Friday, January 28, 2011

Ghazal # 1 – Patta Patta Boota Boota – Mir Taqi Mir (1723-1810)


Patta Patta Boota Boota is a famous ghazal, made most famous by the singing voice of Mehdi Hassan. I trawled the web in search of a good English translation but alas, success was not mine, to be. Anyway for the time being, here’s what some of those verses mean, bit by bit, in Hindi/English.

Update on 12-Mar-11. Am inserting below an English translation of some of the verses. Courtesy: 'Masterpieces of Urdu Ghazals' by K C Kanda

****
पत्ता-पत्ता बूटा-बूटा हाल हमारा जाने है
जाने न जाने गुल ही न जाने बाघ तो सारा जाने है

pattaa-pattaa buuTaa-buuTaa haal hamaaraa jaane hai
jaane na jaane gul hii na jaane, baaG to saaraa jaane hai

Each and every leaf and plant my plight doth know

The rose alone does not know what all the garden knows

पत्ता, Patta: Leaf
बूटा, Buutaa: Undershrub
गुल, Gul: Rose
बाघ, Baagh: Garden

****

चारागरी बीमारी-इ-दिल की रस्म-इ-शहर-इ-हुस्न नहीं
वरना दिलभर-इ-नादाँ भी इस दर्द का चारा जाने है

Nursing the ailing heat is alien to the Beauty’s creed,

Else, even my witless love knows the remedy for this ache


chaaraagarii biimaarii-e-dil kii rasm-e-shehar-e-husn nahii.n
varnaa dilbhar-e-naadaa.N bhii is dard kaa chaaraa jaane hai
चारागरी, Chaaraagarri: Healing Of Wounds and Pain, treatment
biimaarii-e-dil: Love
रस्म, Rasm: Custom, Established Usage, Law, Marking, Model, Rule, Tradition, Writing
शहर-इ-हुस्न, Shehar-e-Husn: Beautiful city/surroundings
rasm-e-shehar-e-husn: custom of the city of beauties
dilbhar-e-naadaa.N: naïve beloved
चारा, Chaaraa: Aid, Cure, Help, Means, Redress, Resource, Remedy
****

mehar-o-vafaa-o-lutf-o-inaayat ek se vaaqif in me.n nahii.n
aur to sab kuchh tanz-o-kinaayaa ramz-o-ishaaraa jaane hai

Love, largesse, care, compassion, never has she known such things,

Taunting, gesturing, coquettish ogling – all else she knows.


मेहर, Mehar: Kindness, Mercy
वफा, Vafaa: Fulfilling A Promise, Fulfillment, Fidelity, Faithful, Sincerity, Sufficiency
लुत्फ़, Lutf: Benignity, Enjoyment, Favor, Grace, Joy, Kindness, Pleasure, Taste, Wit
इनायत, Inaayat: Blessing, Favour, Kindness, Acceptance Of Love, Reciprocation Of Love
mehar-o-vafaa-o-lutf-o-inaayat: mercy, trust, joys, favours
वाकिफ, Vaaqif: Acquainted, Aware, Knowing, Learned, Familiar, To Kow, To Get Familiar With
तंज़, Tanz: Jest, Irony, Laugh, Quirk, Sarcasm Satire, Wisecrack, Witticism
किनाया, Kinaaya: Allusion; metaphor, trope, figure, metonymy; a nickname; an ironical expression; innuendo; sarcasm, taunt, jeer, banter; a wink, nod, hint, sign
तंज़-ओ-किनाया, Tanz-o-Kinaayaa: Taunting, teasing
रम्ज़, Ramz: Allegory, Secret, Mysterious
इशारा, Ishaaraa: Allusion, Gesture, Mention, Sign, Symbol, Quote, Wink, Wrinkle
रम्ज़-ओ-इशारा, Ramz-o-ishaara: Hinting at
****

क्या क्या फ़ितने सर पर उसके लाता है माशूक अपना
जिस बेदिल बेताब-ओ-तवां को इश्क का मारा जाने है

kyaa kyaa fitane sar par usake laataa hai maashuuq apnaa
jis bedil betaab-o-tavaa.N ko ishq kaa maaraa jaane hai

फितना, Fitanaa: Sedition, Mischief, Mutiny, Quarrel, Revolt, Temptation, Wickedness, ordeals, trials
माशूक, Maashuuq: Beloved, Sweatheart
Bedil: heartless
बेताब, Betaab: Anxious, Restless, Powerless, Impatient
तवां, TavaaN: Thy, thine

The above courtesy of http://ekfankaar.wordpress.com/2007/12/11/patta-patta-boota-boota/ and http://mama.indstate.edu/users/shakil/meer.html where you can find additional verses too.



