Attention Nobel Peace Prize Committee: You have a REAL winner

Source: http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200406/humanitarian.to.a.nation.htm

Authors: Richard Covignton, Shahid ul Alam

 

In the cool interior of a mental ward in Karachi, a short, powerfully built man with a flowing snow-white beard and penetrating dark-brown eyes is standing at the bedside of a distraught young woman. She has covered her head with a sheet and is pleading for news of the two children her husband took from her.

“I know you are suffering terribly, but this is no way to bring back your children,” says the man with stern compassion. “You have a college degree. You can do many things to help the other patients.”

Outside the room’s windows of latticed stone, several hundred other women stroll and lounge under pipal trees scattered around a courtyard as big as several football fields. All are here because their families cannot—or will not—cope with their mental illnesses.

“Self-help,” says the man as he walks away from the young mother’s bedside. “That’s the best way to get back on your feet.”

For more than half a century, Abdul Sattar Edhi, now 76 years old, has been living proof that a determined individual can mobilize others to alleviate misery and, in so doing, knit together the social fabric of a nation. Firmly refusing financial support from both government and formal religious organizations, this self-effacing man with a primary-school education has almost single-handedly created one of the largest and most successful health and welfare networks in Asia. Whether he is counseling a battered wife, rescuing an accident victim, feeding a poor child, sheltering a homeless family or washing an unidentified and unclaimed corpse before burial, Edhi and Bilquis, his wife of 38 years, help thousands of Pakistanis each day.

Starting in 1951 with a tiny dispensary in Karachi’s poor Mithadar neighborhood, Edhi has steadily built up a nationwide organization of ambulances, clinics, maternity homes, mental asylums, homes for the physically handicapped, blood banks, orphanages, adoption centers, mortuaries, shelters for runaway children and battered women, schools, nursing courses, soup kitchens and a 25-bed cancer hospital. All are run by some 7000 volunteers and a small paid staff of teachers, doctors and nurses. Edhi has also personally delivered medicines, food and clothing to refugees in Bosnia, Ethiopia and Afghanistan. He and the drivers of his ambulances have saved lives in floods, train wrecks, civil conflicts and traffic accidents. After the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, he donated $100,000 to Pakistanis in New York who lost their jobs in the subsequent economic crisis.

Remarkably, the lion’s share of the Edhi Foundation’s $10-million budget comes from private donations from individual Pakistanis inside and outside the country. In the 1980’s, when Pakistan’s then-President Zia ul-Haq sent him a check for 500,000 rupees (then more than $30,000), Edhi sent it back. Last year, the Italian government offered him a million-dollar donation. He refused. “Governments set conditions that I cannot accept,” he says, declining to give any details.

Usually dressed in a simple tunic over gray pajamas, scuffed sandals on his feet and his trademark astrakhan hat on his head, Edhi outlines his philosophy in the Mithadar dispensary where he launched his charity more than five decades ago. “I tell people that, because I am working for you, the money must come from you,” he says. For years, this meant that Edhi would take to the streets to beg on behalf of his growing social programs. Even in his 70’s, he still occasionally begs on the streets, generally for the sake of severely ill individuals in urgent need of expensive medical care that his clinics cannot provide.

Generally, however, donors come in person to one of the 300 centers and clinics across Pakistan. One, who declined to give his name, explained that he gives money regularly to the Edhi Foundation because an Edhi ambulance once rescued his sister from an automobile accident. (The cost of an ambulance call—one of the few services for which the foundation charges—is less than 50 rupees, or around 85 us cents.) “When I give this 1400 rupees to Edhi, I know it goes to people who need it,” says the donor.

Some donors have been very generous. One family donated two villas in the wealthy Karachi suburb of Clifton for use as a residence and school for around 250 girls. A Pakistani expatriate in the uk donated office buildings worth £1.4 million ($2.5 million) that became the British headquarters of the foundation, which organizes local charity services both for expatriates and in support of the foundation’s work in Pakistan. In addition to money and property, contributors donate clothes, appliances, furniture—even goat and chicken meat, sometimes by the ton. The organization uses a portion of these gifts to feed and clothe residents of the homes; the rest is given away to other hospitals, prisons and disaster victims.

For this, Edhi may well be the most widely admired man in Pakistan. In 1986 he received the Ramón Magsaysay Award for Public Service, sometimes referred to as “the Asian Nobel Prize.” In 2000, he was awarded the International Balzan Prize for Humanity, Peace and Brotherhood. In 2002, he joined former us President Bill Clinton, Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel and others as an honorary board member of the newly founded Daniel Pearl Foundation, created in honor of the murderedWall Street Journal correspondent. Typically, Edhi pays his own way to receive awards and participate in conferences.

“What Edhi is doing is nothing short of a miracle,” explains Z. A. Nizami, former director-general of the Karachi Development Authority.

emmed in by a labyrinth of fabric shops, food markets and dusty, cart-filled lanes, Edhi’s three-story Mithadar center is a hive of activity. In the crowded front offices, men and women sit behind donated desks taking ambulance calls, ordering medicines and checking the accounts of clinics and centers across the country. In one room, three women are filling out adoption papers. Bilquis Edhi, who oversees adoptions, has placed more than 16,000 children in adopted homes. Outside every Edhi center there is a cradle—shaded from the sun—where unwanted babies can be left anonymously.

Upstairs, a dozen infants and well-fed toddlers, some rattling across the floor in walking strollers, play and doze as Bilquis chats with a woman who has come to adopt a child for her son and daughter-in-law in the United States.

“The baby she’s adopting was starving when it arrived,” Bilquis remarks. “When you nurse a child back to life, it really hurts to see her go, even after you’ve gone through the process thousands of times. Finding her a loving home makes it worth the feeling of loss.”

Bilquis tells of the 32-year-old woman who showed up recently at the Mithadar clinic looking for her. The woman explained that her parents had just revealed that they had adopted her as an infant from the Edhi center. “I’m a doctor now, with four children of my own,” she told Bilquis. “And I wanted to show my gratitude to the woman who nursed me.”

“We both broke down in tears,” Bilquis recalls.

With her head loosely covered by a brightly patterned yellow scarf and eyes that twinkle behind black-framed glasses, Bilquis’s sunny, lighthearted disposition contrasts with her husband’s severe, sometimes impatient manner. The pair met at the clinic when she arrived as an 18-year-old nurse in 1965. A year or so later, they were married.

Their wedding night set the tone for the relationship. Dropping by the dispensary after the ceremony, Edhi found a 12-year-old girl with severe head injuries. The newlyweds rushed her to the hospital and spent the night supervising blood transfusions and calming down distraught relatives.

“I didn’t mind at all,” Bilquis told Reader’s Digest for an article published in 1989. “Today that girl is married with children; that’s what is really important.”

Even so, Bilquis acknowledges in a playful way, life with Edhi can be trying. “Sometimes I wonder how I stayed my whole life with this man who is a mental case,” she says with a smile. “He won’t even attend the weddings of his own children, but if there’s an emergency somewhere he’ll dash out to help in an instant.”

In a room nearby, a teacher is conducting a class in Urdu, Arabic and counting for around a dozen children three to six years old, some of whom have Down’s syndrome. Next door, a female doctor is showing 10 aspiring nurses how to take blood tests; it’s part of a six-month course that will lead to their certification as nurse’s aides.

“I tell destitute women who come to the centers that they can learn nursing here and later earn their own money as nurses and midwives,” Edhi explains back downstairs in his office. So far, around 1500 women have received this training.

Edhi’s own passion for healing dates back to his childhood. At age 11, he was obliged to care for his mother, who was paralyzed with a severe diabetic condition. “I bathed her, changed her and fed her,” he recalls in his 1996 autobiography, A Mirror to the Blind.“Taking care of my mother made me ponder the misery of others who suffered; from that time on, I began to think of how I could help them, and to dream of building hospitals and a village for the handicapped.”

Born in 1928 in Bantva, a small Indian town of 25,000 inhabitants in Gujarat state, he was “not what I would call an obedient child,” he admits with a grin. A natural leader, when he was not prodding other kids to join him in stealing corn and fruit from wealthy farmers, he was organizing impromptu circuses and performing gymnastic feats for the neighbors. Although his father brokered textiles and other goods and provided the family with a middle-class income, both of Edhi’s parents instilled in him the importance of simplicity and frugal living.

“Every day before school, my mother would give me two paisa and say, ‘Spend one paisaon yourself and give the other away,’” Edhi remembers. “When I came home, she would ask me where I had given away my one paisa. It was her way of creating an awareness in me of the need for social welfare.”

At the same time he began caring for his mother, he also developed a habit of saving, putting aside one rupee for every five he earned working at a fabric shop after school. This thriftiness served him well, prompting him to gradually acquire government securities. Even now, Edhi takes no salary, choosing instead to live parsimoniously on the interest from these securities.

In 1951, four years after the family moved to Karachi following the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent, the 23-year-old Edhi used some of his savings to buy a tiny shop, less than three meters (10′) on a side, inside what is now the clinic building. Together with a doctor who taught him the basics of health care, he set up a free dispensary, and he persuaded several friends to help him add free literacy classes. To be available at all times, he slept on a cement bench outside the dispensary.

In 1957, a virulent flu epidemic swept through Karachi. Edhi reacted with unselfish daring, using his own money to erect tented camps on the city’s outskirts where people received free immunizations. After the epidemic was brought under control, grateful residents chipped in to buy the rest of the Mithadar dispensary building, enabling Edhi to create a free maternity center and nursing school.

Over the years that followed, Edhi realized that Karachi desperately needed an ambulance service. Impressed by his handling of the flu crisis, a local businessman made a large donation, part of which Edhi used to buy a beat-up van that he converted into a free ambulance and drove himself. “I prided myself on being the first to arrive at an accident,” he recalls. Today, Edhi’s ambulance service has grown to a fleet of more than 600 nationwide, all paid for with donations. Dispatched from call centers scattered around the country’s cities and highways, Edhi ambulances are still usually the first to arrive at the scene, and they have helped cut the fatality toll from road accidents by half, he says.

In 1986, during a hijacking attempt at Karachi airport, Edhi marshaled 54 ambulances at the ready. When negotiations between the hijackers and the government broke down and Pakistani commandos stormed the plane, Edhi and other paramedics entered under fire to try to save wounded passengers and crew.

In 1993, during devastating floods in the Punjab, Edhi ambulances rescued 50,000 people. Using donated planes, volunteers also dropped food, water and supplies to isolated families. Edhi’s air ambulance service now numbers three planes and a helicopter, all donated by the US Agency for International Development—“without conditions,” Edhi is quick to point out.

“The 1993 flood was the biggest operation we’d ever done; it satisfied Mr. Edhi that we could handle major disasters,” explains Anwer Kazmi, a longtime friend and aide, who translates Edhi’s Urdu into English.

A stickler for organizational efficiency, Edhi stands up from his desk and goes over to a wall arrayed with stacked drawers of cardboard boxes, each carefully labeled with a year, a location and a subject. “How do you like my computer?” he asks, smiling, as he pulls out a box containing the expense records of the 1993 flood operation. Like his training in health care, Edhi’s expertise in administration is self-taught, his business savvy acquired over decades of running a foundation that now occupies some 7330 staff and volunteers. Back at his desk, he leafs through one of the oversize accounting ledgers that he fills with ruminations, anecdotes, recollections and plans.

“Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and jot down ideas in these ledgers,” he explains. “And in the morning, everyone groans about all the orders I hand down as I try to follow through on my inspirations.”

Recently one of those nighttime brainstorms involved setting up emergency clinics on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan to treat victims of the 2001 war. Edhi’s son Faisal, 26, who works for the foundation, vividly recalls an incident at one of these clinics that encapsulated his father’s demanding nature.

At the new center in Jamun, Faisal explains, local staff members had purchased a dozen chairs for guests and journalists. When Edhi arrived for his own first visit, he blew up. “Why did you waste money on chairs?” he stormed. “Next, you’ll be buying beds and other things for yourselves instead of spending the money on the people we intend to help.” That night, Edhi himself slept with the ambulance drivers on the floor of the center.

As Faisal finishes his anecdote, Edhi rubs a hand across his balding head and nods in agreement. “People respect me because they see how simply we live and that all the donations go to the people who need help,” he volunteers. Only 10 percent of the foundation’s overall budget goes toward administrative overhead, including salaries, he adds.

Edhi and Bilquis still occupy a cramped, two-room apartment next to his office in the midst of the hubbub of the Mithadar clinic. He remains on call for emergencies 24 hours a day—just as he has for the past 52 years. “I am always available to all, rich or poor,” he says. “Anyone can come into this office and talk to me.”

Despite this open-door policy, growing up the children of such a father was not easy. Although Edhi’s children were raised largely by Bilquis’s mother in a house near the dispensary, they were exposed to pain and misery from an early age. At seven, Faisal recalls accompanying his father to recover the corpse of a murder victim. Edhi brought the body back to Mithadar, washed it and gave it a respectful burial. “I got very sick and couldn’t sleep for a week,” Faisal recalls.

By the time he was 10, however, Faisal had grown accustomed to riding with his father on ambulance calls to bring the dead and injured to morgues and hospitals. Now, Faisal is in charge of the ambulance service, whose costs he is trying to cut to make it self- sustaining. He’s also creating a new dispensary and ambulance center for some 50,000 people uprooted from their Karachi homes by a highway project and forcibly moved to a treeless settlement west of the city where there is no running water, sewage or electricity.

Running the Edhi Foundation is very much a family concern. Edhi, Bilquis and their children meet every Sunday at the girls’ home in Clifton to confer over problems at the centers and plan new projects.

“We discuss each girl individually,” says Edhi’s 36-year-old daughter, Kubra, who is as restrained as Faisal is extroverted. “Before the establishment of Edhi homes, young girls who ran away from their families fell into prostitution and other criminal activities. Now they have a place to take shelter.”

Some girls flee to the center to obtain the education their families deny them, while others are sent by parents eager to have their daughters educated, but too poor to pay school fees.

“When girls first come, they generally pass the first few days with great difficulty, often getting depressed and tense,” Kubra continues. “We involve them in work—taking care of children, mixing with other girls and women. Their lives become more normal after three or four days. If a girl continues to be depressed or has difficulty adjusting, we call a doctor to treat her.”

“This is very difficult work, because of fundamentalism,” Edhi interjects. “Our society does not want to give any facilities to females. When political opponents criticize us, we never fight them—we ignore them.

“Still, it’s very hard to survive if you are working for all the people, not just your particular religious or ethnic group,” he acknowledges. “With so much discrimination and growing religious divisions, my children will have a very, very tough time.”

In 1992, tragedy drew the family closer than ever. A mentally unbalanced woman staying at the Clifton home scalded Kubra’s four-year-old son, Bilal, with bathwater so hot that he died two months later. “Revenge will not bring Bilal back,” Edhi advised Kubra at the time. “You must try to forgive the woman.” Kubra decided to transfer her to another Edhi center, but not to punish her. That Kubra and the rest of the family continued their work with the mentally disturbed and destitute is powerful testimony to their commitment.

arly the next morning, Edhi sets out with Faisal and Kazmi to conduct a surprise inspection of Edhi Village, a home for runaway and abandoned boys with a separate asylum for mentally ill and physically handicapped men. Halfway into the 45-minute drive south of Karachi, Edhi stops the ambulance at a one-room cinderblock building with a red roof, one of 35 emergency first-aid outposts he’s created along the 1100- kilometer (700-mi) highway from Karachi to Peshawar.

As he chats with the paramedic on call, a pair of policemen pull up to the center. Seeing Edhi, they greet him warmly and join in the conversation.

“Before we set up these emergency centers, the police were stretched too thin and many people died in accidents,” says Faisal. “Now, they rely on us to respond to 75 percent of road accidents.” Nationwide, the Edhi ambulance service receives more than 6000 calls a day.

