Nothing defines the limits and promises of Kashmiriyat better than the Bhand Pather. Javed Iqbal Bhat writes about this classical repository of diverse rhythms The folk theatre called Bhand Pather is probably the oldest theatre in the subcontinent if not in the world.
Though the history of its evolution has not been comprehensively documented yet one can find references to it in some of the extant manuscripts. The word Bhand with its origin in the Sanskrit “Band” meaning comical behavior or imitation is found in most of the north Indian languages. Even today in Punjab the Bhands are commonly addressed as Naqqal, meaning those who are adept in imitation. There are still the remnants of Mohan Bhand in Rajasthan. The medieval Bhakti poetry of Gujarat is replete with allusions to the Bhands. Bharata’s Natyashastra (2 A.D.) makes an oblique reference towards the mocking disposition of the folk theatre. The lacunae and loopholes of the courtly plays are identified and held up for ridicule. The Neelmatpurana (5 A.D.) gives evidence of the folk plays during festivals or on some special occasions. Though Rajatarangini (12th century A.D.) does not directly draw on these folk performances yet there are references to plays being staged in courts and temple courtyards. Kalhana remained close to the court. Hence his oversight regarding the popular subaltern vocations is understandable. Yet one does get a hint of the temple performances-rangmandaps- as occupying a kind of middle ground between the Bhand culture and the court culture. Whatever be the case, we note again the Bhand Pather coming into its own during Zain-ul-Abidin’s (1420-1472 A.D.) benign reign. This was the highest watermark of the syncretic intercommunal cohabitation. Shrivara, a minister in the court, in his own Rajatarangini devotes a section to the celebration of the birthday of the king’s son. The services of the Bhands were used to mark this event.
Up to this point whichever historian writes about this art of the itinerant players, the references are sketchy and not central to their narratives. With the Mughal invasion (1586A.D.) and the subsequent colonizing chapters, the visibility increases in the historical documents. The words Bhand and Pather were used in their present form during this time.

Their presence is reported in the poetry of Nund Reshi or Sheikh Noor-ud-Din Wali as he is popularly called and the “vakhs” of Lal Ded or Lalleshwari. Earlier it was mostly recognized by the name of Rang. The new vocabulary of the Sufi poetry or the theatre marks the influence of Persian. Contemporary language of these plays makes a considerable use of the medieval Sufi poetry of Nund Reshi and Lal Ded. Even the word Kashmiriyat is a derivative of the Persian. A new child character, ‘bacchhakot’, is shown as making its entry. Sir Walter Lawrence in his “The Valley of Kashmir”(1895) is very vocal about these traveling players. Seeing the suffering of the Muslim peasants laboring under the hated institution of the ‘Begar’, Lawrence hails this popular art as the “remover of sorrows”. The mocking tradition evoking laughter since the advent of the successive invasions is unparalled. These performances in open meadows, tiraths, isthapans, dargah courtyards, under the shade of chinars or during wedding ceremonies, harvest season and fairs are also termed as ‘yak rang’, for the predominant objective is to produce satire and evoke laughter. Tragedy is scrupulously kept away from the plot. However, underneath the seemingly innocuous comedy serious messages were transmitted through what is termed as the “phir kath” (roughly translated as twisted talk). This feature makes it a coded narrative. The decoding act was the special privilege of the masses given their access to the local idiom. The colonizing officers, be they Mughals, Afghans, Sikhs or the Dogras were hard put to decode the scenes and the language used. With the officialisation of this art, it has lost much of its appeal as depicted in Rushdie’s novel. What used to be earlier the source of sorrow dissipating fun has lost much of its credibility and has come under the scanner.

Bhand Pather lends itself for a study of the shifting landscape of the intercommunal relationships. It is one of the unique sites on which the nuances and complexities of Kashmiriyat can be easily worked out. It has been nourished both by Hindu Shaivism and Sufi mysticism. The presence of secular characters is an eminent feature of this form. The character of Magun is a reincarnation of Bharata’a ‘sutradhar’. Maskhar (clown) whose number can be between 6-12, is a central character and historically the most popular and carries a dual legacy; linguistically on the one side the word is of Arabic origin, on the other, due to his using a hollow bamboo stick –which is the meaning of ‘maskar’ in Sanskrit-it bears the imprint of the classical language. The most significant feature, in my opinion, of this art rich with the antique flavor is the way it presents us a non-idealized version of Kashmiriyat . The accounts relating to the latter basically fall into two categories; either they rubbish it as being fallacious or they glorify it in heavenly terms. Bhand Pather underlines not merely the shared cultural space and the interweaving of everyday Hinduism and Islam but demonstrates practically the sharp differences as well. And yet illustrates, how, despite such differences it is not impossible to live together. In this paper, I shall attempt a complex exploration of this endangered form as a key component of tradition and its interface with modernity not merely through direct confrontation with the products like television but also in the ideological domain.

