Khalid Bashir Ahmad
Abdul Salam Rafiqi was a pioneering journalist who started a newspaper in Kashmir as early as in 1896; a religious scholar who was Imam (prayer-leader) at the Jama Masjid of Dalhousie in north India; a poet who wrote quality Persian verses; a patriotic pen-wielder whose words disturbed the sleep of imperial police; a politician who became Municipal Commissioner in Kangra district of United Punjab; a revolutionary who was exiled by Dogra Maharaja and was implicated in several anti-British activities including a mutiny in Singapore; a deportee who lived in Burma (Myanmar) and Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) under constant surveillance; a prisoner who escaped from jail in the face of an imminent death sentence; a reformist who was associated with a number of Muslim modernist, intellectual and social movements; a Marco Polo who shuttled between India, Burma, Singapore, Japan and Indonesia; an intellectual who was respected for his nobility, modernism and a combination of knowledge of eastern and western sciences in him; a community leader who was a founding member of the All India Muslim League; a prominent citizen who, at a conference, was allotted a seat in a row of chairs ahead of that of his ruler; and, above all, an activist who had the distinction of discovering the lost and forgotten grave of Bahadur Shah Zafar in Rangoon (Yangon) and resolutely fighting for the honour of his mortal remains.
That was Abdul (or Abdus) Salam Rafiqi, an amazing Kashmiri whose life-journey would make an interesting script for a successful thriller. Sadly, however, very few people in the land of his origin have heard about this “great man, enterprising and duteous son of Kashmir”. As per family genealogy, the ancestor of the Rafiqis, Sayyid Jalaluddin, also known as Khawaja Sangeen for having built a Masjid-i-Sangeen or a Mosque of Stones, had arrived in Kashmir during the rule of Sultan Sikandar (r. 1389–1413) along with a batch of sayyids accompanying Mir Muhammad Hamdani, son of the great 14th century Islamic preacher, Mir Sayyid Ali Hamdani. Jalaluddin’s grandson, Khawaja Mohammad Tahir, was a man of spirituality who was given the title of Rafiq (friend or comrade) by Hadrat Sheikh Abdul Shakoor Lahori, progeny of great spiritual leader, Hadrat Sheikh Bahauddin Zakariya Multani, when Tahir’s father, Khawaja Ibrahim, visited him in Lahore. It was from Mohammad Tahir Rafiq that the family got Rafiqi as surname. Although some members of the extended Rafiqi clan trace their lineage to the family of Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him), Abdul Salam Rafiqi published an article in his newspaper written by his brother, Molvi Mohammad Qasim Rafiqi, that goes down only to Sayyid Jalaluddin while tracing family lineage. Born in 1879 to an expatriate Kashmiri couple at Nurpur village of Kangra, a district in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh then a part of the undivided Punjab, Abdul Salam Rafiqi’s grandfather, Habibullah Rafiqi, had been exiled from Kashmir for writing against the Dogra rule. He settled at Nurpur where Abdul Salam was born to his son, Badruddin Rafiqi. The child memorized the Holy Qur’an when he was only 9 and, at 11, came to be known as Molvi Abdul Salam. At Kangra, the family, for its religious background, earned the respectable sobriquet of Kashmiri Pirs. The Illustrated Weekly of India did a story on Rafiqi somewhere in 1968–69 but this author was not able to locate the particular issue of the weekly.
Abdul Salam Rafiqi had close association with the United India’s great Muslim reformist and educationist, Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Molvi Zakaullah and Shibli Nomani. He became one of the basic members of the Sir Sayyid-led All India Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental Educational Conference spearheading the movement for educational uplift of the Indian Muslims which resulted in the foundation of the Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh that latter developed into the famous Aligarh Muslim University. He collected money for the college from the Muslims of Rangoon and even faced allegations of misappropriation of these funds. He was also associated with the Lahore-based Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam which promoted Islamic education for women, and with the transnational movement of left-wing revolutionaries from South Asia, Ghadr, that was active in Southeast Asian cities such as Rangoon and Singapore in the early twentieth century. He had a vast circle of friends in India and Kashmir and there was not a single political or educational movement of Kashmiri Muslims or Muslims in general which he was not a part of. He was educated in Urdu, Persian and Arabic and taught himself English. He also worked as a correspondent of Lahore newspapers.