And here it is firstly in the mellifluous voice of Mehdi Hassan, the ghazal king of modern times. Almost everybody who is anybody I guess speaks with reverence of him as the grand old man of ghazal singing.
This rendition has a slow pace and an old-worldly charm to it. A lulling, unhurrying quality. A wise voice?!






And this one too







Followed by Ghulam Ali’s take on it. Perhaps with a little more meanderings (taans) in the Ghulam Ali style, a bit more instrumentation maybe but again with clear pronunciations (as with Mehdi Sahab) and very tuneful too. And oh, yes, ignore the accompanying visuals to the voice







And this one from the Gulzar serial on ‘Mirza Ghalib’, set to tune by Jagjit Singh but sung by Vinod Sehgal. The voice, without doubt several notches below that of MH and GA. But then, it's a fakir on the streets who is singing it.






And so here comes the rendition from Jagjit Singh himself, who was born ……. to sing ghazals. The accompanying music a bit more pronounced and with an identity of it's own, seamlessly weaving it's way around the vocals. The voice may not be as classically pure as that of MH or GA but holds it's own anyway.






And lastly Hariharan, with his pyrotechnics. A smart-alecky version. Is it a ‘I am going to beat the others at their game’ version? Does it miss the soul of the song in all it's gyrations. Or am I being harsh? Does it take it's attention away from the verse to the voice. Seems to me to be so. A cat on a hot tin roof version, sorry, couldn’t resist. The Marathi crowd seemed to like it, (they are unlikely to have understood it's meaning at all). The maestro, Hridaynath Mangeshkar too seemed to lap it up. So who am I to complain? Here, you judge……….





And finally a version by Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi which uses the first verse only and then takes off with it's own identify and separate lyrics and poet. But yes, it's nice. And there is the Lata factor to add to it's USP ….. And I have my own take on whether Lata and Rafi really gel well in this song. The pitches are quite different and take some getting used to.




P.S. Is it ‘kanaaya’ or ‘kinaaya’. The jury seems to be split



Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_Taqi_Mir
http://mama.indstate.edu/users/shakil/meer.html


Sunday, January 23, 2011

From ‘Think on These Things’ by J. Krishnamurti


And should not education help you to find out what you really love to do, so that from the beginning to the end of your life you are working at something which you feel is worthwhile and which for you has deep significance? Otherwise, for the rest of your days, you will be miserable. Not knowing what you really want to do, your mind falls into a routine in which there is only boredom, decay and death. That is why it is very important to find out while you are young what it is you really love to do, and this is the only way to create a new society


Do you know what it means to be considerate? When you see a sharp stone on a path trodden by many bare feet, you remove it, not because you have been asked, but because you feel for another – it does not matter who he is, and you may never meet him. To plant a tree and cherish it, to look at the river and enjoy the fullness of the earth, to observe a bird on the wing and see the beauty of it's flight, to have sensitivity and be open to this extraordinary movement called life ………….



But when the mind is no longer comparing, judging, evaluating, and is therefore capable of seeing what is from moment to moment without wanting to change it – in that very perception is the eternal



……. And this is an essential part of education: to learn to stand alone so that you are not caught either in the will of the many or in the will of one, and are therefore capable of discovering for yourself what is true.
Don’t depend on anybody ………



If you don’t begin to understand life while you are young, you will grow up inwardly hideous; you will be dull, empty inside, though outwardly you may have money, ride in expensive cars, put on airs.



Wherever one goes in the world, it does not matter where, one finds that society is in a perpetual state of conflict. There are always the powerful, the rich, the well-to-do on the one hand, and the labourers on the other; and each one is enviously competing, each one wants a higher position, a bigger salary, more power, more prestige. That is the state of the world, and so there is always war going on both within and without.

Now, if you and I want to bring about a complete revolution in the social order, the first thing we have to understand is this instinct for the acquisition of power.


