speech, picking apart the current education system on history that provides its own version of events and chooses who gets more importance. Ira then gave her views. There was only enough time for each person to give one speech, before question and answer session. 

Ira spoke about how there was almost no mention of women. She talked about how women constitute only 5% of history, and this is despite the tremendous role they've played, in all aspects. She highlighted how, in Mughal times, Sha Jahan allowed his daughter, whom he'd made Padsha Begum, to construct the central market, and caravanasarai, (lodgings for travellers), in Old Delhi, while he built only the fort structure. 

Audrey Trushke talked about how history has been politicised, and how it's being used by people to twist facts. She talked about how people like herself got trolled and attacked for writing factual versions of history that went against the popular narrative. 

Rajmohan Gandhi addressed the issue of fake news, and talked about the true story behind the 1946 Congress Presidential elections, the story that is being spread as the way Jawaharlal became Prime Minister! Rajmohan Gandhi told us how, when the Congress elections were to happen, some provinces nominated Patel, some Kriplani, and some more nominated Azad, who was the incumbent President of the Congress, offered to continue for another year. The policy was that if there were multiple nominations, Gandhi would choose. With the coming of the Cabinet mission, Gandhi felt that Nehru would be the best man for the job, and so the three were asked to step down, which they did. Nehru was, later, in his role as  Congress President, asked to be interim Prime Minister. 

Finally John Keay was given his turn. So far everyone had mentioned how Eurocentric history was, and he elaborated on that, talking about how that had been the norm, as Europeans were the ones writing history, but had now become the norm. He said there needed to be histories written in places that were centric to that place.                 

 .

From left to right: Audrey Trushke, Ira Mukhoty, John Keay, Rajmohan Gandhi and Professor Mukherjee

After the talk, I returned to the MLS stall. Jhubal had chosen to stay behind for the last talk,and now wanted to go for one on feminism. It was titled, "Why We Should All Be Feminists". He had gotten it into his head that there would be some excitement like what had happened the previous day at the Aurangazeb talk, and wanted to go for it. I accompanied him, but didn't intend to stay for long. On the way, I met another friend of mine. We went to The Showplace, and it was packed, so the three of us went and stood along the side, and I decided to stay on.

There was one woman who insisted she was not a feminist, and reiterated that one point, drawing harsh criticism. .She said she had once been a feminist, but now chose not to take sides.The others, rightly said, if women had chosen to remain neutral and passive, they would have never gotten themselves any rights. The other speakers said one or two substantial points in the beginning, but the talk began to stagnate after a while. 

Once downstairs, the other friend took off, and Jhubal and I went back to the MLS stall. My mother, who had gone to grab a coffee, came and joined us, and while talking about to the people there, mentioned that Rajmohan Gandhi would be coming to our stall. I had already invited him the previous day, but he had had no time at that point. He had promised my mother he would come once he had got his vadas, and his hunger was satiated. Jhubal and I rushed down there, and saw that he was indeed on his way, and so rushed back to the stall; but a friend stopped Jhubal and began talking to him at that moment. I firmly dragged him away, and we went back to the stall to wait for Rajmohan Gandhi, who slowly walked up to the stall. When he got there, there was a silence that fell over everyone. A couple of us told him about the MLS, showing him the letters, the calendars, and the Madras Journal of Literature and Science. Throughout it all, he was quite thrilled, and at the end, even remarked that he should have come here before writing his last book. Someone commented that he could still come before writing his next one. 

Rajmohan Gandhi and his wife at the MLS stall

(photo courtesy: Kaveri Bharath)

As Rajmohan Gandhi walked away, my mother walked up to him, and informed him that his daughter had been her junior, before they had moved to Delhi. He was intrigued, and took down my mother's name, promising that he would ask his daughter. 

Just before the day came to a close, I spotted Jonathan Gil Harris, walking around below our stall. I called him up, and he hesitated, before promising he'd come the following day. 

With an ending like that, the second day suddenly got exciting, and I was happy that I'd caught a speaker at our MLS stall. 

Day 3 would prove, for MLS, to be its biggest yet. 

