‘I myself have seen him in a dream,’ said Mohammed Ibrahim. ‘I was asleep in this garden when I had the dream. Shaheed Bhutto was sitting in a big chair in the company of the Prophet.’
‘God is specially with this family,’ said the second gardener. ‘That we can say with certainty.’
‘So do you believe that in due course Benazir may also become a saint?’ I asked.
The three retainers looked at each other uncertainly.
‘There are not so many female saints in our Islam,’ said one gardener.
‘Well, what about Murtaza then?’
‘I believe he too will reach this peak,’ said Mohammed Ibrahim. ‘He is the true heir of Shaheed Bhutto. We all pray that he too will be a great saint one day.’
Postscript
Two and a half years later, in September 1996, Murtaza Bhutto and six of his supporters were shot dead in a hail of police bullets, a few yards from the front door of 70 Clifton. The police claimed it was an accident, but when the officer in charge of the shooting was found hanged a few days later, officially having taken his own life, the circumstances began to look more and more suspicious. Benazir denied any complicity in the killing and made an operatic display of public mourning, but when her government was dissolved by the President on 5 November 1996 for gross corruption, her husband was immediately charged in connection with the murder and is currently imprisoned in Karachi, awaiting trial. There seems, however, to be little hard evidence against him, and there is a strong possibility that he will again succeed in avoiding conviction.
After her husband’s death, Ghinwa Bhutto and her stepdaughter Fatima took over Murtaza’s PPP-Shaheed Bhutto faction, using it to launch a vigorous campaign against Benazir. Partly as a result of their efforts, and partly due to increasing evidence of the massive scale of Benazir and Zardari’s corruption, with more and more details emerging of a succession of lavish foreign properties and Swiss bank accounts containing hundreds of millions of dollars, in the general election which followed in February 1997, Nawaz Sharif’s Muslim League won by a record margin. At the time of writing Sharif remains in the saddle, though Pakistan is being consumed by ever-worsening sectarian violence and is undergoing a major economic crisis, made much worse by the sanctions imposed after the country detonated its nuclear bomb in May 1998.
Discredited as she is, Benazir remains leader of the opposition. Her children have been sent to Dubai ‘for their own safety’. It seems highly unlikely that Benazir can mount a credible comeback – although stranger things have happened in Pakistan – and it is now said to be open to question whether she even wants to do so: some of her friends believe that all she desires is to get Zardari out of jail, and then to leave the country. In this case, the move of her children to Dubai may be the precursor to her own departure. On the other hand, Benazir’s almost messianic sense of her own destiny may preclude her from ever totally giving up politics, however strong the evidence of corruption against her.
One last serendipity: in 1997, as chance would have it, Christopher Lee was cast to play Jinnah in a forthcoming biopic of the Quaid-e-Azam’s life. I was clearly not alone in noticing the uncanny resemblance between Dracula’s most memorable incarnation and the man who must take much of the blame for the bloodbath of Partition.
GLOSSARY
angurka long frock-coat
arti ceremonial waving of a lamp before an effigy of a god as an offering of light during a puja
ashram place of religious retreat; hermitage
babu clerk or bureaucrat (lit. ‘educated gentleman’)
bania money-lender or shopkeeper; a Hindu of the merchant caste
baradari tribe, clan, community, sub-caste or brotherhood, esp. in Pakistan
begum aristocratic Muslim woman
bhajan Hindu devotional song
bibi ghar eighteenth-century expression meaning the separate quarters occupied by a European’s Indian wife or mistress
biryani fancy rice dish often including chunks of lamb; a speciality of Hyderabad
bungi oik
chador Muslim woman’s veil (lit. ‘sheet’). Can be anything from a headscarf to something approaching a fully-fledged sack
chai tea
chaikhana tea stall
charpoy rope-strung bed on which the population of rural India spend much of their lives (lit. ‘four feet’)
chattri domed Moghul kiosk supported on pillars, often used as a decorative feature to top turrets and minarets (lit. ‘umbrella’)
choli bodice
chowk bazaar
chowkidar guard, gatekeeper
cirque volcanic crater
crore ten million (or one hundred lakh)
dacoit outlaw; member of a robber gang
dal lentil dish; eaten with rice or chappattis it is an Indian staple
Dalits lit. ‘the oppressed’. The base of the caste pyramids formerly known as ‘Untouchables’
dhoti traditional loin-wrap of Hindu males
diwan a collection of Persian or Urdu poems; also the head of finance of chief minister in an Indian princely state
dupatta over-the-shoulder scarf worn with a salwar kameez
durbar formal reception
durree rug or carpet
gajra marigold garland
ghat steps leading to a bathing place or river
ghazal North Indian Urdu or Persian love lyric
ghee clarified butter
godown warehouse
goonda hired thug
gopi milkmaid (in the Krishna myth)
gopura ceremonial South Indian temple gateway, usually pyramidical in shape
gupshup gossip
Harijan lit. ‘child of God’. Untouchable
haveli courtyard house
henna tropical shrub whose leaves are used as a red dye. Much in demand in the North-West Frontier for dying the beards of Pathan tribesmen
holi the Hindu spring festival; normally celebrated by the throwing of coloured water and the consumption of a great deal of hashish and opium
hookah waterpipe or hubble bubble
idli sambhar South Indian staple consisting of rice cakes and curried vegetables
imambara pillared hall in which Shia Muslims gather at the festival of Muharram to hear religious discourses and readings relating to the death of the two grandsons of the prophet, Hussain and Hasan. The imambara reached its finest architectural expression in Lucknow