Society is the relationship between you and me, and if our relationship is based on ambition, each one of us wanting to be more powerful than the other, then obviously we shall always be in conflict………


Have you noticed how few of us have deep feeling about anything? Do you ever rebel against your teachers….. parents…… because you have a deep, ardent feeling that you don’t want to do certain things? If you feel deeply and ardently about something, you will find that this very feeling in a curious way brings a new order into your life.………

That is why you should have strong feelings – feelings of passion, anger – and watch them, play with them, find out the truth of them. For if you merely suppress them ……. you will find that your mind is gradually being encased in an idea and thereby becomes very shallow.


You cannot learn to love, but what you can do is to observe hate and put it gently aside.



If you have no prejudice, no bias, if you are open, then everything around you becomes extraordinarily interesting, tremendously alive.
That is why it is very important, while you are young, to notice all these things. Be aware of the boat on the river, watch the train go by, see the peasant carrying a heavy burden, observe the insolence of the rich, the pride of the ministers, of the big people, of those who think they know a lot – just watch them, don’t criticize.



…. to have this inward beauty, there must be complete abandonment, the sense of not being held, of no restraint, no defence, no resistance, but abandonment becomes chaotic if there is no austerity with it …… what it means to be austere, to be satisfied with little and not to think in terms of ‘the more’?
……….. There is austerity when the mind is capable of infinite experience – when it has experience and yet remains very simple



……… whereas if you observe your mind very quietly without giving explanations, if you just let the mind be aware of it's own struggle, you will soon find that there comes a state in which there is no struggle at all, but an astonishing watchfulness. In that state of watchfulness there is no sense of the superior and the inferior, there is no big man or little man, there is no guru. All those absurdities are gone because the mind is fully awake, and the mind that is fully awake is joyous.



Why is there this everlasting craving to be loved? Listen carefully. You want to be loved because you do not love, but the moment you love, it is finished, you are no longer inquiring whether or not somebody loves you.


One of our main difficulties is that modern education all over the world is chiefly concerned with making us mere technicians ………. Our lives are very empty now, are they not? You may have a college degree, you may get married and be well off, you may be clever, have a great deal of information ……… But as long as you fill your heart with the things of the mind, your life is bound to be empty, ugly, and it will have very little meaning. There is beauty and meaning in life only when the heart is cleansed of the things of the mind.


You will never find God at sixty, for at that age most people are worn out, finished. You must begin when you are very young ……..


To break out of the prison of belief requires a mature mind, a thoughtful mind, a mind that perceives the nature of the prison itself and does not compare one prison with another. …….. If you examine the nature of organized religion, you will see that all religions are essentially alike, whether Hinduism, Buddhism, Mohammedanism, Christianity – or communism, which is another form of religion, the very latest ……… only the man who is free of belief can discover that which lies beyond all belief, that which is immeasurable.



The mind can discover only when it is young, fresh, innocent, but innocence is not a matter of age …….. the mind that is capable of experiencing without accumulating the residue of experience. The mind ….. must respond to everything – to the river, to the diseased animal, to the dead body being carried away to be burnt, to the poor villagers carrying their burdens along the road, to the tortures and miseries of life – otherwise it is already dead, but it must be capable of responding without being held by the experience. It is tradition, the accumulation of experience, the ashes of memory, that make the mind old. The mind that dies every day to the memories of yesterday, to all the joys and sorrows of the past – such a mind is fresh, innocent, it has no age; and without that innocence, whether you are ten or sixty, you will not find God.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

From ‘The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. Volume I’ – by Mahendranath Gupta ('M') - Original in Bengali. Translation by Swami Nikhilananda

Sri Ramakrishna ………. Said………… “You see, you have certain good signs. I know them by looking at a person’s forehead, his eyes and so on. ”



“Suppose there is an error in worshipping the clay image; doesn’t God know that through it He alone is being invoked? He will be pleased with that very worship. Why should you get a headache over it?



“Repeat God’s name and sing His glories, and keep holy company; and now and then visit God’s devotees and holy men. Then mind cannot dwell on God if it is immersed day and night in worldliness, in worldly duties and responsibilities; it is most necessary to go into solitude now and then and think of God. To fix the mind on God is very difficult, in the beginning, unless one practices meditation in solitude. When a tree is young it should be fenced all around; otherwise it may be destroyed by cattle.”


MASTER: “Cry to the Lord with an intensely yearning heart and you will certainly see Him. People shed a whole jug of tears for wife and children. They swim in tears for money. But who weeps for God? Cry to Him with a real cry.”



