Zutshis of Bazaar Sitaram, Delhi
Dr. B. N. Sharga & Smt. Rajni
Sharga, Lucknow
We should always remember the fact that a nation
is known by its civilizational experiences, which are naturally constructed
through noble missions and by the hard work of a few extraordinary persons,
historically identified with age and century. Such people who live and die
for a cause have always been instrumental in the development of human values and
ethos both at the national as well as the international levels. Their
qualities of head and heart get universal recognition and one can feel their
loss only by adhering to their cherished ideals and by carrying out their
unfulfilled mission. One such outstanding personality was Allama pandit
Tribhuwan. Nath Zutshi "Zar" Dehelvi Yaadgar-e-Daag who was a
poet and Urdu and Persian scholar par excellence.
According to the available records with the family members of "Zar"
Sahab, his ancestors came from Kashmir to Delhi during the rule of Mughal
Emperor Jahangir (1605-1627). But, some how, they could not stay for a
long time in the imperial city and again went back to their native place in
Kashmir.
It was during the rule of Mughal emperor Shahjahan (1627-1658) that Lachdii
Ram Zutshi again came to Delhi from Srinagar in Kashmir to try his luck and
started living somewhere near Chandni Chowk. Shahjahan shifted the seat of
Mughal empire from Agra to Delhi known as Shahjahanabad at that time.
It was a customary practice during that period that the Mughal Emperor used
to pass riding a well decorated elephant in a procession through Chandni Chowk
once in a year. It so happened that one day Pandit Gopi Nath Zutshi who
was the son of Pandit Lachchi Ram Zutshi and who was well versed in Persian
language was standing by the side of a road in Chandni Chowk area just to
witness this royal procession with a great curiosity. To his utter
surprise he observed that the man heading the procession was showering abuses in
Persian at the people who had assembled there to witness this annual royal
ritual probably with an intention that nobody would know as to what he was
saying. But somehow Gopi Nath Zutshi could not digest this insult and he
gave a most befitting reply in Persian to that man to settle the score.
The Mughal emperor became highly impressed by the sense of humour of Gopi
Nath, his witty reply and his command over the Persian language. The
emperor then called Gopi Nath to his darbar and gave him some post. Gopi
Nath by his hard work and dedication subsequently became a Dewan.
Dewan Gopi Nath Zutshi had a son. His name was Shiv Nath who like his
father also had a thorough knowledge of the Persian language which enabled him
to become a Raja in due course of time. He was incharge of the
administration of a state near Delhi. In some records and books the name
of Raja Shiv Nath Zutshi is mentioned as Mani Ram Zutshi. He was an
advisor to the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II (1759-1806 A.D.) The emperor bestowed
upon him the title of "Raja" and a Jagir worth rupees 20 Lakhs with an
annual income of around four thousand rupees. He had three sons, one of
whom was Shambhu Nath.
Shambhu Nath followed the foot steps of his illustrious father and in due
course of time occupied an important position in the Mughal Court. The
Mughal emperor conferred upon him the title of "Rai Rajan" and gave
him big jagirs. This important Zutshi family of Delhi had their jagirs and
properties in Delhi, Lahore, Ludhiana, Patiala, Jallandhar, Meerut, Agra and in
Srinagar in Kashmir.
Rai Rajan Shambhu Nath Zutshi had a son. His name was Sita Ram.
He also became a Dewan. The locality Bazaar Sita Ram in Delhi was named
after him where his ancestors had built havelis and houses for their family
members.
It is interesting to note here that in some records the name of Shambhu
Nath's son has been mentioned as Rai Brahm Nath who was affectionately called as
Rai Budh Singh probably by a Sikh mother.
Rai Budh Singh lived a lavish life and squandered his family wealth. As
he was having a good knowledge of Persian language so he somehow succeeded in
getting a job as private secretary and interpreter to Sir. M. Elphinston
who later on became Governor of Bombay province. He retired from
government service in 1809. Though he lived in Muslim countries during his
service for a very long time but because of his position he was not
excommunicated from the Biradari by the orthodox Kashmiri Pandits. He
married a girl from Kaul family of Gwalior.