At the entrance to Edhi Village, the driveway is lined with tamarisk trees covered with yellow blossoms, eucalyptus and palm trees, and beds of purple and white flowers. The courtyard is sprawling and grassy, surrounded by classrooms and dormitories. It contains a playground, a soccer field and volleyball and basketball courts, all of which are used for competitive games with visiting school teams. “Faisal organized the boys to do the landscaping,” Edhi says proudly. “It’s part of our self-help initiative.”

When Edhi purchased the Village’s 26-hectare (65-acre) parcel in 1985, it was barren land. Now there are kitchens, workshops, recreation rooms and housing for 250 children in one complex and 1500 mental patients in another.

In one of the classrooms, Edhi singles out an alert-looking 10-year-old pupil with a congenitally deformed hand. “When he was a newborn, this boy was abandoned in one of our cradles outside a center in Karachi,” Edhi explains. “Bilquis named him Shazab and took care of him in Mithadar until he was old enough to come here. Now he’s one of our smartest students.” When Edhi asks him what he’d like to do when he graduates, Shazab breaks into a shy smile. “I want to be in charge of Edhi Village,” he says.

Further down the open-air hallway are workshops with sewing machines and stacks of electrical equipment. In one of the rooms, a teacher is demonstrating how to repair a refrigerator motor. Edhi pauses to talk with a 13-year-old boy who explains that he’s an Afghan refugee whose parents were killed in the 2001 war. Police picked him up begging on a Karachi street and brought him to an Edhi center. He was later transferred to Edhi Village.

“The boys install all the electrical wiring in the Village and receive enough training to become electricians,” Edhi explains. “We also teach them how to sew so that they can get jobs as tailors or clothes makers when they leave.”

“Sometimes, parents take their children back home and the kids run away again to come back,” adds Kazmi. “The education they receive here is better than the education even middle-class students receive. Also, we provide them with clothes and plenty of food.”

In the walled sanatorium for the mentally handicapped, physically disabled and mentally ill next door, the scene is more sobering. Several hundred residents lie on scattered mattresses or sit on the cement floor in one bare, cavernous ward. Elsewhere, groups of men mill about outside under straggly bougainvillea trees. Despite the spartan facilities, “the patients live under far better conditions than in other mental hospitals in Pakistan,” maintains Ghulam Mustafa, the senior doctor of a staff of five doctors and eight nurses on rotation.

“We organize games and art activities, and the retarded patients do most of the work themselves, keeping the place neat and clean,” he says. “The better-off patients take care of the ones who are more dependent.”

Back in Karachi, Edhi stops by a men’s psychiatric center to meet with Mohammad Ayaz, a soft- spoken, 40-year-old psychiatrist whom Edhi hired after witnessing his success in rehabilitating mentally ill inmates of the city’s central jail. In the front reception room, former patients are busy answering telephone calls and dispatching ambulances.

“Many of our patients can be cured,” Ayaz explains, “but their relatives reject them, leaving them here to languish unnecessarily in long-term care.

“Our biggest problem is that we don’t have enough trained staff,” he continues. “Twelve doctors in rotation have to look after a total of 3500 patients in Edhi Village and six residential centers in Karachi.”

One of the men manning the phones stands up to introduce himself in American-accented English. A self-possessed character with a shock of swept-back black hair flecked with gray, 53-year-old Tariq Ayubi says he perfected his English in Miami, where he went to business school. Moving back to Karachi, he married, went into business and thrived. Gradually, however, he began drinking heavily, and he soon lost his job and his wife. Severely depressed and penniless, he sought refuge at the Edhi center. Volunteering for work here saved him, Ayubi says.

“The Edhi Foundation is the only social welfare organization in the country that works,” he declares.

Afterwards, Edhi expertly maneuvers the ambulance through teeming streets to the women’s sanatorium in north Karachi. As he ambles down the immaculate marble hallways, residents cluster around him, calling out “Abu-ji!” (“Daddy!”). “This adulation makes me nervous,” he says. “I’m not some kind of saint.”

Seeing one woman sitting on concrete steps distractedly waving flies away from an open sore on her foot, Edhi bends close, asking her gently how long it has been infected. “Two days,” she replies, “but it’s much worse this afternoon.” He calls out for a nurse to attend to the sore. When no one comes, he stalks away impatiently. “Don’t worry,” he calls over his shoulder to the suffering woman. “I’ll be back with a bandage before you know it.”

Later on, after Edhi has disinfected and dressed the woman’s wound, he sits on a stone bench and listens to other residents tell him heartrending stories of cruel husbands and family betrayal. Driving back to the Mithadar center, he vents his long-running frustration with the plight of women in Pakistan.

“Society goes against the teachings of the Qur’an in mistreating women and not giving them equality,” he says with indignation. “Only 10 percent of Pakistani women know how to read and write. That’s why we try so hard to give the girls who come to us a good education. Once they get an education, they can start to take control of their lives.”

Back at Mithadar, a businessman in a crisp linen shirt and polished shoes is waiting for Edhi in his office. “Here’s one who has come around,” he says, gripping the man’s shoulders in a friendly embrace. Edhi explains that the waiting businessman has launched a partnership with the foundation to assist the poor in starting fabric shops, food stalls and other small businesses. “He’s helping them stand on their own rather than giving them handouts that only make them more dependent,” says Edhi.

“That’s the humanitarian revolution we need,” he continues with a weary smile. “But still so few understand. Let’s spread the word.”

	Paris-based author Richard Covington(richard.covington@free.fr) writes about arts, culture and the media in Europe, the Middle East and Asia for the International Herald Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian, Reader’s Digest and other publications.
	Shahidul Alam is founder of Drik Picture Library (www.drik.net), the Bangladesh Photo Institute, Pathshala (the South Asian Institute of Photography) as well as the biennial Chobi Mela Festival of Photography in Asia. He lives in Dhaka.

www.paks.net/edhi-foundation/
www.balzan.com

MAIN OFFICE
Boulton Market
Mithadar, Karachi 740000
E-mail: edhikarachi@yahoo.com

Edhi International Foundation USA
42-07 National Street
Corona NY 11368
Tel: (718) 639-5120

Edhi International Foundation UK
316 Edgeware Road
London W2 1DY
Tel: +44 (20) 7723-2050

 

This article appeared on pages 33-43 of the November/December 2004 print edition of Saudi Aramco World.

 

Check the Public Affairs Digital Image Archive for November/December 2004 images.

Allama Iqbal | Saqi Nama

(Bal-e-Jibril-142) Saqi Nama (ساقی نامہ) Sakinama

Saqi Nama
SAKINAMA

Huwa Khaimazan Karwan-E-Bahar
Iram Ban Gya Daman-E-Kohsar

Spring’s caravan has set camp
Iram (fabled garden) becomes  base of mountain

Gul-O-Nargis-O-Sosan-O-Nastran
Shaheed-E-Azal Lalah Khooni Kafan

rose, narcissus, lily, Nastran (eglantine,)

tulip in its martyr’s blood-stained Kafan (shroud).

Jahan Chup Gya Parda’ay Rang Mein
Lahoo Ki Hai Gardish Rag-E-Sang Mein

landscape blanketed by a veil of colors
Flows in  the veins of stones

Faza Neeli Neeli, Hawa Mein Suroor
Thehar Nahin Aashiyan Mein Tayoor

Breezes intoxicate in the bluish sky,
Birds desire flight to nest

Woh Jooay Kohstan Uchakti Huwi
Atakti, Lachakti, Sirakti Huwi

Look to the raging mountain stream.

divert, bends ,glide, and circumvents

Uchalti, Phisalti, Sanbhalti Huwi
Bare Paich Kha Kar Niklti Huwi

surging, slipping then composing itself
surges back up and rushing ahead

Ruke Jab To Sil Cheer Deti Hai Ye
Paharon Ke Dil Cheer Deti Hai Ye

Should it be stemmed, it would burst stone
and tear open the mountain’s heart

Zara Dekh Ae Saqi-E-Lalah Faam!
Sunati Hai Ye Zindagi Ka Payam

Look my fair saqi to this stream
for It sends us life’s message

Pila De Mujhe Woh Mai-E-Parda Soz
Ke Ati Nahin Fasal-E-Gul Roz Roz

Serve the wine of this message
for harvest is not every day

Woh Mai Jis Se Roshan Zameer-E-Hayat
Woh Mai Jis Se Hai Masti-E-Kainat

the wine whose light illuminates life’s mind,
whose heat burns up the veils of hidden things,

Woh Mai Jis Mein Hai Soz-O-Saaz-E-Azal
Woh Mai Jis Se Khulta Hai Raaz-E-Azal

Give me that wine whose heat burns up the veils of hidden things,
Whose light illuminates life’s mind,

Utha Saqiya Parda Iss Raaz Se
Lara De Mamoole Ko Shahbaz Se

Come saqi lift the veil off mysteries,
And make a mere wagtail take eagles on.

Zamane Ke Andaz Badle Gye
Naya Raag Hai, Saaz Badle Gye

Times of Styles have changed
New Music is Here, Strings Change

Huwa Iss Tarah Fash Raaz-E-Farang
Ke Hairat Mein Hai Sheesha Baaz-E-Farang

The magic of the west (imperialism) lays exposed
the Magicians stands aghast

Purani Siasat Gari Khwaar
Zameen Mir-E-Sultan Se Baizar Hai

Ancient Politics lay in ruin
The world has tired of kings

Gya Dour-E-Sarmaya Dari, Gya
Tamasha Dikha Kar Madari Gya

The age of injustice has passed,
The circus has come and gone

Garan Khawab Cheeni Sanbhalne Lage
Hamala Ke Chashme Ubalne Lage

Chinese have awoken from slumber
springs of himalayas boiled up

Dil-E-Toor-E-Seena-O-Faran Do Neem
Tajalli Ka Phir Muntazir Hai Kaleem

Cut open is the heart of Sinai and Pharoah,
Moses waits for a renewed theophany.

Musalman Hai Touheed Mein Garam Josh
Magar Dil Abhi Taak Hai Zunnar Posh

The Muslim, zealous though about God’s unity,
but Still wears the Hindu’s talisman

Tamadan, Tasawwuf, Shariat, Kalam
Butan-E-Ajam Ke Poojari Tamam!

In culture, mysticism, canon law and dialectical theology—
He worships idols of non‐Arab make.

Haqiqat Khurafat Mein Kho Gyi
Ye Ummat Rawayat Mein Kho Gyi

The reality has been lost to absurdities
the Muslim nation lost to primitive tradition

Lubhata Hai Dil Ko Kalam-E-Khateeb
Magar Lazzat-E-Shauq Se Be-Naseeb!

The preacher’s sermon may beguile your heart,
But there is no sincerity, no warmth

Byan Iss Ka Mantaq Se Suljha Huwa
Lughat Ke Bakheron Mein Uljha Huwa

It is a tangled skein of lexical complexities,
Sought to be solved by logical dexterity.

Woh Sufi K Tha Khidmat-E-Haq Mein Mard
Mohabbat Mein Yakta, Hamiyyat Mein Fard

The Ascetic, once foremost in serving God,
Unmatched in love and ardency of soul,

Ajam Ke Khayalat Mein Kho Gya
Ye Salik Maqamat Mein Kho Gya

Has got lost in the maze of Ajam’s ideas:
At half‐way stations is this traveller stuck.

Bujhi Ishq Ki Aag, Andhair Hai
Musalman Nahin, Raakh Ka Dhair Hai

Gone out is the fire of love. O how sad!
The Muslim is a heap of ashes, nothing more.

Sharab-E-Kuhan Phir Pila Saqiya
Wohi Jaam Gardish Mein La Saqiya!

O Saki, serve me that old wine again,
Let the old cup circulate saqi

Muhe Ishq Ke Par Laga Kar Ura
Meri Khaak Jugnu Bana Kar Ura

Let me fly on the wings of romance
Turn my Ashes, fireflies that flit about.

Khirad Ko Ghulami Se Azad Kar
Jawanon Ko Peeron Ka Ustad Kar

Free the nation from servitude,
Make the young masters of gurus

Har Shakh-E-Millat Tere Nam Se Hai
Nafs Iss Badan Mein Tere Dam Se Hai

Every branch in the nation is green in your name
Every breath in this body comes from your strength

Tarapne Pharakne Ki Toufeeq De0
Dil-E-Murtaza(R.A.), Souz-E-Siddique(R.A.) De

Give it the opportunity to stir and convulse
Give heart of Murtaza,  fervor of Siddiq.

Jigar Se Wohi Teer Phir Paar Kar
Tammana Ko Seenon Mein Baidar Kar

Thread that arrow of passion through again
Seed those desires back into our heart again

Tere Asmanon Ke Taron Ki Khair
Zameenon Ke Shab Zinda Daron Ki Khair

Blessed be the stars of Your heavens
Blessed be those on your earth

Jawanon Ko Soz-E-Jigar Bakhs De
Mera Ishq, Meri Nazar Bakhs De

Endow our youth with fervent souls;
Inherit to them My passion, my dreams

Meri Nao Girdaab Se Paar Kar
Ye Sabat Hai Tu Iss Ko Syyar Kar

Direct my ship through this whirlpool
Rescue me and grant me mobility.

Bata Mujh Ko Asrar-E-Marg-O-Hayat
K Teri Nigahon Mein Hai Kainat

Tell the mysteries of life and death,
For Your eye spans the universe.

Mere Didah-E-Tar Ki Be-Khawabiyan
Mere Dil Ki Poshida Be-Tabiyan

The sleeplessness if my tear‐shedding eyes;
The restless yearnings hidden in my heart;

Mere Nala-E-Neem Shab Ka Niaz
Meri Khalwat-O-Anjuman Ka Gudaz

The prayer-fulness of my cries at midnight;
My melting into tears in solitude and company;

Umangain Meri, Arzoo’ain Meri
Umeedain Meri, Justujoo’ain Meri

Meri Fitrat Aayna-E-Rozgaar
Gazaalan-E-Afkaar Ka Marghzaar

My aspirations, longings and desires;
My hopes and quests; my mind that mirrors the times (A field for thought’s gazelles to roam);

Mera Dil, Meri Razm Gah-E-Hayat
Gamanon Ke Lashkar, Yaqeen Ka Sabaat

My heart, which is a battlefield of life,
Where legions of doubt war with faith—

Yehi Kuch Hai Saqi Mataa-E-Faqeer
Issi Se Faqeeri Mein Hun Main Ameer

O Saki, these are all my wealth;
Possessing them, I am rich in my poverty.

Mere Kafle Mein Luta De Isse
Luta De, Thikane Laga De Isse!

Give away these riches to my caravan,
And let them come to some good use.

Damadam Rawan Hai Yam-E-Zindagi
Har Ek Shay Se Paida Ram-E-Zindagi

In constant motion is the sea of life.
All things display life’s volatility.

Issi Se Huwi Hai Badan Ki Namood
K Shaole Mein Poshida Hai Mouj-E-Dood

It is life that puts bodies forth,
Just as a whiff of smoke becomes a flame.

Garan Gharche Hai Sohbat Aab-O-Gil
Khush Ayi Isse Mehnat Aab-O-Gil

Unpleasant to it is the company of matter,
but it likes to see uts striving to improve itself.

Ye Sabit Bhi Hai Aur Sayyar Bhi
Anasir Ke Phandon Se Baizar Bhi

It is fixed, yet in motion,
straining at the leash to get free of the elements.

Ye Wahdat Hai Kasrat Mein Har Dam Aseer
Magar Har Kahin Be Chugun, Benazir

A unity imprisoned in diversity,
It is unique in every form and shape.

Ye Alam, Ye Butkhana-E-Shas Jihaat
Issi Ne Tarasha Hai Ye Somnaat

This world, this sex‐dimensioned idol‐house,
This Somnat is all of its fashioning.

