Khurd - Birthplace of Great Actor Sunil Dutt

I am sure most of you know Sunil Dutt, yes the father of Munna Bhai, but I think many of you would not know that he was born in a village in district Jhelum. Though the list of the bollywood actors who belonged to the region, which is now Pakistan, is endless. But he is the only one who's actual place of birth I have been able to locate. Others who are coming in to my mind are Dilip Kumar (Peshawar), Dev Anand (Sharkargarh), Rajesh Khanna (Burewala), Rajinder Kumar (Sialkot), Prithvi Raj Kapoor (Samundri), Prem Chopra (Lahore), Navin Nischol (Lahore), A.K. Hangal (Sialkot), Manoj Kumar (Haripur), Balraj Sahni (Sargodha), Shyama (Lahore), father of Babita, mother of Kareena and Karishma Kapoor was from Sindh, famous director Yash Chopra (Lahore), Kader Khan (Chaman), Raj Kumar (Loralai), Prem Nath Rajendra Nath (Peshawar), Sadhna (Karachi), famaily of Raj  Babbar (Jalalpur Jattan), music director Rosham who is father of famous actor Rakesh Roshan and grandfather of even more famous actor Hrithik Roshah (Gujranwala), Suriaya Jamal (Gujranwala), Shyama real name Khursheed Akhtar (Lahore), Kamini Kaushal (Lahore), great comedian I.S. Johar (Talagang), Kamal Kapoor, Narang of the movie Don (the real Don) in Lahore, Madhubala (Peshawar), Vinod Khanna (Peshawar), Amjad Khan (Peshawar), famous villain of 70s Mac Mohan (Karachi) he is also maternal uncle of Raveena Tandon, famous poet Gulzar (Dina), Amritsa Singh has family roots in Hadali, etc. etc. 

Sunil Dutt was born in Khurd on 6 June, 1929, his father had died before the partition in 1947 and he migrated to India. First they lived in a small village in Ambala district and then Lucknow. Later he went to Bombay to try his luck and eventually rose to stardom, with the release of famous movie Mother India in 1957. He soon married famous actress Nargis, who was a Muslim. He always kept the love for Muslims and Pakistan alive in his heart. Perhaps that is one of the reasons for, Sanjay Dutt, being behind the bars. He was not just a great actor but also a social worker, who always worked for the poor, people in need and for harmony and peace in society. 

In 1998, he visited Pakistan. Rest of the story I want you to read in his own words:

The Rediff Interview / Sunil Dutt

'We all are one, whichever religion we belong to'

May 25, 2005

Actor-politician Sunil Dutt touched many people's lives in his 74 years (he would have been 75 on June 6). And journalist Lata Khubchandani is one of those who remembers Mr Dutt very fondly.

She recalls her last interview with Mr Dutt, just a few weeks before his death. He was in a very reminiscent mood:

I came to Mumbai in my teens. I managed to get a place at Kala Ghoda (south Mumbai) in the Army/Navy building.I shared a room with eight people, which included tailors, barbers, all sorts of people. I studied at the Jaihind College (in south Mumbai) and also worked with BEST (the Bombay Electric and Transport Undertaking).

It used to be very hot those days. We would just leave our room and sleep on the pavement. We used to sleep right outside an Irani restaurant. It used to open at 5.30 am every day -- and that was our wake-up call. As soon as it opened, we would ask for tea. My days started that way, before I left for my early morning classes. It was fun.

We didn't have much money those days. I could afford only the cheapest fare. 

I recall two other restaurants that I used to go to. In Dadar, at Khodadad Circle (northcentral Mumbai), there was another Irani café which we frequented. Then, there was another at Churchgate station (south Mumbai), where we would sit and eat khari (a crunchy, baked biscuit) and chai. Where was the money for anything else?

It was difficult to live in the Mumbai of the olden days without the Irani cafés. Those were the restaurants we frequented. Today's generation goes to 5-star hotels.