Dara Shukoh's library

To be honest, I was not intending to go here. I was doing a series of college visits around Delhi, and was at the Ambedkar university in Old Delhi. This is just South of the Kashmir gate, walking distance from the metro station with the same name, off Lothian road.
Having gone there, we first went to the management building, which struck me to be very much like a British social building. It was a stone, white building, with a very low ceiling. The college was supposed to have moved there very recently.
We then began to look around. And right behind the management building was a massive structure, older than the previous building, with pillars, large doorways and steps leading to an inside veranda with madras terrace roofing. To the left, the room expanded out, and there were shelves at the back, with a glass display to a side - housing a skeleton. There were curved archways(now sealed) leading into a large room at the back. However, repair work was going on then.
This was the library of Dara Shukoh. Currently housing the state archaeology department, I presumed that the front room and entrance-way were a British addition. The ASI stone plaque provides the various uses of the building. But first, a little bit on Dara and his library.

Dara Shukoh was the eldest, and the chosen son of Sha Jahan. Being heir designate, he lived in Delhi with his father, while his brothers were governors of various parts of the kingdom. Dara was given to philosophy. He would interact regularly with Sufi saints, and Hindus.He is supposed to have commissioned a Persian translation of Upanishads(Sirr E Akbar)as well as commissioning Persian works to Sanskrit. However, Dara had little skill on the battlefield, and that was his downfall. When Aurangazebs armies marched up to Agra in 1658, he, in the middle of battle, dismounted and got onto a horse, from an elephant. Seeing the empty Howdah, his soldiers panicked and ran.

Dara himself fled, but a few months later, lost in an encounter with Aurangazebs men. Fleeing, he was betrayed by a nobleman who offered him protection, and jailed by Aurangazeb. While in jail, a group of assailants killed him and his son.

The library was constructed in 1637, and is said to have housed over 2 lakh books. However, popular legend has it that after Daras defeat in 1658,Aurangazeb had the books in the library burnt. Another version goes that subsequent inhabitors destroyed sections of the library. But at this point of time, there are no books in the library.

Aurangazeb gave the library as a residence to Ali Mardan Khan, the governor of the Punjab.
It was purchased from the family of Juliana, a Portuguese tutor to the royal children, by Safdarjang, when he was in Delhi (aroud 1751 )

Then, when a Residency was established in Delhi, David Ochterlony, the first British Resident of Delhi used it as his quarters in 1803.  Later, in 1844, the Delhi college was established here.  It was ransacked in 1857.

Later, the State Archeology Department  used it as an office, and it still belongs to them, with a defunct museum and shelves, apart from a few artefacts still lying around there.

“Most of the artifacts confiscated by the Customs Depart-ment are kept here. They belong to different eras, and have nothing to do with Dara Shikoh or Delhi,” said an official overlooking civic work at the library.(Indian Express, May 12, 2017)

Location: Dara Shukohs library

Looking around, in the middle of this calm, electric campus, I hoped this fascinating building will become a museum of Delhi artefacts soon, and not be left to crumble. 

Some articles from recent years:

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/Battling-time-Dara-Shikoh%E2%80%99s-Library-cries-out-for-help/article17205937.ece

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/dara-shukohs-library-to-get-fresh-lease-of-life/articleshow/57980576.cms

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/dara-shikoh-library-embodying-the-citys-history-a-library-and-a-church-pulled-out-of-ruins-4651895/

https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/the-hidden-gem-dara-shikoh-s-library/story-iGW58Dg19VUSXvgwabhS0J.html


Audrey Truschke's book Aurangazeb is another good source for material on Dara's end, as well as City of Djinn's by William Dalrymple

The Islamic heritage of Triplicane: A Ramzan walk led by Kombai Anwar

Ramzan walk: After hearing how amazing the last year's one had been, a few of us petitioned Kombai S Anwar to have a redoing of his walk that ended with an iftar meal.
So one day I see a post on my page: ramzan walk. If you are interested, contact Kombai Anwar. So I did.
Friday at 5:30 brought me to the Mohammedan public library on Wallajah road and triplicane high road junction. As I was greeting some of the other known faces in heritage, I suddenly got a call from an unknown number.
The voice on the other side said "Hello Nandan? Are you taking part in the ramzan walk? " I asked who this person was, and got to know that it was a friend of mine, Jhubal. He and his mother were on their way and wanted directions.
Soon everyone was ready and waiting. The Hindu reporter, the mylapore times camera man, the Man from The Mylapore Times: Vincent D Souza and the 65+ participants of the walk. All that was left was to wait for the walk leader.
Soon the leader of the expedition himself, Anwar, was there, and we began, with a brief introduction to the Mohammedan public library.

