HYDERABAD: Family of elderly Ghous Mohammad Arain carries forward tradition for 144 years by staging Ajmerion ka tazia on 8th of Muharram (tonight) every year in Hyderabad. It will be 145th year of this custom ever-since his family members migrated to this part of subcontinent after its Partition in 1947.

“Our elders used to bring it in pre-partition city of Ajmer and its permit was issued in the name of Lal Bux, son of Pir Bux. The very permit is issued by the Hyderabad police to date since the Partition,” says Ghous Mohammad Arain. Arain is grandson of Lal Bux.

Ajmerion ka tazia is one of oldest events held to mark the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain and his companions. This tazia is brought out every year without fail barring the year 1947 when Pakistan was born, according to Ghous. “Our elders are associated with it for generations and they still bring it out in Ajmer, too”, adds bespectacled Ghous.

“We didn’t have licence at that time as it remained in India and our elder went to India to obtain and submitted it to the authorities here [in Hyderabad],” adds 68-year-old Ghous. He is as energetic as ever. Lal Bux had gone to India to get the licence from his uncle, Maula Bux.

The 13ft wooden tazia has been placed at Market Tower. People have started visiting it to pay their respect. Its procession is to be taken out on the night intervening 8th and 9th of Muharram.

“Those associated with this procession use traditional drums [dhol] and taashay [small versions of drum],” says Aijaz, a nephew of Ghous who now builds the tazia. Naubat is the typical instrument used in procession by his family members, adds Ghous, It is made of buffalo’s skin tightly fixed over a bowl shaped iron structure,” he said. “We take it to the Phulelli canal to drop its parts at the end of the procession,”, he said.

“Ajmeriyon ka tazia is indeed the oldest one in Hyderabad attracting a large crowd on the 8th of Muharram. People dressed in Arabic attire used to bring a camel cart which depicts scene of the Karbala tragedy,” recalls Saeed Akhtar, a retired schoolteacher who himself is associated with tazia making for 47 years.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2022