“It is necessary to pray to Him with a longing heart. The kitten knows only how to call it's mother, crying, ‘Mew, mew!’ It remains satisfied wherever it's mother puts it. And the mother cat puts the kitten sometimes in the kitchen, sometimes on the floor, and sometimes on the bed. When it suffers it cries only, ‘Mew, mew!’ That’s all it knows. But as soon as the mother hears this cry, wherever she may be, she comes to the kitten.”



“You may say that there are many errors and superstitions in another religion. I should reply: Suppose there are. Every religion has errors. Everyone thinks that his watch alone gives the correct time.”



MASTER (to M): “The mind of the yogi is always fixed on God, always absorbed in the Self. You can recognize such a man by merely looking at him. His eyes are wide open, with an aimless look, like the eyes of the mother bird hatching her eggs……..”



MASTER: “There are two classes of yogis: the vahudakas and the kutichakas. The vahudakas roam about visiting holy places and have not yet found peace of mind. But the kutichakas, having visited all the sacred places, have quieted their minds. Feeling serene and peaceful, they settle down in one place …….. they are happy …….If one of them ever visits a place of pilgrimage, it is only for the purpose of new inspiration.
I had to practise each religion for a time – Hinduism, Islam, Christianity. Furthermore I followed the paths of the Saktas, Vaishnavas and Vedantists. I realized that there is only one God toward whom all are travelling; but the paths are different.”



“Once someone gave me a book of the Christians. I asked him to read it to me. It talked about nothing but sin……….. The wretch who constantly says, ‘I am bound, I am bound’ only succeeds in being bound. He who says day and night, ‘I am a sinner, I am a sinner’ verily becomes a sinner.
“One should have such burning faith in God that one can say: ‘What? I have repeated the name of God, and can sin still cling to me? How can I be a sinner any more? ………’
“If a man repeats the name of God, his body, mind and everything becomes pure. Why should one talk only about sin and hell, and such things? ………”



MASTER: “No one can say with finality that God is only ‘this’ and nothing else. He is formless, and again He has forms. For the bhakta he assumes forms. But he is formless for the jnani……….”


“Kabir used to say, ‘The formless Absolute is my Father, and God with form is my Mother’



“…….. in the light of Vedantic reasoning Brahman has no attributes. The real nature of Brahman cannot be described. But so long as your individuality is real, he world also is real, and equally real are the different forms of God and the feeling that God is a Person.”



…… Sri Ramakrishna said: “The caste system can be removed by one means only, and that is the love of God. Lovers of God do not belong to any caste. …………”



……There are certain characteristics of God-vision. One sees light, feels joy, and experiences the upsurge of a great current in one’s chest, like the bursting of a rocket.”


One cannot realize God without prema-bhakti. Another name for prema-bhakti is raga-bhakti. ……There is another kind of bhakti, known as vaidhi-bhakti, according to which one must repeat the name of God a fixed number of times, fast, make pilgrimages, worship God with prescribed offerings, make so many sacrifices, and so forth and so on. By continuing such practices a long time one gradually acquires raga-bhakti. God cannot be realized until one has raga-bhakti.



“There is another class of devotees, known as kripasiddha ……… those on whom the grace of God descends all of a sudden and who at once attain His vision and Knowledge ……… Those who lead a householder’s life should practice spiritual discipline; they should pray eagerly to God in solitude.



“One should not reason too much; it is enough if one loves the Lotus Feet of the Mother. Too much reasoning throws the mind into confusion ……… pray to God with devotion.


“With sincerity and earnestness one can realize God through all religions.

…….Intense cold freezes the water into ice, which floats on the ocean in blocks of various forms. Likewise, through the cooling influence of bhakti, one sees forms of God in the Ocean of the Absolute. …….. But when the Sun of Knowledge rises, the ice melts; it becomes the same water it was before. …… Therefore a prayer in the Bhagavata says: ‘O Lord, Thou has form, and Thou art also formless’


………. Bony people, the hollow-eyed, the cross-eyed – people with physical traits like those cannot easily acquire faith ……….

When the mind is quiet the prana stops functioning. Then one gets kumbhaka. One may have the same kumbhaka through bhaktiyoga as well ………


…….. There are certain signs of a jnani. Narendra has big protruding eyes ………..


MASTER: “Too much study of the scriptures does more harm than good. The important thing is to know the essence of the scriptures. After that, what is the need of books? ……..”