I used to be facinated by the waiters who could carry ten to 12 cups of tea and serve everyone at once. The cups would never fall. Watching this feat was a favourite pastime.

The Irani cafés have contributed to all of us strugglers. Their wonderful tea, their baked items. I recall the breadrolls we used to eat.We would sit in groups and discuss our day's events. Our dreams. Those days hold a lot of pleasurable nostalgia for me.

I remember when I visited my village (in Pakistan) again after 50 years. I was invited by then prime minister Nawaz Sharief. He was very kind when I told him my desire to visit my village. He made all the arrangements for my visit.

My village is called Khurd. It is about 14 miles from Jhelum city, which is on the banks of the Jhelum river.

I have always felt that the people of Pakistan are as affectionate and caring as our own people. You will be surprised (if I told you that) when I went to my village, the entire village gathered to welcome me.

I thought they were doing this because I am an actor and they know me. But it was because they genuinely felt that I belonged there, and that I was coming back for a visit.The village youth gave me a huge welcome with banners, saying, 'Sunil Dutt, welcome to Khurd!' I got a big reception there. All those who studied with me came to meet me. (I met) women who were then 10 years old, (and)were now 60 or 65. My brother's nickname is Soma. They asked about him, my sister Rani and my mother Kulwanti. They remembered all their names. Imagine, after 50 years!

It would be understandable if they did that to me -- am an actor. But my family has not been in the public eye.

For me, it was a really emotional moment. I told them my mother had passed away.

In Punjab, when someone passes away, women beat their chests. When they heard about my mother, they started beating their chests as if someone from their own family had died. Where would one get more sincere emotion than this?

To think that after 50 years, people forget their relatives. These people gave me so much emotion and sentiment. I was deeply touched.

They took me out to the fields. They told me, "Yeh zameen teri hain (this land is yours], Balla.' My name is Balraj. I was called Balla. I told them, 'No, it belongs to you.' They said, 'Nahin, tum yahan aa jao. Tumhein de denge (No, you come here. We will give it to you).'

All this was not lip service. You could sense their sincerity, their genuineness. I am an actor-director. I can read a face and tell whether the person is genuine or not. There were television channels (present). The villagers were asked why they were giving me so much affection. They replied, 'It is not because of him. It is because of his forefathers who lived here and gave us so much respect. They were fine people and respected our religion. They were landlords. There is a dargah at the outskirts of our village. When they (Dutt's forefathers) neared the dargah, they would alight from their horses, walk on foot till they went past the dargah, and then get back on their horses. They gave us so much respect. Why wouldn't we respect them?'

My father died when I was just five. We lived in the village without any problem. There were more Muslims than Hindus there. During Partition, my entire family was saved by a Muslim. His name was Yakub -- a friend of my father's who lived a mile-and-a-half away from our village. He helped us escape to the main city, Jhelum.

I left Pakistan after I my matriculation.

I never had the chance to visit Lahore. I visited Karachi when I was invited to attend Benazir Bhutto's marriage.

I was very keen that my wife (Nargis, who passed away in May 1981) should also see my village, how we went to school.

I used to tell her stories about our life there.

In Jhelum, I studied at the DAV School. I travelled to school on horseback all through my middle school years, that is from Class V to Class VIII. My school was eight miles away, and there was no other conveyance in those days. Being zamindars, we had many horses. One horse was kept specially for me to go to school. I also remember Rawalpindi, where I studied at DAV School for a year. There was Murree Road, where my school was. Murree is a hill station. It was called Ko Murree. 'Ko' means mountain. Buses plied from Rawalpindi to Murree. Then there was Garden (actually Gordon) College, through which we would walk to get to our school. DAV College was just opposite Garden College, but Garden had this huge complex which we loved. There was this area called Naya Mohalla, where my relatives were. I would live there with them.

