balle balle, bulla shah, and how punjabiyat will save us all....
I read the news today, oh boy....
Actually yesterday.
The Chief Minsiter of Pakistani Punjab, Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi, was in Amritsar for the World Punjabi Day Celebrations.
On the drive from the airport to the Golden Temple, the road was lined by cheering children waving flags of India and Pakistan, and college students dancing the bhangra on roundabouts.
Pervaiz Elahi was hailed as a true 'Punjab da Puttar'....
An edit page article in the Indian Express called the 'Balle Balle Bridge' noted
Punjab, Punjabi and Punjabiyat may achieve what the foreign offices in India and Pakistan cannot
Could Punjabi provide the idiom to rescue India-Pakistan relations from the leaden grip of diplomatic jargon? Could joint celebrations of Punjabiyat catalyse a breakthrough that’s eluded decades of confidence-building measures? This week, as artistes and sportspersons from East and West Punjab congregate in Patiala to “revive the spirit of Punjab, Punjabi and Punjabiyat”, a qualitative change is tantalisingly within sight. Border crossings are of course always good news. They add depth to dialogue conducted by the political class, and expand public ownership of the peace process. Punjab as the site of engagement, however, is particularly interesting. For so long memories of 1947 — of those mass migrations and senseless violence — have sustained demonic projections of the Other. They have provided a subtext to bilateral suspicion that the Other is out to settle scores. With the people of the bifurcated state now reclaiming a shared Punjabiyat, the source of so much inherited animus will hopefully run dry.
What i find strange is how easily the Balle Balle Bridge is being constucted. Considering that an integral element of this Punjabiyat - now, for peace - has been the macho masculine posturing that has characterised the standoff between the countries. Think Sunny Deol in Gadar, where as love struck truck-driver Tara Singh, he wipes out the Pakistani Army barehanded. Or well, on the Pakistani Side, the hugely popular Maula Jatt, a Punjabi action flick which reportedly makes Rambo look like Bambi... It's this bellicose macho Punjabiyat, rapidly becoming the national mainstream in both India and Pakistan, which has pumped up the cultural hatred for so many years... Think the guuards on both sides at the Wagah ceremonies. Think the road rage in Delhi...
... And now Balle Balle saves the day...
As Monica said, when I read yesterday's news out to her, So basically if Gandhi had just learned to do the Bhangra instead of fasting, Partition wouldn't have happened.
Dandi to Dandi-ya, to Bhangra....
A syncopated Gandhi dancing to the tune of Sunny Deol mouthing 'Punjabi!'
...This is a Disneyland Peace.
The real basis for peace, the real 'Punjabiyat'... for want of a better word, is perhaps seen in a video airing on musical channels these days, reinterpreting the words of a Punjabi ' Muslim' Sufi saint from the eighteenth century, as sung by a young Sikh singer, Rabbi Shergill. A song which acheived imense popularity on the other side of the border a few years ago when sung by the Pakistani band, Junoon.
--- x ---
The song remains the same.
Sung by Pakistani Muslims, sung by an Indian Sikh.
I am Bullah. But then so are you.
I, Bullah, do not know who I am.
I do know what I am not, what my identity cannot be essentialized as.
I am not a mosque going Muslim, yet i hang out at the tombs of Muslim holy men.
I am not a Hindu, whatever my name might suggest to you, though i know my Sanskrit shlokas, and I belive in the sacredness of the Narmada river.
I have lived in Bangkok, Lucknow, Cochin, Delhi. None of them defines who I am.
I am an Indian, but I love a city across the border - Lahore.
I love the Punjabi of Bulle Shah, of Junoon, of Rabbi Shergill, and yet I object to being essentialised as Punjabi.
For it is not Punjabi and Punjabiyat that wills save us, but the ability to look beyond the borders - of nation, of region, of self - borders that prevent us from living but for which we are willing to die.
Only then, as Bulle/Bullah Shah once wrote - Ho gayi teri balle balle. Ho jaayegi balle bale....
Actually yesterday.
The Chief Minsiter of Pakistani Punjab, Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi, was in Amritsar for the World Punjabi Day Celebrations.
On the drive from the airport to the Golden Temple, the road was lined by cheering children waving flags of India and Pakistan, and college students dancing the bhangra on roundabouts.
Pervaiz Elahi was hailed as a true 'Punjab da Puttar'....
An edit page article in the Indian Express called the 'Balle Balle Bridge' noted
Punjab, Punjabi and Punjabiyat may achieve what the foreign offices in India and Pakistan cannot
Could Punjabi provide the idiom to rescue India-Pakistan relations from the leaden grip of diplomatic jargon? Could joint celebrations of Punjabiyat catalyse a breakthrough that’s eluded decades of confidence-building measures? This week, as artistes and sportspersons from East and West Punjab congregate in Patiala to “revive the spirit of Punjab, Punjabi and Punjabiyat”, a qualitative change is tantalisingly within sight. Border crossings are of course always good news. They add depth to dialogue conducted by the political class, and expand public ownership of the peace process. Punjab as the site of engagement, however, is particularly interesting. For so long memories of 1947 — of those mass migrations and senseless violence — have sustained demonic projections of the Other. They have provided a subtext to bilateral suspicion that the Other is out to settle scores. With the people of the bifurcated state now reclaiming a shared Punjabiyat, the source of so much inherited animus will hopefully run dry.