“It is good to meditate in the small hours of the morning and at dawn. One should also meditate daily after dusk.

“ …….. A man who has seen God sometimes behaves like a madman: he laughs, weeps, dances and sings. Sometimes he behaves like a child, a child five years old – guileless, generous, without vanity, unattached to anything, not under the control of any of the gunas, always blissful. Sometimes he behaves like a ghoul: he doesn’t differentiate between things pure and things impure; he sees no difference between things clean and things unclean. And sometimes he is like an inert thing, staring vacantly: he cannot do any work, he cannot strive for anything.”


Have faith in the name of God. Then you won't need even to go to holy places.

“First of all one acquires bhakti. Bhakti is single-minded devotion to God …… through such devotion one’s mind and soul merge in Him.
“Then comes bhava, intense love. Through bhava a man becomes speechless. His nerve currents are stilled. Kumbhaka comes by itself.



……. Another characteristic of God-vision is that a great spiritual current rushes up along the spine and goes toward the brain. If then the devotee goes into Samadhi, he sees God.”


……. Householder’s life …………
MASTER: …… Whenever you have leisure, go into solitude for a day or two. At that time don’t have any relations with the outside world and don’t hold conversation with worldly people on worldly affairs. You must live either in solitude or in the company of holy men.



“One must have childlike faith – and the intense yearning that a child feels to see it's mother

MASTER: “Mad! ……… One must become mad with love in order to realize God. But that love is not possible if the mind dwells on ‘woman and gold’. Sex-life with a woman! What happiness is there in that? The realization of God gives ten million times more happiness ……. When a man attains ecstatic love of God all the pores of his skin, even the roots of his hair, become like so many sexual organs, and in every pore the aspirant enjoys the happiness of communion with the Atman.

The Kundalini is speedily awakened if one follows the path of bhakti.

MASTER (to M): “One should fast on the eleventh day of the lunar fortnight. This purifies the mind and helps one to develop love of God.

MASTER: “It is said in the scriptures that only those who have been charitable in their former births get money in this life. But to tell you the truth, this world is God’s maya. And there are many confusing things in this realm of maya. One cannot comprehend them.


“There is another form of meditation known as the ‘Vishnu yoga’. The eyes are fixed on the top of the nose. Half the look is directed inward and the other half outward.


“To be able to realize God, one must practice absolute continence. Sages like Sukadeva are examples ……….. Their chastity was absolutely unbroken. ……… A man controlling the seminal fluid for twelve years develops a special power. He grows a new inner nerve called the nerve of memory. Through that nerve he remembers all, he understands all.

“Loss of semen impairs the strength. But it does not injure one if one loses it in a dream. That semen one gets from food. What remains after nocturnal discharge is enough.


“I see people who talk about religion constantly quarrelling with one another. Hindus, Mussalmans, Brahmos, Saktas, Vaishnavas, Saivas, all quarelling with one another. They haven’t the intelligence to understand that He who is called Krishna is also Siva and the Primal Sakti, and that it is He again, who is called Jesus and Allah. ……… Truth is one; only It is called by different names. All people are seeking the same Truth; the variance is due to climate, temperament, and name,


MASTER (to M): “Do you cook your own meals?”

M: “No, sir”
MASTER: “You may try it. With your meals take a little clarified butter made from cows milk. That will purify your body and mind.”



MASTER: “One should keep pictures of holy men in one’s room. That constantly quickens divine ideas.”


“The thing is somehow to unite the mind with God. You must not forget Him, not even once. …….. If you worship with love even a brick or stone as God, then through His grace you can see Him.

“ ………. One should perform such worship as Siva Puja. Once the mind has become mature, one doesn’t have to continue formal worship for long. The mind then always remains united with God; meditation and contemplation become a constant habit of mind.”



……… bhaktiyoga …….is to keep the mind on God by chanting His name and glories. For the Kaliyuga the path of devotion is easiest



“Better than reading is hearing, and better than hearing is seeing. One understands the scriptures better by hearing them from the lips of the guru or of a holy man. Then one doesn’t have to think about the non-essential part. ……….



It is true that many things are recorded in the scriptures; but all these are useless without the direct realization of God, without devotion to His Lotus Feet, without purity of heart. The almanac forecasts the rainfall of the year. But not a drop of water will you get by sqeezing the almanac ………..



How long should one reason about the texts of the scriptures? So long as one does not have direct realization of God………….



