Karakoram International University Gilgit-Baltistan

BY

Syed Ishraq Hussain

2014-KIU-0050

BS (Hons)-Modern languages

Submitted To:

Sir Sohbat Ali

Subject:

American literature

Topic:

Literary contribution of a local literary person

(Ustad Jan Ali the Shina poet, singer and musician)

Group:

UG: 12

Semester: 6th

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Jan Ali the famous Shina poet and singer of Gilgit-BaltistanBiographyUstad Jan Ali is a famous shina poet, singer and musician of Gilgit-Baltistan. He was born on 29

February 1944 and still alive. His father’s name is Ghulam Ali. Jan Ali has four sons and three

daughters. He hails from Sharote valley District Gilgit. He is the retired servant of Education

department Gilgit-Baltistan as a gatekeeper at Degree College Jutial Gilgit. He is famously

known in the region, and has been equally popular among different age groups. He has a great

literary contribution in shina literature and also known as Baba-e-hareep. He has released many

shina albums and given the title of “Ustad” which means master. He is a romantic poet but also

discusses the radical forces and corrupt elements in society by employing the symbols and

metaphors.

His poetryThe echo of Jan Ali is unique in many ways. This famously illiterate poet, singer and musician

chides the educated-dishonest and sectarian-bent of mind people who have made Gilgit-Baltistan

hostage to target-killers

Here is a glimpse of Jan Ali's resistance poetry:

Shong thaey mor tha zamana hushiyar bilin

Gilgitaech gileeto karay ikhtiyar bilin

Maey sargin gileet thaey khachi hal bilin

Tu thak dareeno nomach intiqal bilin.

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English translation

Beware of speaking loudly; the time is spying on you

O people of Gilgit you never have the power

To determine the path of your destiny.

Alas! My beloved Gilgit

You have been given to alien hands.

Explanation

Jan Ali thinks ‘his poetry is a voice to bring forth the hidden agonies of society to fore through

his poetry’ which is the true vocation of the poet. His poetical strictures lays bares the

hypocritical values of the society where the uneven development has enabled certain people to

grow rich overnight by hook and crook. The nouveaux riches flaunt their religious dedication by

observing apparent signs – rituals and practices – from which the essence of religion has reached

out and only its husk has become an object of the worship. Jan Ali rejects the outward signs of

religion as a sham to hide ugly the soul disfigured by corruption. He dares to reject the rituals

and signs that are devoid of meaning. Jan Ali says:

Mas ik glassak mo pee namaz nay bain

To tus riswatay yo gee khay roza gina

Ik kanal laye naqal li day soqa gina

Qayamat ga phat thay doonya taey faida gina

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English translation

Lo! A glass of wine nullifies my prayer

And your fasting becomes valid

By eating butter of bribe

For a cloak, you sell your here after

By illegally transferring a piece of land.

Explanation

Jan Ali also refuses to accept the religious interpretations manufactured by the managers of

sacred. He rejects every religious divisions, positions, institution, hierarchy and worldview,

however sacred, because the managers of sacred have reduced religion into fetish and make even

sacred institutions and noble ideals to play second fiddle to their personal interest.

Thaey masjid ga ya

Thaey hamam ga ya

Janat taey horaneey maey ghulam ga ya

Fasad gir alim tu maey imam ga ya

Fasad dot tak tharain o Islam ga ya

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English translation

Neither I need your mosque, nor seek your hamam,

O querulous cleric, I reject you as my Imam.

Thereby, I reject your bribe of houris of paradise,

I am also fed up of an Islam that foments discord.

Explanation

It is a strange coincidence that soon after this song was sung by Jan Ali, the magistrate office in

the city, which contained records of land allocations, was torched by an angry mob and main

mosques of Gilgit were shut down on the charges of fomenting violence.

Nevertheless, Jan Ali respects the essence of sacred. He urges people to get rid of the managers

of sacred who diminish the status of God into hangman. The clerical class is misfit to assume the

charges of defining an entity like God and not worthy to sit on the pulpit because they preach

hatred which is diametrically opposite to the injunctions of religion. On the other hand, he

castigates politicians whose sole purpose is to fill their personal coffers at the expense of the

greatest good of the wretched of the earth.

Bays vote day khada thaygas cho gadayay

Memberey biganait kha funo rupayay

English translation

Our votes elevated you to become members,

Now gobble up the funds, you paupers.

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Explanation

In this line Jan Ali criticizes the role of our political leaders. He says that you are elected by our

votes, we have elected you but you are now globing funds and nothing else.

His poetry brutally attacks the divisive role of clerics in the following words:

Kay kalima ram saa han kalimayee

Fasad tha rayt ta zamanayeay ulmayay

Minbaroch kay bashanayt la wa shooween ga kayay

English translation

Tell me! Which kalima among six kalimas of yours I recite

You clerics have sown the seed of strife,

Why crows and dogs are speaking from the pulpit.

Explanation

During the last three decades the society of Gilgit-Baltistan has witnessed shift from culture

based identity to sectarian based identity. Indigenous culture cuts across the sectarian, racial and

linguistic divide. Jan Ali sees culture as a powerful instrument to unify diverse elements of

society. The sectarian based identity poses great threat to local culture, because it tends to reject

everything that does not fit within its frame. The sectarian forces’ strive to introduce an exotic

version of Islam in Gilgit. Jan Ali perceives the sectarian killing in Gilgit as a proxy war fought

on the cultural and political turf of Gilgit. The sectarian divide was capitalized by the dominant

class to promulgate the colonial policy of rule and divide. Jan Ali says:

6 | P a g e

Maey sargin Gileet gi jaik ko jaik tharay

Dareenay waeye areenuch chos attack tharey

English translation

Lo! What they have done to my beloved Gilgit,

Outsider elements get the peoples’ throat slit,

By pelting indigenous populace against each other.

Explanation

By driving sectarian wedge among local populace, the obscurantist forces try to capture the

semiotic universe of indigenous people. Since the semiotic universe is mainly informed by oral

culture, folk tales, shamanism, mythology and oral histories, the religious elements find it

difficult to make Shina language to play second fiddle to sectarian agenda.

The sectarian strife directly affected the areas that are inhabited by Shina speakers. The local

wisdom expresses itself through vernaculars. Sectarian parties rely on written word. In the

suffocating sectarian environment of Gilgit, Shina played an instrumental role in voicing dissent

against the hegemony of a particular worldview and system that sanctifies and foment violence

respectively.

ConclusionIn his poetry Jan Ali employs Shina genres as a medium to resist radical forces and corrupt

elements in society by employing the symbols and metaphors from collective memory. On the

other hand, he explicates existential throes of the society of Gilgit, which is caught between

tradition and modernity. By doing so, Jan Ali gets the credit of keeping semiotic universe of

Shina language secular, which is engulfed in the battle launched by puritan forces against

pluralistic culture of Gilgit. This contribution makes him immortal in annals of Shina literature

and language.

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