Films were taboo for us in those days. We would just look at the posters. My wife was keen to go to Pakistan and see all this. Unfortunately, she couldn't. I really feel this process that has started between our two countries is very positive. Somehow, this hatred should come to an end. I am a believer of nonviolence. I believe we all are one, whichever religion we belong to. I wish it culminates in something positive and we can both grow economically. The money we spend on weapons can be used to give water to the people, to educate everybody, to give them medical aid and to give employment to the youth of the country. If there is no friendship with one's neighbours, no one can progress. Look at Canada and the USA -- both countries help each other.

The above words will show you, what kind of a man he was. I visited his village on 9 April, 2014, my last few hours of vacations in Pakistan. I left my village Lilla, also in the district Jhelum and along with my cousin Nasir, first went to a village Bajwala Kalan (former Bajwala Duttan) located at 32° 45' 26.60" N, 73° 30' 48.10" E. But soon realized that some Dutt families were indeed living before 1947, but not the one, we are searching for. So we left for Khurd, our real target. Sunil Dutt had come here in 1998, that is 16 years ago. But many people knew about him and his visit. One boy showed us an old house of a Hindu and said that was the house of Sunil Dutt. We were disappointed to find it closed and the owners were also not present in the village. 

Just to satisfy my curiosity I knocked the door of an adjoining house and an old man Zafarullah sahib came. He told us that that was not the home of Sunil Dutt, but the house was a little further away. He was also a friend of the current owners of the house of Sunil Dutt. Zafarullah sahib is over 75 years old and himself was a refugee from Jalandhar district. He has not forgotten the horrors of 1947, when they lost 16 members of their family. He was still very bitter about partition and said some unkind words, about Quaid-e-Azam, Liaquat Ali Khan and even criticized "our war on our fellow Muslims on the behest of America". I said something in defence, but thought it better not to argue with a very kind gentleman, older than my father. Moreover, I understood his pain and frustration to some extent. 

At the former house of Sunil Dutt, the current owner, Yakoob sahib welcomed us. He is also above seventy. But as kind and hospitable as one can imagine. I stayed with them for almost 20 minutes in that house and I felt as if I know them for years. They were most kind and most hospitable. It is a coincidence that they migrated from Ambala district, in 1947, where the family of Sunil Dutt went to after migrating from here. It is another coincidence that the name of the person who helped the family of Sunil Dutt in 1947, was also Yaqoob. This house is located at 32° 48' 29.20" N, 73° 34' 31.70" E. 

Yaqoob sahib, the current owner of the house of Sunil Dutt (left) and his friend and neighbour Zafarullah sahib (right), in front of the house. (09.04.2014.)

An old room in the house. (09.04.2014.)

New verandah, but the door is old the original one. (09.04.2014.)

Another old section of the house. (09.04.2014.)

Courtyard of the house. (09.04.2014.)

Yaqoob sahib, the current owner of the house of Sunil Dutt. (09.04.2014.)

Zafarullah sahib, a resident of Khurd, he migrated from Jalandhar in 1947. (09.04.2014.)

View of the house of Sunil Dutt, from outside. (09.04.2014.)

Yaqoob sahib told me that they reconstructed some parts of the house, a few years ago. But some are the same original one. While we were sitting at their home and enjoying cold seven up, his son Israr Ahmed also came and he took us to show the ancestral agricultural lands of the Dutt family. They were allotted 25 acres of those lands. His one brother is an engineer and he himself runs a shop in the village. 

Ancestral agricultural lands of Sunil Dutt. I was told that a well existed there. But now there is a diesel motor. (09.04.2014.)

Israr Ahmad, Zafarullah sahib and Tariq Amir. (09.04.2014.)

Beautiful view of the fields. (09.04.2014.)

View of Khurd village. (09.04.2014.)

An old pre partition house in Khurd. A Hindu family used to live here. (09.04.2014.)

Another view of the above mentioned house. (09.04.2014.)

Khurd. (09.04.2014.)