jati community or clan, members of which are of the same caste or subcaste
Kali Yug the age of Kali; the epoch of darkness and disintegration
karma fate, destiny
khadi homespun cloth, particularly associated with followers of Gandhi
khana food, a meal
khawa green tea, esp. in Kashmir or northern territories of Pakistan
kirtan lit. ‘singing the praises of God’, usually in a devotional gathering
Kshatriya warrior caste
kumar member of the untouchable potter caste
kumkum red powder emblematic of the sexual power of goddesses
ladoo North Indian milk sweet
lathi bamboo staff, normally used by police and chowkidars
lingam the phallic symbol associated with Lord Shiva in his role as Divine Creator
lungi sarong-style loin-wrap; simplification of the dhoti
mahout elephant driver
malik Muslim landowner of substance; the head of a Pathan tribe
mandala circle or circular diagram; symbolic depiction of, and instruction about, the way to enlightenment
masala dosa South Indian vegetarian staple
mehfil evening of courtly Moghul entertainment, normally including dancing, the recitation of poetry and the singing of ghazals
mofussil provincial small town
moksha enlightenment
mona Sikh who has cut his hair and removed his beard
murshad sorcerer, holy man
mushaira poetic symposium; Moghul literary evening
naan bread cooked in a tandoor
nagashwaram outsized Tamil oboe
namaskar Hindu words of greeting (lit. ‘I bow to thee’)
naqqar khana drum house; the entrance gateway to a North Indian palace
nautch Kathak-derived dance performance, executed by professional nautch girls, usually courtesans, esp. in eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
nichla oik
nirvana enlightenment; state of spiritual revelation
paan Indian delicacy and digestive. It consists of a folded leaf containing (among other things) betel nut, a mild stimulant
palki palanquin
panch lit. ‘five’. An abbreviation for sarpanch, the chairman or leader of a panchayat
panchayat council of village or caste elders, in theory (but not necessarily in practice) consisting of five members
parikrama pilgrimage circuit
pir Muslim holy man or Sufi saint
prasad the portion of consecrated offering (usually food or small white sweets) returned to the worshipper at a Hindu temple
puja religious devotions (lit. ‘adoration’)
pukka good, proper, correct
pullao rice
pundit Brahmin (lit. ‘learned man’)
qalander holy fool
qila fort
rath chariot, esp. in Hindu temple festivals
roti bread
sadhu Hindu holy man
salwar kameez long tunic and matching loose trousers favoured mainly by girls in North India and by both sexes in Pakistan and Afghanistan
sardar nobleman, chief or commander. A term of respect
sarpanch village headman; the chairman or leader of a panchayat
sathin informal village social worker (lit. ‘friend’)
sati the old Hindu practice of widow-burning, now illegal (lit. ‘good woman’)
sepoy Indian foot-soldier, esp. in the service of the East India Company
shaheed Muslim martyr
shastra ancient Hindu treatises
shenai North Indian wind instrument of the oboe family
sherwani long frock-coat
shikar hunting
shish mahal mirror chamber, esp. in palaces
tabla pair of small Indian hand-drums used as accompaniment in Hindustani music
ta’wiz Sufi charm
tawwaif courtesan
teppam float
thug strangler; a devotee of Kali who appeases his deity by strangling travellers with a noose (lit. ‘impostor’, ‘cheat’, ‘deceiver’)
tilak the sacred mark on the centre of a Hindu forehead
tirtha crossing place or ford; hence a sacred place where one can cross from the world of men to the world of the gods
vibhuti the white ash-powder smeared on the body of Shiva; hence also his devotees among the sadhus
yadav caste of North Indian yeoman farmers and cowherds; although low-caste they are politically very powerful in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
yakshi evil spirit
zamindar feudal landowner
zenana seraglio, harem (lit. ‘relating to women’)
zindabad lit. ‘Long live!’ Popular slogan in the presence of politicians
ALSO BY WILLIAM DALRYMPLE
FROM THE HOLY MOUNTAIN
A rich, story-filled travelogue chronicling Dalrymple’s journey across the entire Byzantine world, retracing the footsteps of two monks who made the same trip in the spring of A.D. 587. When John Moschos and his pupil Sophronius the Sophist traveled from the shores of the Bosphorus to the sand dunes of Egypt, they stayed in caves, monasteries, and remote hermitages, collecting the wisdom of the stylites and the desert fathers before their fragile world finally shattered under the great eruption of Islam. Using Moschos’s writings as his guide, Dalrymple recreates that epic journey, and his account of his travels is an elegy to the slowly dying civilization of Eastern Christianity and the people that have kept its flame alive.
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In Search of the Sacred in Modern India
In portraits of people we might otherwise never know William Dalrymple distills his twenty-five years of travel in India to explore the challenges faced by practitioners of traditional forms of faith in contemporary India. For two months a year, a man in Kerala divides his time between jobs as a prison warden, a well-builder, and his calling as an incarnate deity. A temple prostitute watches her two daughters die from AIDS after entering a trade she regards as a sacred calling. A Jain nun recalls the pain of watching her closest friend ritually starve herself to death. Together, these tales reveal the resilience of individuals in the face of the relentless onslaught of modernity, the enduring legacy of tradition, and the hope and honor that can be found even in the most unlikely places.
Religion
VINTAGE DEPARTURES
Available wherever books are sold.
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