“Some souls realize God without practicing any spiritual discipline. They are called nityasiddha, eternally perfect. Those who have realized God through austerity, japa, and the like, are called sadhanasiddha, perfect through spiritual discipline. Again, there are those called kripasiddha, perfect through divine grace. These last may be compared to a room kept dark a thousand years, which becomes light the moment a lamp is brought in.

“There is also a class of devotees, the hathatsiddha …… those who have suddenly attained God-vision. Their case is like that of a poor boy who has suddenly found favour with a rich man. The rich man marries his daughter to the boy and along with her gives him land, house, carriage, servants, and so forth.
“There is still another class of devotees, the svapnasiddha, who have had the vision of God in a dream.”



MASTER (smiling): “What good is there in reading a whole lot of scriptures? What good is there in the study of philosophy? What is the use of talking big? In order to learn archery one should first aim at a banana tree, then at a reed, then at a wick, and last at a flying bird. At the beginning one should concentrate on God with form.


MASTER: “………. The mind of a worldly man generally moves among the three lower centres: those at the navel, at the sexual organ, and at the organ of evacuation. After great effort and spiritual practice the Kundalini is awakened. According to the yogis there are three nerves in the spinal column: Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna. Along the Sushumna are six lotuses, or centres, the lowest being known as the Muladhara. Then come successively Svadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Visuddha, and Ajna …….. The Kundalini, when awakened, passes through the lower centres and comes to the Anahata, which is at the heart. It stays there. At that time the mind of the aspirant is withdrawn from the three lower centres. He feels the awakening of Divine Consciousness and sees Light. ……

“After passing through the six centres, the Kundalini reaches the thousand petalled lotus known as the Sahasrara, and the aspirant goes into Samadhi.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Thought

I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
- Alan Greenspan

Wajahat Khan interviews Omar Abdullah

I was quite surprised (pleasantly) by Omar Abdullah’s sense of clarity in this interview. He seems sincere, honest. But he needs to smile more to establish an audience/viewer connect
Part 1




Part 2





Part 3





Part 4





Part 5





Part 6

From ‘Across the Wagah. An Indian's sojourn in Pakistan’ by Maneesha Tikekar

Borders are scratched across the hearts of men

By stranges with a calm, judicial pen,

And when the borders bleed we watch with dread

The lines of ink across the map turn red


- Marya Mannes



Muslims claimed to be a separate nation …….. the demand for a separate Muslim state ……..came primarily from the United Province, Bihar and Hyderabad for fear of being submerged in the Hindu majority. Ironically the Muslim majority provinces of India except Bengal joined the movement almost at it's fag end.



Mohammed Ali Jinnah ………. His oft-quoted Presidential address in the Constituent Assembly ………

You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the state … in the course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense … but in the political sense as citizens of the state.



Pakistani Army ………….its almost mono-ethnic composition …. Is predominantly Punjabi with …… 65 to 70 per cent and Pakhtuns constituting 25 per cent of it's strength



……. At least 69 spoken and living languages in Pakistan out of which 16 could be said to be major. …….. of the 97 per cent Muslim population Sunnis constitute 70 per cent and Shias 20.



I was told that there are also some Hindu and Sikh tribes in Balochistan and most interestingly even a ‘Marhatti’ tribe. ……….. they could be the Maratha soldiers taken as slaves by Ahmad Shah Abdali in the third battle of Panipat in 1761, when he defeated the Maratha forces. Baloch sardars who had assisted Abdali in the battle got most of the slaves as the bounty of war

[Resource http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descendants_of_Maratha_prisoners_of_war_(1761)]



Urdu is the national language of Pakistan, spoken by eight per cent of the country’s population as mother tongue today. But none of the linguistic groups from the region that became Pakistan ever spoke Urdu. It was spoken by the U.P. and Bihari Muslims who were at the forefront in the Pakistan Movement and who came to dominate Pakistani Government and administration after their migration to the new country. The language of barely three per cent of the people in 1947 became the national language overnight and was instantly converted into a symbol of Pakistani patriotism …….. Over the years Urdu had come to be erroneously identified as the language of the Indian Muslims



………. 3.72 per cent of the population ……. Includes Christians and Hindus ………… Christians and Hindus are mostly confined to menial jobs……… there are hardly any prominent Hindus in Pakistan …….. Immediately after partition, Pakistan had nearly 20 per cent Hindus.