Khawaja Ali Bahadar's Poetry Khawaja Publications

A Review Treat Title:

Khawaja Ali Bahadar's Poetry

A New Review Treat
By
Prof. Mohammad Ayub Reviewed by:
Prof. Mohammad Ayub
Edited by:
I.U. Jairal
Composed by:
Khawaja Kashif Hussain
Compiled by: I.U. Jairal

Azad Computers, 106, Ishaq Plaza


Chowk Shaheedan, Mirpur AJK
Khawaja Publications

Pakistan.
Machhyari, Chakswari, Mirpur AJK (Pakistan)
Contact: 05827-444407 , 0344-4443907 Designed by:
Khawaja Kashif Hussain
Publishers:
Khawaja Publications


Machhyari, Chakswari, Mirpur A.K
Printers:
Kashar Publisher, Mirpur A.K
 Dedicated to:
My Princesses
Nightingales

*
Nighat Asif
*
Riffat Arshad
*
Iffat Karamat
*
Talat Amjad

Karamat Hussain Khawaja


An Entreaty to
*Peeray Shah Ghazi (Damarhi Wali Sarkar)
*Mian Mohammad Bukhsh (R.A)
From: I.U. Jairal
PREFACE
Book reviews and explanations are continually being coined in the
various languages; Khawaja Ali Bahadar's Punjabi Collection
Dukhan Day Pand' (Distress of Utilities) has also been testified to his
skill as a master classical poet. His creativity in the classical words is
seldom used today. But Allah blesses Prof. Muhammad Ayub of
Faisalabad and men of letters who have contributed their comments
and reviews in new progressive words and terms. They have termed
Khajwaja Ali Bahadar's book a Punjabi classical poetry. So they too are
included in the book Reviews explanations.
These Reviews Explanations are compiled edited to aid Punjabi
writers, publishers, scholars as well as teachers, students and others
interested in the Punjabi literature.
No book of this scope cab be possibly complete, so corrections,
suggestions, for additional comments would not only be welcomed, but
are fervently, solicited.
I.U. Jairal
Editor
Khawaja Publications
Machhyari, Chakswari,
Mirpur AJK (Pakistan)

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I am indebted to Prof. Mohammad Ayub, Mansha Yad, Dr.
Ahsan Akbar, Dr. Rashid Amjad, Dr. Rashid Nisar, Khalid Iqbal Yasir,
Sajawal Khan Ranjah, Baba-e-Gojari Rana Fazal Hussain (Tamgha-e-
Paksitan), Syed Masood Ajaz Bukhari, Mazhar Z.A. Zulfi (wazirabad),
Sabir Afaqi, Mohammad Sharif Tariq Advocate (Alig), Ms. Qamar-un-
Nisa, Ms. Shakh-e-Nabaat, M. Farooq Jarral, Jabar Azad Toor, Qamar
Jarral, Ghulam Sarwar Rana, M. Rafi Ullah Jarral, Abdul Hameed Mir,
Prof. M. Akram Tahir, Sardar Mohammad Azam (Advocate), Waqar
Bin Illahi, Mohammd Khaleeq-uz-Zaman and Qazi Mohammad
Bashir Gorsi for their par excellence contributions explanations
Khawaja Ali Bahadar poetry.
Special thanks to Prof. Sajjad Haider Malik, my worthy guide, teacher
who always turned my many inconsistencies into systematic
consistencies.
I am also indebted to Mr. Karamat Hussain Khawaja for his many years
work with me in preserving inking and arranging to printing publishing
process of his own Khawaja Publications. I am also thankful to him for
his co-operation in computer composing and printing process.