There is everything to forgive. You can’t forgive me. If only somehow you could have been mine, What would not have been possible in the world? – all winter – its crushed fennel. We can’t ask them: Are you done with the world? In the lake the alms of temples and mosques Are locked in each other’s reflections. (Ali 2002) The lakes in which the poet found the arms of sacred structures interlocked, have certainly grown smaller in number. And the ones existing have been reduced to such shallowness that it is doubtful if such depth can allow the creation of interlocking images in the mind. But not long back and their in lies the story – not only did the interlocking happen in the depths of numerous lakes, the wailing call of the muezzin summoning believers to players blended with the recitation of Granth Saheb from the Gurdwara in the neighbourhood areas and the pealing temple bells. The interweaving of pieties is happening now only in the fond memory of the remaining few elders. With their passage, the exhumation of the memories would not be possible. The youth, like the gravedigger in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, would only recall with wonder and amusement the way lives were lived in the past. Now the question to be asked is whether such Arcadian representations, be it in the form of Tai or the Bhand Pather, had any material basis or is it merely a misinformed construction emerging from the “Other”. There are actually two parallel traditions involved in the construction. On the one hand are nineteenth century colonial discourses with their native sympathisers, who established the story of a happy vale composed of pure unpolluted cultural practices. In this category, excluding the colonial narratives, fall such narrators as Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah1 and M.J. Akbar, to name just two. After the formation of National Conference, Abdullah continuously admired and emphasised admiration for the unique intermingling culture. In his autobiography, Aatish-e-chinar, he mentions the steps taken by him to isolate the divisive forces bent upon sowing the seeds of regression. His practical actions and theoretical measures to firm up the prevailing atmosphere is embodied in the Naya Kashmir plan, behind which he was the main guiding spirit.
M.J. Akbar, though not driven by the same set of circumstances as Sheikh Abdullah was, yet, goes on to reinstate and legitimate the classical position. A position, it is worth remembering, which has found currency in current discourses courtesy a host of reasons principal among which is the growing extremist strain in the subcontinent. One more sign of the same phenomenon is the recent resurgence of the partition literature. There seems to be a latent lesson deriving instinct informing the establishment of these charismatic reference points. Akbar expatiating on the virtues of Kashmiriyat goes on to say that the “message of harmony created a reservoir of humanism which became the ideological fountainhead of the modern Kashmiri mind, gave a unique quality to the Kashmiri identity, provided a conviction which long preserved Kashmir from the unspeakable and unbelievable bloodshed which Indians have inflicted upon each other in this century in the name of religion. It can only be described as the faith of Kashmir, a faith which has been witnessed by anyone who has visited the valley and had the good sense to see beyond the extraordinary beauty of the mountain, lake, forest and glade into something far greater, far more luminous, far more enchanting: the beauty of the Kashmiri heart, the Kashmiri soul” (Akbar 1991).

As opposed to these espousers of the idea of mutual cohabitation approximating the ideal level, there are a number of others whose patience with this thinking is limited. In her recent publication Languages of Belonging:… – Chitralekha Zutshi, drawing on a variety of sources debunks the idea of such rehabitation as a constructed myth. The idea, as per her, has to do with the colonial machinations. She believes that the poetry of Nund Rishi, Lala Ded, two medieval composers of poetry glorified as the epitomes of Kashmiriyat, have a solid core of Sufi mysticism and Hindu vedantism. Closely examining pre-colonial, colonial and Dogra records, as well as the writings of the Kashmiri Pundits and Muslim spokesmen, Zutshi traces the complex process of the construction of a distinct Kashmiri Muslim identity. She argues that Sikh rule in Kashmir, under which the Muslim peasantry suffered considerable leadership, naturally led to a growing stress on the Muslim aspect of the identity of the Kashmiri Muslim majority which, in turn, functioned as a means to articulate dissent and protest. This was carried further under the Dogra regime, which increasingly relied on orthodox Brahminical Hinduism to claim sanction for itself. Her particular focus is on how the notion of Kashmiriyat came to be developed over time in response to wider social, cultural, economic and political developments in Kashmir. In the process she examines how key Kashmiri leaders sought to balance their commitment to Islam, on the one hand, and to the notions of Kashmiri nation, on the other. Countenancing the point made by Zutshi is Iffat Malik. Her argument runs more or less on the same line. This author begins with a brief history of ethnic identifications in Kashmir. She points out that the “differences between Hindus and Muslims, though less acute than in the rest of India, were not completely absent. Indeed they were potentially disruptive because the state, which was ruled by a Hindu Dogra ruler, favored the Pandits and impoverished the Muslims” (Rehman 2002). However the most scathing critique believes that “if Kashmiriyat represents liberalism Auschwitz was Disneyland (Kaul 2003).” This is the most extreme opinion nursed by some sections of the Pandit community, born of deep frustration, which, more often than never, is a direct result of their exile from home.

Funt: GreaterKashmir

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