Pasand Iss Ko Takrar Ki Khoo Nahin
K Tu Main Nahin, Aur Main Tu Nahin

It is not its way to repeat itself:
You are not I, I am not you.

Mann-O-Tu Se Hai Anjuman Afreen
Magar Ayn-E-Mehfil Mein Khalwat Nasheen

With you and me and others it has formed assemblies,
but is solitary in their midst.

Chamak Iss Ki Bijli Mein, Tare Mein Hai
Ye Chandi Mein, Sone Mein, Paare Mein Hai

It shines in lightning, in the stars,
In silver, gold and mercury.

Issi Ke Bayabaan, Issi Ke Babool
Issi Ke Hain Kante, Issi Ke Hain Phool

Its is the wilderness, its are the trees,
Its are the roses, its are the thorns.

Kahin Iss Ki Taqat Se Kohsaar Choor
Kahin Iss Ke Phande Mein Jibreel-O-Hoor

It pulverizes mountains with its might,
And captures Gabriel and houris in its noose.

Kahin Jurrah Shaheen-E-Seemab Rang
Lahoo Se Chakoron Ke Aluda Chang

There is a silver‐grey, brave falcon here,
Its talons covered with the blood of partridges,

Kabutar Kahin Ashiyane Se Door
Pharakta Huwa Jaal Mein Na-Saboor

And over there, far from its nest,
A pigeon helplessly aflutter in a snare.

Faraib-E-Nazar Hai Sakoon-O-Sabaat
Tarapta Hai Har Zarra-E-Kainat

Stability is an illusion of eyes,
For every atom in the world pulsates with change.

Theharta Nahin Karwaan-E-Wujood
Ke Har Lehza Hai Taza Shaan-E-Wujood

The caravan of existence does not halt
For every moment life renews itself.

Samjhta Hai Tu Raaz Hai Zindagi
Faqat Zauq-E-Parwaaz Hai Zindagi

Do you understand life is a mystery?
No, it is only a desire to soar aloft.

Bohat Iss Ne Dekhe Hain Past-O-Buland
Safar Iss Ko Manzil Se Barh Kar Pasand

It has seen many ups and downs,
But likes to travel rather than to reach the goal;

Safar Zindagi Ke Liye Barg-O-Saaz
Safar Hai Haqiqat, Hazar Hai Majaaz

For travelling is life’s outfit: it
Is real, while rest is appearance, nothing more.

Ulajh Kar Sulajhne Mein Lazzat Isse
Tarapne Pharakne Mein Rahat Isse

Life loves to tie up knots and then unravel them.
Its pleasure lies in throbbing and in fluttering.

Huwa Jab Isse Samna Mout Ka
Kathan Tha Bara Thaamna Mout Ka

When it found itself face to face with death,
It learned that it was hard to ward it off.

Uter Kar Jahan-E-Makafat Mein
Rahi Zindagi Mout Ki Ghaat Mein

So it descended to this world, where retribution is the law,
And lay in wait for death.

Mazaq-E-Dooi Se Bani Zouj Zouj
Uthi Dast-O-Kohsaar Se Fouj Fouj

Because of its love of duality, It sorted all things out in pairs,
And then arose, host after host, from mountains and from wilderness.

Gul Is Shakh Se Tootte Bhi Rahe
Issi Shakh Se Phootte Bhi Rahe

It was a branch from which flowers kept shedding
and bursting forth afresh.

Samajhe Hain Nadan Issay Be-Sabaat
Ubharta Hai Mit Mit Ke Naqsh-E-Hayat

The ignorant think that life’s impress is ephemeral,
but it fades only to emerge anew.

Bari Taiz Jolan, Bari Zood Ras
Azal Se Abad Tak Ram-E-Yak Nafas

Extremely fleet‐footed, It reaches its goal instantly.
From time’s beginning to its end is but one moment’s way for it.

Zamana Ke Zanjeer-E-Ayyam Hai
Damon Ke Ulat Phair Ka Naam Hai

Time, chain of days and nights, is nothing but
A name for breathing in and breathing out.

Ye Mouj-E-Nafs Kya Hai Talwar Hai
Khudi Kya Hai, Talwaar Ki Dhaar Hai

What is this whiff of air called breath? A sword,
and selfhood is that sword’s sharp edge.

Khudi Kya Hai, Raaz-E-Daroon-E-Hayat
Khudi Kya Hai, Baidari-E-Kainat

What is the self? Life’s inner mystery,
The universe’s waking up.

Khudi Jalwa Badmast-O-Khilwat Pasand
Samundar Hai Ek Boond Pani Mein Band

The self, drunk with display, is also fond of solitude;
—an ocean in a drop.

Andhere Ujale Mein Hai Taabnaak
Mann-O-Tu Mein Paida, Mann-O-Tu Se Paak

It shines in light and darkness both;
Displayed in individuals, yet free from them.

Azal Iss Ke Peeche, Abad Samne
Na Had Iss Ke Peeche. Na Had Samne

Behind it is eternity without beginning, and before it is eternity without an end;
It is unlimited both ways.

Zamane Ke Darya Mein Behti Huwi
Sitam Iss Ki Moujon Ke Sehti Huwi

Swept on by the waves of time’s stream,And at the mercy of their buffeting,

Tajasus Ki Rahain Badalti Huwi
Damadam Nigahain Badalti Huwi

It yet changes the course of its quest constantly,
Renewing its way of looking at things.

Subak Iss Ke Hathon Mein Sang-E-Garan
Pahar Is Ski Zarbon Se Raig-E-Rawan

For it huge rocks are light as air:
It smashes mountains into shifting sand.

Safar Iss Ka Anjaam-O-Aghaz Hai
Yehi Iss Ki Taqweem Ka Raaz Hai

Both its beginning and its end are journeying,
For constant motion is its being’s law.

Kiran Chand Mein Hai, Sharr Sang Mein
Ye Berang Hai Doob Kar Rang Mein

It is a ray of light in the moon and a spark in stone. It dwells
In colors, but is colorless itself.

Isse Wasta Kya Kam-O-Baish Se
Nashaib-O-Faraz-O-Pas-O-Paish Se

It has nothing to do with more or less,
With light and low, with fore and aft.

Azal Se Hai Ye Kashmakash Mein Aseer
Huwi Khaak-E-Adam Mein Soorat Pazeer

Since time’s beginning it was struggling to emerge,
And finally emerged in the dust that is man.

Khudi Ka Nasheman Tere Dil Mein Hai
Falak Jis Tarah Aankh Ke Til Mein Hai

It is in your heart that the Self has its abode,
As the sky is reflected in the pupil of the eye.

Khudi Ke Nigheban Ko Hai Zehr-E-Naab
Woh Naa Jis Se Jati Rahe Is Ski Aab

To one who treasures his self,
bread won at the cost of self‐respect is gall.

Wohi Naa Hai Iss Ke Liye Arjumand
Rahe Jis Se Dunya Mein Gardan Buland

He values only bread
he gains with head held high.

Firo Faal-E-Mehmood Se Darguzar
Khudi Ko Nigah Rakh, Ayazi Na Kar

Abjure the pomp and might of a Mahmud;
Preserve your self, do not be an Ayaz.

Wohi Sajda Hai Laaeq-E-Ehtamam
Ke Ho Jis Se Har Sajda Tujh Par Haraam

Worth offering is only that prostration
which makes all others forbidden acts.

Ye Alam, Ye Hangama-E-Rang-O-Soot
Ye Alam Ke Hai Zair-E-Farmaan-E-Mout

This world, this riot of colors and of sounds,
Which is under the sway of death,

Ye Alam, Ye Butkhana-E-Chasm-O-Gosh
Jahan Zindagi Hai Faqat Khurad-O-Nosh

This idol‐house of eye and ear,
In which to live is but to eat and drink,

Khudi Ki Ye Hai Manzil-E-Awaleen
Musafir ! Ye Tera Nasheman Nahin

Is nothing but the Self’s initial stage.
O traveller, it is not your final goal.

Teri Aag Iss Khaakdaan Se Nahin
Jahan Tujh Se Hai, Tu Jahan Se Nahin

The fire that is you has not come out of this heap of dust.
You have not come out of this world; It has come out of you.

Barhe Ja Ye Koh-E-Giran Torh Kar
Tilism-E-Zaman-O-Makan Torh Kar

Smash up this mountainous blockade,
Go further on and break out oft his magic ring of time and space.

Khudi Sher-E-Mola, Jahan Iss Ka Sayd
Zameen Iss Ki Sayd, Asman Is Ka Sayd

God’s lion is the self;
Its quarry are both earth and sky.

Jahan Aur Bhi Hain Abhi Be-Namood
K Khali Nahin Hai Zameer-E-Wujood

There are a hundred worlds still to appear,
For Being’s mind has not drained of its creative capabilities.

Har Ek Muntazir Teri Yalghaar Ka
Teri Shoukhi-E-Fikr-O-Kirdaar Ka

All latent worlds are waiting for releasing blows
From your dynamic action and exuberant thought.

Ye Hai Maqsad-E-Gardish-E-Rozgaar
K Teri Khudi Tujh Pe Ho Ashkaar

It is the purpose of the revolution of the spheres
That your selfhood should be revealed to you.

Tu Hai Faateh-E-Alam-E-Khoob-O-Zisht
Tujhe Kya Bataon Teri Sarnawisht

You are the conqueror of this world of good and evil.
How can I tell you The whole of your long history?

Haqiqat Pe Hai Jama-E-Harf Tang
Haqiqat Hai Ayna, Guftaar Zang

Words are but a strait‐jacket for reality:
Reality is a mirror, and speech the coating that makes it opaque.

Farozan Hai Sine Mein Shama-E-Nafs
Magar Taab-E-Guftaar Kehti Hai, Bas !

Breath’s candle is alight within my breast,
But my power of utterance cries halt.

‘Agar Yak Sir-E-Muay Bartar Param
Farogh-E-Tajali Basozd Param’

Should I fly even a hairbreadth too high,
The blaze of glory would burn up my wings.

Allama Iqbal in Roman Urdu and English **Translation** | Shiqwa

kyon ziaan kaar banun, sood framosh rahoon 
fikr-e-farda na karum, mahw-e-ghum-e-dosh rahoon,?

Why should I abet the loss, why forget the gain, 
Why forfiet the future, bemoan the past in vain?

 

naale bulbul ke sunoon, aurhama tan gosh rahoon, 
hamnawa main bhi koi gul hoon ke khamosh rahoon?

Hear the wail of nightingale, and remain unstirred, 
Am I a flower insensate that will not say a word?

jurrat aamoz miri taab-e-sakhun hai mujhko, 
shikwa allah se khakam badahan hai mujhko.

The power of speech emboldens me to speak out my heart, 
I’ll sure be damned, I know, if fault my God. 

_______________ 
ai khuda shikwa-e-arbab-e-wafa bhi sun le, 
khu gar-e-hamd se thora sa gila bhi sun le.

Hear, O Lord, from the faithful ones this sad lament, 
From those used to hymn a praise, a word of discontent.

thi to maujood azal se hi teri zaat-e-qadim, 
phool tha zeb-e-chaman, par na pareshan thi shamim;

Enternally were you present, Lord, eternally omniscent, 
The flower hung upon the tree, but without incense.

shart insaaf hai, ai, sahib-e-altaf-e-amim, 
boo-e-gul phailti kis tarah jo hoti na nasim?

Be Thou fair, tell us true, O fountsinhead of grace, 
How could the scent spread withoutthe breeze apace? 
_______________ 
hum se pahle tha ajab tere jahan ka manzir, 
kahin masjood the pather, kahin maabood shajar,

The world presented a queer sight ere we took the stage, 
Stones and plants in your stead were worshipped in that age.

khugar-e-paikar-e-mahsoos thi insaan ki nazar, 
maanta phir koi un-dekhe khuda ko kyonkar?

Man, being inured to senses, couldn’t accept a thing unseen, 
How could a formless God impress his senses keen?

tujhko maalum hai leta tha koi naam tira? 
quwwat-e-baazoo-e-muslim ne kiya kaam tira!

Tell me, Lord, if anyone ever invoked Thy name, 
The strength of Muslim arm alone restored Thy fame.

_______________ 
bas rahe the yahin salijuq bhi, toorani bhi, 
ahl-e-chin cheen mein, iran mein sasaani bhi,

There was no dearth of peoples on this earth before, 
Turkish tribes and Persian clans lived in days of yore;

isi maamoore mein aabad the yunaani bhi, 
isi duniya mein yahudi bhi the, nusraani bhi,

The Greeks and the Chinese both bred and throve, 
Christians as well as the Jews on this planet roved.

par tire naam pe talwar uthai kis ne, 
baat jo bigri huri thi who banaai kis ne?

But who in Thy holy name raised his valiant sword, 
Who set the things right, resolved the rigmarole? 
_______________ 
the hameen ek tire maarka aaraaon mein! 
khushkion mein kabhi larte, kabhi dariyaon mein,

We were the warrior bands battling for Thy cause, 
Now on land, now on water, we the crusades fought.

di azaanen kabhi europe ke kaleesaaon mein, 
kabhi africa ke tapte hue sahraaon mein.

Now in Europe’s synods did we loudly pray, 
Now in African deserts made a bold foray.

thi na kuchh teg zani apni hakumat ke liye, 
sar ba-kaf phirte the kya dahar mein daulat ke liye?

Not for territorial greed did we wield the sword, 
Not for pelf and power did we suffer the blows. 
_______________ 
qaum apni jo zar-o-maal-e-jahan par marti, 
but faroshi ke iwaz but shikni kyon karti?

Had we been temped by the greed of glittering gold, 
Instead of breaking idols, would have idols sold.

naqsh tauheed ka har dil pe bithaya hum ne, 
zer-e-khanjar bhi yeh paigham sunaya hum ne.

We impressed on every heart the oneness of our mighty Lord, 
Even under the threat of sword, bold and clever was our call.

tu hi kah de ke ukhara dar-e-khyber kis ne, 
shaher qaiser ka jo tha us ko kiya sar kis ne?

Who conquered, tell us Thou, the fearful Khyber pass? 
Who vanquished the Imperial Rome, who made it fall?

_______________ 
tore makhluq khudawandon ke paikar kis ne? 
kaat kar rakh diye kaffaar ke lashkar kis ne?

Who broke the idols of the primitive folks? 
Who fought the kafirs, massacred their hordes?

aa gaya ain laraai mein agar waqt-e-namaz, 
qibla roo ho ke zamin bos hui qaum-e-hejaz,

If the prayer time arrived right amid the war, 
With their faces turned to Kaaba, knelt down the brave Hejaz.

ek hi saf mein khare ho gaye mahmud-o-ayaz, 
no koi banda raha aur no koi banda nawaz.

Mahmud and Ayaz stood together in the same flank, 
The ruler and the ruled forget the difference in their rank.

_______________ 
banda-o-sahib-o-muhtaaj-o-ghani ek hue, 
teri sarkar mein pahunche tau sabhi ek hue.

The rich and poor, Lord and slave, all were levelled down, 
All became brethern in love, with Thy grace crowned.

mehfil-e-kaun-o-makaan mein shar-o-shaam phire, 
mai-e-tauheed ko lekar sift-e-jam phire.

We roamed the world through, visited every place, 
Did our rounds like the cup, serving sacred ale.

dasht tau dasht hain, darya bhi na chhore hum ne, 
bahr-e-zulmaat mein daura diye ghore hum ne.

Forget about the forests, we spared not the seas, 
Into the dark, unfathomed ocean, we pushed our steeds.