Finally my thanks to my wife, for her patience during the more
than six years these books working.
I.U. Jairal
Editor
Khawaja Publications
Machhyari, Chakswari,
Mirpur AJK (Pakistan)
Editor's Note
Column Punjabi Themes in daily Dawn Lahore, on July 14, A.D.
2006, Mr. Shafaqat Tanvir Mirza (STM) has rightly written that:
Khawaja Ali Bahadar wrote under the influence of the great poet,
Mian Mohammad Bukhsh (Saif-ul-Malook) who is one of the
prominent Chitthi writers in Punjabi literature. Khawaja's letters reflect
the grim circumstances under which Asian labourers live and work in
the Diaspora. STM

Not only this; but Khawaja Ali Bahadar has also excelled in his
book Dukhan Day Pand (Distress of Utilities) in every genre, form
and tradition of Punjabi Literature. People my have difference of
opinion about his great collection, but his book was a unique attempt on
Punjabi classical heritage.
In this volume, A Review Treat written by Prof. Mohammad Ayub of
Faisalabad and also from a number of giant intellectuals, writers and
scholars of Urdu and Punjabi World, mentioned in acknowledgement.
Also enjoy reading of an overall review by Prof. Sajjad Haider Malik.
All writings, reviews and comments are in strict letter-by-letter
alphabetical order.
I.U. Jairal
Editor
Khawaja Publications
Machhyari, Chakswari,
Mirpur AJK (Pakistan)
 Sajjad Haider Malik
Khawaja Ali Bahadar
(1913-1980)
Khawaja Ali Bahadar was an extraordinary man. As an unlettered
man he wrote great poetry in Punjabi. Deprived of his father when he
was only twelve he could not continue his studies in the only school of
the area. He had to undertake hard manual work to meet the demands of
a small rural home and serve his mother and take care of his younger
siblings, and he did all kinds of work: road-building, woodwork,
construction work, iron smith and on spindles. When he got married he
had own children too. Therefore he went to Karachi and there he
learned the art of weaving and clothes making. He brought the skill
back to his village Machhyari, and convinced his people to learn this
new skill.
Machhyari is a small village near Mirpur. It was at one time just seven
kilometres from old Mirpur, but later when the town went under water
for Mangla Dam Mirpur city moved away. It is now 37 km. from
Mirpur. There is a history of the people who had settled in Kashmir in
the 13th century and then later converted to Islam, probably in the 17 th
century. Khawaja Ali Bahadar belonged to a sect called DUTT. Then
the people came down to Mirpur, but here too life was very hard.
Shortage of water, lack of communication, transportation and
education resulted into a lack of opportunities of jobs as well:
In such trying circumstances Khawaja Ali Bahadar sought
compensation in working on the land, physical exercises and in poetry.
He had a good sweet voice and he sang Saif-ul-Maluk to great effect.
Besides, he studied all the classics in Punjabi; Mirza Sahiban, Sohni
Mahinwal and great accounts of battles waged by heroes of Punjab
against Mushals. These are known as Waran.
By this time it can be said that Khawaja Ali Bahadar had worked out
his own language out of his engagement with the classical and his own
mixture of dialects of daily use. He was now ready to compose his
thoughts in to the language that he had worked for himself and the
opportunity to do so came his way. He was known in the locality as a
literate person who could express himself well and also could express
people would come to him to write letters to those who had gone
abroad. This phase of his expression is the first phase of this poetry. He
would write letters in rhyme and rhythm the thoughts that were so dear
to him. He felt the pain the pain of migration of those who had left their
near dear ones. The wife asking him to write to her husband, the brother
making an appeal to his brother and the children writing to the father.
The added charm of his poetry brought into being the epistolary poetry
of Khawaja Ali Bahadar that is so fresh and spontaneous. There was
the pain of dislocation because of the construction of the dam on a vast
area. The temporary relocation and migration had been augmented by
the greater migration to a land across the seas. The immediate impact
was felt by every family, though the later prosperity was not without its
problems of the relevant people.
Perhaps unconsciously Khawaja Ali Bahadar belonged to an
exclusive league of writers who had adopted the epistolary technique.
Among the first novelists Samuee Richardson (1689-1761) started as
