Pakistan in an Age of Turbulence

Masuma Hasan

• Publisher: Pen and Sword History
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781526788610
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Indian & South Asian History
• Index: History

A detailed and graphic personal and family history within a national and international context. It mirrors and brings to life the modern and contemporary history of the Indian sub-continent and of India and Pakistan, and the dramatic birth-struggles of both major nation states dominating South Asia. And the complex racial, religious and ethnic mix was central to turbulent politics and Islamic identity is a factor in international politics. The overshadowing influence of the British Indian Empire was a constant factor and sets the context. The huge upheaval and tragedy of Partition is at the heart of the story with the flight of an influential Muslim population, advanced in education and culture and prominent in the professions, to Pakistan to form a new state, liberal in form but Islamic in confession. Here is a vivid and attractive personal family life followed by distinguished state service, laying bare the modern political history of Pakistan from the inside with sharp and decisive insight, including the promise and tragedy of the Bhutto era, the excesses and cruel extremism of the Ziaul Haq regime, and the struggle of the return to democracy in Pakistan.

Chapter 1

Panipat and My Family

My father, Sarwar Hasan, was 45 years old when he turned his back on his ancestral hearth and home and boarded the train to Pakistan in August 1947. His decision was deliberate and conscious and my immediate family was not pushed out ruthlessly in the deluge of refugees who crossed the border in the wake of Partition. Although my father was able to take his personal effects with him, we were also refugees, headed towards a region which we considered our own but which we did not really know. As I look at the details of his possessions, it is obvious that for him the break was permanent. Why else would he carry all his personal correspondence, his degrees, diaries, lecture notes, speeches in the Cambridge Union, his father’s archive, old photographs and papers relating to his extensive properties? If he thought that he could retain his ancestral home and also build a life in Pakistan, he would not have clung to these mementoes and precious bundles of paper. Nor was he an adventurer, who would run back if his luck failed. His understanding of the turbulent politics of the subcontinent had convinced him that he would never return to live in the land which his ancestors had inhabited for nearly 700 years. There would be no turning back.

My forefathers had lived in the pargana of Panipat since the reign of Ghiyasuddin Balban (1200–87), an enlightened ruler who invited men of learning and wisdom to his court. Balban was the seventh and greatest sultan of the Slave dynasty in India. He wielded immense power, first in positions of influence under his predecessors, including Razia Sultana and Nasiruddin Mahmud, and then as a sovereign in his own right. He ruled with an iron hand and his greatest achievements were to suppress anarchy and fortify his kingdom against the barbaric attacks of the Mongol hordes who had ransacked Lahore several times and destroyed Lahore Fort under his predecessor. He restored the fort at Lahore and built a series of other fortifications along his northern and western frontiers to keep the Mongols out. In one of the encounters with the Mongols, Balban lost his favourite son, Muhammad, for whom he remained grief-stricken for the rest of his life. It is said that he tried not to venture far away from Delhi for fear that Halaku Khan would destroy his capital as mercilessly as he had sacked Baghdad in 1258.

Balban was austere and aloof by nature, but he ruled with a difference and his court had a grandeur all its own. His subjects travelled long distances to watch the splendour of his dazzling royal processions.1 He insisted on enforcing strict justice, but on matters of governance he did not seek the advice of the ulema nor did he encourage his sons to do so. However, there were few periods in Indian history in which scholarship reached the heights it attained under Balban or which were so imbued with soul and spirituality. In the wake of the destruction caused by Halaku Khan, many men of learning had fled into Balban’s realm from across his northern and western frontiers, in search of safety and protection. Balban welcomed them and facilitated their stay and the pursuit of their scholarly interests in their own khanqahs.

During Balban’s reign, Delhi was teeming with scholars2 but more important for the spiritual history of the subcontinent was the presence in his realm of many leaders of Sufi thought who were contemporaries, such as Bahauddin Zakariya of Multan, Fariduddin Ganjshakar of Pakpattan, Jalaluddin Surkh Bukhari of Uch and Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi, and the two great qalandars, Bu Ali Shah of Panipat and Lal Shabaz of Sehwan. The teachings of these men, who were philosophers, writers and poets and who were in mutual contact and respected one another, their relationship with their followers as murshid and disciple, the miracles attributed to them and their own individual scholarship created a rare atmosphere of tolerance for different expressions of thought.

