Kolkata: Kabuliwala
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The Kabuliwala community
As in 2021
Priyanka Dasgupta, August 22, 2021: The Times of India
From: Priyanka Dasgupta, August 21, 2021: The Times of India
Debendra Ghosh Road looks no different from the other streets of Bhowanipore in Kolkata. Tucked between the hustle bustle of shops is an alley leading to a masjid which, locals say, is patronised by the city’s ‘Kabuliwalas’. From the maulana’s honorarium and the electricity bills, they fund it all.
Adjacent to it is a Khan kothi. Inside, there is a wall-to-wall carpet with cushions kept on the sides to rest on. At the far end of the compound is an open kitchen where a breadmaker kneads dough, twirls it around to make a thin roti and tosses it onto an overturned wok. For dinner, a dastarkhwan (tablecloth) is spread over the carpet where these rotis are offered along with a bowl of shorba. It’s like a little slice of Afghanistan that keeps the migrants who live here connected to their homeland.
Currently, the topic of dinner conversation is the Taliban takeover. There’s also a shared anxiety about relatives stuck in Afghanistan. Granddaughter of Frontier Gandhi and president of the All-India Pakhtoon Jirga-e-Hind Yasmin Nigar Khan is miffed by Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan’s comment about Afghanistan having broken the “shackles of slavery”. “This comment only proves that the Taliban are a product of his factory. Every Afghan family here is distraught. Everyone has either a close or a distant relative in Afghanistan,” says Yasmin. Yasmin, who has been to Afghanistan only once, estimates that there are 15,000 Afghans living in Kolkata now. “Bengal and Assam have always been preferred destinations for Afghans though many prefer to migrate to Europe and Canada now,” she says. Her brother, Arshad Ahmed Danish Khan, says now India is home. “Even though we are of Afghan descent, India is our motherland. I get very emotional when I sing the national anthem.”
Sher Khan, who is into the garment business, is a third-generation Afghan. “My forefathers had settled here a century ago. My grandfather is buried here. We visit many Bengali households during Durga Puja. Sometimes, we take mithai or biryani along,” he says.
Eighteen-year-old Nahim Khan, who goes to a co-educational school called Rammohan Mission, has never been to Afghanistan. He, like many other migrants, has embraced local customs while keeping a few old traditions alive. His Bangla is as fluent as his Pashto. “Everyone is friendly with me in school,” he says. Every Eid, he visits the Maidan. That’s when Kabuliwalas fly kites and play volleyball and cricket. Some try ‘anda kushti’ where contestants crack the opponents’ brightly coloured hard-boiled eggs. The one who keeps the most eggs intact is the winner. “I even perform the traditional Attan dance at the Maidan,” says Nahim.
In 1892, Rabindranath Tagore captured their itinerant lives through his story of dry fruit seller Rahmat who strikes a friendship with little Mini because she reminds him of his daughter back home. According to Tagore expert Pabitra Sarkar, this story showed how humanity transcends the divides of nationalism. “When Tagore visited his zamindari estate in Silaidaha in 1891, he had scolded a Muslim domestic help for being absent for a couple of days. Later, he empathised when the man said his absence was a result of having lost his daughter. In a letter, Tagore recounted this incident and said despite the external differences we are all human beings at the core,” Sarkar says. Tagore’s story celebrates this bond beyond borders.
Historians say the history of Afghan migration to India goes back to the 12th century. According to ‘The Concise History of India’ by Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, the Delhi Sultanate had a string of rulers with Central Asian roots.
Octogenarian scholar Samik Bandopadhyay says Kabuliwalas were a “common sight” in Kolkata during his childhood. Most Afghans sold dry fruits, spices, ittar or were moneylenders, though the younger generation has since diversified.
During those days, foreigners had “restricted access” inside a Bengali household but Kabuliwalas were different. “While men engaged with them in money-lending business, Kabuliwalas had to connect with women and children to sell dry fruits. This exotic-looking foreigner who broke the home and outside world divide was an interesting reality of 19th century Kolkata that could have prompted Tagore to write his story,” says Bandopadhyay.
The term ‘Kabuliwala’ gained currency in Kolkata after 1957 when Tapan Sinha adapted Tagore’s story. Viewers didn’t mind the odd-looking beard of Chhabi Biswas which was pasted with vaseline since the actor had refused to apply spirit gum. The film won big at the Berlin festival and Sinha wrote in ‘Mone Pore’ that an international critic praised Biswas saying that ‘he is so good that he makes you forget about his beard’. The movie gave Pathans the universal Kabuliwala moniker in Kolkata. Balraj Sahni acted in the Hindi adaptation in 1961 by Hemen Gupta.
According to writer-photographer Nazes Afroz, who spent three years capturing the lives of Kabuliwalas in Kolkata, some Afghans came to Kolkata around 1839 during the first Anglo-Afghan war while others during the war with the Soviet Union in the seventies, and then again after the US invasion in 2001. “After the fall of Taliban, it was easier to travel between India and Afghanistan. Yet others were traders who came and went,” says Afroz, who did the 2015 photo-project with Moska Najib.
Asked where they are from, most Kolkata Afghans refer to Pakhtunistan as their country though it isn’t a separate country yet. “We are fighting for the independent status of KPK (Khyber Pakhtunkwa formerly called the North West Frontier Province). Our organisation issues identity cards to our members stating that they are Pashtuns. All Pashtuns need to get their names registered with the Foreigner Regional Registration Offices. Every year, refugee cards need to be renewed,” Danish says. Most migrants have Aadhar and PAN cards since bank accounts are needed for business transactions but no Indian passports. “They are in a sense stateless. In the last couple of years, the NRC-CAA debate has made them more insecure,” says Afroz.
Women, however, are largely muted from Kolkata’s public life. “My father, Lala Jaan Khan, wanted me to continue to head this apex body of Pashtuns in India after his demise. But 60% of people refused to accept me initially,” says Yasmin. Though the rest came around later, Danish insists that old traditions die hard. “While we encourage girls to get higher education and gain visibility, change won’t happen overnight,” he says.
Ironically, on August 19, the community celebrated Afghanistan Independence Day even as the Taliban took over. Well-aware of the current complexities involving freedom, Danish says, “In 1919, we got our independence from a colonial oppressor and now have another oppressor at our gate. But we have to fight. We didn’t and won’t bow down to oppressors.”
A Bengali wife’s Taliban nightmare
The other Bengal connection with Afghanistan is author Sushmita Banerjee who inspired Ujjawal Chatterjee’s ‘My Escape from Taliban’ with Manisha Koirala. Banerjee, whose memoir is titled ‘A Kabuliwala’s Bengali Wife’, had married a Pathan in Kolkata, and travelled with him to Afghanistan. Harassed by the Taliban, she managed to escape to India only to be supposedly gunned down by them in 2013 after she returned to Afghanistan ignoring the pleas of friends and family.