_______________ 
safah-e-dahar se baatil ko mitaya hum ne, 
nau-e-insaan ko ghulami se chhuraya hum ne,

We removed falsehood from the earth’s face, 
We broke the shackles of the human race.

tere kaabe ko jabeenon se basaya hum ne, 
tere quraan ko seenon se lagaya hum ne.

We reclaimed your Kaaba with our kneeling brows, 
We pressed the sacred Quran to our heart and soul.

phir bhi hum se yeh gila hai, ke wafadar nahin, 
hum wafadar nahin, tu bhi tau dildar nahin!

Even then you grumble, we are false, untrue, 
If you call us faithless, tell us what are you?

_______________ 
rahmaten hain tiri aghiyar ke kashaanon par, 
barq girti hai to bechare musalmaanon par!

You reserve your favors for men of other shades, 
While you hurl your bolts on the Muslim race.

yeh shikait nahin, hain un ke khazane maamur, 
nehin mehfil mein jinhen baat bhi karne ka shaoor,

This is not our complaint that such alone are blessed, 
Who do not know the etiquette, nor even can converse.

qahar tau yeh hai ke kafir ko milen hoor-o-qasoor, 
aur bechaare musalmaan ko faqt waada-e-hoor!

The tragedy is while kafirs are with houries actually blest, 
On vague hopes of houries in heaven the Muslim race is made to rest!

_______________ 
taan-e-aghiyaar hai, ruswai hai, nadaari hai, 
kya tere nam pe marne ka iwaz khwari hai?

Poverty, taunts, ignominy stare us in the face, 
Is humiliation the sole reward of our suffering race?

hum tau jeete hain ke duniya mein tira naam rahe, 
kahin mumkin hai saqi na rahe, jaam rahe?

To perpetuate Thy name is our sole concern, 
Deprived of the saqi’s aid can the cup revolve and turn?

teri mehfil bhi gai, chahne wale bhi gaye, 
shab ki aahen bhi gaien, subah ke nale bhi gaye,

Gone is your assemblage, off your lovers have sailed, 
The midnight sights are no more heard, nor the morning wails;

_______________ 
dil tujhe debhi gaye, apna sila le bhi gaye, 
aa ke baithe bhi na the, ke nikaale bhi gaye.

They pledged their hearts to you, what is their return? 
Hardly had they stepped inside, when they were externed.

aae ushaaq, gaye waada-e-farda lekar, 
ab unhen dhoond chirag-e-rukh-e-zeba lekar!

Thy lovers came and went away, fed on hopes of future grace, 
Search them now with the lamp of your glowing face.

dard-e-laila bhi wohi, qais ka pahlu bhi wohi, 
nejd ke dasht-o-jabal mein ram-e-aahoo bhi wohi,

Unassuaged is Laila’s ache, unquenched is Qais’s thirst, 
In the wilderness of Nejd, the wild deer are still berserk.

_______________ 
ishq ka dil bhi wohi, husn ka jaadoo bhi wohi, 
ummat-e-ahmed-e-mursil bhi wohi, tu bhi wohi,

The same passion thrills the hearts, enchanting still is beauty’s gaze, 
You are the same as before, same too is the Prophet’s race.

phir yeh aazurdagi-e-ghair-sabab kya maani, 
apne shaidaaon pe yeh chashm-e-ghazab kya maani?

Why then this indifference, without a cause or fault? 
Why with your threatening looks dost thou break our heart?

ishq ki khair, who pehli si ada bhi na sahi, 
jaada paimaai taslim-o-raza bhi na sahi,

Accepted that the flame of love burneth low and dim, 
We do not, as in your, dance attendance on your whims;

_______________ 
kabhi hum se, kabhi ghairon se shanasaai hai, 
baat kahne ki nahin, tu bhi tau harjaai hai.

But you too, pardon us, possess a coquettish heart, 
Now on us, now on others, alight your amorous darts.

ahd-e-gul khatam hua, tut gaya saaz-e-chaman, 
ur gaye dalion se zamzama pardaaz-e-chaman.

The spring has now taken leave, broken lies the lyre string, 
The birds that chirped among the leaves have also taken wing;

ek bulbul hai ke hai mahw-e-tarannum ab tak, 
us ke seene mein hai naghmon ka talatam ab tak.

A single nightingale is left singing on the tree, 
A flood of song in her breast is longing for release.

_______________ 
qumrian shaakh-e-sanober se gurezaan bhi huin, 
pattian phool ki jhar jhar ke pareshan bhi huin;

From atop the firs and pines the doves have flown away, 
The floral petals lie scattered all along the way.

who purani ravishen bagh ki weeran bhi huin, 
daalian parahan-e-barg se uriaan bhi huin.

Desolate lie the garden paths, once dressed and neat, 
Leafless hang the branches on the naked trees.

qaid-e-mausim se tabiat rahi aazad uski, 
kaash gulshan mein samjhta koi faryaad uski.

The nightingale is unconcerned with the season’s range, 
Would that someone in the grove appreciates her wail.

_______________ 
chaak is bulbul-e-tanha ki nawa se dil hon, 
jaagne wale isi baang-e-dara se dil hon.

May the nightingale’s wail pierce the listeners’ hearts, 
May the clinking caravan awaken slumbering thoughts!

yaani phir zinda naye ahd-e-wafa se dil hon, 
phir isi bada-e-deereena ke pyaase dil hon.

Let the hearts pledge anew their faith to you, O Lord, 
Let’s re-charge our cups from the taverns of the past.

ajmy khum hai tau kya, mai tau hejaazi hai miri, 
naghma hindi hai tau tya, lai tau hejaazi hai miri.

Through I hold a Persian cup, the wine is pureHejaz, 
Thought I sing an Indian song, the turn is of the Arabian cast.

Modern Day Pakistanis – Proud Descendants of The First Civilization

Written by Graham Chandler

Photographs courtesy of Pakistan, Governmnet of, Department of Archeology and Museums

Dr. Mohammad Rafique Mughal leans back in a squeaky rattan armchair at Falletti’s, the once-sweated under a ceiling fan during the muggy hot summer of 1947, drawing up the borders of a new Pakistan. The dry smell of dust raised by a sweeper outside mingles with the scents of cumin and coriander from the hotel kitchen. Mughal reminisces about his early days searching for archeological sites in the dry hills of Cholistan near that very border, across from what is now the Indian Punjab.

“Cholistan was a natural opportunity,” says Pakistan’s retired director-general of archeology and museums. “Because of changes in river courses, the area had been undisturbed by agriculture for millennia.

Recently published as Ancient Cholistan: Archaeology and Architecture (Rawalpindi, Ferozsons, ISBN 9-690-01350-5), the account of his team’s exhaustive three-year exploration of that desert region in the early 1970′s revealed a telling pattern of abandoned settlements. The locations of the sites they found strongly suggested that the Hakra River, a tributary of the Indus, had changed its course many times before it eventually dried up about 4000 years ago. When it disappeared, it took with it most of the social and economic fabric of one of the world’s greatest and oldest, but least known, civilization, today called the Harappan or Indus Valley civilization.

Evidence uncovered to date delineates a peaceful, artistic, disciplined and materially successful civilization that arose in the fertile Indus River floodplain of present-contemporary with the Mesopotamian civilizations of the Tigris and Euphrates River extensively. The Harappan culture dominated the subcontinent for almost a thousand years before it mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind few direct traces of what happened, or where its large population went.

At its height, archeologists believe, the Indus civilization included more than a thousand villages, towns and cities scattered throughout 725,000 square kilometers (280,000 sq mi) of territory—an area larger than Texas and smaller than Turkey—that stretched from what is now northern Afghanistan to Pakistan.  The Harappan domain was twice the size of the Egyptian or Mesopotamian territory of the time, yet the Harappans appear to have had neither conquering emperors nor standing armies to enlarge or defend their homeland. As far as archeological evidence shows, they enjoyed excellent health and freedom from both violence and extremes of wealth or poverty. They developed one of the earliest written languages and built some of the world’s first planned cities, complete with individual household water supplies and sophisticated public drainage systems. And, as highly skilled craftspeople and enterprising merchants, they were one of the first major mercantile civilizations to trade far beyond the borders of their own territories.

Yet, though everyone has heard of the great civilizations of the Middle East, most of the world has never heard of the Harappans. “They didn’t leave behind grand temples and monuments or rich burials that fired people’s imaginations, as the Egyptians did,” says Mughal. “Rather, they seem to have been utterly content with their egalitarian, religious society, with its high standard of order and ethics, and kept themselves busy with agriculture, craft production and trade.”

The civilization’s first discovery by modern Europeans was in 1826 at the site of ancient Harappa, near the modern village of the same name, in Pakistan’s Punjab Province.  The discoverer was a deserter from the British Army named James Lewis. The newly formed Archaeological Survey undertook initial excavations between 1856 and 1872, but intensive work didn’t get underway until the 1920′s and 30′s. The discovery of this unknown ancient civilization was announced to the world in The Illustrated London News of September 20,1924.

Large-scale digs teeming with hundreds of turbaned local workers, hot dusty scenes worthy of an Indiana Jones production, were the order of those days. Work focused on what are still the two largest sites, Harappa and, 600 kilometers (375 mi) to the southwest, Mohenjo-Daro. Though this century’s high water tables have prevented researchers at Mohenjo-Daro from digging down to the lower levels that might put a date to the site’s beginnings, their excavations soon revealed well-planned street layouts and water systems. Scholars of Mesopotamian history quickly recognized that numerous seals found at Mesopotamian cities such as Ur matched designs being discovered in the Indus Valley, attesting to long-distance contacts between the two empires.

But the Indus Valley civilization began neither in Mohenjo-Daro nor Harappa. Because it was first thought to have diffused from civilizations to the west, archeologists in the 1960′s sought clues to the Harappan genesis at Mehrgarh, a site at the foot of Pakistan’s Bolan Pass, east of the mountain city of Quetta. They found early indications of Harappan styles, such as pottery designs, but no discernable signs of outside influence: The Harappans, it appeared, were truly an indigenous civilization.

“Discoveries at Mehrgarh changed the entire concept of the Indus civilization,” says Ahmad Hasan Dani, professor emeritus of Islamabad’s Quaid-e-Azam University and author of several books on South Asian civilizations. “There we have the whole sequence, right from the beginning of settled village life.”

The excavations of Mehrgarh revealed that, as early as 7000 BC, its inhabitants were herding sheep, goats and zebus and planting fields of wheat and barley in small farming communities that they inhabited year-round. “They subsisted on a combination of domesticated and wild resources,” says Richard Meadow, Harvard archeo-botanist and director of the Harappa Archeological Research Project, based in the modern village of Harappa. “They first depended more on wild game such as rhinoceros, elephant and wild buffalo. That gradually gave way to raising their own animals and crops.” The Harappans have even been credited with the earliest known domestication of the jungle fowl that is the ancestor of today’s chickens.

By about 5500 BC, Mehrgarh’s citizens started to make and use pottery and ceramic figurines, and with these began an increasingly sophisticated craft industry. Manufacture of decorated ceramics and jewelry blossomed, and by 3500 BC Mehrgarh had grown into an important regional craft center, and settlements in other parts of the Indus Valley had developed parallel industries of their own. A few hundred years later, these villages and regions were trading technological innovations and products. The resulting social intercourse had a unifying tendency throughout the Indus Valley. Together with these industrial arts, the Harappans’ social hierarchies, their writing system, their large planned cities and their long-distance trade mark them to archeologists as a full-fledged “civilization.”

Indeed, commerce and trade appear to be the foundation on which the Harappans built far-reaching influence. Traders from the highlands of Pakistan’s Baluchistan and northern Afghanistan brought in copper, tin and lapis lazuli. The Makran and southern coasts of Pakistan provided decorative shells. Timber was floated down the rivers from the Himalayas and gold from southern Central Asia. Skilled Harappan artisans and specialized craftsmen turned such raw materials into useful and beautiful products for regional distribution and—as finds elsewhere have shown—for export by land and sea to Mesopotamia, Persia and Central Asia.

“It was an environment of economic symbiosis,” says Farzand Ali Durrani, a Pushtun archeologist and past vice-chancellor of the University of Peshawar, speaking over chapli kebabs at a Pashtun restaurant in Peshawar. “The southern states controlled the sea trade, just as Karachi does today. Ships from Meluhha [the Mesopotamian name for the Harappan nation] regularly sailed from Lothal near modern-day Karachi, Pakistan  for the ports of Babylon.” And they evidently made stops all along the way: Indus River seals have been found in Oman, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.

The modern city of Peshawar lies on what is thought to have been one of the Harappans’ main overland trade routes. That route is now a major highway that constitutes the eastern approach to the fabled Pakistani Khyber Pass and links the northwestern Indus Plain to the highlands of Afghanistan and Central Asia. An old branch of the route runs from Peshawar south into rugged tribal territory, through the modern towns of Pakistan’s Kohat and Bannu and the foothills of the Pakistan’s Sulaiman Mountains, and on down across the Gomal Plain to the early Harappan site of Rehman Dheri, where Durrani conducted an important excavation from 1976 to 1980.

“Our discoveries there clearly showed that the Harappans meticulously designed and laid out streets prior to 2800 BC,” he says. “They outclassed the Egyptians and Mesopotamians in terms of planned cities.”

Harappan city planners were indeed far ahead of their time. Unlike most settlements of the ancient world, whose winding streets and randomly placed buildings suggest haphazard growth, all Harappan municipalities expanded by design—indeed, by the same design: A west-facing citadel in the city center, and a north-south and east-west grid of streets. Municipal drainage systems included covered “manholes” for clearing out debris, and all construction used standard-sized fired or mud bricks, depending on the structure. Neighborhoods were individually zoned for residences, shops, markets and manufacturing activities.

Mohenjo-Daro, the largest of the ancient Indus Valley cities, lies 575 kilometers (350 mi) south of Rehman Dheri on an old course of the Indus River. Where its citadel once stood, there is now a Buddhist stupa, but the old city plan is clear. “It is evident that Harappan cities like Mohenjo-Daro were largely governed by strong civic discipline,” says Durrani. “And the streets and houses were purposely arranged to let the prevailing winds keep them clear and ventilated. It’s the earliest example of civic environmental planning.”

That planning included management of water and waste. Researchers have found that nearly every Harappan home had a bathing platform, with a brick drain and a sloping floor made of fired bricks and waterproofed with gypsum plaster. At Mohenjo-Daro there was at least one well supplying water to each housing block, and many houses had their own wells. Many also had private latrines, with individual drains that connected to covered or underground conduits that carried waste water, as well as excess rain from the streets, down to the river. And there is even a water-related structure archeologists have dubbed the Great Bath. Steps lead down into the swimming pool-sized complex lined with tightly fitted brick, sealed with a bitumen under-layer, and served by a massive drain with a corbeled vaulted ceiling, big enough to walk through. It has been interpreted as a public bath or ritual bathing area.

Whether in the workshops that were part of some houses in Mohenjo-Daro, in separate shops or in the fields, the Harappans’ working lives and their commerce were regulated by well-established standards: Archeologists have found standardized cubical stone weights, for example, in ratios of one, two, four, eight and 16 units. Accounting may have been done using a complex and still-undeciphered script. (See sidebar, page 40.) The Harappans also left behind tiny seals, up to two or three centimeters (1″) square, elaborately carved in soft stone such as steatite and used to make impressions in wet clay, probably to signify ownership of goods or shipments. Depicted in detail on these miniature works of art are animals such as “unicorns,” hump-shouldered zebu bulls, elephants, hairy-eared rhinoceroses and crocodiles, as well as symbols in the puzzling Harappan script. Archeologists surmise the motifs may have served to identify individuals or clans of merchants, or organizations holding interests in commercial activities.

Excavated skeletons show evidence of industrious work and healthy diets that led to soundness of body. Apart from some evidence of trauma to Harappan women’s spines, caused by carrying heavy loads on the head, there are few signs of disease or malnourishment. The high-carbohydrate diet typical of early sedentary societies contributed to some tooth decay, but most Harappans whose graves have been excavated apparently died of natural causes.