What i find strange is how easily the Balle Balle Bridge is being constucted. Considering that an integral element of this Punjabiyat - now, for peace - has been the macho masculine posturing that has characterised the standoff between the countries. Think Sunny Deol in Gadar, where as love struck truck-driver Tara Singh, he wipes out the Pakistani Army barehanded. Or well, on the Pakistani Side, the hugely popular Maula Jatt, a Punjabi action flick which reportedly makes Rambo look like Bambi... It's this bellicose macho Punjabiyat, rapidly becoming the national mainstream in both India and Pakistan, which has pumped up the cultural hatred for so many years... Think the guuards on both sides at the Wagah ceremonies. Think the road rage in Delhi...
... And now Balle Balle saves the day...
As Monica said, when I read yesterday's news out to her, So basically if Gandhi had just learned to do the Bhangra instead of fasting, Partition wouldn't have happened.
Dandi to Dandi-ya, to Bhangra....
A syncopated Gandhi dancing to the tune of Sunny Deol mouthing 'Punjabi!'
...This is a Disneyland Peace.
The real basis for peace, the real 'Punjabiyat'... for want of a better word, is perhaps seen in a video airing on musical channels these days, reinterpreting the words of a Punjabi ' Muslim' Sufi saint from the eighteenth century, as sung by a young Sikh singer, Rabbi Shergill. A song which acheived imense popularity on the other side of the border a few years ago when sung by the Pakistani band, Junoon.
| Bulleh! ki jaana maen kaun | Bulleh! to me, I am not known |
|
| |
|
Na maen momin vich maseet aan Na maen vich kufar diyan reet aan Na maen paakaan vich paleet aan Na maen moosa na pharaun. Bulleh! ki jaana maen kaun Na maen andar ved kitaab aan, Na vich bhangaan na sharaab aan Na vich rindaan masat kharaab aan Na vich jaagan na vich saun. Bulleh! ki jaana maen kaun. Na vich shaadi na ghamnaaki Na maen vich paleeti paaki Na maen aabi na maen khaki Na maen aatish na maen paun Bulleh!, ki jaana maen kaun Na maen arabi na lahori Na maen hindi shehar nagauri Na hindu na turak peshawri Na maen rehnda vich nadaun Bulla, ki jaana maen kaun Na maen bheth mazhab da paaya Ne maen aadam havva jaaya Na maen apna naam dharaaya Na vich baitthan na vich bhaun Bulleh , ki jaana maen kaun Avval aakhir aap nu jaana Na koi dooja hor pehchaana Maethon hor na koi siyaana Bulla! ooh khadda hai kaun Bulla, ki jaana maen kaun |
Not a believer inside the mosque, am I Nor a pagan disciple of false rites Not the pure amongst the impure Neither Moses, nor the Pharoh Bulleh! to me, I am not known Not in the holy Vedas, am I Nor in opium, neither in wine Not in the drunkard`s intoxicated craze Niether awake, nor in a sleeping daze Bulleh! to me, I am not known In happiness nor in sorrow, am I Neither clean, nor a filthy mire Not from water, nor from earth Neither fire, nor from air, is my birth Bulleh! to me, I am not known Not an Arab, nor Lahori Neither Hindi, nor Nagauri Hindu, Turk (Muslim), nor Peshawari Nor do I live in Nadaun Bulleh! to me, I am not known Secrets of religion, I have not known From Adam and Eve, I am not born I am not the name I assume Not in stillness, nor on the move Bulleh! to me, I am not known I am the first, I am the last None other, have I ever known I am the wisest of them all Bulleh! do I stand alone? Bulleh! to me, I am not known |
The song remains the same.
Sung by Pakistani Muslims, sung by an Indian Sikh.
I am Bullah. But then so are you.
I, Bullah, do not know who I am.
I do know what I am not, what my identity cannot be essentialized as.
I am not a mosque going Muslim, yet i hang out at the tombs of Muslim holy men.
I am not a Hindu, whatever my name might suggest to you, though i know my Sanskrit shlokas, and I belive in the sacredness of the Narmada river.
I have lived in Bangkok, Lucknow, Cochin, Delhi. None of them defines who I am.
I am an Indian, but I love a city across the border - Lahore.
I love the Punjabi of Bulle Shah, of Junoon, of Rabbi Shergill, and yet I object to being essentialised as Punjabi.
For it is not Punjabi and Punjabiyat that wills save us, but the ability to look beyond the borders - of nation, of region, of self - borders that prevent us from living but for which we are willing to die.
Only then, as Bulle/Bullah Shah once wrote - Ho gayi teri balle balle. Ho jaayegi balle bale....
posted by Anand at 8:12 pm
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