Written by: Haroon Shuaib
Posted on: December 14, 2020 | 
| 中文
A Young Malka Pukhraj
Malka Pukhraj, a celebrated ghazal and folk singer of subcontinent, remained a bit of an enigma in her life. Born in 1912 in a Hamirpur Sidhar, a small village along the banks of Chenab River, in today’s Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Malka belonged to a family of peasant singers and musicians. Her parents, trapped in a dysfunctional union, left some enduring marks on her.
Though she remained closely tied to her strict disciplinarian mother, she inherited her rebellious nature from a father whom she self-admittedly never learned to love. From a young age, Malka was distinctively independent yet duty bound, wiser than her years yet fiercely ambitious, naïve but with an instinctive will to survive.
It was in 2002, two years before her demise, that Malka handed over a carefully compiled manuscript of life as she viewed it, to her granddaughter Farazeh Syed. Pukhraj was finally ready to share her story with the rest of the world. It is now printed in the original Urdu script by City Press titled, “Bezubani Zuban Na Ho Jaye” (My Silence May Become my Voice), though an earlier English translation of her autobiography was published in 2003 titled, “Song Sung True”.
Malka Pukhraj in the Court of Maharaja Hari Singh
After a performance at the coronation ceremony of Maharaja Hari Singh, the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, Pukhraj was chosen as the royal court singer at the age of nine. She spent the next nine years attached to perhaps the last remnants of royalty in the Subcontinent. Her account of those years with the royal court are almost fanciful, as she recounts the endless celebrations, festivals, and grandeur in detail. Her fondness for the Maharaja can perhaps be attributed to the void of a paternal figure during her formative years, also explaining a sympathetic view of a very controversial historical personality.
Syed Shabbir Hussain
Malka moved to Lahore when political unrest started to simmer in the state, and the situation in the royal court became inhospitable for her. However, she continued to amaze audiences with her distinct style of singing. Malka remained unfazed and kept singing, winning life-long friends and foes along the way. Her married life with Syed Shabbir Hussain, a bureaucrat and a writer of repute, remained focused on the struggles of building a family. Attention and admiration, both in private and public domains, always followed Malka Pukhraj.
Malka Pukhraj and her Sons
Speaking about the autobiography Farazeh Syed, an artist and the main driver in getting Malka’s autobiography published, shared, “My grandmother adopted me when I was just one month old. I always considered her as my mother. I saw her compiling an autobiography for over 18 years. She wrote seven to eight iterations, and each compilation would consist of many notebooks and diaries. I was overwhelmed when she handed me a final version with her signature. It was her last wish that the world gets to read her story. I am glad that I could get the book printed in its original form.”
Malka Pukhraj and her Grandaughter Farazeh
Autobiographies by artists are rare in Urdu, and Malka Pukhraj’s book is also unique for its candor. She has dedicated the book to the two most important men in her life; Maharaja Hari Singh and her husband Syed Shabbir Hussain. “My grandmother believed in speaking the truth no matter what, and was never afraid of how the world may judge her. She had no patience for pretense, and lived life based on principles of honesty and strove for self-actualization. She belonged to a culture that was predominantly matriarchal, and her unusual life depicts the same sense of independence and control. It won’t be amiss, if I say that she was a feminist in the true sense of the word,” Farazeh reflects.
The English translation was described by some critics as one of the most gripping memoirs ever translated from a language of the Subcontinent, and a remarkable saga of interesting people in changing times. On the other hand, Khalid Hasan, a prominent writer and journalist raised some poignant criticism of her accounts, duly noting that no autobiography can be entirely objective or truthful. However, Malka leaves many of the questions and conclusions open to interpretation for her readers.
Malka Pukhraj Performing for an Audience
This attempt at objectivity makes each character nuanced instead of black and white, and is perhaps the best defense of Khalid’s criticism of the book and its protagonist. It is Malka’s personal account of how she experienced life in a straightforward and fast-paced narrative.
Consisting of almost 400 hundred pages, the Urdu version of the autobiography is now available at bookstores across Pakistan, and can also be ordered online. Farazeh designed the cover, and the book is well structured, with additional pages and photographs that provide a glimpse into the different stages of Malka Pukhraj’s life. The book is priced at PKR 1200, which seems reasonable for a hardcover. In times when Urdu books of significance are rare to come by, this autobiography can be a good addition to anyone’s library, particularly those drawn to the prominent female figures of the Subcontinent, and the rich lives they have led.
The Book Cover
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