The Original Lahoran

So she said

Nirupama Dutt

Where do you come from? This is a question we all have to answer onlytoo often. It is the place a person belongs to that decides many things.For the likes of me born after the Partition of the country to parentswho migrated from West Punjab, the problem of roots and identity hasalways been a complex one. My usual answer to this question would be, "Icome from Chandigarh." Now that Chandigarh has completed fifty years ofexistence, the reply is accepted but some two and a half decades ago Iremember the famous Punjabi short story writer Kulwant Singh Virkgetting vexed at this reply and saying, "No one can belong toChandigarh. Tell me where your parents were from?" When I told him thatmy mother was from Rawalpindi, my father from Lahore and I fromChandigarh, he laughed and said, "So you are the daughter of threeCapitals!"My name on the other hand causes more identity crises. The suffix of'Dutt' often raises doubts about my lingual affiliations. With a Bengalisounding first name that my mother took most probably from one of theSarat Chandra novels that she devoured in her youth, and named herchildren Arvind, Vimal, Salil and so on. With my dark looks highlightingmy name, I have often been taken for a Bengali. Well, this has been helpat times and more so in my career as an art critic. A Bengali name getsan easier entry in culture-land where the pragmatic Punjabis are mostoften 'agriculturally' suspect.So very often I let this case of mistaken identity pass but when I breakinto Punjabi verse, I have had surprised bhadralog raising an eyebrow.Other times I have to tell enthusiastic young artists from Kolkatta whoroll the 'a' present twice in my first name into round roshogullas, addDidi and rattle off in Bangla, that I am a Punjabi. "How come?" followsthe surprised query, "Dutts are Bengalis." I tell them that they arePunjabis too and to convince them, I say ,"The Sunil Dutt variety." Heis the most famous among the Punjabi Dutts.However in a sojourn to Lahore this month, I learnt a lot more about theDutts, who belong to a clan popularly known as Hussaini Brahmins. Theirmythical origin is traced to Dronacharya of the Eklavya thumb infamy.But in history they redeemed themselves by denouncing Brahmanicalpractices and becoming warriors and agriculturalists. In 681 A.D. RahabSidh Dutt fought for the sons of Prophet Mohammad in Karbala andsacrificed seven of his sons in battle on the tenth day of the Moharram.Overwhemled by grief Rahab and his kith and kin returned to their rootsin Punjab and settled down in Lahore. The Muslims remained grateful tothem for their sacrifices in Karbala and they were never forced tochange their relgion. The famous saying about them goes thus_"Wah DuttSultan, Hindu ka dharma, Musalman ka iman, Wah Dutt Sultan, Adha Hindu,adha Musalman." Ma jid Sheikh in an article on the The Dutts of MochiGate in The Dawn of January 6, 2004, writes that they lived in largenumbers in Lahore and fled the city only at the time to the Partition.The writer also mentions that Sunil Dutt gifted $ 100, 000 to ShaukatKhanum Cancer Hospital in the memory of his wife, the celebrated actressNargis.Sheikh records with joy the statement of Sunil Dutt that accompanied thedonation. "For Lahore, a Dutt will even give his life." The Dutts hadput up a brave resistance to Mahmood of Ghazni in Lahore. Sheikh says inhis article that the Dutts along with Manjs and Virks were among theoriginal Lahoris. Dutts may have done something for Lahore but it isLahore that his given me the identity of being an original Lahoran