No one razed Wali Gujarati’s mazaar?

AHMEDABAD: While the commission of inquiry probing the 2002 riots retired Supreme Court judge GT Nanavati mentioned the episode of the razing of the mazaar (shrine) of the first Urdu ghazal writer of the 17th century, Wali Gujarati or Wali Dakhani, on February 28, the commission did not indict anyone but just narrated what happened that day.
The report tabled in the state assembly on Tuesday, 17 years after the commission began its inquiry into the 2002 Godhra carnage and the post-Godhra massacres, mentions the incident as one of the 113 cases of violence that took place on February 28, 2002.
“On 8/9, March 2002, Mohmedali Hasanali Saiyed lodged FIR (I-CR No. 73/2002) stating that on February 28, 2002, between 0700 hours and 1405 hours, a mob of miscreants broke the mazaar of Hajrat Sha Vali Peer situated near Shahibaug Underbridge,” states the report, on incidents of violence that took place in the jurisdiction of Madhavpura police station.
“Since the police could not find the culprits even after investigation, it (police) obtained A summary and closed the case. Subsequently, the case has been re-opened (sic) and the investigation is still going on,” it adds, without making any observation.
Even after the Gujarat high court had in 2012 directed the state government to pay for the for rebuilding and repairs of religious structures damaged in 2002, no action was taken to restore Wali’s shrine.
Manishi Jani of Gujarati Lekhak Mandal said that the state government did not rebuild the shrine even after the court’s order, but announced an award named after the father of the Urdu ghazal.
“They launched an award named ‘Wali Gujarati Ghazal award’ which was later turned into the “Wali Award for Gujarati ghazals”. We opposed this vehemently, but Gujarati poets and writers did not support us to have the shrine made again and so the state government did not do anything to rebuild the shrine of the father of Urdu ghazals,” said Jani.
At the site where the shrine stood before February 28, 2002, just in front of the Gujarat police headquarters, a few flowers were found, offered by some followers of the poet.
After the rioters razed the shrine, the city civic body had swiftly taken action, which is very rare today, as they instantaneously resurfaced the road and installed new divider stones.
Who was Wali
“Khugaar nahin kuchch yoon hi hum rekhta-goi kay/Mashooq jo apna tha, bashindah-e-Daccan tha.”
“It is not casually that I have been possessed by Urdu. He who was my love was that native of the Deccan.”
This was a couplet written by the great Urdu poet, Mir Taqi Mir, referring to the native of the Deccan, Wali Mohammed Wali, who was also knows as Wali Gujarati, Wali Dakhani or Wali Aurangabadi, in references to the places where he had lived.
Born Wali Mohammed Wali in Aurangabad in 1667, he had made Gujarat his home. Two of his creations, a masnavi ‘Ta’arif-e-Shehr Sourat’ (In Praise of Surat City), and a ghazal, ‘Dar Firaaq-e-Gujarat’ (On Separation from Gujarat), are his most well known pieces referencing Gujarat.
Wali died in Ahmedabad in 1707. A shrine was made over his grave in the Shahibaug area of the city, which stood for 305 years, until it was destructed by the rioters on February 28, 2002, who left behind an idol and a board with ‘Hulladiyo Hanuman’ (Riotous Hanuman) written on it.
A verse from ‘Dar Firaaq-e-Gujarat’ had in 2016 found a place in the Gujarat board Class XI Hindi textbook:
“Gujarat ke firaaq se hai khaar khaar dil, Betaab hai seenay mein atish bahar dil, Marham nahin hai iske zakhm ka jahan mein, Shamshir e hijr se jo hua hai figar dil”
(My heart is thorn-filled with longing for Gujarat; restless, frantic, flame-wrapped in the spring; on earth there exists no balm for this wound; my heart is split asunder by the dagger of separation). This ghazal captured Wali’s sorrow on leaving Gujarat for Delhi.
‘Had seen the shrine, rioters and road-rollers’
Dashrath Patni, 45, resident of Shahibaug, has sold vegetables on the roadside in Shahibaugh for 25 years. He said he had seen the shrine of “Pir Bawa” (Wali Gujarati), and people offering prayers there. He also saw rioters breaking it down with big hammers and an road-roller then relaid the road over the site.
“I still remember the day when Pir Bawa’s mazaar (shrine) was razed and suddenly they put asphalt over it and a road roller stamped the site down. I do not know why it was not rebuilt. When it was there, many followers used to come and offer prayers,” said Patni.
Patni said that two men religiously offer flowers on the divider, which replaced the razed shrine, every Thursday and Friday. “No one else comes as nobody seems to knows that there was a shrine at this place,” said Patni.