Dewan Sita Ram Zutshi had two sons. The name of his elder son was Mohan
Lal and the younger one was Kedar Nath, Mohan Lal was bom in 1812 in his
ancestral haveli in Bazaar Sita Ram in a highly aristocratic and cultured
family. He had his early education in Urdu and Persian under the guidance
of learned Maulvis at home. He was then admitted by his parents in Delhi
college in 1829 which was founded originally in 1772 as Persian College and was
renamed in 1823 as Delhi College by the British. Mohan Lal was the first
Kashmiri Pandit to study English. He completed his course in 1831 standing
first in his class. This Delhi College was again rechristened in 1881 as
St. Stephen's College.
Mohan Lal was a very brilliant and ambitious person having a very handsome
personality. He joined the British service in 1831 and undertook long
journeys to Arabian countries in connection with his job much against the wishes
of his highly orthodox Biradari members especially Dewan Ajudhya Prasad as
crossing the river Indus in those days was considered to be inauspicious with
the result that Mohan Lal was excommunicated from the Biradari in 1834 for
living in Muslim countries.
In 1844 Mohan Lal visited Egypt, England, Scotland, Ireland and Belgium.
He was a guest of honour of Queen Victoria in Buckingham Palace in England.
He paid a visit to Germany in 1845. He married about 17 times; practically
in every country he visited, he married the girls belonging to the top families
of those countries. But inspite of all this he became a highly frustrated
and isolated person because of his total boycott by his own community members.
Even his close blood relations disowned him. He felt so much depressed and
dejected with his life that he ultimately embraced Islam and became a Muslim.
His Muslim name was Aga Hassan Jan. He then married Haidiri Begum who was
a niece of Mirza Sher Mohammad Khan of Delhi. He died in 1877 in Delhi at
the age of 65 years and was buried in Lalbagh near Azadpur as per Muslim rites
on Delhi - Panipat Road. He left behind five widows, four married
daughters and three sons. He also lived in Calcutta for a couple of years.
His younger brother Kedar Nath later on became a Rai Dewan of a state near
Delhi. He was considered to be an Arabic and Persian scholar of repute.
He was also an able administrator and used to command great respect in the
society.
The name of his wife was Mallaji. He had three sons. Their names
were Prithvi Nath, Bishambhar Nath and Onkar Nath. This Zutshi family of
Delhi produced men of eminence in the field of both administration and Urdu
literature who had occupied key positions in different darbars all alon the
Mughal period and had a lavish living.
In 1824 Lord Dalhousie brought his famous "Doctrine of Lapse"
through which the British very cleverly annexed the territories under the
occupation of different rulers and made them a part of the British territory.
Under this new doctrine the British confiscated big Jagirs of rulers of
different states which were given to them by Mughal emperors. The Zutshi
family members also lost their big jagirs under this well calculated move of the
British to capture power. It seems that Rai Dewan Kedar Nath Zutshi could
not bear all this humiliation and ultimately died in 1853 in his ancestral
haveli in Bazaar Sita Ram in Delhi.
In the Mutiny of 1857 this Zutshi family moved to Meerut from Delhi where
Tribhuwan Nath was bom in 1871. The name of his father was Prithvi Nath
Zutshi and that of his mother was Shyam Rani. The Zutshi family then again
shifted back to Delhi in their ancestral haveli in Bazaar Sita Ram from Meerut
where Tribhuwan Nath had his early schooling. He had a great inclination
towards leaming Urdu and Persian language right from his childhood days.
As per family traditions, he learnt Urdu, Arabic and Persian language under the
able guidance of Maulvi Rahim Baksh who used to live at Shahji Ka Chatta at that
time and later on became Sir Rahim Baksh and Prime Minister of Bhawalpur State.
This Bhawalpur state acceded to Pakistan after the partition of the country in
1947.