Stop 1: the Mohammedan public library, and the beginnings of the Arcot nawabs.
The library was built in 1850, under the patronage of the nawab of the Carnatic. The books here are priceless, some of them.
The Arcot nawabs began as a feudatory to Aurangazeb, in 1696. After aurangazebs death, they went for the last Hindu stronghold in the south, the Marathas of Gingee. A seige that ought to have taken a few months dragged on for 6 years, and after driving the Marathas out of their lands, (and a couple of nawabs later) a battle for succession broke out. During that battle, Anwar Uddin (father of Mohammed Ali, later known as Wallajah) was killed. He was buried in Hyderabad. Interestingly, he built one of the oldest mosques in Chennai, Masjid e Anwarruddin (more on that as stop 3). He was supported by the British. His son continued the battle with Chanda Sahib, who was backed by the French.
After a long battle for succession, broken into two parts,( the Carnatic wars), Mohammed Ali Wallajah was the definite nawab, crowned in 1749.
He moved the palace from Arcot to Madras, building the cheppauk palace along the beach, just south of fort st George. In doing so, he pushed the nawabs further into debt, borrowing from the British to build the palace. It now stands in an abject condition, but is under renovation and restoration.
As a part of the shift, he built the State Mosque here, the Wallajah mosque in the 1750's.
The mosque was completed in 1794, but unfortunately, he never got to enjoy it, as he died the next year.
Wallajahs wish was to be buried in Meccah, under the staircase. But he never got the chance. His body was interred for two years in the Dastagir Dargah which he had built (for two years,before being moved to Trichy). To be buried in the same Dargah where his rival and earlier claimant to the throne Chanda Sahib is also buried.
His successor was Umdat Ul Umrah, whose story was also told there, but for narratives sake
I shall keep it for when we get to stop 2.
Anwar also mentioned that we should look around at the local businesses, selling, books, perfumes, spices, and other things Islam related, and especially the roadside food stalls, preparing to serve at sundown.

Stop 2: Azeempet gate: The successor of the Arcot nawab Wallajah was Umrah. During his reign, the deal power behind the throne was his sister, Sultan Ul Nissa. There was an unspoken agreement between them that instead of his son becoming the next nawab, her son would inherit the title.

But on his deathbed in 1801, he pledged loyalty to his own son.
Furious, his sister planned a coup to overthrow him, but at the same time, the British decided to 'assist' the nawab, and entered the Cheppauk palace at night. When the nawab woke up, the empire was practically in the hands of the EIC.
They agreed to put a candidate of his choice on the throne, but imposed hefty restrictions on the boy. He was made to sign a treaty that put administration in the hands of the British, and it was during his reign that the currency minted by the company changed from kasu, fanam and pagoda to rupees, pies, dubs, and Anna's.

When Umrah died, he was taken in state from the Cheppauk palace to the Dastagir Sahib Dargah on Wallajah road, where his father lay for two years, before being taken to Trichy. Umrah was laid to rest here too before finally being interred in Trichy.
In her anger at her son being denied by his uncle, she didn't allow the denying uncles body to pass through her property, so the company broke open a back wall of the palace to take him to the state mosque, Wallajah mosque. To continue with the fate of the poor Sultan Ul Nissa, she was sent on a haj, and died in Basra, Syrian territory. The haj being the punishment for an attempted coup leader who was royalty. 

Ramzan heritage walk: Stop 3: Masjid E Anwari:

This mosque was built as one among thousands, by the father of Wallajah, as Triplicane's Jummah(Friday) mosque.

According to Anwar, a mosque need not be a strucure with a dome, and minarets, and all the inscriptions. It is just a place where people congregate, and pray together. Over time, the idea of a mosque has become what it is today; what is known as Islamic architecture.

There are five pillars of Islam:

One God and Mohammed is his prophet,
Make a haj pilgrimage once in your life,
Fasting during Ramzan,
Giving to the poor,
And pray five times a day.

