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Journalism of Courage
In the early 1900s, the area where Pune’s Gaffar Beig Street meets the perpendicular stretch coming from MG Road (then Main Street) was hardly the flourishing commercial district that it is today. Located in the shadow of the Camp’s main markets, this area of Char Bawdi was in fact a site of poverty and desolation. In the next couple of decades, however, it transformed into a lively public square with stores, restaurants and plenty of tea stalls.
The credit for this transformation, curiously, goes to an elderly woman mystic who made the decrepit area her home around the turn of the century. The Sufi mystic who became popular as ‘Babajan (father)’ lived in the area for about three decades. After her death, a shrine dedicated to her came up at the place. Though the influence of Sufism has receded in recent decades, the shrine remains popular – with the rare distinction that it was erected for a female mystic.
Born in Afghanistan as Gul-rukh or ‘rose-faced’
As per an account of her life written by Dr Abdul Ghani Munsif, Babajan was born in Afghanistan as ‘Gul-rukh’ (rose-faced) in a well-to-do Pashtun family of noble lineage. She was said to be of spiritual inclination from her early years and as she approached marriageable age, things started to sour in her family.
“… She was found to be dead-set against any idea of marriage. The parents could not understand her and to them, the idea of a Pathan girl remaining unmarried was extremely scandalous. Finding the situation no longer tenable and the parents bent upon forcing the issue of matrimony on her, Gul-rukh managed to escape and came to Peshawar and thence to Rawalpindi. For a Pathan girl brought up under the strictest discipline of the purdah system, the escape from parental custody at the age of 18 years, was not an easy undertaking,” wrote Dr Munsif in the February 1939 edition of the Meher Baba Journal. Meher Baba, born Merwan Sheriar Irani, is considered to be Babajan’s most celebrated disciple.
After arriving in India, Babajan is said to have undergone a transformative spiritual journey, beginning in Rawalpindi, where she came in contact with a Hindu saint, and then in Multan under the guidance of a Muslim mystic. Subsequently, she embarked on extensive journeys across north India, facing opposition from orthodoxy due to her ecstatic utterances perceived as blasphemy. It is said that the orthodox tried to kill her by burying her alive and her escape from this attempt is one of the significant miracles attributed to Babajan by her followers. After this ‘incident’, she decided to venture south and reached Bombay (now Mumbai) and then Poona (now Pune). Her arrival in the city marked a turning point as it was here that she became known as Hazrat Babajan and her saintly fame began to spread far and wide.
‘I’m not a woman’
“For some time after her entry into Poona about the year 1903, Babajan had no fixed place of abode. She was seen sitting or resting at odd places, in different parts of the City and Cantonment,” writes Dr Munsif. At last settled at a spot near Char Bavadi, Malcolm Tank, underneath a neem tree under in the desolate area that is said to have been a breeding spot of plague and pestilence with its squalor and dirt.
“Within a decade of Babajan’s presence, the locality underwent a metamorphosis surpassing all expectations. What with the featural changes in buildings all around, the electrified tea-shops ringing with the clatter of cups and saucers, a concourse of people consisting of all ranks and creeds waiting for Babajan’s darshana, a street bard entertaining the crowd with his music, the beggars clamouring for alms, the whole atmosphere heavily laden with sweet smelling incense perpetually kept burning near Babajan.”
Soon, some elected members of the Poona Cantonment Board persuaded the board to allow the construction of a decent, permanent structure to shift Babajan from her shabby abode of gunny bags.
“When the new structure which was only a few feet away from Babajan’ s original seat was ready, to everyone’ s surprise she refused to be moved there. The awkward situation however was got over by extending the structure a little more so as to include and embrace Babajan’s original seat, as well as the neem tree,” as per the account.
On how the saint got her name ‘Babajan’, Saleem Patel, a trustee of the Dargah, said, “She would address everyone – young and old, male or female – as Bacha. And if anybody called her mai (mother), she would get angry and retort: ‘Call me a man I’m not a woman!’ That is why people started referring to her as Babajan”.
As per her admirers, by the time she came to stay in Pune, Babajan was very old and experienced occasional bouts of ill health. Although her meals were irregular and scanty, she drank copious amounts of tea supplied by several tea-sellers who had come up in the area and continue to remain there to this day.
Dargah being revamped
The structure that was built in Babajan’s lifetime was replaced with a building made of reinforced cement concrete about 25 years ago. According to Patel, the design was however found to be lacking in some aspects. Recently, renowned architect Hafeez Contractor volunteered to redo it as well as fund its execution, and the work for the same started a few months ago.
“The new design by Contractor has an open dome and other features that the earlier structure lacked. It is being fully funded by him, hence we have put up a board that we are not accepting any donations,” Patel added.
He said that apart from Babajan’s mazaar (tomb), the dargah also stores her sacred hair. A few of her items, such as a blanket and utensils, are in the custody of some families which they share with the trust on special occasions.
Babajan’s Urs (death anniversary), which is the biggest in the city, consists of a sandal (procession) and a langar (feast) apart from cultural events. An average of 30,000-35,000 people partake of the langar. This year the celebration will take place between November 22 and 29.
