Harking Back: ‘Slave’ syndrome that has become part of our psyche

A few days ago a news item on the front page of this newspaper about Lahore having the highest number of domestic employees – still described as ‘servants’ – who are beaten up, raped, injured and locked up, some even chained, with a few being killed, was appalling. This inhuman aspect of our lives needs attention.

But the idea of writing about the slaves of Lahore over the ages was instigated by a ‘Letters to the Editor’ piece in The Guardian newspaper where an old man took his grandson to Liverpool harbour and they sat down on a circle of blocks of stone. “This is where the cage for slave auctioning once existed. This is a memorial to them poor people”. Britain is slowly opening up to its appalling past, and the process brings forth new revelations every day. But then attitudes are changing fast thanks to the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, though it might take eons before that consciousness comes to Lahore.

Slavery is a touchy subject when it comes to our religion, but I am an ardent admirer of Hazrat Bilal ibn Rabah, also known as Bilal Habashi. To my way of thinking he is the most important Companion of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), yet ignored because of his colour and economic condition. His autobiography when read is enough to give you goose pimples. It was translated by the Trinity College Dublin scholar H.A.L Craig when he found the manuscript in the Vatican Library. But the manner in which he was treated by other ‘Muslims’ is a sad reflection of the inborn racism that exists in Arab society still. The situation in the sub-continent is worse.

Bilal’s father was an Arab slave of the Banu Jumah clan, while his mother was an Ethiopian royal princess, both captured during the events of ‘Amul Feel’. Bilal was born in Mecca and initially was a slave of the cruel Umayyah ibn Khalaf. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) insisted that Hazrat Abu Bakr (RA) purchase him as he had already converted to Islam and was tortured and flogged on a daily basis. It is an accepted fact that because he was a black slave he could not reach the lofty heights he truly deserved in a tribal Arab society. He was taunted as ‘ibn Sauda’, son of a black woman. But he was a free man in Damascus where he died. My contention is that the ‘ibn Sauda’ mind-set exists in all of us, much that we may deny it. We conveniently forget that our past Afghan, Iranian, Turkish and even the British rulers all excelled in the slave trade.

But the most famous slave that Lahore ‘prides’ itself in is Ayaz the white Georgian slave of Russian descent of the Afghan-Turk invader Mahmud. He died in mysterious circumstances, probably poisoned, and was buried outside the walls of the then walled city on the 8th of August, 1041. Our history books tell us that he was the Governor of Lahore, which is grossly incorrect. His grave managed to reach the Shahalami Chowk after Akbar expanded the city and the ‘rahra maidan’ outside became part of the new walled city.

The 11th century Arab historian Al-Utbi in his famous ‘Tarkh al-Tamini’ says that in the year 1001 AD when Mahmud of Ghazni invaded the sub-continent, from Peshawar and Waihand, the Gandhara capital, he captured thousands of slaves, which got him immense wealth. But on his 12th invasion he captured over 600,000 slaves from Lahore and its surroundings. The slave market of the then known world hit an ‘over-supply’ situation which resulted in a dramatic fall in slave prices.

When I visited London a few years ago I was led by a friend to the grave of Solomon Nurr, who lies buried in St Margaret’s Church in Westminster with the date March 22, 1550, written on the tombstone. This Lahori whose original name was Salman Nur, ended up in Shakespearean England, probably taken a slave on a ship, and ended up, most probably using his clever mind in a Westminster church. Lahoris never cease to amaze.

A lot of research is underway in European universities on the ‘changars’ of Lahore and others from Punjabi river banks, all of whom were captured and taken away by Timurlane to service his horsemen as ‘blacksmiths’, itself a racist description. But then we have from time to time mentioned in these columns the UNO-WHO research on the gypsies who have ended up all over the world.

During a visit to the Welsh village of Hay-on-Wye, the world’s largest used book stores village, I came across some gypsies who I managed to converse in broken Punjabi. It was an amazing experience. They claimed, as research and DNA studies have now verified, to have come from the rivers of the Punjab. Research has confirmed that even the gypsies roaming around in South America have Punjabi genes. The Spanish dumped them there to rid Christian Spain of these ‘criminals’ as a Portuguese document calls them.

Extensive research on Portuguese gypsies in the University of Porto has proven beyond doubt that all those removed from our river banks and cities like Lahore centuries ago by our past rulers by the millions have the same DNA as gypsies all over the world. But then in our villages, a terrible example of a feudal-tribal order, the poor are worse than slave labour, for they just get enough food to survive and are often referred to as ‘kami’ (the lesser). It is interesting how people from our river banks were all picked up as slaves and sold in markets as far away as Liverpool in England and Dublin in Ireland, which were large ‘Slave Markets’.

In the 8th century Italian merchants moved up in the opposite direction capturing Slavic slaves for the lucrative North African markets. Amazingly in Genoa a major slave trade existed for Asian slaves for the European markets and white slaves to Egypt and even to parts of Iran and Indian sub-continent.

The final nail in making slavery official was Aurangzeb’s ‘Fatwa-e-Alamgiri’. The degree of depravity reflected in that terrible document led to the complete collapse of the Mughal order and provided colonialism an opening. On the other hand it allowed the exploited common person a chance to rise against such a disposition. That led to the rise of Khalsa Raj, an egalitarian disposition with faults of its own. But at least the people were relatively free, finally.

The question that our history throws up is how we treat our domestic employees, and whether our society can long tolerate the way we treat the poor, who we proudly call ‘servants’. The signs of collapse, coupled with corruption unfettered, is there to be seen. But the poor will one day find better solutions. The first signs are there as our investors move to greener pastures. Has the ‘implosion’ started? Fifty years ago we called our East Pakistani citizens ‘bingos’. They have managed well by doubling per capita income and lowering their population, free from religiosity and hatred of education.

With these depressing thoughts as we move into a long fortnight holiday season, my intention is to read a few rare books of history. My choice till we return to ‘normal’ academic life are Tarikh-i-Firishta (Lucknow, 1864), Andre Wink’s classic ‘Al-Hind’ (1991), Eaton and Chatterjee’s edited collection: ‘Slavery and South Asian History’ (2006). Wishing those celebrating Christmas a great time.