An old book, a forgotten memoir, a suppressed poem, or a personal testimony can suddenly acquire a new life. Literature sometimes possesses that kind of power: waiting for the political moment to pass, archives to open and generations to change, ready for readers to ask new questions. These thoughts crossed my mind a few days ago when Ayaz Rasool Nazki presented me with his latest book, Bebooj Nama: Kashmir History - Selected Readings.
Ayaz Nazki is the third distinguished literary figure from the Nazki family of Bandipora - an intellectually fertile land that has produced a historian like Hassan Khuihama and scores of poets and eminent men of letters. The two others from the family who have enriched our literary landscape are Ghulam Rasool Nazki and Farooq Nazki. The extended Nazki family has also produced poets of repute, such as Rashid Nazki. Most members of the family were polyglots, expressing themselves in Kashmiri, Urdu, Persian, and Arabic.
Ayaz has earned a distinction of his own. Besides the languages in which his elders articulated their thoughts, he has made extensive use of English as a medium for conveying his ideas, which connects him with the younger generation. Moreover, he is a man of multiple talents and interests: a translator, photographer, calligrapher, cultural historian, multilingual poet, and much more. Since I cannot claim to have read a plethora of his work, it would not be fair of me to reflect on his entire literary gamut.
While some of his acclaimed works, like Satisar, have attracted my attention, Bebooj Nama belongs to a different genre - a distinct genre that demonstrates the power of folklore, satire, and poetry as sources of history. These elements tear apart meticulously woven hegemonic discourses and reveal the harshest aspects of sordid stories in their stark nakedness, stories that would otherwise remain eclipsed.
Carriers of Harsher Stories
Looking at Ayaz’s new book through this lens, it is a goblet of Kashmir’s history, offering brief but telling glimpses of the Mughal, Afghan, Sikh, and Dogra periods through the folklore of their times. It reminds us that when the people’s voice is strangled, and every effort is made to obliterate the popular narrative, the dominant discourse is passed off as the people’s history. It is then that folk theatre, mock-epics, ballads, allegorical epics, parables, fables, and apologues become the carriers of the harsher stories of misrule, passing them down from one generation to another.
Before discussing the book itself, it is pertinent to understand the essence of its title, Bebooj Nama (Chronicle or Tale of Misrule). Explaining the title, the author tells us, “Bebooj means no accountability, lawlessness, and the powerful getting away with anything.” It centres around a work by Hameed-ullah Shahabadi, a nineteenth-century epic woven in satire. It tells the brutal stories of barbarity and misrule by the Governors of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, ruler of neighbouring Punjab from 1819 to 1846, which historians of the time dared not tell.
The 176-page book features an intellectually rich introduction by Dr. Maroof Shah, who reflects on the various aspects of this work through a philosophical prism. Valuing Hameed-ullah Shahabadi as a master of his craft, he notes that Ayaz provides context to the text by giving "a brief overview of the sordid affairs that were life in Kashmir and discusses several relevant sources, especially literary ones."
To show readers how the truth about bigoted and oppressive regimes slips into the people's narrative when hegemonic forces try to suppress it, the author has endeavoured to cull fables from the archives, such as ‘greesbaay te manch tuler’ (the peasant woman and the honey bee). The story candidly reflects on the brutal tax system that forced farmers into a famished life, effectively starving people to death.
Ayaz, with all his subtleties, illustrates how the centuries-old Bhand Pather served as a critical socio-political mirror of the challenges confronting society, bringing to light the agonies and suffering of the people through poignant and powerful satire. To demonstrate its power, he quotes an entire text of this street theatre, which would historically be enacted in the open spaces of villages.
Of Owls, Crows and More
One of the stark realities that emanates from the book is that, notwithstanding a minuscule minority collaborating with the Mughals, Durranis, and Ranjit Singh’s proxies, the overwhelming majority never reconciled to their rule. This becomes evident from the titles the author has picked from the vox populi for the chapters on these rulers. He titles the Mughal Rule “Shinai-Mogul.”
As the author explains, Kashmiris never approved of the loss of their country's sovereignty at the hands of the Mughals. This is evident from the fact that even centuries later, Kashmiris remember them in a negative light. The Barren Owl is named Ratt-e-Mogul (Mughal of the Night); one who brings bad luck is a Pog-e-Moul; and one causing destruction and desolation is the Shina-i-Moul. This sentiment holds for the rulers who followed.
Even as late as the twentieth century, resentment against past rulers for their misgovernance resonated in children’s pastimes. During summers and autumns, upon seeing flocks of birds wheeling and swooping in unison, children would cry at the top of their lungs: “Kawa Yanwool Mirdadun Bhool Khudayan Gool, Kawa Yanwool Kripin Bhool Khudayan Gool, Wazirian Mool zanah badali zool.”
It was much later that I understood that by raising these slogans, we were intuitively connecting ourselves to the sufferings of our forefathers at the hands of cruel rulers. None of the children knew that Kripa referred to Dewan Kripa Ram and Wazir referred to Wazir Punnu (a notoriously corrupt Dogra officer) - two of the three main characters responsible for using brutal force against shawl makers protesting harsh manufacturing taxes.
A Treasure Called Bebooj Nama
The author's detailed exploration of the nineteenth-century epic Bebooj Nama by Hamidullah Shahbadi is, in itself, a commendable piece of work. Yet, his true pioneering contribution is that he has not only retrieved this manuscript from the archives but translated it into English, making it available to scholars and the general readership alike. Indeed, while Dr R.K. Parmu (in A History of Sikh Rule in Kashmir, 1819-1846) and Dr Abdul Ahad (in Kashmir Rediscovered) benefitted from this manuscript, reading the complete original text opens new windows into the sordid conditions that prevailed during one of the most brutal and ugly phases of our history.
Reading it instantly brought to mind John Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel, a famous 17th-century political satire attacking royal figures, and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s The Masque of Anarchy, a powerful political poem written to protest a brutal government massacre of peaceful protesters.
From detailing the conditions of the people during those dark days when the Jamia Masjid was latched closed, and historic mosques of grand architecture were converted into arsenals, to describing a brutal tax regime and a horrifying justice system, this manuscript provides a graphic account. To sum it up, translating a manuscript of such immense historical value is a tremendous achievement.
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