| April 2, 2002 | Tuesday | Muharram 18,1423 |
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The stolen Buddha
Wali Dakhani’s grave
PRESIDENT Bush’s latest comment on whatever is going on in Ramallah borders on the grotesque. It also goes to show how politicians renounce morality when it comes to securing a second term. Here is Yasser Arafat isolated from the world: Israeli tanks and troops have entered his home-headquarters, having partially destroyed it by tank fire and having killed some of the Palestinian leader’s bodyguards. Electricity and telephone communications have been cut off. There is no water, and he and his aides talk to the media only briefly on cell phones to economize on battery power, which is fast ebbing. He has no contact with his colleagues and comrades even in his neighbourhood, and here is the president of the United Sates expressing disappointment over the Palestinian leader’s presumed inability to control terrorism.
How Arafat felt about the whole issue was made clear when he snubbed CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. The TV celebrity asked the Palestinian president what he was doing to rein in Palestinian militants, and the old soldier-statesman correctly answered, “Are you asking me why I am under complete siege? You are a wonderful journalist. You have to respect your profession.” President Bush might also realize that, while pandering to the Jewish lobby, he owes it to the American people to honour the office he holds — an office once held by Lincoln and FDR.
That the Bush administration is as isolated on this issue as the Sharon government is evident from the proceedings of the Security Council. While it did vote for the resolution calling for an Israeli pullout from Palestinian cities, the American delegation was alone in condemning Palestinian “terrorists” for the escalating violence in the holy land. What importance Israel attaches to the United Nations was evident from Tel Aviv’s reactions the following day. Apart from the usual rhetoric denouncing Arafat as the enemy of everything good under the sun, the Israeli government declared itself at war with him. More brazenly, Tel Aviv declared Ramallah “a military zone,” asked all foreign media to get out, accusing it of beingpro-Palestinian, and said foreign journalists still in the “military zone” will be arrested. All this is intended to cover Israel’s continued human rights violations, the latest of its crimes being the massacre of some 30 members of Palestinian security personnel in Ramallah on Sunday night. That Sharon could also murder Arafat was evident from an Israeli general’s statement that Arafat could be hit “accidentally.”
Regretfully, the Arab world is a mere spectator to Arafat’s plight and the slaughter going on in Ramallah. With the exception of Syria’s “hard line” — confined to mere statements — the Arab world is doing nothing practical to save Arafat’s life and work for an Israeli pullout. It is true that it does not have armed forces that can match Israel’s, but it certainly has financial power and diplomatic clout with the European Union and even with the US, but there is a mysterious reluctance to use whatever assets it possesses. For instance, there is not even a threat from Cairo and Amman that they would consider snapping diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv. While it is too much to expect that Sharon will ever honour the Oslo accord by agreeing to a revival of the peace process, the immediate task before the Arab world is to ensure Arafat’s personal safety and exert pressure on its friends in the West for an Israeli pullout from areas under PA control.
THE recovery of a most exquisite Buddha statue by the police in Mansehra serves to focus attention on the damage being inflicted on the remnants of the glorious Gandhara civilization in the form of frequent thefts of antiquities dating back to that period. The alleged smuggler of the statue — which is six feet tall and meticulously preserved — told a lower court that he got the Buddha from a mid-level government functionary. Both have been granted bail by the court. Thankfully, whatever the outcome of the case, the statue will be handed over to the NWFP Department of Archaeology. Unfortunately, given the lack of resources of the agencies charged with protecting our heritage sites, it is quite likely that this may not turn out to be the last case of its kind. In fact, it would be safe to say that the detection of such a remarkable antique is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg and that much more passes our airports and land borders for sale overseas.
This particular case illustrates the point that, while demand comes from well-heeled buyers overseas, it cannot be satisfied without the connivance of Pakistani officials in positions of influence. The suspect’s claim that he got the statue from an official must be investigated and the latter must be asked how he managed to get his hands on the priceless sculpture. Unfortunately, the police can be expected to take the defence that with murders, robberies and what not happening in their jurisdiction the theft of a statue does not qualify as a high priority case. It is precisely this kind of attitude that needs to be changed. Officials and the people at large must be made to realize that preserving their past is not only important from an aesthetic and cultural point of view but that it could bring material benefit in the form of increased tourism.
THAT the Hindu extremists vandalized the grave of Wali Dakhani on the outskirts of Ahmadabad is a commentary on the dimensions the communal frenzy has assumed in Gujarat. Hundreds of Muslim shrines, graves and mosques were destroyed in the course of the riots, while the BJP state government did nothing to stop this rampant vandalism. Wali was Urdu’s first ghazal poet, and arguably the first poet ever to compose poetry in Rekhta — the forerunner of modern Urdu. Born in Aurangabad, Deccan, in 1667, Wali fathered the first generation of Urdu poets, of whom Quli Qutb Shah of Deccan was another scion. An enthusiastic traveller, Wali was a regular visitor to Surat. It was on one such trip in 1707 that he died near Ahmadabad and was laid to rest there. His love for Gujarat did not go unrequited; the Gujaratis owned him by re-christening him as Wali Gujarati, and revered him as a sufi poet.
Wali was a romantic poet of the sublime with shades of mysticism — a tradition, which he had founded and helped proliferate through the latter-day poets like Mir and Dard. The lyricism of Wali’s pristine Dakhani Rekhta has, through the centuries, continued to enamour Urdu readers and ghazal singers. The ghazal divas of the semi-classical tradition, Begum Akhtar in India and Malika Pukhraj in Pakistan, have immortalized some of his numbers closer to our own times. Poets from Mir and Ghalib to Ahmad Faraz have paid respects to the pioneering spirit of Wali. In the desecration of his tomb, the author of Ajab aik lutf rakhta hai shab-i-khilwat mein dil barson, was given a rude jolt while he lay in deep sleep. The sad fate of his tomb at the hands of Hindu zealots reminds one of Faraz’s tribute, composed in Wali’s famous rhyme and metre, where he says:
Mein jiss shehr ke geet gaata raha
Ab uss shehr mein kyun raha jaaye na