My ancestor, Khwaja Malak Ali, came to Panipat from Herat in 1286 on Balban’s invitation when he had been on the throne of Delhi for twenty years. He was accompanied by his devoted parwanas, each outstanding in scholarship: Wajihuddin Payali, Muizuddin Daulatabadi, Najibuddin Samarqandi and Qutubuddin Makki. Malak Ali was descended from the tenth Shia imam, Ali Naqi, and the great scholar and Sufi master, Shaykh Abu Ismail Khwaja Abdullah Pir of Herat whose own forefathers had migrated to Herat from Medina in the time of the third caliph, Usman Ghani.3 It is recorded that, ‘The Panipat Ansaris or helpers of the Prophet, are descended from Khwaja Abdullah Pir of Hirat, one of whose descendants, called Khwaja Malk [sic] Ali, was summoned from Hirat by Sultan Ghias-ul-din Balban on account of his repute for learning… Many celebrated men have sprung from this family.’4

Abdullah Ansari traced his ancestry to Abu Ayyub Ansari (died 674) who was the Prophet’s first host when he entered Medina. His was the first house before which the Prophet’s camel had stopped. Abu Ayyub Ansari was one of the closest and most trusted companions of the Prophet and the Hadith attributed to him are held in high esteem in both Sunni and Shia tradition. He was an ardent warrior and took part in all the Prophet’s battles and those waged by his followers. Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib had also appointed him as the governor of Medina. His last war, at the age of more than 80 years, was with the Arab army which took on the Byzantine empire and laid siege to Constantinople from 674 to 678. Abu Ayyub died of illness during the siege, which was unsuccessful and had to be abandoned. On his own request, he was buried beneath the walls of Constantinople. After the ‘probably legendary’5 discovery of his grave nearly 800 years later when the Ottomans finally captured Constantinople in 1453, he acquired the status of the patron saint of the city. His tomb, built on the Golden Horn in Istanbul, and the beautiful mosque adjoining it, became the site of pilgrimage and prayer.

Abdullah Ansari (1006–88), ninth in the line from Abu Ayyub Ansari, was one of the greatest mystics of all times. He was born in the Old Citadel of Herat and learnt at the feet of many Sufi teachers, but the decisive influence in his life was that of Shaykh Abul Hasan Kharaqani whom he met when he was 27 years old and who has been described as ‘an unlettered villager filled with mystical fervor’.6 The Abbasid caliphs bestowed on Abdullah Ansari the highest religious titles, such as Shaykh-al Islam, Shaykh-al Shuyukh, Zainal Ulema and Nasir-al Sunnah and sent him robes of honour. However, due to his strict adherence to the Hanbalite fiqh, he suffered immensely at the hands of rulers and denunciations by rival theologians. He was prohibited from teaching and banished from Herat on a number of occasions, even in his twilight years, and was once imprisoned in chains. But he was fearless in the face of persecution, bided time with patience and always returned in triumph to continue teaching in the Grand Mosque in Herat and in his own Sufi khanqah.

A prolific author of mystical literature in Arabic and Persian, it is said that Abdullah Ansari knew 100,000 Persian verses by heart and composed 6,000 verses in Arabic.7 His biographer, Beaurecueil, refers to his rich personality, exceptional gifts, surprising memory, great sensitivity, poetical and oratorical talents, ardent character, tenacious will, powerful sense of mission and responsibilities and his ‘virulent Hanbalism’.8 Maybodi, the author of Kashf al-Asrar often refers to him as Pir-i-Tariqat.9 ‘How many fountains and streams have I passed,’ he wrote, ‘so that one day I might discover the Ocean.’ At the age of 74, he became blind but dictated the famous Sufi Arabic manual, Manazil al-Sa’irin (The Stations of the Wayfarers) to his disciples, having earlier dictated Sad Maydan (The Hundred Grounds), a Sufi manual in Dari. He was also the author of Qalandar Namah, a manual on mystical thought and practice, which he wrote after his sojourn with a wandering qalandar. However, his most popular work remains Munajat (Intimate Invocations). He opposed the rationalist views of his contemporaries, but regarded ‘Sufism as an integral part of Islam’10 and his own religious attitudes were imbued with the tolerance and syncretism which are the essentials of mysticism. Having always shunned worldly possessions, he died in poverty. He was buried in Gazargah, near his khanqah. A mausoleum was commissioned around his tomb by the Timurid ruler, Shah Rukh, between 1425 and 1427, which has developed over the centuries into a vast shrine complex.