A two-hour bus ride down another ancient trade route, now part of the Grand Trunk Road, leads from the acrid blue cacophony of downtown Lahore, Punjab Pakistan to a pit where archeologist Jonathan Mark Kenoyer is sweating over a large clipboard, shaded from the burning sun by a woven mat. He’s drawing a stratigraphic cross-section of an excavation here at the site of ancient Harappa. A helper periodically sprays water on the sides of the pit to highlight its features. “There’s only about a two-hour period each morning when we can work, while the light is just right and before it gets unbearable down there,” says Kenoyer.

A professor of archeology at the University of Wisconsin, Kenoyer is field director of the Harappa Archeological Research Project. It’s early May and already getting much too hot for fieldwork. But Kenoyer has stayed longer than the rest of his crew this year because he’s pretty excited about this excavation in the so-called Great Granary. In 1924, the area was of special interest to John Marshall, director-general of the Archaeological Survey, who called the puzzling structure a granary because of its similarity to Mesopotamian finds. But Kenoyer thinks the “granary” has nothing to do with agriculture—it has no parallels to other structures in the South Asian grain-storage tradition, he points out.

Kenoyer and other scholars hypothesize that it may have been a public building used as a gathering place for government officials. In such an organized culture, there must have been public officials, the argument goes, and they must have met somewhere, at intervals, to coordinate the many aspects of Harappan culture that have been found to be similar or identical in widely separated sites. Among the handful of digs active in the Indus Valley, these “granaries” have been found only at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, and Kenoyer hopes that his investigations and those of others will lead to understanding of Harappan political systems.

Kenoyer takes a break and we sit under the shade of a spreading pipal tree, often depicted on Harappan pottery. We’re overlooking the granary excavation. Colorful kingfishers sing overhead and a light breeze from the wheat fields freshens the spot—probably one where Harappans also sat, discussing their day’s work just this way, more than 4000 years before. “We’re finding a lot of continuity in the archeological record here,” says Kenoyer, author of the recent book Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization (Karachi, Oxford, ISBN 0-19-577940-1). “It’s what Mughal theorized in his thesis back in 1971: Elements of this culture—writing, cubical weights—were around much earlier than we had first figured.”

I ask him about the Harappans’ demise. “It never happened,” he responds. “The cities shrank in the second millennium BC, yes, but people still lived in places like Harappa long after that. The continuing prosperity of the bigger cities, like Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, may have made them grow too large and unwieldy to administer, and so groups may have split off into smaller settlements. But those settlements were held together by their common culture,” he says. Perhaps the dispersal was a way of providing flexibility to deal with the oft-changing and unpredictable rivers, he adds.

There is, in fact, overwhelming evidence that the Indus Valley civilization underwent a large-scale transformation early in the second millennium, when it ceased its commercial activities and long-distance trading. After 1900 BC there are no longer references to Meluhha in Mesopotamian writings, and no Indus seals are found in Mesopotamia after that date. All other remnants of the great Harappan commercial enterprises, including the factors-of-16 weights and use of the script, simply vanish from the record.

Sir Mortimer Wheeler, the British archeologist of military background who first dated the Indus Valley civilization, also proposed the first popular hypothesis to explain its demise: an invasion by Aryan armies from southern Central Asia. But no evidence of warfare or violent attacks has ever been uncovered at any Indus site. Another theory was that the Harappans succumbed to disease—but their skeletons show no indications of that.

The general consensus among scholars is now that the decline was gradual, the result of a combination of factors in which both incoming Aryans and changes in river courses played a leading part. “The Aryans were a rural, nomadic tribal people with no written language, unlike the Harappans,” explains Dani. The social and commercial upheaval caused by their migration into the subcontinent, he suggests, “may have choked off much of the supply of raw materials from south Central Asia around 2000 BC.”

Upheaval of a different kind may have been another factor. The Indus Valley is a seismically active zone, and even minor changes in land levels can cause large shifts in river courses, especially on a broad, flat alluvial plain. Mughal’s evidence, supported by more recent Landsat imagery, has shown there were in fact major shifts in the courses of the Indus and some of its tributaries, such as the Hakra and the Ghaggar, around this time. The Cholistan region surveyed by Mughal, in particular, had been an important breadbasket for the larger Harappan cities, supplying wheat and other grain. When the flow or the course of the Hakra River changed, Cholistan might no longer have been able to meet that demand, and traditional riverine trade routes would have been severely disrupted as well.

Under these circumstances, the Harappans would have found it difficult to maintain civic order, for, to the bafflement of scholars, they appear never to have developed any sort of standing army; neither has any evidence been found of militarism, battle damage, or even defensive fortifications in the Harappan domains. Instead, Kenoyer and others believe, the elite seems to have kept order by controlling and promoting trade, commerce and religion. Once the civilization had begun to break down, maintenance of civil order by military coercion would have been an unavailable option; many Harappans began to abandon their large cities.

Kenoyer has made an observation that, with further study, may prove to be a key element in tracking the course of the Harappans after the collapse: the “unicorn” motif on the seals. He says that 64 percent of seals found carry this creature—probably an ox depicted in profile, thus appearing to have a single horn—and were probably used by the most affluent of the trading merchants. But what’s intriguing, he notes, is that the “unicorn” motif first appears in Harappan sites around 2600 BC, when the civilization had reached its apogee, and disappears about 1900 BC, just when it starts a rapid decline. “Other motifs continue, but the ‘unicorn’ is expunged completely from all South Asian iconography after that: It seems to lose its value,” he says.

Yet the “unicorn” motif continued to be used in Mesopotamia well after the Harappan collapse. This raises the possibility that the richer and more powerful Harappan merchants and traders, familiar with Mesopotamia, moved there when the basis of their economic power and influence began to fade. “We have modern analogies right next door,” says Farzand Ali Durrani. “When Afghanistan was invaded in 1979, families with means had no problem leaving and finding a new country in which to live.”

Well-off residents of Hong Kong also flooded into Canada, Britain and the United States in the last years before that territory reverted to Chinese control.

Without the urban elite, who held the reins of the civilization’s mercantile system, Harappan craftspeople and workers may have had little option but to embrace the simpler Aryan way of life and the Aryan religion. There was no longer a need for commercial support systems like accurate weights and financial accounting records. And, as the Aryan’s Vedic language was strictly oral at the time, Harappan writing might have been forgotten within a few generations. Says Dani, “Once you destroy the basis of industrialization, you destroy a civilization.”

What does study of the Harappans mean for the larger understanding of human civilization? For an answer to that question, I turned again to Mohammad Mughal. “For over a century,” he replied, “it was thought that civilization began in Western Asia, in Mesopotamia and Egypt. I would say that the most important contribution of Harappan study is that it shows conclusively, for the first time, that this just wasn’t so. We have proof right here.”

Dr. Graham Chandler is an archcologist and free-lance writer based in Calgary, Alberta. He specialized in early Harappan ceramics in his studies at the University of London.

FALSE CLAIMS ON INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION BY INDIANS

There is this thing called dignity. And obviously Indian so called Historians don’t have much.
If you go to Wiki and search for IVC you will notice something. India is mentioned on average 20 times more than Pakistan.  This is an attack on Pakistan more lethal than dozens of Indian tanks rolling towards Lahore.

There is a huge India map to go with it, and whenever a location has to be provided, you will see it as South Asian Sub cont even though 95% is in Pakistan.

The Brits invaded India and ruled the place. Before then India was known as Bharatavarsha, and was ruled my Muslim Moguls, Muslim Turks, and Muslim Arabs, After British rule India was broken into Modern Pakistan and India, both got their independence as New nations.
Therefore Pakistan never belonged to India. It did once belong to Bharatavarsha, which was never ruled by Hindus as it was a mixture of a lot of communities and religions. The unity was only caused by British rule, hence IVC doesn’t not belong to India, and never did.

The 3 Major IVC cities are all located in Pakistan. One in West Pakistan, one in South and the last one approx in central Pak.The Indian scholars however refuse to even mention Pakistan in their articles about IVC.

The people of IVC were not Hindus. This has been proved. Even though that was the case, you will see a constant comparison of their rituals to Hinduism. I admit Indian scholars don’t say IVC was a Hindu Civilization, but the comparison is based on no evidence and vague drawings of sacrificed animal. On the Main India article, Indus valley civilisation is listed as part of Indian history even though:

India didn’t exist during IVC, and their Religion had nothing to do with IVC, and finally IVC settlements are not even located in India. Indians still refer to India as the “Home of Indus Valley Civilization”.

“Why is it called Indus?”. Well, Indus is a common name through out the entire South Asian subcontinent due to the more recent sizeable Hindu population of the sub continent. IVC was named purely because of its location. The people of IVC did not refer to themselves as IVC. Just like South America is not a part of United States of America, the IVC is not Indian. I am not Pro Pakistan. We as humans should have a responsibility that History is recorded as damn exact as possible. This is the reason Wikipedia is such a failure and is open to easy vandalism, the obvious kind and the patriotic vandalism which is supported by most ignorant people who have declared war on common sense.

Pakistan and India, neither of them which existed through IVC era.
Islam and Hinduism. neither of them existed in the era if IVC.
Common sense would suggest IVC belongs to the country in which 95% of their settlements are located.

Please note. Iran and India both have an odd small-time IVC settlement. But Iran has common sense enough to not claim it as Iranian.

Agreed many who travelled to the reclaimed liberated land we call Pakistan today were reverts and from South Asian stock but we the vast majority, Kashmiris, Baloch, Pakthun, Sindhi and Punjabi were the IVC and we denounced Hinduism an alien foreign primitive barbaric brutal concept that attacked us. We found liberation and soul revival in Islam and it is and will forever be our cherished religion. The IVC were not Hindu, neither did they ride horses like your Mahabharata stories, they ate beef not like your Dhal Hors, they were ethnically different to the Dravids primitive pygmies that ran around semi clad in the primitive backwater jungles along the Ganges. The IVC never spoke Sanskrit let alone wrote it, they wrote via pictogrqms like the other great civilisations of that era, mesopotamia and The Nile civilisation. I know it is hard for you to grasp but we are completely different to you, we find your language, your culture, religion and history repulsive and we are a different ethnicity, geography and history to you. Just because you have the sons of Abdali, Ghauri, Nadir Shah, Zaman Shah and Aurangzaib as your bollywood heart throbs it does not mean you and I are the same. Look around you, most Indians do not look like the Khans or the Kapoors who hail from the land of beauty and beautiful people -Pekhawar. In a shameful past and everyone has one the Indian girls at my University were struck by how different we Pakistanis boys looked to Indian boys and realised we truly are different ethnicities and yes we were the more attractive because we look like the very people you Indians place on pedestol in Bollywood.

 

Pakistani “Indus Valley” predated Indian Hindu Aryan culture’

The noted epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan made some sound observations which echo the writings of one of the most prominent historians of our time Dr. Dani. Like Dr. Dani Dr. Mahadevan clearly says that the Hindu Aryan culture was distinctly different than the culture of the Indus Valley Civilization which was not Hindu. The IVC did not worship the “Hindu” Pantheon in any sense of the word. The IVC was mostly restriction to the valley of the Indus—however at the tail end of the civilization some of it dispersed into areas beyond the IVC. The map of the original IVC resembles the map of Pakistan as it exists today.

TIRUCHY: The Indian society was composed of elements inherited from groups speaking different languages, because of which it was a composite entity, observed Iravatham Mahadevan, noted epigraphist.

Delivering the History Congress endowment lecture at Tiruchy on Friday, he said that the Indus Valley civilisation predated the Aryan civilisation. While this civilisation was urban, the Vedic culture was rural and pastoral, he added. The Indus seals depicted many animals, like horses and chariots with spoked wheels, which were defining features of the Aryan-speaking society.

Religious worship in the Indus valley focussed on a buffalo-horned male god, mother goddesses, the pipal tree and the serpent, he said.

He added that these practices were known to have been derived from the aboriginal population and were totally unknown to the religion of the Rig Veda.

He explained that the Aryan mode of worship was centred on the fire altar, while the Dravidians had water as the base. He said the Great Bath at Mohenjodaro was a direct forerunner of the temple tanks of Hinduism.

The decline and fall of the Indus valley civilisation is generally attributed to natural causes, such as adverse climatic conditions, tectonic upheavals, changing and dried-up river courses, lowered fertility due to over-exploitation and increased salinity of the soil, he explained. Loosening of social and ideological bonds and internal strife could be other factors that had contributed to the eventual disintegration of the Harappan community, he added.

He said there had been fewer Aryans who had migrated and that they were considerably less in number to the vast indigenous population of the Indus valley civilisation. But, he added, the Aryans became dominant when the Harappans fragmented into smaller units in the absence of a central leadership.

A part of the Harappan population also migrated southwards from the Gangetic region, which is recorded in old Tamil literature, he said.

They gained prominence among the late Neolithic people in south India and later founded the Megalithic and Iron Age civilisations, which formed the base for the Chera, Chola and Pandya kingdoms, he said.

He discussed Aryan and Dravidian legacy in the linguistic sense, without a racial or ethnic connotation. The two cultures intermingled and merged, giving rise to a composite society, he said.

He said that some experts pointed to the presence of only a few Dravidian words in the later sections of the Rig Veda and as such it was deduced that the Indus valley civilisation was Dravidian.

Explaining this anomaly, he said that the highly trained priests of the Vedic age would not have preferred loan words in sacred hymns.

Do you speak real URDU or HINDI?

