In 1947, a Raja put duty before religion

NEW DELHI: Peer Hafiz Hussian Ahmad is no rabble-rouser. Mention Narendra Modi’s name to him, and the quiet unassuming school teacher turns his pained face away.
‘‘Today, protectors are turning predators. God help Mother India. Time was when the rulers died for their subjects. That breed is gone, long gone,’’ sighs the old man from the former Muslim-majority princely state of Buriya, near Yamunanagar.And he has reasons to sigh.
Few know that Buriya’s ruler, Prince Rattan Amol Singh, kept Muslims safe from Hindu and Sikh mobs even as the whole of United Punjab was savaged by communal bloodbath during the Partition.
Buriya and Malerkota were the only two Muslim-dominated princely states in eastern Punjab. In 1947, Malerkotla remained free from strife. One of its former nawab had condemned the Mughal ruler of Sirhind for killing the two young sons of the last Sikh Guru Gobind Singh. In Buriya, however, Hindus and Sikhs went on the rampage. And its 21-year-old Prince Rattan Amol Singh, whose ancestors once owned the famous Zamzama cannon (now in Lahore), risked his life and held the mobs at bay.
‘‘He sheltered more than 15,000 Muslims from Buriya and 180 villages in his fort,’’ says Peer Ahmad. Subsequently, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru sent the Army to Buriya to assist him. When Muslim leader Abdul Karim went to the prince to express his gratitude, Rattan Amol Singh said he was only doing his duty, adding: ‘‘I don’t care whether one believes in Islam or Hinduism.’’
Muslims felt so secure under him that when a special train was sent from Lahore in November 1947 to take them to Pakistan, they refused to go.
‘‘The train waited for four days,’’ recalls Peer Ahmad. Buriya and its 180 Muslim-majority villages still remain an oasis of communal harmony. They celebrate all Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and Christian festivals together.
‘‘It is a sense of sharing which has bonded us. We want to take this message to the outside world,’’ says Peer Ahmad.
Commenting on the Gujarat violence, Princess Rajan Singh, one of the three daughters of the former ruler who died a few years ago, said: ‘‘Humne sab se lagaan lee thee. Namak khaya thaa.
Jab time aya, pitaji ne woh lagaan ka mool utaara. Yehi ek raja ka dharam hona chahiye (We used to collect revenue from our subjects. When the time came, my father paid back by protecting them. That’s the duty of a sovereign).
“What happened to Jews at the hands of the Nazis has happened to the innocent people of Gujarat.’’
In Buriya, the tree of secularism planted by the former ruler is flourishing. Perhaps, the rulers in Ahmedabad could take a lesson in raj dharma from Buriya, says Princess Singh.