[Reader-list] in search of the bhands

[mahmood farooqui]

Searching for the word Bhaand on google brought these two results-

"He is no more than a common bhaand that has entertained us , got
money in return and is enjoying without a care for the poor masses of
this country…"

"That he is willing to do anything for money - which includes jumping
like a monkey in movies and dancing like a bhaand ( a term used by
himself )…"

Surely, a term which can bring disparagement on two of our greatest
superstars must be highly derogatory. And the commonest connotation of
Bhand is hugely derogatory. One uses the term, always, to run things
or people down. So what does the term bhaand mean?

Here is the definition given in a nineteenth century Urdu dictionary.

BHAAND-mimic, jester, those singing buffoons who sing and dance and do mimicry.

A related term is Bhaand bhagatiye, about which there is a couplet
from the eighteenth century poet Mir Hasan-

Kiya bhaand aur bhagatiyon ne hujoom
Hui aahe aahe mubarak ki dhoom

In a contemporary Hindi dictionary, the meaning of the word Bhand has
expanded to include, other than buffoonery, the sense of a shameless
person, hence Bhandgiri is explained as 'shamelessness.' Over the last
one hundred years Bhands, never really respectable to start with, have
suffered further abasement.

Now, listen to this story about the leader of Bhands in late
nineteenth century. Shooting a gun in Urdu, is described as goli
daaghna, hence bandooq daagh. The greatest poet of the day Dagh
Dehlavi said something nasty to the leader of the Bhands. Ustad had no
choice but to suffer in silence. Some weeks later, there was a
function at which Dagh was the chief guest and Ustad was on the stage.
Promptly, he called a man on the stage, handed him a gun, pointed him
to Dagh and said, shoot. The man obviously hesitated. Ustad said, abe
daagh, followed it with, haramzaade daagh, and then with ullu ke
pathhe daagh and suchlike until Dagh got up and ran away. Ustad chased
him to the bazar and Dagh, obviously, learnt better than to cross a
Bhand.

Yes, ladies and gentleman, this byword for cheapness and debasement
once described artists of a caliber that would put contemporary
legendary bhaands like Jay Leno and David Letterman to shame. Bhands
were mimics, lampoonists, satirists, outspoken commentators on the
affairs of the day, stand up comedians, masters of pun, sarcarsm,
double entendre and performance. And look how we serve them.

The only historian who considered Bhaands worthy of description was,
predictably, the great chronicler of nineteenth century Lucknow, Abdul
Halim Sharar. In Guzishta Lucknow, Sharar states,
"The Bhands are a kind of National Satirists, and they performed the
same function here as was done by the Spectator and Tatler in England.
 Dehli's Karela Bhand was legendary at the time of Mohammed Shah.
Their jokes, sacrcasm and mimicry is legendary. Once a Nobleman in
Lucknow gifted a shawl to a bhand, it was very old and tattered. He
took it and began to pore into it, turning it around, looking closely.
Somebody asked what are you looking at, he said there is something
written here. What is it, they said. He took out his glasses and read
with difficulty, La Ilaha Illallah, the first phrase of the Islamic
kalimah. They said, that is it, doesn't it also say Mohammedur
Rasoolullah. The Bhand looked up and said, how could that be written,
it is from before the time of our Prophet.

It was said of them that wherever they performed, they always used to
lampoon their host and patron. After Karela Bhand of Delhi, there was
Sajjan, Qaim, Daim, Rajabi, Naushah, Bibi Qadar etc. Once, Qaim was
making faces and went on for over three hours, the whole gathering sat
there mesmerized."


There is also another strain of Bhandgiri, popular in Kashmir. M K
RAINA, the famous Hindi theatre director worked with the Kashmiri
bhands briefly and describes them in the web article at
http://radiokashmir.org/mkraina/bhand.html.

"The Bhand has to train himself to be a skillful actor, dancer,
acrobat and musician. The leader of the troupe is called the magun, a
word taken from maha guni, a man of varied talent.

The Maskharas are one of the most important characters in the Bhand
Pather. They lampoon the king and the upper classes by exposing their
corruption. The jester is the constant factor in the performance, the
link of the various episodes. The elements of homour, be it hazal
(mockery), mazaak (jokes), tasan (sarcasm) or even finding fault with
the other characters is the forte of the maskhara. They do very
accurate caricatures of society using a great deal of pantomime.
Finally, the maskhara emerges as the rebel, the character who does not
cow down to the oppressor."

So wherefrom this violence on a profession and on artists whose like
is not to be found anywhere on the horizon? Why have we so
systematically degraded and lampooned a performing class whose forte
lay in lampooning everyone and everything? Why did we allow one of our
most versatile, popular and explosive performing genres to sink so
much into debasement that it can disgrace even the best of our actors
and stars? While we search for the answers, we can start by imbuing
the term with a little more respect. I take pride in announcing in
these pages that I am nothing but a chhota mota bhaand. May God make
me a great one.

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