By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
The United Muslims of America (UMA) and The Sikh Foundation International hosted the launching of two books - Walking with Nanak authored by Haroon Khalid and Between the Gread Divide by Anam Zakaria. The book launching event was held at the Chandni Restaurant, Newark, CA on April 28, 2019.
Tashie Zaheer, President of UMA, in his welcome address pointed out that he was happy to see people from both sides of the India-Pakistan border. He said his mission was to promote amity and peace in the sub-continent.
Tellingly, a large number of Sikh community people attended the event.
Dr. Priya Satia, Prof of International History at the Stanford University, was moderator of the event. Dr. Satia has authored two books: Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain's Covert Empire in the Middle East, was published in 2008 and Empire of Guns: The Violent Making of the Industrial Revolution, was published in 2018.
Walking with Nanak, released in December 2016, is the third book of Haroon Khalid. His first book “A White Trail: a journey into the heart of Pakistan’s religious minorities” was published in 2013. His second book In Search of Shiva: a study of folk religious practices in Pakistan was released in December 2015.
Haroon Khalid has an academic background in Anthropology and has been a travel writer and freelance journalist since 2008, traveling extensively around Pakistan, documenting historical and cultural heritae. His latest book “Imagining Lahore: the city that is, the city that was,” was published by in August 2018.
In Walking with Nanak, relying on oral retellings of history, Haroon Khalid endeavors to bring Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism to life. The author seeks to retrace the steps of the great man on his 24 year journey of spiritual growth. He provides us valuable insights about the rich historical heritage of the Sikh tradition in Pakistan.
Haroon visited eleven cities of Pakistan in his quest to recreate the travels of Guru Nanak and his Muslim companion, Bhai Mardana. In his travels he was accompanied by Iqbal Qaiser, a leading authority on the history of Sikhism in Pakistan. Iqbal Qaiser has written a seminal book on Sikh heritage in Pakistan.
The author complains the lack of any literature about Sikhs in Pakistan and claims that Walking with Nanak is the first book of its kind. "There is still hardly any literature on the Sikh community in the country. In fact, my first book, 'A White Trail', which includes a comprehensive section on the Sikh community in the country, is the first such attempt to talk about the history of the Sikhs after the creation of Pakistan. Another important feature that is missing from this large body of work is how these places are interpreted and understood in a Muslim Pakistan, which has increasingly been identified in an Islamic framework. In that regard, I believe, 'Walking with Nanak' is the first book of its kind," Khalid said.
Guru Nanak was born in 1469 in the Pakistani part of Punjab, and he passed away there in 1539. Along with his close Muslim disciple Bhai Mardana, Guru Nanak travelled widely, in the Punjab and far beyond, preaching his universal message: “No one is our enemy, none stranger and we get along with everyone.”
Haroon Khalid tells us that Nanak’s mother Mata Tripta had long yearned to have a child. She undertook arduous journeys to please the gods. On one such journey to a temple outside Talwandi in Punjab, she met Naulakha Hazari, a fakir who predicted her wish would soon be fulfilled.
The temple pandit would often try to shoo Hazari away but he would not budge saying “the entire world belonged to Allah and no one had any right to banish him from anywhere”. An Auqaf booklet available at Naulakha Hazari’s shrine states Guru Nanak was born after the fakir prayed for his mother.
In Walking With Nanak, Khalid takes his readers on a long journey to various places in Punjab as well as in the southern Sindh province where, over the centuries, Sikh devotees established gurdwaras. He
travels from one gurdwara to another and narrates incidents from the life of Guru Nanak as well as from other Sikh Gurus.
There are a total of eleven Gurus: Ten human-form gurus and the eleventh, or current and everlasting Sikh Guru, is the integrated Sikh scripture known as the Guru Granth Sahib. The Tenth Nanak, Guru Gobind Singh, had bestowed the Guruship forevermore to the Guru Granth Sahib.
"I have always known that Nanak, like me, was a Punjabi, but his character became increasingly difficult to access in a Muslimised Punjab after the creation of Pakistan. There are hardly any references to him in popular culture. There was, therefore, a curiosity in me to learn about someone who is such an integral part of my culture yet blatantly missing from cultural representation," the author explained.
The format of Walking With Nanak is perhaps exceptional since it is part fiction, part history and part travelogue.