Hindi	Urdu	English
Chinta	Fikir
aagentuk	ajnabi	stranger
akaash, aakash	aasmaan	sky
Aaksmik	achanak, Bewaqta	suddenly
aam papad	aampapad	dried mango squash
aan	izzat	Prestige
aansu	ashque, ashk	tear
achakan	sherwani	long shirt, long coat, a party wear gents dress
adbhut	anokha	wonderful
adrashya	andekha	unseen
agni	aag	fire, flames
ahanstantarniya	jo wapas na ho sake	non-transferable
amulya	anmol	priceless
anamika	binanaam	name less (fem.)
ananya
Prem	Ashiqui	Romance
ank	???	marks, numbers
ansh	hissa	portion, part
ant	aakhir	end
antakshri	???	song-follow game
antar	fark	difference
antariksha	arsh	universe, space
antatah	aakhirkaar	at last, finally
antim	aakhiri	last one
apavitra	napaak	not clean (unholy)
astitva	shakhshiyat	individuality
atak	phuns	stuck
avinaash	???	indestructible
netra; chakshu	aankh	eye
pratibimb	aks	reflection
Prem	Mauhabat	love
premi	aashiq	lover
Samanjasya	apasdaari	Understandings; Balance
visamya	ajeeb	strange
visamyakaari	ajooba	wonder
Mukt, Mispronounciation “Ajaad”	azaad	Free
Baal, HIndi Mispronounciation “julf”	zulf	hairs
Baala, Baalika	Larki	Girl
Baalak	Larka	Boy
Vyakti	Banda (Bande)	Person (s)
baahein hmp. Baaju	Baazu	Arm (s)
Bahen	Behen	Sister
bail	bail, bijaar	Bull, Ox
Vyakul	Betaab	Eager
Bansi	Baansuri	Flute
Balwaan	Takatwar	Powerful, Macho
Baarish	Barsaat	Rain
Maali	Baghbaan	Gardner
Upavan	Bagicha	Garden
Bajaar	Bazaar	Bazaar, Market
Barah	Baraa	Twelve, 12
Bhora	Bhanwara	Big black moth (Fly)
Bhanwar	??
Bindaas	??	Fearless
Vivaha	Byah	Marriage
Baanjh	Be Aulaad
Bimaar	Beemaar	Patient
Bimaari	Beemari	Disease
Balidaan	Qurbaani	Sacrifice
Baingan	Beingan	Brinjal
Daan	Bakhsheesh	Tip; Give beg
Shikhar	Bulandi	On Top, Achivement
Putri	Beti	Daughter
Putra	Beta	Son
Badhaai	Mubaarakbaad	Congratulates
Mehmaan-Nawaz
Varsh	Baras	Year
Patni	Biwi, Begum	Wife
Satta	Baazee	Bet, gamble, compete
Budhhu; Bawla	Baawla	Mad, Crazy
Bandhak	Quedy, Kaidi	Hostage, Jailed
Billi, Bilota, Bilaw	Billi, Billaw, Billota	Cat
??	Badtameez	unmannered
Bigadna	Bigarna	spoil
Bhaya	Darr, Khatra	Threat; Fear
Bhrata	Bhai	Brother
Bhaalu	Reachh	Bear
Bhagwaan	Khuda	God
Bhayabheet	Dara hua	Afraid; Threatened
Bhagya	Kismat	Luck; Destiny
Bhagyashaali	Kismat wala	Lucky
Bhagyawaan	Gharwali, Kismat wala	Wife; Lucky
Bheemkaaya	Bahut bada	Giant
Bhiksha	Bheekh	Beg; donation
Bhikshu	Bhikhaari	Beggar
Bhavishya	Qismat	Fate; Future
Vishwaas	Bharosa	Faith; Believe
	Bhaabi	Brother’s wife
Bhains	Bheins	Buffalo
Bheed		Crowd; Mob
Bhasma	Jala hua; Raakh	Dust of fire; burned
Bhool	Bhoolna	Forget
Bhaala	Teer	Large Arrow
Bhala	Acha	Good
Bhatakna	Guum	Lost
Bhrasta	Rishwat-khor	Corrupt
Bhangda	Bhangra	Punjab’s folk dance
Bhola	Masoom	Innocent
Bheeshana	Bahut Jyada	Too Much; Huge; Heavy
Hindi Word	Urdu Word	US English  Meaning
Ichchha	Chahah	Desire; Urge; Wish
Chatur	Chalaak	Smart; Cunning
Aenak	Chashma	Eye Glasses; Goggles
Chakraviewha	Jaal	Trap
Chakra	Paiya	Circle
Chulha	Choolha	Mud Stove
Chootad	Chootar	Hips; Buttocks; Butts
Chamak	Chamkeela	Shine; Bright
Chakamdaar	Chamkeela	Shiny; Brighter
Champa	Yasmine?	Jasmine
Chameli	Mogra	White Flower; Jasmine
Champakali	??	Cute (Esp. Prostitute)
Chandrama	Chaand	Moon
Chandramukhi
Moon face (lady)
Chauka-Bartan	Chulha-chauka	Routine kitchen work
Chaaku; Chakku	Chhuri; Chhura	Knife
Choodi	Choori	Bangle
Chup	Khaamosh	Silent
Chakshu	Aankh	Eye
Changaij Khan	Changez Khan	Rude; Ghangis Khan
Chilam	Hookah	Small Fire; Hookah
Chilman	Raat	Night
Champi	Maalish	Head Massage
Chabootra	??	Squire stone (to sit on)
Chahu aur	Chaaro taraf	all around
Cheekh	Chillana	Scream
Chakotara	Kharbooze jaisa Fal	Melon fruit
Chakotar	??	Bird that watches moon
(Kuchh) Vishesh	Chuninda	Selected
Chain	Sukoon	Relief; Comfort
Chandaal	Jallad	Who hang/Kill people
Aankh	Chashm	Eye
Raah Takna	Chashme-Barah	Waiting (With love)
Jharna	Chashma	Fountain; Fall
Samarpit	Chishti	Dedicated man
Veshyalaya	Chakla	Prostitute’s Place
Chanchal	Shareer	Naughty
Chinti	Choonti	Ant
Hindi Word	Urdu Word	US English  Meaning
Chhaata	Chhatri	Umbrella
Napunsak	Chhakka	Impotent
Chhad	Chhari	Stick
Saya	Chhaaya	Shadow
Chhal	Dhoka	Cheat
Chhaaliya	Chhaali	Beatle fruit seed
Anuj	Chhota (Bhai)	Younger
Chhokri	Londiya	Girl (esp. young)
Hindi Word	Urdu Word	US English  Meaning
Dam	Himmat	Power; Life
Pal	Dam	Moment
Daman	??	Dominate
Aanchal	Daaman	Skirt like portion of dress
Daaru	Sharaab	Alcoholic drinks; wine
Pravishta	Daakhil	Admit; Enter
Pravesh	Daakhila	Admission
Daya	Tars; Reham	Pity
Dayawaan	Rehmaan	Merciful
Dayaneeya		Pitiful; Piteous
Dilli	Dehli	Delhi City
Manoram	Dilkash	Gorgeous
Priyatama	Dilruba	Darling (Feminine)
Priyatam	Dilbar	Darling (Masculine)
Premi	Deewana	Lover; Keen
Diwanapan	Deewanapan	Love
Hriday	Dil	Heart
Deeksha	Seekh	Lesson; Learning
Dono	Dauno	Both
Dau	Do	Two
Mitra	Dost	Friend
Var	Dulha	Groom
Vadhu	Dulhan	Bride
mp Namaaj	Namaaz	Prayers
Mitrata	Dosti	Friendship
Dugdha	Doodh	Milk
Dukh	Gham	Sorrow; Pain
Dukhi	Ghamgeen	Sorry; Sad; regretful
Daal	Daali	Branch of a tree
Daak	Khat	Post
Dakait	Daaku	Dakota
Dharm	Imaan	Religion
Dhaakad	Shaandaar	Graceful
Dhanyavaad	Shukriya	Thanks
Dhan	daulat	Wealth; Money
Dharmaatma	Pakke Imaan wala	Great religious person
Dharam pita	???	God father
Dharamshila	Imaan ka pathar	Stone of religion
Dharamshaala	Saraay	Charitable Inn
Dhaarmik
Eekh	Ganna	Sugar kane
Eeshwar	Allah	God
Dharam	Eemaan	Religion
Aawishkaar	Eezaad	Invention
Manushya	Insaan	Human
Hadh	Intehaa	Extreme; Edge
Pratikshaa	Intjaar	Await
Imaandaar	Honest
Nivedan	Iltijaa	Request
Aarop	Ilzaam	Blame
Nakaar Dena	Inkaar	To say no; deny
Prem	Ishk / Ishque	Love
Hindi Word	Urdu Word	US English  Meaning
Faal	Gota	Decorated corner of traditional dresses
Laabh	Faayeda	Profit
Paarsi	Faarsi	Persian
Jhatpat	Fatafat	Quick
Faatak	Phatuk	Gate; Railway crossing
Fefade	Phephrey	Lungs
Falsafa
Faaka	Faaqa	Staying hungry for having no food
Garva	Fakra	Proud
Phal	Fal	Fruits
Fal	Dhaar	Edge; Sharpness
Film	Filam	Movie; Film
Filmaankan	Filmaaya Jaana	Cinematography
Jeet	Fateh	Victory
Hindi Word	Urdu Word	US English  Meaning
Apshabda	Gaali	to Abuse
Gambheer	Sanjeeda	Serious
dukh	Gham	Sorrow
Gunjan	Bhinbhinaahat	buzzing
Geet	Gaana	Song
Geela	Gheela	Wet
Kajraa	Gajraa	Jasmine floral tag
Gajab	Gazaab	Great; something bad
Gaalib	Ghaalib	a historical poet
	Gulaab	Rose
Phool	Gul	Flower
Guldawari	Guldaawadi	Calendula shrub
Vaatika	Gulistaan	Garden (Full of flowers)
Gul; Adarashya	Gaayab	Invisible
Gau	Gaay	Cow
Goumutra / Gomutra	Gaay ka peshaab	Cow pee
Gaupaal / Gopal	Gaay ka rakhwala	Cow keeper
Gaumukhi	??	Rectangle shape with one side smaller
Hindi Word	Urdu Word	US English  Meaning
Grah	Ghar	Home
Hindi Word	Urdu Word	US English  Meaning
Hast	Haath	Hand
Hastakshep	Beech mai aana	Interference
Praapt	Haasil	Receive; Get
-	Hashim	Synonym of “Allah”
Hastantar	Fer-badal	Exchange
Hastmaithun	??	Masturbation
Aakraman	Hamlaa	Attack
Aakramankaari	Hamlaawar	Attacker
Harjaai	Sukhdil	Stone heart
Priyatam	Humdum	Spouse; Lover
Shubhechchhu	Hamdard	Well wisher
Sehvaas	Hum-bistar	Bed Partner esp. to Sex
Saathi	Hum-saaya	Together; Close
Seh-Yaatri	Humsafar	Co-passenger; spouse
Hindi Word	Urdu Word	US English  Meaning
Jaa	Chullo	Go (Order)
Jaap	Tilaawat	Reading Religious quotes
Jaal	Fanda	Trap
Kroor	Jaalim	Cruel person
Praan	Jaan	Life; Soul
Streeyon ke liye	Janaana	Feminine
Vyangya	Jumlaa	Taunt; Quote
Hatyaara	Jallaad	Assassin; killer
Aakrosh	Josh	Energetic;
Jagraata	??	Awake all night long
Jagran	Uthna	Awakening
Sansaar	Jahaan	World
Shareer	Jism	Body
Hindi Word	Urdu Word	US English  Meaning
Jharokha	Roshandaan	Small Window
Jhatpat	Foran	Quick
Jhapat	Chheen lena	Snatch
Jhak	Machhali	Fish
Jhakjhor	Hila ke rakh dena	Shake up; Awaken
Jhaarkhand	Jharkhand	A state in India
Hindi Word	Urdu Word	US English  Meaning
Kaal	Waqt	Time
Kaarya	Kaam	Work
Kaaryakaram	??	Program (Programme)
Kriya	??	Verb
Kriyaa-karam	Kafan-dafan	Crematory
??	Kafan	Dress for the dead
Kuff	Baaju	Sleeves
??	Kambakhta	abuse – shameless; one who die soon
Toolika	Kalam	Pen; Pencil
Kasak	ache (in love)
Kaamuk	??	Erotic
Kaamasutra	??	Indian guidelines for performing sex
Kamottejak	??	Which increases lust
Kaamatur	??	Horny; Eager to sex
Kaamandh	??	Blind for sex
Kaamdhenu	??	Epic cow that gives money by worshiping it
Kalpavraksha	??	Epic tree of money
Kalpana	Soch	Imagination
Kalpit	Socha hua	Imagined
Kavi	Shaayar	Poet
Kavita	Nazm	Poem
Shaant	Sukoon	Inner Peace?
Khadoos	??	Mean; Bad person
??	Khwaaza	Holy man
Privaar	Khaandaan	Family; Anchensters
Swapna	Khwaab	Dream
Hindi Word	Urdu Word	US English  Meaning
Laa	Lao	Give; Bring
Charan	Laat	Leg
Laagat	??	Cost
Laghu	Chhota	Small Scale
Rakt	Lahu	Blood
Laal	Surkh	Red
Laal	Jaan	Son; dear child
L
Lagataar	Barambaar	Continuous
Mata; Maa	Ammi	Mother; Mummy
Mantra	Kalma	Spell; Religious quotes
Matrabhumi	??	Motherland
Maap	Naap	Measurement
Nipun	Maahir	Trained; perfect
Lakshya	Manjil	Target
Tal	Manjil	Floor
Ichchha; Vichar	Mansooba	Wish; Thought
Vivash	Majboor	??
Kathin	Mushkil, Mushkilaat	Tough; not easy
Muhim	??	Campaign; project
Mukh	Muh	Mouth; Face
Machhli	Machhali	Fish
Mama	Maama	Mother’s Brother
Maum	Mome	Wax (esp. candle’s)
Main	Mein	I
Mann	Dil	Heart; mind
Mayeka	Mekha	Bride’s mother’s house
Majdoor	Mazdoor	Labor
Mausi	Khala	Mother’s Sister
Mausa	Khaalu	Husband of Mausi
Madhumakkhi		Bee
Pati	Miya	Husband; Mister
Madhya	Beech	Middle; Between
Manmauji	Manchala	A person who do what he wants to do
Maina	Meinaa	Dove
Maindhak	Mendak	Frog
Mahatma	??	Great (Person)
Mahashivratri	??	A Hindu Festival
Matra-pita	MaBaap	Mother & Father
Atithi	Mehmaan	Guest
Mahayudhha	Bahut badi ladaai	Great War
Mahabharat	-	An Epic book of war
Mahayodhdha	Fikirmund	Great Worrier
Maharaja	Badshah	Emperor
Maharani	Raani, Shehzaadi	Queen
Swaami	Maalik	Owner; Master
Murli	Baansuri	Flute
Murlidhar	-	A name for Krishna; one who play flute
Mool	Asal rakam	Principal Amount
Machhardaani	Machchhardaani	Mosquito shed
Panni	Momjama	Polythene Sheet
Prem	Mohabbat	Love
Premika	Maashook	Lover girl
Manmohini	Dilruba	Girl who wins the heart
Mohh	Khinchaaw	Attraction
Mohini		Girl who attracts
Moksha	Ajaadi	Freedom (esp. from life)
Mukti	Kaid se Ajaadi	Freedom (esp. from jail)
Madhur	Meetha	Sweet
Sampada	Milkiyat	Property; Belongings
Marathi	-	Maharashtra’s
Marna	Mar jaana	To die
Maaramari	Dhakkamukki	crowd; rush
Madhu	Shahed	Honey
Mahatva	Khaasiyat	Importance
Mahatvapurna	Khaas	Important
Bareek	Maheen	Thin
Prasidhha	Mashhoor	Famous
Palang	Masahri	A type of Bed
Vyasta	Mashgool	Busy
Maar Daala	Maar diya	Killed
Markit	Bazaar	Market; Bazaar
Mruga	Hiran	Deer
Mruganayani	Hiran jaisi aankh wali	Girl with deer eyes
Munchh	Moonchh	Mustache
Gidgidaana	Minnat	To Beg
Milawat	Milaawat	Adulteration
Milaap	Milaai	Met; Introduce
Hindi Word	Urdu Word	US English  Meaning
Gujar basar	Nibaah	Living; Life runs by
Ishwar ke avtar	Nabi	Prophet
Jo sahi na ho	Najaayaz	Unethical; Wrong
Kuchh nahi	Nacheez	Nothing
Maap	Naap	Measurement
Naa	Na	No
Naada	Ijaarband	A thread used to tie pajamas
Naag	Saanp	Snake
Naash	Naas	Termination
Naastik	Kaafir	unreligious
Nakati	Nakti	Who’s Nose cut off
Namaaj	Namaaz	Muslim Prayer
Napunsak	Hijda	Impotent
Nar	Aadmi	Man
Nari	Janaani	Woman
Naritva	Janaanapan	Womanly; being a lady
Narivadi	Janaani ki taraf	Who favors women
Narmada	Nadi	River
Narsimha		Human lion
Narsinhaar	Katleaam	Killing a lot of people
Naya	Nayaa	New
Nayapan		Newness
Netra	Nigah, Aankh	Eye
Netradaan		Eye Donation
Netraheen	Andha	Blind
Nirankush	Bekaabu	Uncontrolled
Nirast	hata dena	Unmount; Fired
Nirdayee	Bereham	Cruel
Nirdhan	Gareeb	Poor; Moneyless
Nirjeev	Murda	Dead
Nirvastra	Nanga/Nangi	Nude; Naked
Nisha	Raat	Night
Nishachar		night roamer Animals
Nishant	Savera; Subah	Morning; End of night
Nishchal		Statue; Stopped
Nishchint	Befikar	Tension Free; worry less
Nishchit	Pakka	Confirmed
Nishkaam	Bina laalach	Without Greed
Nishkriya	Bekaar	Idle; Not working
Nishpaksha	Kisi ki taraf nahi	Treat equally; favoring no one in dispute.
Nishthur	Kattar; Patthar dil	Cruel; Stone hearted
Nrashansha	Bereham	Cruel; Merciless
Nratya	Naachna	Dance
Nratyangna	Naachne wali	Dancer girl
Vivah	Nikah	Marriage by Muslim rules
Aurat	Janaana	Woman
Aukhali	Imaam-jasta	Small dish to beat spices
Santaan	Aulaad	Children; Son / Daughter
Aurangjeb	Aurangzeb	A Mughal Emperor
Auchitya	Salika	Etiquettes
Om; Aum; Oum		Hindu’s Holy Word
Onkaar		Saying Om Loudly
Vipreet	Ondha	Reversed; Upside down
Paa Lena	Paa liya	Got
Paav	Peir	Leg
Pavitra	Paakiza	Neat; Clean; Holy
Samasya	Pareshani	Trouble
Samasya se Grast	Pareshaan	Troublesome
Paajeb	Paazaib	Jewelry for feet ankle
Pajama	Payejama	Pajamas
Jod	Peyband	Patch
Madira paan	Peymaana	Peg
Pakka	Pukhta	Fix; Confirmed
Palak	Paalak	Spinach
Pakad	Pukur	Grab; Fetch
Pakkad	Plaas	Player Tool
Pakoda	Pakodi	Indian deep fried dish
Pakwaan	Lazeez Khaana	Great Tasty Foods
Pankh	Parr	Feather
Paankhi; Pakshi	Chidiya	Birds
Haara hua	Pust	Doomed
-	Quaary	The priest of Mosque
-	Qura’n; Quraan	The holy book of Islam
Mahatva	Quadra	Value; importance
-	Qutub	A Mughal Emperor
-	Quaaf	Letter “K” of Urdu
Rang	Rung	Color
Rangne wala	Rangrej	One Who Colors
Rangoli	-	A shape made on the floor with colors
Shaashan	Baadshahat	Kingdom
Shaashak	Badshah	King
Raani	Rani	Queen
Jaamuni Rang	Rani Rung	Purple Color
Rona-dhona	Rona dhona	Act of weeping
Nisha	Raat	Night
Achanak	Raato-raat	Within a single night
Path	Raasta; Raah	Way; Path
Pathik	Raahi	Passenger
Dhanwaan	Rahees	Wealthy
Widhwaa	Raand	Widow
Ritu	Rut	Spring; Weather
Shobha	Raunaque	Charm
Sakaar	Poora Hona	Bring in reality
Saakshar	Padha Likha	Literate
Varsh	Saal	Year
Naag	Saanp	Snake
Saanskratik	-	Cultural
Sabji	Subzee	Vegetable
Sabun	Saabun	Soap
Sabut	Saabut	Whole
Satya	Sach	Truth
Sachhai	Sachaai	Truthfulness
Sadaa	Sadaa hua	Spoiled
Sajag	Chokas	Aware
Sakhi	Saheli	Friend (Female)
Saksham	Kaargar	Able
Salwaar	Shalwaar	Pants of a suite
Samaaj	Maashra	Community
Samaanta	Milti-julti baatei	Similarity
Samachaar	Khabar	News
Samadhaan	Hal	Solution
Samasya	Preshaani	Trouble
Samay	Waqt	Time
Sambhog	Hambistari	Sexual Intercourse
Samjhauta	Samjhota	Settlement
Sampoorna	Poora	Complete
Samudra; Sagar	Samundar	Sea
San		Jute
San		Year; A.D.
Sandesh	Khabar	Message
Sandigdha	Jis par shak ho	Suspect
Sang	Saath	Along; Toghether
Sanjog	Tukka	By chance
Sansaar	Duniya	World
Sansad	??	Parliament
Sansani		Threat
Sansarg	Istema	Preach Gathering
Sanskaar	Saleeka	Manners
Sanskrit	-	Language Sanskrit
Santaan	Aulaad	Kids; Son or Daughter
Santosh	Tasalli	Relax; Confirmation
Santosh-janak	Tassalli karne layak	Relaxant; Acceptable
Santra	Santraa	Orange
Santrapta	Khush	Satisfied
Santusht	??	Satisfied
Sanyaasi	??	Priest who left home
Sanyog	Tukka	By chance
Sanyukta	-	Compound; One of my friend in college, lol
Saparpit	Fida	Dedicated
Sapola		Tiny Snake
Sapreta		Toned (Esp. Milk)
Sarathi	-	Driver
Sarvaadhik	Sabse Jyada	Most of all
Satluj	Sultej	A river in India
Sattaa	Jua	Gamble; Bid
Vyapaar	Sauda	Trade
Vyapaari	Saudagar	Trader
Saugandh	Kasam	Swear
Saut	Sautan	Husband’s other wife
Sautela	Sotela	Step relative
Seb	Seib	Apple
Seema	Sarhad	Border
Sehen Shakti	Sehne ki takat	Will power; Tolerance
Aangan	Sehen	Verandah
Seh-paathi	Saath padhne wala	Classmate
Sehwaas	Humbistari	Sexual Intercourse
Seh-yaatri	Humsafar	Co-passenger
Sewa-dhaam	Sewa ki jagah	Serving place
Sewak	Naukar	Servant
Sewartha	Sewa karne ke liye	In Service
Sindoor	-	Red powder used to place on the forehead at wedding
Swarn	Sona	Gold
Srishti	Duniya	World; Nature
Suhaagan	-	Having a husband
Suhaagraat	Shaadi ki raat	Wedding night
Sulabh	Jo araam se mil jaae	Easily accessible
Sulaikh	Imlaa	Dictation
Suputra	Sapoot	Good son
Swabhimaan	Jameer	Self respect
Swadesh	Apna desh	Motherland
Swadheen	Ajaad	Free; Liberal
Swami	Maalik	Owner; Master
Swamitva	Malikana Haque	Owning right
Swapna	Sapna	Dream
Swatantra	Ajaad	Liberal; Free
Shwait	Safed	White
??	Sewaiyan	Noodles
Gambheer	Sangeen	Serious
??	Sursuri	An insect who effect grain
Pratah	Subah	Morning
Vatavaran	Samaa	Atmosphere
-	Sandha	A dish made for the lady who just had a baby
Prasaad	Seerni	Something eatable to distribute after the prayer.
Vadya Yantra	Saaz	Instuments
Santrapti	Sukoon	Relax; Worry less
??	Sabra	To Wait; killing own desires.
Hindi Word	Urdu Word	US English  Meaning
Shaljam	Shalgam	Beet fruit
Laaj	Sharam	Shame
Lajjit	Sharminda; Sharamsaar	Ashamed
Sajjan	Shareef	Reputed; Gentle person
-	Shareefa	A fruit
Sajjanta	Sharafat	Gentleness; Reputation
Shabd	Haruf	Words
Nipun	Shaatir	Trained; Perfect
Balidaan	Shaheed	Died for the country
Hindi Word	Urdu Word	US English  Meaning
Swabhaav	Tarbiyat	Mood
Haalat	Tabiyat	Condition; Health
Tathastu	Jo chaho milega	Get what you want
Kismat	Takdeer	Destiny
Tatkaal	Foran	Immediate
Tatkaleen	Usi waqt ka	Spontaneous
Fatta	Takhta	Wooden Board
Nishchint-ta	Tasalli	Rest; Confirmation
Shakti	Taakat	Power; Will
Shaktimaan	Takatwar	Powerful
Tool	Baat badhna	Popular; Making large
Bawandar	Tahalka	Storm; Rage
Chitra	Tasveer	Picture
Abhaas	Tasavvur	Imagination
Aadar se bethna	Tashreef Rakhna	To sit with honor
Veshya	Tawayaf	Prostitute; Stripper
Khojbeen	Tehquiquaat	Investigation
Vetan	Tankhwah	Salary
Taana	Tanz	Taunt
Aikant	Takhliyah	Leave alone
Tareeka	Saleeka	Method
Khojbeen	Tafteesh	Investigate
Nasht	Tabaah	Terminated
Toliya	Tauliya	Towel
Dhan ki Kami	Tangi	Money Shortage
Aikant	Tanha	Alone
Sankara; Dukhi	Tang	Tight; Troubled
Aapka	Tera	Yours
??	Talaaque	Divorce
Sargam	Taal	Rythem
Thappad	Tamaacha	Slap
Tarbooj	Tarbooza	Water melon
Likhne ka fatta	Takhti	Wooden Slate
Aagyakaari	Tabedaar	Obedient
Samanjasya	Talmail	Balance
Swastha	Tandrust	Healthy
Swaasthya	Tandarusti	Health
Touri	Tauri	Cucumber like vegetable
Aalu ka pulaaw	Tahari	Dish of Potato or beaten meat and Rice
Tithi	Tareekh	Date
Kshama Prarthana	Tauba	Confession
Tabla bajane wala	Tabalchee	Drummer
Hard “Ta” sound as in “Trip”
Hindi Word	Urdu Word	US English  Meaning
Tanta Katna	Jad se khatm	Completely finished
Takla	Ganja	Bald
Takatak	foran	Quick
Tamaatar	Tamatar	Tomato
Rath	Tamtam	Tonga
Tateeree	-	A place in U.P., India
Tatti	Paykhana	Shit
Tatti	Baans ka darwaaja	Door made by bamboos
Tarraana	Tarr Tarr Karna	Frog like sound
Teekat	Tikat	Ticket
Hindi Word	Urdu Word	US English  Meaning
Udhar	Us Taraf	That side; Opposite
Upkaar	Ahsaan	Gratefulness
Udna	Ud jaana	To Fly
Ootak	Gosht ka Reisha	Tissue
Oorja	Taakat	Energy
Usha	Subah ki roshni	Twilight
Ubtan	Haldi	Turmeric
Ulajhna	Ulajh jaana	Trapped
Uplabdha	Paas mai hona	Available
Ubaasi	Jambhaee	Sigh (when sleepy)
Unnati	Tarakki	Progress
Guru	Ustaad	Teacher
Upar	Uper	Upon; Upside
Uttar	Jawaab	Answer
Uttar	??	North
Uttar Pradesh (U.P.)	-	A State in India
Uttranchal	-	A State in India
Uphaar	Tohfa	Gift
Upwan	Bagichi	Small Garden
Upsarg	Mukaable mai	Comparison
Uttapam	-	A South Indian Dish
Jhand	Tang	Make fun; tease
Ubadkhabad		Broken road or way