Malak Ali belonged to the fifteenth generation of the family of Abdullah Pir of Herat. According to most traditions, the Pir had no male child. The narrative in our family tree states that he gave his daughter in marriage to his sister’s son, Muhammad, whose father was the grandson of Imam Ali Naqi. He virtually adopted his nephew as his own son and personally attended to his education, putting him through all the stages of dervishi and bestowing his khilafat upon him. He also gave him the title of khwaja.11 So highly revered was the Pir as a scholar and mystic that his daughter’s family started carrying this title of khwaja or master which was traditionally used for descendants of the Prophet’s companions who lived in Persian-speaking lands. This was also done to protect his son-in-law from persecution against the members of the Prophet’s close family which was rife at that time. Therefore, our family have always been considered as both Syeds and Ansars.12 As descendants of the Pir we were regarded as Ansars, but as descendants of Imam Ali Naqi we were described as Syeds in all the official records of the house of Timur in Delhi.13

When Malak Ali arrived in Panipat, it was already famous for its mashaikh and auliya. It was the spiritual turf of Shamsul Auliya Khwaja Shamsuddin Tark (died 1315)14 who made Panipat the centre of the Chisti Sabiri silsila. Shamsuddin Tark had come from Turkistan to become a disciple of Fariduddin Ganjshakar but was sent by him instead to learn at the feet of his brother-in-law, Alauddin Ali Ahmad Sabir Kalyari. His scholarship and spirituality were so remarkable that Sabir Kalyari soon appointed his young follower as his successor and described him as the shams among his starry disciples, stating that this one sun was enough to illuminate the entire world.15 Another inspirational figure, Jalaluddin Kabirul Auliya (died 1363) was Shamsuddin Tark’s disciple. He was born in Panipat in a distinguished and wealthy family and was buried there in Mohalla Pirzadgan. He was a great figure in tariqat and was known for his love of sam’a.

Perhaps no mystical figure belonging to Panipat deserves more space in any narrative than Sharfuddin Bu Ali Shah Qalandar (1208–1324) whose spirituality has touched the lives of millions of people over the centuries. His parents had migrated from Iraq to India between 1193 and 1203 and had started living in Panipat. His father, Shaykh Fakhruddin, was a well-known scholar, a Sufi of sorts, who became a disciple of Bahauddin Zakariya of Multan. His first wife was the daughter of Bahauddin Zakariya and after she passed away, Shaykh Fakhruddin went to Hamadan where he married Syeda Hafiza Jamal, the sister of Syed Naimatullah Hamadani. Her tomb is located near Bu Ali’s. Sharfuddin was born four years after the couple moved to Panipat.16

On reaching Panipat, Malak Ali was faced with a moral dilemma. The elite of the city had joined hands to draw up a written charge sheet or fatwa against Bu Ali for rejecting the traditional observance of religion and Shariat, such as offering ritual prayers, and for going about in a state of total nakedness. They demanded that he should be declared eligible for punishment. They requested Malak Ali to also sign and put his seal on these charges but he tore up the paper and threw it away, saying that one who is drunk with marifat and is in a state of total spiritual intoxication or sakar, is exempted from the observance of Shariat.17

After this event, Bu Ali visited Malak Ali and expressed a desire to conclude his twelve-year fast at his residence. This he duly did and prayed for the prosperity and well-being of Malak Ali’s family and directed him to continue to reside in Panipat. He affectionately addressed Malak Ali’s sons, Khwaja Masud as maqsud-i-mun and Kh...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1 Panipat and My Family
• Chapter 2 Hyderabad Interlude
• Chapter 3 Life in Intelligence School
• Chapter 4 Farewell to Panipat
• Chapter 5 Fatehyab and the Anti-Ayub Movement
• Chapter 6 Education and Employment
• Chapter 7 The Bhutto Years
• Chapter 8 Movement for Restoration of Democracy
• Chapter 9 Vienna
• Chapter 10 Last Posting
• Chapter 11 For Fatehyab
• Glossary
• Acknowledgements
• Notes
• Plate section