Between 1882 and 1883 young Tribhuwan Nath used to go to Hakim Ajmal Khan's
house to take medicines for his ailing father where the famous Urdu poet of
those days Nawab Mirza "Daag" also used to come almost daily to play
"Chauser".
These frequent meeting at the residence of Hakim Ajmal Khan brought Tribhuwan
Nath very close to the famous poet "Daag" and very soon he became a
most favourite "Shagird" of "Daag".
Tribhuwan Nath did his matriculation from Mahendra College, Patiala around
1887 where his
uncle Rai Bahadur Manohar Nath Zutshi was posted as a judge. He did his
F.A. and B.A. subsequently from Government Azad College, Lahore. He
studied Arabic and Persian in St. Stephen's College Delhi and then in Oriental
College Lahore under the guidance of Mohammad Hussain.
After completing his studies he started his service as an Accountant in
Lahore around 1894. Later on he took up a job as a Lecturer in an
Engineering College in a place called Gujrat in Punjab which has become now a
part of Pakistan. There he had a row over some trivial matter with the
Principal of the college who was an English man. In a fit of rage he
slapped the Principal of the college. This ugly incident became a turning
point in his life as he had to resign from his job in 1924. Consequently
he came back to Delhi. He then joined the Indra Prastha College Delhi in
1931 as a teacher of Urdu and Persian language from where he retired in 1956 at
the ripe age of 85 years. From 1924 to 1931 he served as an Associate
Professor in Delhi University.
Tribhuwan Nath had the proud privilege of attending the special Darbar in
Delhi in 1911 in which the coronation ceremony of King George V took place.
The British monarch was taken out in a grand procession from Hathi Khana one of
the gates of Red Fort and which ended in Civil lines where a huge pandal was
erected for this special Darbar on a plot of land where the old Secretariat
building now stands. Because the present New Delhi was developed by Sir Edwin
Landseer Lutyens much later when the British shifted the capital from Calcutta
to Delhi after this Darbar in 1912.
A special railway line was laid from the Delhi Railway Station upto Civil
lines to bring the invitees which included about 200 Rajas and Maharajas of the
erstwhile princely states.
An interesting controversy developed on this historic occasion if the king
himself accompanied by his Secretary of State was present in the country, it was
argued then there was no place for a Viceroy too who was regarded as the
representative of the king. To circumvent this peculiar situation Lord
Hardinge was then called as Governor General and not Viceroy.
It should also be mentioned here that Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore in this
function presented a song "Jan gan man.........." personally to the
king which was written by him in honour of the
visiting monarch. This song later on became our National Anthem on the
insistence of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru after the independence of the country in
1947.
In the evening a musical performance was arranged in the honour of the king.
The best musicians of India were invited to give their recital. In over
enthusiasm to give their best the musicians took about ten minutes in tuning
their instruments which the king took to be the actual performance itself with
the result that when the time for actual performance was about to begin the king
got up and left the place thinking that he had heard enough of it.
Tribhuwan Nath married twice. His first wife was a girl from Upadhya
family of Top Darwaza, Lucknow. He had a son from his first wife.
The name of this son was Dina Nath who was a Radio and T. V. artiste.
Dina Nath Zutshi's grand son Rajendra Nath Zutshi alias Raj Zutshi now lives
in Bombay and is working in Films, T. V. serials and commercial spots. He
married the sister of the famous film actor Aamir Khan.
As the first wife of Tribhuwan Nath died quite young so he married again.
The name of his second wife was Raj Dulari who was the daughter of Pandit
Bishambhar Nath Kaul. She was popularly known in the Biradari as
Victoriaji. She was also a poetess of repute. Her pen name was
"Bezaar". She was a disciple of Nawab Masael. The
following Urdu couplets composed by her will give an idea about her imagination
and literary taste.
"Kabr phir mazhabe Hindu mein nahi hoti hai
Kuch nishan tumko na milega mere mame ke baad.
