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There is a gentleman called AR Sherwani, educationist and theatre personality from Gurgaon who came to Lucknow recently to recite the Gita in its Urdu translation.
It was very interesting to have Sherwani read the Gita in Urdu in Lucknow, home of Naval Kishore who established a press in 1858 that was once the largest publishing house in all of South Asia. Before the press closed in 1950, it had published Urdu translations of over 500 Hindi, Arabic and Persian texts, and 124 Sanskrit texts, including the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita and Manusmriti.
Sherwani is originally from Allahabad that sacred space also known as doab, or the meeting of two waters because it is here that the rivers Ganga and Jamuna chose to converge joyously in times long forgotten. This auspicious union between the waters of the Ganga and Jamuna is so inspiring that an entire lifestyle called the Ganga Jamuni way of life is practiced here where Hindus, Muslims and people following other faiths try their best to live, and to let live.
The Sherwanis ethnically belong to Pathan families who migrated from the area of modern day Afghanistan and were employed as soldiers in the royal army after the founding of the Delhi Sultanate in the 13th century. Some Pathans seem to have come here as early as the 10th century and were owners of large tracts of agricultural land. This is just like many South Asians who have made a home in not only neighbouring countries but also in far flung parts of the globe.
Most Pathans today are Muslim but the coming and going between populations is far older than the founding of any religion. The lust of human beings to wander and to look for adventure and employment beyond boundaries of their place of birth goes back further in time than all man made institutions, including religious.
Even before the arrival of Islam in the Indian subcontinent different ethnic groups like Pathans, Arabs, Chinese, Caucasians and Europeans visited and stayed here giving question to whether Hinduism was indeed the way of life of the citizens of the Indus Valley civilisation, or not?
That is the reason why Muslims like Sherwani do not think twice about keeping a copy of the Gita on the bedside table and reading, and re-reading the poetic text in its English and Urdu translations.
“I am a Muslim but culturally I am Hindu and I am sure I am a better Hindu than many who claim to be Hindu,” says Sherwani as he recites with such passion that many in the audience are inspired to know more about both the Gita, and Urdu.
thujhe kaam karna hai o mardekar
nahin uske phal par thjhe iqtiar.
kiye jaa amal aur na dhoondh uus ka phal
amal kar amal kar na ho be-amal.
Like so many immigrants who left their home in South Asia and others who made a new home in the region, the earliest Pathans too must have traveled into South Asia from modern day Afghanistan over the Khyber Pass and into the plains through Multan, Lahore and Delhi, to populate areas all over Awadh.
The language, religion and cuisine that they brought with them, they must have shared with the locals and in return took what they liked best from their neighbours. And this is how life has been on earth ever since human beings came into existence millions and millions of years ago. In similar appreciation and irrespective of the faith that they are born into, people have always been filled with wonder when faced with a view of the world that is polar opposite to their own.
Encounter with wonderment happens when people bother to travel, meet and to discover what else exists around them apart from personal views that need to be time and again refreshed and shared with other human beings in order to enrich life with a brand new perspective.
That is the only reason that Sherwani says he reads the Gita because it enriches his life.
And his mesmerising voice responds best to the Urdu translation of the Gita by Khwaja Dil Muhammad, a poet and mathematician at Lahore's Islamia College who died in 1961. Dil was in love with the Gita and everyone who reads his translation is only richer for understanding this soul soaring song of the creator of the world just a wee bit more.