A street view of Khurd. (09.04.2014.)

Street leading to the village, view from the main Pind Dadan Khan - Jhelum road. (09.04.2014.)

It is very easy to reach Khurd. It is just 20 kilometers away from Jhelum city, on the main Jhelum - Pind Dadan Khan road. It is a prosperous village, with fertile agricultural lands and also a large number of person from this area working in foreign countries.

I shall appreciate your comments on the post. Your suggestions and any information regarding it, is also most welcome.

Tariq Amir

June 17, 2014.

Doha - Qatar.     

View Khurd: Birthplace of actor Sunil Dutt in a larger map

Tomb of Sultan Shahab ud Din Mohammad Ghauri and the grave of Major General Nawabzada Muhammad Sher Ali Khan Pataudi

Sultan Shahabuddin Mohammad Ghauri is a well know historical figure. Though Mohammad Bin Qasim and three centuries later, Sultan Mahmood Ghaznavi had opened the gates of India to Muslims conquest, but they could not move permanently beyond present day Pakistan. The task of conquering the norther India finally fell upon Mohammad Ghauri. 

He was born in 1149 AD, in the Ghor region of Afghanistan, almost in the middle of Ghazni and Hera, an area of rugged mountains. His brother was a ruler of his region and soon they expanded their state at the expense of now declining Ghaznavi Empire. He first invaded Indiain 1175 and captured the city of Multan and in 1178 tried to invade Gujrat but faced a crushing defeat. However, in 1181 AD, he captured the important city of Lahore, the last stronghold of Ghaznavids. Now the path to northern India was open. 

In the year 1191 AD, he invaded India. Prithvi Raj Chauhan the ruler of Ajmer and Delhi met him at Tarain (modern name Taraori) a small town located at 29° 48' 08" N, 76° 55' 53" E in Haryana. As is known, he was defeated, but recovered remarkably and came again just a year later in 1192 AD, to cross his sword with Prithvi Raj. This time he inflicted a crushing defeat upon Prithvi and captured the city of Delhi and appointed Qutub ud Dina Aibak, as the governor. Hence, laid the foundation of Delhi Sultanate. With in a few years his general captured areas up to Bengal. 

A few years later while travelling back from India to Ghazni he was assassinated by unknown assailants. Historians dispute about the identity of his assassins, Ghakhars, Khokhar and even Ismailis, all are suspected. This assassination took place at Damiak, a small village located in tehsil Sohawa of district Jhelum at 33° 11' 40.60" N, 73° 29' 28.10" E. 

A few years ago, Doctor Abdul Qadir Khan took personal interest and built a very beautiful tomb on his grave in 1994-95. It is a very beautiful and grand tomb, befitting a king like Ghauri. Its beautiful white building is located in open green fields of Potohar and is a great spectacle

The entrance of the tomb of Sultan Shahab ud Din Ghauri. (30.03.2014.)

A beautiful view of the tomb from the south east. (30.03.2014.)

Wonderful setting of the tomb in a very beautiful garden. (30.03.2014.)

View from the north western side. (30.03.2014.)

View from a distance. (30.03.2014.)

View from the norther side. After entering the main gate. (30.03.2014.)

. 

Nasir Mahmood and Tariq Amir. (30.03.2014.)

Tomb stone of the grave. (30.03.2014.)

It reads: "Martyrdom of the king of land and sea, since the inception of the world there have been no king like him. He got martyred on 3rd of Sha'ban 602 AH, at Damiak on his way to Ghazni." Persian lines by Minhaj Siraj. I translated the Urdu translation given below the Persian. 

Grave of the Sultan. (30.03.2014.)

Inner view of the dome. (30.03.2014.)

Another view of the grave. (30.03.2014.)

A brief history of the Sultan in Urdu. (30.03.2014.)

A brief history of the Sultan in English. (30.03.2014.)

These are the graves of three bodyguards of the Sultan, who died along with him. (30.03.2014.)

