Daily Times

It happens sometimes that one gets to know a fellow human being who one feels has been a part of one’s life forever. Professor Ishfaque Bokhari Lyallpuri was definitely one such person I had the privilege of getting in touch with roughly a year ago via the ubiquitous Internet. We never could meet as the cruel hand of death struck him down in Dubai a few days ago. He used to spend some months in Dubai with his son and then return to Lyallpur (Faisalabad). The poet Masood Qamar who lives in Stockholm but hails from Lyallpur and has known Bokhari Sahib for years, had helped us get in touch. He also informed me about his demise.

After Lahore, Faisalabad is perhaps intellectually the most vibrant urban centre in the Pakistani Punjab. Qamar has, along with Hussain Abid and the late Javed Anwar, recently gained considerable attention in literary circles for pioneering a new genre in Urdu poetry, of three poets together composing poems. Their book Qahqaha Insaan Ney Ijaad Kiya (Lahore: Bookhome, 2012), became a subject of discussion between me and Professor Bokhari just before I left for Lahore in mid-August. I asked him why Lyallpur had produced so many writers, poets and leftists. His explanation was that Lyallpur was a modern town where industrial development had started before the partition, but especially afterwards. It had created an industrial proletariat and a fairly large intelligentsia. Such class composition made Lyallpur an urban centre of progressive hopes and struggles. His explanation made a lot of sense.

Bokhari was a heart patient since a long time and had undergone surgery. He would tell me he had accepted his cruel fate. Nevertheless, he could laugh heartily, spontaneously and genuinely. As retirees we both had a lot of time to spare. For hours we would talk to each other on Skype. He retired as a professor and the head of the Urdu Language and Literature department of Government College University, Faisalabad. He and I shared many values, hopes and experiences. Both of us had been in the revolutionary left movement and in the same party, the Mazdoor-Kisan Party led by Major Ishaq Muhammad, but never met. While he continued to believe in a revolution that would overthrow capitalism and feudalism and usher in the liberation of humankind through socialism, I had stepped back and begun to consider other alternatives. For me an open society with pluralism and scope for both private initiative as well as a strong state to ensure justice and a fair distribution of wealth — social democracy — made more sense. He never minded my dissent from orthodox Communism.

Bokhari’s family had moved from Rothak, from the eastern rim of the undivided Punjab (now part of Haryana) in 1947, to Lyallpur. He never accepted the changing of the name Lyallpur to Faisalabad. He was an extremely gifted chronicler of his city of birth. I consider his Urdu-language book Regal Chowk: Lyallpur (Lyallpur: Lyallpur Kahani Foundation, 2007), brilliant. It is a vivid portrayal of Regal Chowk (Regal Square) as the hub around which the cultural life of Lyallpur had evolved since the founding of that model city by the British when they developed the canal colonies.

Lyallpur Hindus and Sikhs were pioneers in the cultural field and built several cinemas and live theatre buildings in different part of Lyallpur, but the Regal Cinema became the most famous. It was more than just a venue for entertainment. The city’s intellectuals would also congregate there and discuss art and politics. We learn that a vibrant anti-colonial revolutionary movement also existed. Originally it had been inspired by Bhagat Singh.

Famous qawwals Ustad Fateh Ali Khan and Mubarak Ali Khan, and later Ustad Nusrat Ali Khan were based at the nearby shrine of Lasuri Shah (nobody knows his origins). So, in addition to the cinema, the shrine was another great cultural centre. Then close by was a thriving bazaar where women would come to do shopping. The author brings forth many other dimensions of the life around Regal Chowk. Landmark buildings and monuments, wrestling akharas (rings), famous pehlwans (wrestlers) and drum beaters and so many other characters and activities had continued to take place around Regal Chowk. He recalls nostalgically his friends from the past who once were always together but not anymore. The decline of the vibrant cinema culture because of the rise of fundamentalism had meant the passing away of a way of life.

A most moving story in the book is told about the visit many years later in 2004 to Lyallpur of the Indian Air Force’s Retired Air Marshal Iqbal Singh Chhabra, his wife and other members of the family who once lived in Lyallpur. Bokhari accompanied them as they went about trying to locate their old home. It was found and the new occupants welcomed them with open arms. Somehow, instinctively, the Punjabis have always understood that the partition insanity was an aberration.

I wanted Bokhari to consider an English translation of Regal Chowk. I urged him to become the historian of his city of birth. Lyallpur was a gift of progressive British policy and, therefore, he would not have to dig deep into the past. He was greatly pleased and we were going to plan such a book. He had recently completed a book on Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s father Chaudhry Sultan Muhammad’s life in Kabul where he was close to the king. His book on the Chenab Club of Lyallpur is another work of historical importance. Alas, others will now have to continue from where he left off. His work should be an inspiration to those who love Lyallpur and want us to know more about it.

The writer is a visiting professor, LUMS, Pakistan; Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Stockholm University; and Honorary Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. Latest publications: Winner of the Best Non-Fiction Book award at the Karachi Literature Festival: The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed, Oxford, 2012; and Pakistan: The Garrison State, Origins, Evolution, Consequences (1947-2011), Oxford, 2013. He can be reached at:billumian@gmail.com