LITERARY STORMCENTERS

AZIZ-ul-DIN AHMAD

(Courtesy Daily Dawn)

THREE areas of colonial Lahore were the stormcentres of literary activity during the thirties and the forties. They were Gowalmandi and its adjoining streets, Anarkali and The Mall When Lahore started expanding during the colonial period, among the first areas to be settled was Gowalmandi and its surroundings. Most of the houses were constructed here towards the turn of the century. The two big markets of the city, the Sabzi Mandi and the Mewa Mandi, were already located in Gowalmandi. Soon it was to accommodate publishing houses, printing establishments, newspaper offices, a number of schools and two colleges, the Islamia College on Railway Road and the Dyal Singh College on Nisbet Road.

The three most well-known publishing houses of the city were situated on the Railway Road which bisects the rather large locality. These were the Taj Company, Qaumi Kutub Khana and Darul Ishaa't, Punjab. The Taj Company specialized in publishing the Holy Quran in a variety of editions, with or without translation or exegesis, on various types of paper ranging from the very costly to the very cheap. They were in different sizes of calligraphy. The Qurans published by the Taj Company were sought after all over India. It published Islamic literature of different kinds including books for children, narrating the exploits of Islamic heroes by Chiragh Hasan Hasrat. I read some of them when I was a schoolboy and still remember Al-Tughrul and Tariq bin Ziyad which were written in an exceptionally evocative style. The Qaumi Kutub Khana, which initially published Naseem Hijazi, was located a few steps farther towards the Arab Hotel. The Darul Ishaa't sprawled at the end of the road towards the Sabzimandi Chowk. Established at the beginning of the century by Maulvi Mumtaz Ali, one of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan's friends, its first venture was the magazine, Tehzeeb-i-Niswaan, which was edited by Muhammadi Begum, Maulvi Mumtaz Ali's wife. The magazine kept the purpose of "liberating women from outmoded customs and evil practices" before it in all its writings. Maulvi Mumtaz Ali's next venture was the children's magazine, Phool, the largest of its kind in circulation. Later, it was edited by his son Imtiaz Ali Taj. Both the magazines were popular among readers of Urdu all over India. The building of the Darul Ishaa't was large enough to accommodate the family of Maulvi Mumtaz Ali and, at the same time, serve as a publishing house. Much later, Dr Syed Abdullah lived here for many years.

The newspapers Veer Bharat and the Arya Samaji Pratap also had their offices on the Railway Road. The daily Milap was only a little farther off, on the Circular Road near Mochi Gate. The pro-Unionist Party Inqilab was published from a street in front of the Amrit Dhara Building, part of which now houses Dwakhana Hakim Ajmal Khan. Abdul Majid Salik and Ghulam Rasul Mehr, the prominent columnists of the paper, came all the way from Muslim Town to Railway Road on a tonga (Bugi) every day. The offices of the Tribune, founded at the end of the last century by Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia, were situated in front of the Mayo Hospital in the building that later housed The Pakistan Times. Maulana Zafar Ali Khan's Zamindaar had its offices on McLeod Road towards the Railway Station, not very far from Gowalmandi.

A number of well-known writers lived on or around Railway Road. Chiragh Hasan Hasrat had rented quarters in the street adjoining the Arab Hotel. He was an outstanding columnist and a literary figure and had few rivals as a conversationalist. One such person was Dr. Ashiq Husain Batalvi, an Ancient Mariner stalking the streets and haunting the restaurants of Lahore. He could talk for hours to bewitched listeners who would find it was dinner time when they got up to have lunch.

Dr. Ashiq Husain lived in Chowk Barf Khana, a few steps from Arab Hotel. He was a dissident leader of the provincial Muslim League and when he found after partition that it was difficult to live under those whom he had opposed, he migrated to England where he made a living through his literary talent. One of his relatives who lived nearby had introduced a bidi (cigar) called 15 Number ki Bidi which was touted by salesmen using mouthpieces made of tin. Andhey ko rasta dikha gaiee bedi 15 number ki (the number fifteen bidi will show the way to the blind man) was the jingle they popularized. The great scholar, Hafiz Mehmud Shirani, and his son Akhtar Shirani, the poet, lived in a katri on 46 Fleming Road about a hundred yards from Chowk Barf Khana. On the same road , leading from Chowk Barf Khana to what is now the Lahore Hotel, lived Tajwar Najibabadi, who headed the group opposed to Niazmandan-i-Lahore and was known for patronising many local Hindu and Sikh poets like Uday Singh and Kirpal Singh Bedaar. All the writers of Lahore were at the time divided between the two warring factions led by Bokhari and Tajwar. On 46 Fleming Road also lived Aqa Bedar Bakht and when Altaf Gauhar, then a young writer, read a lampoon Aqa baqa chiri chabaka at Halqa-i-Arbab-i-Zauq, Aqa Bedar Bakht accompanied by his fans would have made mincemeat out of him had it not been for a number of literary activists belonging to the rival group who came to his rescue. The well-known literary magazine Nairang-i-Khayal had its offices at the other end of Fleming Road near the clinic of Hakeem Muhammad Hasan Qarshi, who invariably wore a sherwani and kept on chewing a paan (beetle leaf) all the time. Nairang-i-Khayal was patronized by Niazamandan-i-Lahore, led by Bokhari, Taseer and Majid Malik who stood for new trends in literature and thought Punjabis wrote as well in Urdu as anyone else. Abdur Rehman Chughtai, the painter who lived on Ravi Road adjacent to the first European cemetery in the city, was introduced to the reading public by Nairang-i-Khayal.

As opposed to Alamgir, another literary magazine from Lahore specializing in writers with outmoded sensibility, Nairang-i-Khyal generally represented new trends but was broad-minded enough to publish anything that was outstanding. The signboard of the magazine continued to be displayed for years after it had ceased publication. Its offices continued to be haunted by Abdul Hameed Adam and Zaheer Kashmiri till well after partition. One was always sure to see them sallying forth from here every evening, lit up like Christmas trees.

The meeting place for all these people and others like Gopal Mittal, Kanahya Lal Kapur, Hafeez Jullundri, Eshan Danish and Krishan Chandar was the celebrated Arab Hotel. The restaurant, situated on the ground floor of a building in front of the Islamia College, was given the peculiar name because it was owned by an Arab who had decided to settle in the city. On the front side near the entrance was placed the rectangular charcoal stove on which kebabs were roasted, not on skewers as was the fashion then in Lahore but on a grill. I remember being told to go and bring kebabs from the Arab Hotel whenever guests visited us. Inside sat its clientele; writers, political workers, journalists, unemployed young men and students from the Habibia Hall, the hostel of the Islamia College across the road. Anybody who had a ready wit or a literary sensibility, or the patience to listen to those who had these qualities, was welcome here irrespective of his politics, nationality or creed. Chiragh Hasan Hasrat presided over the proceedings as long as he was in Lahore. When he joined the Indian Army during World War II, most of the crowd shifted to Nagina Bakery in Anarkali. But of that later.

(Aziz-ul-Din Ahmad is a teacher of politics and literature. He has written several books and pamphlets on political and cultural issues. He lives in Lahore, Pakistan).