One surprising discovery that a visitor makes, while visiting this mausoleum is the grave of Major General Mawabzada Muhammad Sher Ali Khan Ptaudi. Which exists in the compound of this mausoleum. He was the second son of Nawab Ibrahim Ali Khan Pataudi. He was born at Pataudi, Haryana, located at 28° 19' 11.10" N, 76° 46' 57.80" E, on 13 May, 1913, and died on 29 May, 2002, in Lahore. He was the brother of the grandfather of Saif Ali Khan, the famous Bollywood actor. I don't know why he was buried here. May be he liked the beautiful and historical place and the peaceful surroundings. 

Grave of Major General Nawabzada Sher Ali Khan Pataudi. (30.03.2014.)

The tomb stone reads:

"Major General Nawabzada Sher Ali Khan Pataudi, Hilal-e-Jurrat

Son of

Nawab Muhammad Ibrahim Ali Khan 

Ruler of the State of Paraudi

 Respectable Mother

Begum Shehr Bano

13 May, 1913 AD.     -      5 Jamadi Al Thani, 1331 AH.

29 May, 2002 AD.     -     16 Rabie Al Awwal, 1423 AH.

                                Below is the Ayat Al Kursi, a verse from the Holy Quran.                                  

Grave of Nawabzada Sher Ali Khan in peaceful surroundings. (30.03.2014.)

Another view of the grave. (30.03.2014.)

It is easy to reach Damiak. Tavel on GT road, from the zero point of Islamabad the town of Sohawa is just 73 Kilometers. Just before entering the town turn left, and travel further for 13 kilometers. Take help from the google maps or ask for directions. 

I shall appreciate your comments on this post. Your suggestions or any other information is also welcome.

Tariq Amir

17 June, 2014.

Doha - Qatar. 

View Tomb Of Sultan Muhmmad Ghauri in a larger map

Gogera Fort and Old Building of Gogera Courts

Gogera is an old town and in the past held a more important position in this area, as compare to what it has today. Upto 1850s it was district headquarter. The current districts of Okara and Sahiwal were parts of this district. I already have written about its connection with Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal's insurrection against the British in 1857 and the grave of its assistant commissioner Lord Berkeley, who was killed in the same rebellion. For details please refer to that post. 

Here I want to write about a small fort in Gogera. It is about four hundred years old and during the Mughal era it was used as a jail and treasury house of the district. Currently a family is residing inside the fort. As as the case with most of such kind of old buildings, it is in a bad state and there is no care or effort on the part of any government department to preserve or repair it. 

View of the Gogera Fort from the south. (22.03.2014.)

South western bastion of the fort. (22.03.2014.)

South eastern bastion of the fort. (22.03.2014.)

Entrance to the Gogera Fort, on the western side. (22.03.2014.)

A house inside the fort. (22.03.2014.)

Northern wall of the fort. (22.03.2014.)

North eastern bastion of the fort. (22.03.2014.)

A general view of the fort from the eastern side. (22.03.2014.)

The Gogera Fort is located at 30° 57' 41.90" N, 73° 19' 38.40" E, in the north of the town Bangla Gogera. Just on the west of this fort is the building of High School of Gogera. This school is housed in an old building, which originally was building of a court in during the British rule. It is an old style attractive building. It is located at 30° 57' 41.90" N, 73° 19' 33.90"

Entrance of the Govt. High School Gogera, old building of courts. (22.03.2014.)

Beautiful garden of the school. (22.03.2014.) 

                                     

Main building of the old courts.  (22.03.2014.)

 View from the east.  (22.03.2014.)

View from the east.  (22.03.2014.)

A distant view from the east. A huge banyan tree in the foreground.  (22.03.2014.)

I shall appreciate your comments on the above post. Your suggestions are also most welcome. 

Tariq Amir

15 June, 2014.

Doha - Qatar  

View Gogera in a larger map