Page 23 - Pakistan Link - March 26, 2021

COMMENTARY MARCH 26, 2021 – PAKISTAN LINK – P23

n By Dr Ahmed S. Khan Book & Author Kashmiri from Lahore’s Moochi Gate. She had
Chicago, IL vitality, was forthright and a fond of stories and
niversary of Omar Kureishi’s passing Omar Kureishi: Once Upon a Time them to us, stories of kings and queens, of heroes
we would gather around her and she would relate
arch 14, 2021, marked the 16th an-
lated in Urdu/Punjabi.”
Maway. Omar Kureishi was a living and villains, fairy tales and nursery rhymes trans-
legend: a man of many traits, talents, and skills. Remembering Bombay, the author writes,
He excelled in all of his career roles: cricket “…In 1534 the Portuguese had taken Bombay by
commentator, editor of Times of Karachi, di- force from the Muslims. They named their new
rector of Public Affairs of Pakistan Interna- possession as “Bom Baia” which in Portuguese
tional Airlines (PIA), and freelance journalist means “Good Bay”. A hundred and twenty-eight
and writer. years later the islands were given to the English
As a cricket commentator his voice was the King Charles II in dowry on his marriage to
signature of excellence, as a writer he could ana- Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza in
lyze a spectrum of issues and topics from crick- 1662. In the year 1668, the islands were acquired
et to politics in an unbiased manner. He wrote by the East India Company on lease from the
columns for the most prestigious national and crown for an annual sum of 10 pounds in gold.
international newspapers. He contributed two The British changed ‘Bom Bai’ to ‘Bombay.’”
columns, Swinging Drives and All Over the Place Describing Poona, the author writes, “Poo-
in Dawn for more than 25 years. He entertained na was Maratha country, stalked by the spirit
generations with his impeccable cricket com- of Shivaji or haunted by his ghost, depending
mentary. on which history book one read…In Delhi and
Omar Kureishi (1928-2005) was born in Bombay religious antagonism was minimal due
Murree, received his early education in Poona to the cosmopolitan nature of those cities. Poona
and Bombay, and graduated from University of was insular and one became conscious of the mil-
Southern California. Pakistani and cricket lov- itant Hindu mindset. As a family, we had never
ers all over the world miss Omar Kureishi’s mas- been encouraged to think long communal lines,
tery of English language which they enjoyed in we saw the British as the villains, but among the
the form of his brilliant cricket commentary and prominent Hindu families in Poona, we were
his masterpiece newspaper articles. His zeal for identified as a Mussalman household.”
cricket, in his own words, started as a passion and Reflecting on the disconnect between the
eventually became a lifelong love affair. rulers and the ruled, the author observes, “The
Omar Kureishi has used the British Raj as British were ambivalent about the Indians they
the central theme of his autobiography Once dealt with. They wanted to communicate with
Upon a Time. Kureishi cites Mihir Bose (A Histo- them but made no attempt to learn their lan-
ry of Indian Cricket), to trace the roots of cricket guage. Instead, they wanted the natives to learn
in South Asia: “The British came as traders, then their language. But while the British ruled India,
seized political power. Bengal, in the east, was the exploited it and even looted it…”
first province to fall to the British, the native Ben- Remembering India of the British Raj,
galis the first to take to British ways.” The author the author states, “But what about India itself?
observes that in those days British saw cricket as India existed only vis a vis the British, in a po-
a way of keeping their own community togeth- litical context. India was mosques and temples,
er with little or no place for the Indians. Nirad gurdwaras, churches and synagogues. It was
Chaudri observed in his book Thy Hand, Great mountains and plains, deserts and forests, rivers
Anarch, that the British in India practiced a form and seas, a vast country with millions of people
of racial apartheid even as late as 1928. Omer Ku- (Left): Omar Kureishi in the Radio Pakistan Commentary Box. (Right): Hanif Mohammad, Richie Benaud speaking hundreds of languages and dialects, it
reishi also observes, “The Raj was founded on the and Omar Kureishi was cities and villages. There was diversity but no
certainty of a racial and moral superiority over unity, no fusion, no assimilation, parallel cultural
the natives.” blood-lines whose merging was an optical illu-
In Once Upon a Time, Omar Kureishi trav- sion. Only foreigners seemed to find the need to
els back in time and narrates his memories in a discover India. And so, India attracted the hostil-
simple but elegant manner of growing up dur- ity or the adoration of academics, philosophers,
ing the British Raj, juxtaposing a vast array of literati, religionists, and social scientists. It draws
subjects – including Jallianwalla Bagh massacre, them like a magnet, inviting them to probe the
British colonialism, Churchill, Pakistan move- depths of its spiritual consciousness, explore its
ment, family affairs and father’s postings, Delhi, metaphysical jungles. But even after all that study
Bombay, Poona, World War II, independence and probing they found India to be elusive.”
movements, class divisions and racism, Indian Remembering the pros of the British rule,
Congress, Muslim League, Gandhi, Nehru, Vice- the author expounds, “…But British rule was not
roys, Quaid-i-Azam, Indian Railway, Cricket, an unmitigated disaster. It had brought facsimiles
and voyage to the United States. of Britain’s own legal and administrative system.