writer of letters for young girls and then made it his technique for his
th
novels (Pamela and Clarrisa etc). Then in the 20 century Alex Haily
the famous black writer of ROOTS wrote letters for sailors before he
took up writing the great novel based on the migration, rather forced
migration, from Africa to America by his agnates.
Then there is the story of seasons and the 12 months by Khawaja Ali
Bahadar that reminds us of Edmund Spenser's The Shepherd's
Calendar. He was a man who loved his land and loved to work on it. It
is also known that it was through his struggle that his family was given
the status of agriculturists and thus obtained their fights reserved for
such a category. After their migration to the lower areas of Mirpur life
was very hard and there was hardly any compensation for his people.
The compensation came in the shape of visas of England if they agreed
to give up their land for the new dam. There is no doubt the migration to
England gave them prosperity hither to unknown by these people but it
came not without a tension and separation in the families of the areas. A
death abroad, across the seas, in foreign land was also something new.
Khawaja Ali Bahadar came to know about it on his own expense. He
had left for England in 1959 and stayed there fore almost 20 years. It
was there that he lost his son Mohammad Maalik, a young man and
went through all the process taking the body home for burial in teetering down the precipice. While some people were trying in vain to
put the vehicle back on the highway Khawaja Ali Bahadar folded his
Machchiari. The process involved receiving the body from the blanket on his shoulder and got below the front and heaved the vehicle
back on the highway. The legend spread that he, single-handed, had
hospital in England getting a coffin prepared, the transportation to pushed the vehicle back to safety.
For his physical strength and stone-lifting feats he would be taken as a
the airport, the reservation in the plane, the journey to Islamabad and
special guest by marriage parties in his area. During the apparently
the transportation to Machchiari, and then the burial. All this has light-hearted but indeed very serious competitions he would be the
champion. The champion of the whole barat the marriage party. He
been described in the poem Watnan Wal Tyyari. The poet is not an was a scourge to the local loafers and teasers and for those who illegally
cut the trees.
objective spectator. He is the father and thus the poem is highly A truly extraordinary man Khawaja Ali Bahadar was felled by cancer
at the age of 67. A handsome man of chiselled features, and a man who
charged, personal and subjective and emotional. express the pain of the common man he will forever in our hearts, for
If the epistles from the first part of Khawaja Ali Bahadar's poetry, the ages and for those who care to read his poetry.
second part was devoted to the general social customs and rituals that
were part of the social fabric and the moral values of the people of
Mirpur and of Azad Jammu & Kashmir. The poet here takes a high
moral ground and shows his adherence to the high moral values
expected of straightforward people. The reader may be forgiven if he or
she find an imposition from the poet, who himself was an exponent of
highest moral values. The prosperity followed by an austere life and
struggle demanded a strictness and watchfulness of the part of the
people and also a sense of responsibility.
The third part of his poetry belongs to the period when he was in
England there again he went through the experience of sadness, the
personal grief of his son's death. The pain of separation from one's
family is once again the theme and the treatment is much more mature
than before. His art and language progressed by this time but he never
sought fame. He is known to the common man but not to the elite.
The small Punjabi circle where no one is allowed in, his son, Karamat
Hussain Khawaja has done a great service to all of us by bringing
about the publication of his work and has brought him out of an
undeserved anonymity. A straightforward, upstanding and upright
man, Khawaja Ali Bahdar was a man of great physical strength.
While in Birmingham he saw an army vehicle slipping down the
highway and hanging by the side, half on the road and the front half
 the question is: who at that t9ime was a more deserving writer than
Qasmi Sahib? The same question can be put to Khushwant Singh if
not Amrita, who else?