Accompanied by his wife, he came to Kashmir in 1894 and stayed in a houseboat at Srinagar. Later, he built a house on his ancestral land at Fateh Kadal where, to this day, exists a lane known as Rafiqi Kocha. In Srinagar, he established contact with the learned and elite members of the society including Mirwaiz Rasool Shah, Sanaullah Shawl, Abdul Samad Kakroo, Rayees-e-Amritsar Sheikh Ghulam Sadiq and Mufi Qawamuddin. His discussions with these prominent men revolved around the pitiable condition of Kashmiri Muslims. He was aghast to see the plight of his fellow Kashmiris at the hands of an oppressive regime that had snatched the basic rights of its 97% population belonging to his community. The British East India Company had sold Kashmir, then ruled by the Sikhs, with its people and resources to Gulab Singh of Jammu after defeating them in the Anglo-Sikh War of 1845–46. The new ruling dynasty considered Kashmiri masses as their purchased property deserving no rights. Rafiqi’s mind was occupied by the thoughts of addressing this situation and he considered education and awareness as the main tools for achieving this objective. He started a newspaper, Ar-Rafiq (wrongly spelled as Al-Rafiq), from Srinagar in 1896. The periodical was critical of the autocratic rule. Maharaja Pratap Singh tried to win him over with an offer of a position of Wazir-e-Wazarat (now called Deputy Commissioner) which he rejected outright.
The newspaper compared the prevailing wretched condition of the masses with their past and highlighted the tribulations they had to undergo during their migration out of Kashmir for seeking a livelihood that was denied to them in their own land. He also demanded appointment of a Muslim Prime Minister for Jammu & Kashmir. Only two issues of the Ar-Rafiq had been published when Pratap Singh was left fuming with rage. The contents of the newspaper were viewed as a punishable offence. The Ar-Rafiq and the printing press where it was printed, were banned and Rafiqi was exiled from Kashmir and his property seized. Before his exile, he had persuaded Mirwaiz Rasool Shah to establish the institution of Anjuman-e-Nusrat-ul-Islam which started the first modern school, the Islamia School, in 1899, after he had left the Valley, for Kashmir’s disempowered and educationally backward majority community.
Rafiqi went to Lahore where he soon came under British surveillance. From there, he migrated to Delhi where, again, he was followed by intelligence sleuths. Thereafter, he went to Nurpur where, later, he became the Municipal Commissioner of Kangra District in the erstwhile United Punjab. From there, he shifted to Dalhousie and performed the duties of Imam of the Jama Masjid. He also published a versified biography of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) penned by his late uncle and father-in-law, Yahya Rafiqi, besides writing and publishing exhaustive annotations to Baba Dawood Khaki’s Virdulmurideen, versified biography of Kashmir’s patron saint, Hadrat Sheikh Hamzah Makhdoom. Once, at the Anglo-Oriental Conference held in 1901, Maharaja Pratap Singh, the then ruler of Jammu & Kashmir, found himself seated in a row behind that of Rafiqi which infuriated him and he poisoned the ears of the Government of British India against him.
Dalhousie was the summer retreat of the Governor-General of India where also British civil and military officers and their families would gather in large numbers. There was a park there where, like the Mall Road of Simla (Shimla), entry of the Indians was banned. A plaque inscription on the gate of the park contemptuously announced: “Dogs and Indians not allowed”. Rafiqi was incensed over this racial affront. One day, after the pre-dawn (fajr) prayers, he went to the park with some other devout, pulled down the plaque and destroyed it. He was arrested and, along with his wife and baby, despatched to Calcutta and, later, exiled to Rangoon (Burma) where he was set free. Another version of the incident identifies the place as the English Club. According to this version, Rafiqi pulled down the plaque, broke it into pieces and, with those broken pieces, entered the club and told the Manager what he had done, leading to his arrest and exile.