The origins of Urdu

 

Source:

Ishtiaq Ahmed

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\11\13\story_13-11-2011_pg3_2

The writer has a PhD from Stockholm University. He is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Stockholm University. He is also Honorary Senior Fellow of the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. He can be reached at billumian@gmail.com

The decline of Muslim power produced an identity crisis. It was compounded by the demand of the rising Hindu middle class that Hindi written in the Devanagari script should replace the Persian script

The origins of the Urdu language is a subject on which not only linguists and political historians cross swords, but even ideologues and Gramsci’s state-intellectuals, representing a supposedly ‘Pakistani’ and an ‘Indian’ point of view, clash incessantly. Considered in the light of this highly contentious and charged academic and intellectual environment, the publication of Distinguished National Professor at Quaid-e-Azam University, Dr Tariq Rehman’s major work, From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History, Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2011 (for the India market, Orient BlackSwan, New Delhi) is a very welcome addition. It is a shining example of dispassionate and enlightened scholarship that should go a long way in setting the record straight.
The puzzle the author seeks to solve is the following: from the 13th to the 18th century the name used for the language now called Urdu was mostly Hindi, though other names were also used. When and why did it become Urdu? He gives two explanations: pristine Hindi was not the same language as modern Hindi; languages change over time. The same pristine Hindi, however, was the ancestor of two contemporary languages: modern Urdu and modern Hindi. In this evolution, argues the author, natural change as well as human agency played their part.
With regard to natural change, he asserts that the language spoken in much of northern India at the time of Muslim incursions into the subcontinent was described as Hindi or Hindui by outsiders, especially Muslim scholars. The great poet and sufi, Amir Khusrau (1253-1324, Turkish father, Indian mother) spoke and wrote in a language he called Hindui. It was the same language that many centuries later in the colonial era came to be known as Hindustani. That name was commonly in use before the partition of India to describe the day-to-day language spoken in northern India and in many other parts of the subcontinent.
He rejects the widely held view that Urdu (a Turkish word for a camp or gathering of soldiers) emerged as a new language when men belonging to disparate linguistic nationalities were recruited into Muslim armies and needed a language to communicate. If that were true, Urdu would be a pidgin language, he argues. A pidgin is a reduced language that comes into being from extended contact between groups of people with no common language. Nor is Urdu a creole language. A creole language is an extension of an existing language, which has a core group of native speakers, but becomes considerably simplified as other groups adopt it. He rejects both such descriptions for Urdu, arguing that Urdu has a highly sophisticated structure with distinct grammar and syntax, and that it descends from the Hindu-Muslim cultural synthesis extending over 500 years. During this period, it was used in both the religious and secular literature of Hindus and Muslims. There were of course the Devanagari and Persian scripts in which this common language was written.
With regard to the name Urdu, Rehman offers an alternative explanation. Drawing on a vast body of sources he asserts that a number of other names — Hindvi, Hindi, Dihalvi, Khari Boli, Gujri, Dakhani and Rekhta were used for this common language. However, the Muslim elite of Delhi and Agra began to use a particular vocabulary toward the end of the 18th century, which became its distinctive aristocratic features. It was called ‘Zuban-e-Urdu-e-Mualla’ (the language of the Exalted City, i.e. Delhi). Over time that long name shrank simply to Urdu.
Rehman reviews a number of competing theories about the origin of Urdu. Among them the most important is the view that Urdu is a developed form of Punjabi. Hafiz Mahmud Shirani was the originator of that theory (presented in 1928). He suggested that Urdu first developed in Punjab and was then taken to Delhi by the Muslims. Proof given in support of the theory is the existence of Punjabi words and expressions in Urdu including Dhakni, spoken in southern India. Shirani made such a conclusion without examining the hypothesis that Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Seraiki, Hindko and so on descend from a common ancient language “spread over the huge area from Peshawar to Benares”. Urdu has a capacity to absorb words from other languages, so it should not be surprising to find Punjabi words in it — this is all the more possible because both stem from the same ancient root.
How did, then, Urdu come to be known as the language of Muslims and of Islam? This is the core element or the most intriguing aspect of the puzzle the author seeks to solve.
He traces the roots of such transformation to the vicissitudes attendant upon the politics and social order that evolved with the rise of British power in the subcontinent. The decline of Muslim power produced an identity crisis. It was compounded by the demand of the rising Hindu middle class that Hindi written in the Devanagari script should replace the Persian script. Hitherto government documents were written in the Persian script and the Muslim minority as well as the Kaesth caste of Hindu scribes who wrote in it enjoyed a monopoly of government jobs in the United Provinces (UP). Under the British a switchover to Hindi-Urdu or Hindustani took place. The script used was the Persian. The rising Hindu middle class of UP demanded that it should be written in the Devanagari script and they called it Hindi. Further complications followed when religious revivals among Hindus and Muslims began to be expressed in different scripts. Such divisive tendencies were aggravated further when the Congress-Muslim League contest over India’s future set the terms for intellectual and political debate.
The ‘Islamisation of Urdu’ became part of the separatist agenda of the Muslim League, and after Pakistan came into being such an agenda found spokespersons among Punjabi-origin scholars such as Fateh Mohammad Malik who advocated that Punjabi was merely a primitive type of Urdu, and therefore Urdu should be the national language of Pakistan and Punjab. In India, Hindi purists and Hindu nationalists resorted to similar arguments with a view to denying Urdu the status of an indigenous language of India.
Notwithstanding such politicisation of the origins of Urdu, the author draws attention to the fact that Hindustani (common name for both Hindi and Urdu) continues to be the language of the people on both sides of the border, and this is particularly noteworthy in Bollywood where Hindi used in the films is actually Hindustani. There is no doubt that he provides most compelling evidence in his book to establish his thesis. It is bound to become a standard reference on this subject.