Reflecting on the nature of the book in the It brought the English language which became a
introduction, the author writes, “Once Upon a common bond. The Quaid and Gandhi negoti-
Time is not an autobiography, though it may read ated in the English language over the future of
like it is. The central character is the British Raj Omar Kureishi is credited for coining the PIA slogan: Great People to Fly With India and Mr Jinnah roused the Muslim na-
and I have tried to remember what it was to grow tion with his speeches which were in English. The
up in those times. Thus, in a sense, it is a book the rulers and the ruled.” one got too much or too little. I would some- British also gave us cricket. But most of all, the
about personal memories but to the extent that Reflecting on the Churchill and Pakistan times go and sit by her side when she was offer- British gave India a railway system, an extensive
these personal memories provide a backdrop… movement, the author observes, “Churchill too ing her prayers and be rewarded by a smile and a network that connected all of the vast country by
0nce Upon a Time has allowed me to relive my came through as an unbalanced man who was shake of the head that said that she was not to be trains of every kind, passengers, and goods, ex-
youth, “blossom by blossom.” Though the times obsessed with the Empire and a closet racist. The disturbed.” press and the slower ones that stopped at every
were tumultuous and towards the end, violent, Raj was founded on the certainty of a racial and Remembering his father, the author writes, wayside station, broad gauge, meter gauge and
my youth were days of great happiness and joy, moral superiority over the natives. It is this “My father was an Army Colonel who belonged narrow gauge, to Darjeeling, Ooticommand,
irretrievably lost in time but not in my memory, aspect that I have touched upon for it created a to the elite Indian Medical Service and this made Landikotal, faraway places with strange sound-
and though I may have forgotten much, I have deep impression on me of a loathing kind. As for him something of a sahib, though more properly ing names with their own railway stations.”
been able to remember enough.” the communal divide, the more I read, the more he was a member of an emerging middle class of Describing the Indian railway station and
The author starts the book with a descrip- I was convinced that Pakistan was not only professionals as opposed to the comic aristocracy its resemblance to Indian villages, the author
tion of the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre, “April 13, a valid demand, it was inevitable. It is quite re- of the ruling princes and the landed gentry. He states, “…There is no more masterly description
1919 was a day that was seared in the political markable how the Pakistan Movement gathered was a figure of authority though not of the stern, of an Indian railway station than the one in Paul
consciousness of India. It was on this day that strength through the untiring efforts and single- forbidding kind that instills fear, but he brooked Theroux’s The Great Railway Bazar, in itself a fas-
thousands had gathered for a peaceful meeting mindedness of ‘One man.’ Mr Jinnah did not have no nonsense, that is, of the rampaging and cinating book described by no less a man than
in a small, debris-littered park called Jallian- the vast resources nor the organizational infra- rebellious kind. A little bit of self-assertion, some Graham Greene as “compulsive reading”. Paul
walla Bagh in Amritsar. There was only one en- structure, the political machine that the Indian minor trespass like a window-pane broken by a Theroux writes, “To understand the real India,
trance, and therefore one exit to the compound, National Congress had. Yet he turned a political misdirected cricket ball caused him to raise his the Indians say, you must go to the villages. But
a narrow alley between two buildings. Through party into a mass movement, though his health eye-brows, though not his voice, in mock-dis- that is not strictly true, because the Indians have
it marched General R. E. Dyer at the head of 50 was failing, and he was a sick man, sustained by approval. He believed in the family as a unit, he carried their villages to the railway stations. In
soldiers. The soldiers took their positions on ei- his willpower and faith.” encouraged a togetherness, to be supportive of the daytime it is not apparent - you might mis-
ther sides of the buildings and without a warning, Describing his mother, the author writes, one another. There was no sibling rivalry [among take any of these people for beggars, ticketless
opened fire with machine guns. They kept up the “My mother, a petite Kashmiri, was a long-suf- 11 children, 9 sons and two daughters], delight travelers…”
fire for full ten minutes. They fired 1,650 rounds fering lady and why shouldn’t she have been? Her at someone’s good fortune like an elder brother Reflecting on Indian railway system and the
and killed or wounded 1,516 defenseless Indians. charges numbered nine sons and two daughters, getting a brand new Hercules bicycle. He was a classes of Indian society, the author states, “It was
General Dyer was convinced that he had done “a more than two handfuls, not all of them hungry caring human being and in his spare time ran a before the time of air-conditioned bogies and
jolly good thing.” He may well have. It was the at the same time, so that breakfast, lunch, and Children’s Free Dispensary in Old Delhi. He was there were 4 classes on the train, first, second and
first nail in the coffin of British rule in India. The dinner was in shifts. But she was blessed with an avid bridge player…” third but there was also an Inter class, a betwixt
machine gun fire was heard all over the country enough love to give each one of us an equal share Introducing his Nani (maternal grandmoth- and between, a poor man’s second class and
and as far as Whitehall. It was a wake-up call for measured by some maternal computer so that no er), the author writes, “Nani was a handsome TIME, P24
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