Pilate rahten hain jhothi sharab dushman ko
Laga ke hontonse apne dikhadikha ke mujhe
Who aiye per laga ke muddai ke saath
Jali kati karen baten chirah chirah ke mujhe"
Tribhuwan Nath by his second wife Victoriaji had four sons and two daughters.
The sons are Jag Mohan, Ratan Mohan, jawahar Mohan and Dr. Anand Mohan whereas
the names of the daughters are Brij Rani and Anila. The most peculiar
characteristic of this Zutshi family is that it produced five reputed Urdu
poets.
Though Tribhuwan Nath started composing Urdu poetry from a very young age but
under the able guidance of "Daag" he soon blossomed into a well
refined Urdu poet with no match among the other contemporary Urdu poets of his
times in Delhi.
Initially he started composing his poems under the pen name or 'takhallus'
"Shameem" mainly based on romanticism like. other Urdu poets which he
continued upto the age of 45-50 years. But after meeting Pandit Amar Nath
Madan "Sahir" who was living in Bazaar Sita Ram around 1924 and was
mainly doing the. translation work of Hindu religious books in Urdu his whole
concept towards life was changed.
He then started composing Urdu couplets under a new pen name "Zar"
containing high philosophical thoughts. Due to his profound knowledge of
Arabic and Persian language, people used to call him as Hazrat Maulvi out of
sheer respect. He composed over a lakh of Urdu couplets and translated all
the three "Geetas" in poetic form in chaste Urdu. The following
Urdu couplets composed by him will give an idea about his style and command on
the grammer of poetry writing.
"Mile the Zarse hum
Ab to mar gaya hoga
Tadap raha tha per I
Nam lab per.katil ka"
Phola Phola gule zakhme jigar hai
Saheel-e aabyaari chasme-e-tar hai
Nahin aakhon mein koi bhi sameta.
Bohot oonchi teri nichi nazar hai
Lagi angraiya lene jawani
Na aanchal ki na daman ki khabar hai
Kamai umr bhar ki zar apni
Yahi le de ke ik zakhm-e-jigar hai
The main style of his poetry writing was Urdu couplets carrying four lines known
in Urdu as Chau Gazla. He always composed his poetry in Chaste Urdu within
the prescribed parameters of poetry writing using idioms and metaphors for
ornamentation of the language.
The following Urdu couplet was composed b him before his death
"Ulfat paras Zar ka
kasbe kamal kya
Duniya ko chor char ke
Yade khuda mein hai"
In 1937 Delhi Literary Society gave him the title Kadre-ul-Kalam Allama-e-fun in
recognition to his outstanding contribution in promoting Urdu, Arabic and
Persian language.
The Ministry of Education of the Central Government gave him scholarship till
his death for his valuable work in the field of Urdu literature.
During his college days in Lahore he used to take an active part in sports.
His most favourite games were cricket, hockey and badminton. He also had a
great love for horse riding. He had a great fascination for playing Polo.
He died in Delhi in his ancestral Haveli in Bazaar Sita Ram on 7th October
1965 after a long illness at the ripe age of 94 years. A very large number
of his admirers both Hindus and Muslims took part in his funeral procession from
his Haveli upto the cremation ground.
To commemorate his death a special number of Nidai Itihad in Urdu edited by
Warsi Aziz was brought out on 1st November 1965.
He made a distinct place for himself in the field of Urdu poetry writing and
literature by sheer hard work and dedication. The enormous work done by
him to enrich and propagate Urdu language has no comparison. The lovers of
Urdu literature in the subcontinent still take his name with great respect and
admiration for his valuable contributions as a poet and as a teacher of Arabic
and Persian language. Such great men are bom rarely on this earth.
His son Jawahar Mohan Zutshi now lives in Rajaji puram, Lucknow and another
son, Dr. Anand Mohan Zutshi "Gulzar" who is himself an internationally
by renowned Urdu poet now lives in NOIDA district, Gaziabad.
(Dr. B.N. Sharga)
Manohar Niwas
Kashmiri Mohalla,
Lucknow-226003
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