Amrita throughout her life remained a controversial figure, and
the last controversy was about her recommendation for a state award
for a Punjabi poet whose book was adjudged the best of the year. On
Amrita's recommendation, the objection came from the pro-
Courtesy: Dawn, Lahore establishment intellectuals that the poet had criticised the then prime
By: Shafqat Tanveer Mirza minister of India Indira Gandhi for her oppression of the Sikh
community Though Amrita was made member of the upper house of
parliament by Indira's congress, as was the case with Khushwant Singh
A Controversial Life himself, she rejected the objection and asserted that she had given her
Ik Fikri Weer Wah (13) Prof. Muhammad verdict on poetical merits and not on political basis.
AyubPUNJABI ADAD..Special issue on Amrita Pritam; edited by
Her very popular poem Aj aankhars Waris shah noon was also
Raja Rasalu, Parveen Malik, Zahid Hasan, pp208; Price Rs.25, criticised by some sections of the Sikh and Hindu intellectuals
Published by Pakistan Punjabi Adabi Borad, 17/15, Outfall Road contending as to why a Muslim Waris Shah was addressed why not
Lahore. Baba Nanak? Her plea was that only Waris Shah represented the

At a condolence reference held for Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Punjabi people in the context of the partition holocaust witnessed in
writer-poet Aizaz Aazir particularly referred to the comments of the Punjab.
veteran Indian journalist and writer Another criticism was about her love affairs about which she herself
Khushwant Singh about Amrita. Singh wrote in detail in her auto-biography, and in articles and interviews. It
had said that while deciding about the was basically a case of a sectarian view taken by her opponents who
highest Indian awards for a writer, Amrita questioned why she had loved to Muslims: Sahir Ludhianvi (family
being a member of the board or the judging name Abdul Hayee and Sajjad Haider, a well-known broadcaster,
committee had cast here vote in her own playwright of Punjabi, Amrita and Sajjad were colleague at the Lahore
favour. Aizaz's view was that khushwant station of All-India Radio.
Singh had passed those remarks in Amrita's
Amrita's father kartar Singh Hatkari was a pot associated
lifetime. After her death his disclosure with a group of social reformists. His wife died when Amrita was
(if it is a disclosure) was not needed at only eight. She at that tender age wrote some poetic lines which
all . A similar allegation was made against the late Ahmad Nadeem were not liked by her poet father and he slapped her. This gave her
Qasmi. He was the member of the committee of the Pakistan more power and zeal to pursue her poetic interest. And then came a
Academy of Letters which was to nominate the writer for the first day when his father was writing a poem and was worried about the
prime minister's life-time achievement award. The committee use of a particular word. Amrita asked him to show her the lines.
decided in favour of Qasmi Sahib. The explanation given after the
announcement of the ward by the committee was that Qasmi was
requested to stay away from the meeting for a while during which
the final unan9imous decision was taken in favour of Qasmi Sahib,

(The boat rocks in troubled waters /it's a bottomless river,

they say Hatkari was worried about the word Loki (People). He (Relatives create many problems so I keep my self aloof from internal
rifts. Since the day you went to the foreign land, I have hardly been to
wanted a substitute and Amrita instantly offered a word Taaru my parents).
Khawaja Ali Bahadar wrote under the influence of the great poet Mian
(Ace Swimmers). It was a great surprise for the father who
Mohammad Bukhsh (saif-ul-Malook) who is one of the prominent
afterwards encouraged her daughter to write poetry as she liked. Chitthi writers in Punjabi literature. Khawaja's letters reflect the grim
When the first collection of America, Amrit lehran was published in circumstances under which Asian labourers live and work in the
1940 with her name as Amrit Kaur it also carried a foreword by her Diaspora. ----STM (Shafaqat Tanvir Mirza)
father. Courtesy: Dawn-Lahore, July 14, 2006 A.D
The above incident was referred to by Hatkari as he prayed for a bright
future for his daughter to be a great Punjabi poet. He also appealed to
the readers to encourage her so that she could serve the Punjabi
language. That was the beginning of the career of Amrita Pritam, the
great poem.
The other day Dr. Nabeela Rahman of the Punjabi department of the
Punjab University, presented a paper on the tradition of poetry in the
form of personal letters called Chitthian Punjabi. She was not aware of
this book which was published this year form Azad Jammu & Kashmir
in which 27 letters addressed to the close relatives of the poet were
included.

Khawaja Ali Bahadar from a village close to Mirpur ahead gone
to the UK as a labourer, leaving his family behind in his ancestral
settlement. In the wilderness of the alien land he used to write letters
back to his family in verse. Even during his life in the village, reading
and writing poetry was his loving pastime.
Whenever some woman or man used to request him to write a letter to
their relatives settled in London or elsewhere , he with their permission
would do so in verse. These lines from a letter addressed to a husband
reflect the relations which are considered very important in our family
life.