Abdul Salam Rafiqi reached Rangoon in October 1903.After his arrival, he took no time in establishing contact with members of the Indian community and, for a living, started a stationery shop. During his stay in the Burmese capital, one of his outstanding achievements was discovery of the grave of the last Mughal ruler, Bahadur Shah Zafar. He searched for the grave and, after finding it out, fought a determined battle with the Government of Burma to have a memorial erected over it. Zafar, it may be recalled, was deposed, tried for treason, humiliated and, along with his wife, Zeenat Mahal and some other members of the royal family, exiled by the British after the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, also known as the First War of Independence of India, against the British rule was quelled by the East India Company. He was told by his captors that he would be shot on the spot like a dog if he attempted escape. A British army officer, William Hudson, presented the deposed king decapitated heads of his three sons. Zafar had publicly supported the mutiny and the mutinous Indian soldiers of the East India Company had declared him as their leader. He was tried and exiled to Rangoon where he lived a life of troubles and hardships, and, on 7 November 1862, died unwept and unsung. He was secretly buried by the administration without leaving a trace of his grave. Through his interlocuters including Yehya En-Nasr Parkinson (previously Jhon Parkinson, a Scottish poet, essayist and critic who converted to Islam in 1901, and dedicated one of his books, Essays on Muslim Philosophy to Rafiqi ‘as a token of esteem’), Rafiqi “interacted with a community of Muslim scholars, poets and activists from across the globe who collaborated with him, in person or through writings, to call for Zafar’s memorialisation.”[13] According to Teren Sevea, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Assistant Professor of Islamic studies, Harvard Divinity School, Zafar’s inconspicuous burial spot drew more official and popular attention after a movement of Rangoon Muslims was spearheaded by leaders including Rafiqi.[14]The colonial masters wanted Zafar’s grave to be lost and forgotten and they had succeeded in that. However, there were some people still living in Rangoon who had an idea of the last resting place of Zafar. “Muslims knew for a long time that the emperor was buried somewhere within a definite compound to the south of Shwedagon Pagoda.”[15] A confidential communication dated 4 December 1906, originating from the office of the Commissioner, Pegu Division, Rangoon, claimed that “the tomb is in a vacant compound said to belong to a Mr. Dawson and is under a plum tree distinguished by two pieces of plank only. It is in a dilapidated condition and is almost undistinguishable but for the planks.”[16] The Rangoon Times wrote the grave was “in the compound of one of the Cantonment bungalows, near a tennis ground on one side and a horse-training circuit on the other!”[17] The Rangoon Gazette identified the grave-site as “a plot of ground in Voyle Road near the Cantonment Magistrate’s court.”[18] Twenty-four years after the death of her husband, Zeenat Mahal died and was, likewise, secretly buried near the grave of her spouse.
Abdul Salam Rafiqi’s quest for discovering Zafar’s grave is an interesting story. In a pamphlet titled ‘Inversion of Times’, published in 1906, and edited and updated by Yehya Parkinson in 1911, he writes:
“I had all along been interested in Zafar’s (pen-name of Bahadur Shah) poetry, and this led me to search for the grave of that unhappy royal poet. For a long time, I could find no trace of it; but at last, through the direction of a gentleman, I found the place where the bones of one of the Delhi emperors and his consort were interred. When I saw the grave, it was in a rather curious state. In the compound of a bungalow there stands a zizyphus juju-bia tree; and I was informed that under that tree are the remains of the last Moghul emperor and his Begum, whose ancestors raised the Taj and the Moti Mosque, the wonders of the whole civilized world.”
There was no mark save what nature, in her reverential mood, nurtured and raised as a monument to royalty, a solitary, nodding jujubia, and underneath, “mimic desolation covers all.” “O tempora! O mores! [Latin exclamation of despair]” I ejaculated, in the fullness of my heart. My mind brooded for a time over the vicissitudes of human life. ‘Truly”, I thought, “a fit monument for a descendant of Shah Jahan and his Mumtaz.” This region of sorrow, this doleful shade, dismal and wild, with no epitaph, nothing to remind the passer-by of the glorious dead that rests underneath the tree in forgetful bliss and ignorance of his sad and dreary lot.”
Shocked at the sight of final resting place of the descendant of mighty Mughal Emperors, Rafiqi discussed it with the leading Muslims of Rangoon who counselled him to approach the Lieutenant-Governor of Burma, Hugh Shakespeare Barnes. He met Barnes who expressed ignorance of the matter and suggested that the late King’s heirs should repair the grave, little appreciating that they were in a condemned state and unable to undertake the job. Rafiqi argued that since it had succeeded to the throne and dominions of the ex-Emperor, the Government must bear the cost of repairing his grave as “this duty goes along with the rights and privileges of the monarchy which accrued to the British Government.” Barnes, however, was not ready to let the Government be troubled with “such a paltry matter”. Interestingly, the conversation between the two took place in Persian. Next, Rafiqi addressed an open letter from Bahadur Shah Zafar to Viceroy and Governor-General of India, Lord Curzon. The letter was published in almost all the vernacular papers of India, and a translation in some of the English journals[20], and received support and sympathy from the British and Anglo-Indian press and the Muslims of India. Shortly afterwards, one of his friends, C. S. Ahmad Islamabadi of Rangoon volunteered to bear the expenses of the repair and Rafiqi informed the Private Secretary G. Fell about it on 27 May 1904. Fell responded that the Government was considering maintenance of the grave and was enquiring about the ownership of the compound in which it was situated. In response to Rafiqi’s another letter dated 22 February 1905, he was informed that the Government was in communication with the representative of the owner of the premises. He was convinced that the Government was not against the repair of the grave but was willing even to bear the cost of building ‘a suitable monument to the memory of the poet, if not the emperor.’ But soon he was proved wrong.
