Societies need heroes. If there are none, they are manufactured in order to gratify a mysterious and nebulous urge found in people to identify with larger-than-life figures that fight their real and imagined battles which they themselves can’t. In their conflict-ridden social life people or classes are always in search of figures that can symbolise their struggles and reflect the partial or full realisation of their aspirations if not in actual life, at least at the level of imagination. In a complex socio-cultural process of hero making, actual figures are invested with qualities which they never possess. They are made to look bigger than what they are and are believed to have the super human capacity for doing what they can’t. On the one hand, actual heroes are shaped up and remade through the act of appropriation and on the other the non-existent are brought into being on flimsy evidence dug up by wishes larded with dreamy haze rather than solid research.

In the backdrop of cultural resurgence in Punjab, the re-emergence of Dulla Bhatti in the last four decades can be a good case study in the context of the issue in question. Dullah, no doubt a historical character, was contemporary of the great Mughal Emperor Akbar and inimitable poet-saint Madho Lal Hussain in the 16th century. He belonged to a powerful Bhatti Rajput clan that was dominant in north east of Sandal Bar in and around the ancient town of Pindi Bhattian at some distance from Lahore.

First a few words about historically verifiable facts! As a result of unbearably heavy taxes imposed on the peasantry by the Mughal administration, there was resentment among the peasants leading to socio-political unrest in the Sandal Bar. The peasantry unable to pay taxes which were any way unjust rose in revolt. Dulla following in the footsteps of his father led the revolt and came to stand as an epitome of resistance and valour. But the movement had no chance against the mighty royal forces and thus was ruthlessly crushed. Dulla was taken prisoner and brought to Lahore where he was executed and his body was left to dangle from a post as a sign of warning to those who state officials thought harboured ill-feeling towards the regime. Rest of the stuff, in fact, has lot inspiring tales but not much meat. Stories of Dulla’s mother breast-feeding Akbar’s son Shekhu [Emperor Jahangir], his brave act of saving some Hindu girls from the clutches of Akbar and having at his trial the blissful presence of Madho Lal Hussian who couldn’t be shackled because of his miraculous power, belong in the realm of lore and myth-making. One can rightly argue that lore and myths carry the shades of coded reality which need to be decoded. But they per se are not substitute of history. What we find about Dulla in the folklore and literature is hardly more than fragments of a ‘Vaar’ [ Epic poem] and motley verses collected by Ahmed Saleem and published by Lok Virsa Islamabad in 1973. The collected stuff originated from what is now East Punjab. The idiom of language used is a sufficient proof if needed any at all. Around the same time Najam Hosain Syed wrote a play ‘Takht Lahore’ in the background of this peasant insurrection mixing facts with fiction. As a creative writer he had the right to do so. He explored the dynamics of power structure vis-a-vis people’s struggle in the Marxist framework. It’s an imaginative reconstruction of the historical situation, not history.

The available written material, orally transmitted lore and cultural activists paint Dulla as a larger-than-life super hero which compels one to raise a few questions from the perspective of history and politics without undermining his heroic stature. If he was really what he made out to be, a super hero, why can’t we find allusions and references to him as a symbol or metaphor of resistance in our classical writings? Interestingly we come across a lot of references about Emperor Akbar. Damodar’s legend ‘Heer’ reflects awe and respect for Akbar. ‘In Akbar’s Kingdom, no trickery, no plea [will work]’. At another place Damodar while portraying the heroine’s family says; ‘the master of lands and rivers, their claim to glory is as big as Akbar’s’. Hafiz Barkhurdar in his tale of Sahiban harps on Akbar’s greatness. Of chief Khiva he says;‘As no king is as great as Akbar, so is Khiva’s poise unmatchable’. The question is why it’s so? Coming to the folklore, it is to be noted that Bars [old geographical divisions of the West Punjab] do celebrate their heroes. We find loads of ‘Dhollas [Ballads] on freedom fighters such as Ahmed Khan Kharral, Nizam Lohar and others. Why Dulla, the proud son of Sandal Bar, is left out? Last but not the least, when we own and glorify Dulla why does it become necessary to debunk the legend the history made Akbar into? Dulla is obviously a hero symbolising resistance against oppression and compassion for the wretched of the earth. But does that debar us from grasping big picture? Should it necessarily blind us to the unique phenomenon Akbar represented; a new vision of state and society that was too advanced for the times he lived in. The lynchpin of his vision was the separation of state and faith which is an unrealised ideal even in the 21st century for so many societies. Akbar’s state policy was a great leap for a hugely diverse country like India, home to a host of religions. Who could think of such a clean break between the two in a faith-driven country in the 16th century? The way out of our present conundrum is to be objective in our reading of the past. We will lose the holistic view of history at our own peril. The Punjab must own both Dulla and Akbar: Dulla for his defiance of oppressive authority and upholding the rights of exploited people, and Akbar for his sagacious vision of state and society that pledged not to discriminate on the basis of faith and promised to treat its citizens as equal members of a new polity. — soofi01@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2018