A Pakistani (reformistani :) scholar has devised a non-invasive way to sense brain pressure which could significantly change the current paradigm of neurological care of those suffering from brain injury or disease.

From Dawn.com

KARACHI: A Pakistani scholar has devised a non-invasive way to sense brain pressure which could significantly change the current paradigm of neurological care of those suffering from brain injury or disease.

Monitoring intracranial pressure (ICP) is the most important thing to assess brain injury, hemorrhage (internal blood flow), tumors and other neurological problems. But current methods to measure this pressure are highly invasive – requiring a neurosurgeon to drill a hole in the skull to place a pressure sensor or catheter inside the brain – and are thus restricted to the very severe cases.

Pakistani scientist, Faisal Kashif has devised a non-invasive technology for ICP monitoring in his PhD thesis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US. The method is based on processing available clinical signals using a mathematical model of relevant physiology. It provides real time estimates of ICP and cerebrovascular impedance, the latter is an indicator of brain’s ability to maintain its blood supply.

“ICP is a key neurological vital sign and is affected in several brain pathologies – even in concussions and migranes – and this non-invasive method could help in monitoring a vastly larger pool of patients,” said Kashif. He further added that unlike the invasive approaches which require a neurosurgical facility, the non-invasive method can also be applied in emergency-care settings where most trauma patients are first brought. Having access to ICP in a timely manner can guide doctors to provide life-saving interventions.

The initial validation studies show that the new method is equally precise as compared to other painful surgery based procedures. Now Kashif and his colleagues are setting up their prototype device for real time monitoring by the doctors, and to run relevant clinical trials. He is also hopeful that the device could be easily developed in Pakistan as well.

The Helen Carr Peake research prize

In April this year, Dr. Faisal Kashif won MIT’s Helen Carr Peake research prize for his doctoral thesis contributions to the field of bioengineering. He has also presented his findings at two major international conferences, American Heart Association’s Stroke 2010 in US, and ICP 2010 in Germany.

His research work was also declared as “Most Innovative Research” at the Innovation Congress 2009, Boston, US. In 2000, he was awarded two Gold Medals at Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Technology (GIKI) and won four years HEC’s overseas scholarships as he was accepted for the doctorate program at MIT, though he only partially used these funds as support became available from MIT’s research, teaching and a medical engineering fellowship, which he was awarded for his proposed research.

A Thesis dedicated to Pakistan

His doctoral thesis entitled “Modeling and estimation for non-invasive monitoring of intracranial pressure and cerebrovascular autoregulation” was a milestone in Kashif’s career. Four years ago, in his Masters thesis, he developed a method for efficient communication through a nonlinear channel, such as the one encountered in satellite and optical fiber links. He dedicated this thesis to his parents and to all the martyrs of independence, which shows his dedication to Pakistan.

“I am proud to be a Pakistani because I know the reasons for its creation. I am very happy to associate my honours to the ideology behind it. I want to do a lot more Insha-Allah, and contribute in all ways I can,” he told to Dawn.com.

Amir Liaquat Exposed by Reformistan Blog 2 years back…

Reformistani wrote this 2 years before this fraud was fully exposed.  We are proud of our accomplishment bringing this charlatan down.

Who says Pakistan lacks all-rounders?  Enter Amir Liaquat, a man of many professions, degrees, jobs & personalities.  He is a strange man.  In public, he berates the impotence of  Muslim men unable to muster the courage, virtue and machismo to confront the west.   Privately, he likes to apply makeup and polish to his wife’s nails according to his own interview in Women’s digest!

“Islamic piety” has become a business for some.  It is a profitable business for the opportunistic “Dr.” Amir Liaquat.   Amir makes a good living with his position in the program “Alim” online.  Personally, I don’t get the attraction.  Amir is blessed with very few natural talents.  He does know what gullible people want to hear in an overly dramatic almost laughable delivery.  He is a sharp dresser coordinating hair color and beard in the exact hue as his smart Kurta.  The hair coloring is too good to NOT be a western brand.  Indeed some of the lady callers are so smitten by Amir that well… the religious show can become a bit uncomfortable.  The awkward tension in the middle of host/caller flirtatious niceties makes the real aalims on the show visibly uncomfortable.

The thing that is most striking about Amir Liaquat is that you can tell his whole act of piety is as artificial as the coloring in his hair, his excessive makeup or his…. numerous  degrees.

Let’s take a look at Amir’s degrees:

“Bachelor of Arts in Islamic Studies” degree (Serial No: P-2002227 Dated March 17, 1995),

“Master of Arts in Islamic Studies” degree (No: P-2002341 Dated March 15, 2002) and

“Doctor of Philosophy in Islamic Studies” degree (No: P-2002528 Dated April 5, 2002).

The good Doctor got his doctorate three weeks after his masters and conveniently just before his appointment to a minister level position.

The good doctor said:

“These are all just lies. Before I never commented on this issue because, I believe, it’s in the nature of dogs to bark, and I don’t want to counter every bark made by a dog. This has all been done by a few people in some newspapers, and other people who don’t wish to see me in the religious spectrum of Pakistan. My PhD degree has nothing to do with my becoming eligible for elections since my medical degree was sufficient for that,”

Yes Amir.  Dogs Bark.  Apparently, dogs can also get degrees from an internet “university” based in CyberSpace for 70,000 Rupees!

Amazing fact – Amir was getting medical degrees at the same time as his Islamic degrees!

“True, I attached my honorary PhD degrees along with my other medical degree when I filed my nomination papers, but I ask, what’s wrong in that. Why should a storm stir up on this issue? Yes, it might be true that the Trinity College sells degrees or that other people buy degrees from it, but I wasn’t aware of or concerned with that. The point is that I got it for free and as an honorary degree.”

There you have it.  A Phd., ladies and gentlemen, available for free.

Trinity College offers an All-in-One Package to its customers for UK Pounds 500 (US$960) in which all three degrees, Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate are offered together. This is what Dr Aamir purchased with the request to the college to put the 1995 date on his BA degree.

And now he claims that he has also been given the authority to issue ‘Fatwas”. May God help those who seek Fatwas from him and act on them as they would be following the words of an established “liar” and a “fraud” instead of an “Aalim” (a learned man).

Aalim indeed sir.

More recently Amir was at a majlis where many feel he was sarcastic and disrespectful of the prophet’s companions.  Dr. L simply dismissed that as a “doctored” youtube video.  Does the doctor of many disciplines not know that technology can determine if a video was doctored?

Pakistan has enough of these hypocritical losers.  Let us hope that this charlatan, fraud and worst of all boring simpleton goes away.

Wonderful articles by Mohsin Hamid on Pakistan

2011 “Silencing Pakistan”, on the murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad and the importance of free speech in Pakistan, from: the Express Tribune “On writing The Reluctant Fundamentalist”, about interactivity in books, my issues with borders, and constructing my first two novels, from: the Guardian “Osama bin Laden’s death”, about implications for and reactions in Pakistan, from: the Guardian “Once upon a life”, about moving between San Francisco and Lahore in my childhood and becoming a writer, from: the Observer “Uniting Pakistan’s minority and majority”, about responding to the killing of Pakistan’s only Christian federal minister, from: the Express Tribune “The game preserve”, about the Raymond Davis affair and a Pakistan where extremists are nurtured and the hunt monetized, from: Dawn (reprinted in the Guardian) 2010 “Discontent and its civilizations”, about violence and the illusion of civilizations, from: the International Herald Tribune “Pereira transforms”, about reading Antonio Tabucchi’s novel, in an introduction to its new edition, from: Pereira Maintains (reprinted in the Guardian) “Confronting hypocrisy”, about the need for secularism in Pakistan, from: Dawn “Pakistan’s challenge”, about responding to the floods, from: Dawn “It is feverish and flooded but Pakistan can yet thrive”, about hope despite the floods, from: the Financial Times “The real problem in the Afghan war is India, Pakistan and Kashmir”, about the regional aspect of peace, from: the Washington Post “On fatherhood”, about becoming a baby person, from: Paper magazine “Fear and silence”, about the persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan, from: Dawn “Paying for Pakistan”, about the need for a tax revolution, from: Dawn “Pakistani is enough”, about moving beyond a preoccupation with national identity, from: Dawn “Room for optimism”, about positive signs for Pakistan, from: Dawn   “Avatar in Lahore”, about arriving in Pakistan, getting broadband, and going to see the movie, from: TAR magazine (reprinted in Five Dials) 2009 “It had to be a sign”, about moving back to Pakistan after eight years in London, from: the Guardian “When Updike saved me from Morrison (and myself)”, about learning to write in college, from: the Daily Princetonian “Art and the other Pakistans”, about growing up in Lahore and Asia Society New York’s Pakistani art exhibition, from: Hanging Fire “A beginning”, about President Obama’s Cairo speech on Muslim-U.S. relations, from: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung “Pakistan’s army needs to choose sides”, about the importance of fighting the Taliban, from: the Guardian “Flailing, but not yet failing”, about Pakistan moving away from tyranny, from: the International Herald Tribune “Shaped by popular will”, about representativeness and Pakistan’s Chief Justice, from: the Guardian “Bend toward justice”, about recommendations for president Obama, from: the Princeton Alumni Weekly 2008 “Bound by sorrows”, about the Mumbai terrorist attacks and India-Pakistan relations, from: the Guardian “Slumberland”, about the novel by Paul Beatty, from: the Financial Times “Pakistan is finding its voice”, about democracy’s difficult implications for America, from: the Guardian “End of a beginning”, about Pakistan after Musharraf’s resignation, from: Time magazine (Asian edition) “Everyone wants to leave”, about immigration, emigration, and property in Britain, from: the Guardian “Again become my home”, about Pakistan’s election, taxes, and life in London, from: the Guardian “A moment of hope”, about the results of Pakistan’s election, from: Time magazine (Asian edition) “It’s troubled, but it’s home”, about Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and Pakistan, from: the Washington Post 2007 “Pakistan’s crackdown”, about unacceptable arrests of peaceful citizens, from: NPR Morning Edition (link to audio version) “Why the compromise collapsed”, about the declaration of emergency in Pakistan, from: Time magazine “Having a British passport”, about being a dual Pakistani-British citizen, from: the Guardian “After 60 years, will Pakistan be reborn?”, about Pakistan on its 60th anniversary, from: the New York Times “Why do they hate us?”, about reasons for anti-Americanism and possible responses, from: the Washington Post “Britain and America’s overstated threat from within”, about excessive fear of Muslims, from: the Huffington Post “Pakistan’s moment of truth”, about the implications of deadly clashes over the Chief Justice, from: Time magazine (Asian edition) “My reluctant fundamentalist”, about writing the novel, from: Powells.com “Pakistan’s silent majority is not to be feared”, about the need for greater democracy, from: the New York Times “The British inquisition”, about becoming a UK citizen, from: the Independent “General Pervez Musharraf: Pakistan’s big beast unleashed”, about Pakistan and its President’s autobiography, from: the Independent 2006 “Mohammed Ali Jinnah”, about the founder of Pakistan for a series on 60 years of Asian heroes, from: Time magazine (Asian edition) “Down the tube”, about a personal moment of paranoia on the London underground in the age of terrorism, from: the Independent “A home for water lilies” (published as “I love this dirty town”), about moving to London, from: the New Statesman “Divided we fall”, about the killing of Nawab Bugti and the need to restore democracy in Pakistan, from: Time magazine (Asian edition) 2005 “Two steps forward, one step back”, about Pakistan and personal freedoms, from: Time magazine (Asian edition) “I answer the phone”, about artist Shahzia Sikander, from: 51 Ways of Looking 2004 “An agenda for Pakistan”, about democracy and Pakistan, from:Time magazine (Asian edition) “Waiting for the boom”, about a visit to the Pakistani port of Gwadar, from: Time magazine (Asian edition) “Reinventing Pakistan”, about the art and media boom in Lahore, from: Smithsonian magazine “In praise of the un-macho”, about the anniversary of the Friday Times, from: the Friday Times “Nuclear reaction”, about the Khan proliferation scandal and Pakistan, from: Time magazine (Asian edition) 2003 “The pathos of exile”, about returning to Lahore for a cousin’s wedding, from: Time magazine (Asian edition) “We’re all on the same side”, about defining Muslims exclusively by their faith, from: Time magazine (Asian edition) “Gunning for war”, about the injustice of America’s planned war in Iraq, from: Time magazine (Asian edition) 2001 “Fearing a second abandonment”, about Pakistan and the war in Afghanistan, from: the Guardian “The usual ally”, about Pakistan’s alliance with America and the coming war in Afghanistan, from: Time magazine “Lives: the countdown”, about family in Islamabad awaiting the coming war in Afghanistan, from: the New York Times magazine “In concert, no touching”, about a restrained but erotic encounter in Lahore, from: Nerve magazine 2000 “Changing of the guard”, about peace and a new generation in Pakistan, from: Dawn “Siamese twins never embrace”, about Kashmir and the India-Pakistan dispute, from: Outlook India “Lives: international relations”, about a love letter and applying for an Italian visa, from: the New York Times magazine “Where chaos foils ambition”, about President Clinton’s upcoming trip to Pakistan, from: the New York Times

We the Pakistani people DEMAND…

We the people of Pakistan demand the following from our various power centres in the civil and military establishment:

• Minimal credible defense against external threats
• Maximum security from internal threats of terrorism, crime & violence
• Jobs & Prosperity for the common man
• Improved revenue collection of the rich and the filthy rich, start with Zardari,  Sharif and generals and most of the parliamentarians!
• Universal Education for our greatest assets: our children
• Army be brought under the control and jurisdiction of the civilian government just like every other professional army in the world.
• Dissolve or control the rogue elements of the ISI; We don’t need 10,000 agents, employ 10,000 good teachers instead.

• 

• Remove terrorist organizations from Pakistani soil
• Disassociate the state from any organization that engages in terrorists acts
• Cease taking aid from other countries by improving our own economy
• Cut costs & Pay back our national debt
• Liquidate mansions ‘belonging’ to generals, ministers et al and give funds to the families of soldiers killed or wounded in action
• Return funds looted from the treasury by our ‘leaders’
• Disengage from the ill-conceived strategic depth theory
• Help stabilize Afghanistan so that the Afghan refugees in Pakistan can return to their homeland
• Reverse and roll back the ill-conceived policies of General Zia in all spheres of Pakistani society
• Protect minorities along with the majority
• Improve the quality of drinking water
• Provide dependable electricity to our homes and businesses
• Reroute aid from Saudi and UAE to public projects instead of madrassahs
• Provide an alternative to Madrassahs for the country’s poor
• Never engage in improper behavior in the people’s name (like in East Pakistan)
• Don’t worry about India, worry about internal security; what is nuclear deterrence for?
• Keep the army out of foreign policy affairs; That is not army’s role
• Return Pakistan to highest per capita income in South Asia
• Promote an entente between Saudi Arabia and Iran; Do not take sides
• Eradicate so called “Islamic” terrorists;  Support Kashmir on the more than sufficient moral and legal grounds.
• Keep the army out of Cricket administration; surely this is not a military function
• Army stop using India as a bogey to maintaining unjustified authority over national affairs
• Serve and Protect the people OR we will vote you out
• Behave like public servants
• The best defense in the modern era is national prosperity