A letter by Abdul Salam Rafiqi published in the Rangoon Times on 17 February 1905.
In a meeting with him in August 1905, Rafiqi found that the new Lieutenant-Governor, Thirkell White, unlike his predecessor, was not responsive in spite of the former’s lavish praise of ‘justice and benevolent British dispensation’. However, White promised to go through the papers and convey his opinion. On 23 September 1905, Rafiqi received a terse reply from the Chief Secretary’s office: “I am desired to say that Government are not prepared to move in the matter.” This followed a communication dated 7 September 1905 from the Foreign Department of Government of India in Calcutta to Thirkell White informing him that “it would be very inappropriate for Government to do anything to perpetuate or pay any respect to the memory of Bahadur Shah, or to erect over his remains a tomb which might become a place of pilgrimage”, and asking him to inform Rafiqi “without assigning any reason that Government are not prepared to move in the matter.”[21] Upset with the reply, Rafiqi now thought of erecting a fencing around the grave by private funds and asked the Government if it had any objection to that. The Chief Secretary’s office did not like the idea and wrote back that the Government was not disposed to encourage any movement for a tomb over Bahadur Shah’s grave. Rafiqi assailed the ‘short-sighted policy’ of the Government and its refusal to treat a dead Bahadur Shah like kings treat a king.
According to Yehya Parkinson, Rafiqi’s pamphlet “evoked a cry of surprise and called forth expressions of sympathy from all shades of opinion, both racial and religious, in India.”[22] The Anglo-Indian press offered strong support to the erection of a memorial pointing out that such action would have support of all sections of people in India. Newspapers like the Bengalee and the Muslim Patriot criticised the Government, arguing that its response had not enhanced its reputation for generosity among the Indians, both Hindus and Muslims. The latter asked a pointed question: “Will the Lieutenant-Governors place themselves in the position of Mr. Rafiqi, and see how they would feel if the last resting-place of one of their emperors and a great poet too, was offered the treatment which the grave of the unfortunate Zafar has been accorded?”[23] Following the outrage in the press, Nawab Sallimullah of Dacca raised the issue in the Viceroy’s Legislative Council in early 1907 and demanded that the Viceroy’s Government move the Government of Burma to see to a suitable tomb was erected where Zafar lay buried. The Government of India replied that it had sent instructions to the Government of Burma for marking the burial place for historical purposes, but the newspapers in India dubbed the reply as evasive.
After three years’ wait and deliberations, instead of erecting a befitting tomb, the Government, as Parkinson observed, “raised a memorial that a well-to-do British-shopkeeper would scarcely have disfigured the tomb of his ancestor with”.[24] The spot was marked by an inscription on a tombstone reading, “Bahadur Shah, Ex-King of Delhi, died at Rangoon, November 7 1862, and was buried near this spot.” The wording of the inscription was decided by the Foreign Department of the Government of India in Calcutta and communicated to the Officiating Chief Secretary of Burma, J. Leeds, on 19 November 1907.[25] An iron railing of low height was also erected around the grave. Although the Muslims of Burma in a public meeting held at the Victoria Hall on 24 August, thanked the Government for erecting a memorial, they demanded a permanent mark to be erected on the grave of Zeenat Mahal also but the local authorities simply engraved on the same stone the words, “Zinath Mahal wife of Bahadur Shah who died on the 17th July 1886 is also buried near this spot’. Intriguingly, the Government inscribed on the gravestone the words ‘near this spot’ instead of ‘here’ in both the cases to let doubts on the final resting place of Bahadur Shah Zafar and his wife linger on in the minds of people.
Source : fb page of Khalid Bashir Ahmad
Khalid Bashir Ahmad is an author, poet and a former Kashmir Administrative Services (KAS) officer.