Of these, the fifth was touched upon by Kombai S Anwar
If five times a day is not possible, at least once.
If even that is not doable, once a week is a must, on Friday's.
Everyone gets together in the local Jamma Masjid, and pray together.
That was the purpose served by this institution.
This early 18th century, simple building , built between 1744-46,(after the beginning of his reign, before the battle of Adayar) by its namesake, Nawab Anwar Ud Din. This simple structure has an open courtyard as soon as you enter, and is flanked by tall walls on all sides. Towards the back is an enclosed area.
At the end of Wallajah's rule, he built the Wallajah mosque, and made it the Jummah Masjid. But with Muslim population now rising in Chennai, both function as Jumma Masjid's.

Ramzan heritage walk: Stop 4: Wallajah mosque: 

Behind the previous stop, and down a narrow lane that leads off Triplicane high road lies the Wallajah mosque. The entrance is a small gateway, with a long path behind it. This pathway is used as a car parking. All around are apartment complexes. One building stands out: the Ottoman consulate, which was later a lodge, infamous for displaying a sign barring entry of Indians.This was the first Ottoman consulate in India, opened in the late 19th century by brothers.They were later fundamental in building a railway line that Lawrence of Arabia tried to blow up. This was later converted into a lodge for elite Ottomans and Englishmen.

Past this, we get to the mosque, as the sun is going down. Lights around and on the minarets are switched on, and the shamiana spread for Iftar glows yellow. We are asked to wash our feet in a long row of taps, at which you sit, and place your feet up and wash.
We are guided past the Dargah of Bahrul Umoon on our right, where the women are seated, and all men are taken to a side corridor of the mosque, just past the side door. Just inside, we see the most devoted starting prayers in groups and chanting, before the Muezzin gives the call to break fast. The architecture of the mosque, stone mostly, with a wooden ceiling, is exquisite, and for a thousand more words, I will let my photographs describe it for you.
And then, as we were seated on mats on the ground, a man from the Sindhi Hindu community came around with two plastic cups to serve. It has been the tradition, probably for the last ten years or so, for the Sindhi community to serve food at Iftar during Ramzan.
As the sun dipped lower, and the silky light of darkness fell, the chattering of children playing around on the nearby field behind us was heard. Vincent D'Souza took to organising the seating, and Jhubal and I sat and chatted as we waited for the voice of the Muezzin.
Meanwhile, the men continued to come around. First a Kanji in one plastic cup, and lime oorgai dropped to the bottom.
Then a sweet drink in the other platic cup. A GRT paper bag passed around with GRT promotional papers and dates. A bonda. A paper doggybag with two types of sweets.
As darkness spread its shadows over us, the muezzins call came loud and clear. Two lines, short and sweet. And then people stopped talking, even the animals stopped to listen. Even for those seconds the boys outside stopped their cricket.
And then everyone was quiet as they ate.

15 minutes later, another call, this time, a repetitive 'Allah', marked the end of the first pandal, and the clearing up of all empty vessels. The next group of people climbed the steps and waited to eat.

Near the Dargah we found Kombai S Anwar, talking about Islam, with another lady who had been with us on a similar walk in 2015, my first interaction with Anwar, and my third heritage walk ever.
Much more was discussed, but we moved on to the history of the Nawabs at that point.
The Dargah of the man we were standing at was so highly regarded by Wallajah that he was paid a salary of 1000 rupees.

The Wallajah mosque is called the state mosque because every Islamic state has a mosque which is built to be the best, in the city where the Nawab lives, and this was designated to be the state mosque of Arcot after Wallajah moved here.
Its minars are made out of gold, and the chronogram inside adds up to 1794, and the wording was designed by a Hindu.
In 1857 the Nawabi of Arcot had been annexed,and there remained only a poor descendant. This man was named the (titular)Prince of Arcot, with a few scattered lands after the English realised they needed the locals and their rulers on thieir side. The Prince of Arcot is one of the four Princely rulers who continues to be paid an annual Privy purse.

One of the graves inside the Wallajah mosque is of the founder of the IUML(Indian Union Muslim League) associated with the Quaid E Millath. Founded at Madras in 1948, at a meeting at the Rajaji hall during a meeting meant for dissolving the Muslim League, the leader died in the 1970s and is buried here.

After all these amazing facts, trivia, and the wonderful walk, we thanked Anwar, who said that if we had any doubts or questions, to contact him.
We left, our minds abuzz and our stomachs full, eagerly digesting all we had heard, seen and learnt that Friday evening.