PATIALA: The first thing that struck me in Patiala was that nobody speaks the Patialvi dialect that this city is famed for.

 

The dialect is a creation of Patiala’s geography. Equal distance from Lahore and Delhi, it’s a mixture of Urdu and Punjabi. Old-timers will recall Patialvi because of writer Ashfaq Ahmad’s portrayal of a comic character Talqeen Shah, which was a Radio Pakistan hit in the 1960s and 1970s. Ashfaq Ahmad was perhaps the most known Patialvi in Pakistan. My mother tongue is Patialvi, and I grew up with fairytales of Patiala’s grandeur, its royalty, elephants, pomp and extravagance.

 

Bhopinder Singh was the last Maharaja of Patiala State at the time of the Partition. The Maharaja was a great patron of arts and music. Pakistanis owe him for giving us the much-prided Patiala (gharana) school of thought in music. Bhopinder had 365 wives and countless courtesans. It took lots of effort for his son Yadvinder Singh to settle them after his death. Times had changed and Yadvindar kept a single wife as does his son, former east Punjab Chief Minister Amarindar Singh. Officially, that is.

 

I stayed at Bhopinder Singh’s palace, which is now a five-star hotel. As a Patialian, I was given the honour of sleeping in Maharaja Yadvindar’s suite. The rooms had mahogany roof, sandalwood furniture, a private courtyard, bathroom the size of a swimming pool with an antique bathtub right in the middle. Such was the aura of the palace that I woke up in the middle of the night hearing courtesans dancing with ankle bells (ghungroo). It turned out that the receptionist was listening to classic music.

 

Patiala is a different place today. Muslims comprise around one percent of Patiala’s population as is the case in the rest of east Punjab. This is quite a climb down from around 40 percent at the Partition. The Muslim population ratio in most Punjabi districts between Ravi and Beas, including Jallandhar and Ludhiana, was between 35 to 45 percent.

 

Gurdaspur had more than 50 percent Muslims. This was much higher than the population ratio of Hindus and Sikhs on the west of River Ravi, which was between 25 to 35 percent (except Lahore which was half and half for both groups). So, the migration from east to west was much bigger than from what is now Pakistan to India. But today locals have little idea about Patiala’s Muslim heritage.

 

My young cousin who teaches at Patiala’s Punjabi University told me that he was once asked by a Sikh friend how come he could speak Punjabi as a Muslim. A Muslim stereo type is that they can only speak Urdu. He had to explain that there were more Punjabi Muslims than there are Hindus and Sikhs. The country next door, Alhamdulillah, with its 56 percent Punjabi population is a virtual Punjabistan. And East Punjab is less than three percent of India. So you have come from Pakistan, he was asked again. “No, it’s you who have come from Pakistan,” my cousin had to explain the local roots of his family from many centuries.

 

My cousin’s family survived the bloodshed in 1947 because they were in Malerkotla city, about 50 minute-drive from Patiala. This was the safest haven for Muslims in East Punjab. Sikhs revered the Muslims of Malerkotla because the Nawab of Malerkotla had provided refuge to Sikh Guru Goband Singh’s family when it was being hounded by Mughal forces. Also, Malerkotla was the only Muslim princely state in East Punjab where Nawab Ahmad Ali Khan ensured that his troops did not defect. Even today, Malerkotla has a Muslim women member of the Punjab Assembly, Farzana Alam. Malerkotla also remains the only city (barring Kerala perhaps) outside Kashmir which has a Muslim majority of 70 percent.

 

So, it was educative to know how Muslims of Malerkotla were voting. The obvious trend found common among Indian Muslims this time around is to vote for the person who is likely to defeat a BJP candidate. The issue here was that BJP backed its Akali Dal coalition partner, Sukhbir Dhindsa, here. Part of the Muslim community was inclined towards him because, one, they needed the Akali Dal government on their side. Dhindsa also came to their refuge when there was a chance of anti-Muslim riots a few years ago. But equally popular was AAP candidate, popular comedian Bhagwan Mann. He has got his distinct style that goes well with Punjabi humour. He took a jibe on Modi for his playing up his modest roots as the son of tea-seller: “Acha chai wala hai; helicopter parr jalsa main aata hai; mujhe bhi aisa chai wala bana do” (what kind of tea seller he is; he comes on a helicopter; I would like to be a tea seller like him).

 

Punjabis flock to his meetings for entertainment. He loves to take on Akalis and their favourite pastime of laying foundation stones. “Who says these foundation stones are useless; without these stones how would our buffalos scratch their backside; and soon these buffalos will have (Prakash Singh) Badal’s picture painted on their butts.”

 

Mann can take the credit that he has made AAP relevant in his Sangrur seat. Back in Patiala, Amarindar Singh’s elder Rani, Praneet Kaur, is also locked into a three-way battle, thanks to AAP. Praneet won this seat three times earlier. Her mother-in-law, Mahindar Kaur, was the first woman MP to win from Patiala in the first elections in 1952. Amarindar Singh, who now contests from Amritsar, won from Patiala in 1980. The family seat is out for grabs for anybody.

 

Meanwhile, I see this from Yavindar’s courtyard imagining all those ankle bells and elephants that my mother had told me about. Much has changed in Patiala since then. Today Patiala is universally known for its Patiala peg, the wholesome Scotch that Maharaja Bhopinder Singh was known for drinking. You can tell from the bulging eyes of fellow Patialians in the morning that the tradition continues. Another famed item is the curly Patiala shalwar with its lavish royal belt (shahi naala) that Patiala women exposed deliberately for seduction. It’s still worn but not exposed as much. Talqeen Shah would have understood the reasons.

Published on: thespokesman.pk

Date: Thursday, 01 May 2014